The year 2011 saw Android grow to become a force to reckon within the
smartphone OS market. Android phones have claimed over 40% of the world
market share in 2011
The dominance of Android is not limited to a
single market like USA either. It has passed iOS in UK in 2011,
starting from almost nowhere year and a half ago. Growing from around
10% market share, today Android holds over 50% of the UK smartphone
market share (source). Android has even taken over the high potential market of China with over 60 million models sold in 2011. (source) Even in India the pace of adoption of Android smartphones has been accelerating for quite some time now.
It is an interesting juncture for us to ponder about the future of Android from the perspective of Developers, Google and an Android User.
Perspective 1 – Developers:
For the developers, these are the important
times as they are catering to over 250 million Android users the world
over. The net activation of greater than 700,000 handsets a day promises
an average developer a massive potential of clients for his App. The
number is significantly higher compared to iOS where the number of
handset activations is only 190,000 per day.
But is this the only consideration for a Developer to jump on the Android bandwagon?
Ease of development
Android Apps are fairly complex to develop
due to fragmentation, with manufacturers running a different version of
Android. Also with the existence of multiple customized user interfaces
and hardware, Android App developers have a hard time developing and
maintaining code for their apps.
However, based on a popular survey conducted by Baird William Powers,
while development for Android OS is more difficult than developing for
the iOS, it is a lot more easier compared to developing applications
for RIM’s Blackberry or Nokia’s Symbian.
The Application can be easily registered
for a low fee of $25 and can be fairly easily uploaded into the market
place, which makes the Android OS a great platform to develop Apps for
despite the problems for
fragmentation.
.
Monetization
While android developers are enamored by the fact that over 250 million Android users exist in the world, Android Developers are getting just 7% as much revenue as Apple iOS Developers.
Recently there has been a flurry of activity with Instagram, one of Apple’s most successful Apps making its foray into Android while Battle heart, another hugely popular Android App making their official exit from Google Play (source). The simultaneous entry and exit does prove that it isn’t just about the possibility for monetization in Android .
While customers may not willingly shell out
money to purchase a premium version of an App, applications such as
Rovio’s Angry Birds and Instagram show that monetization is still
possible by adopting in-app advertising or freemium as strategies.
Certainly monetization in the purest sense may not be the way forward
for App developers. There is no doubt app developers will have to turn
smarter and come up with more strategies similar to in-app advertising
and freemium to gain the true potential offered by Androids large volume
of users.
For now however, Developers seem to be losing interest in Android OS at an alarming rate, according to a survey done by IDC and Accelerometer.
The survey shows a dip from interest among
85% of developers to about 80% while Apple’s iOS still excites up to 90%
of developers.
How Google would entice the developers who are losing interest is indeed going to be interesting to observe in the future.
Perspective 2: Google
Kindle
For Google, the revenue source of Android
still heavily depends on Advertising through its own properties such as
Search, Maps, YouTube and Gmail. Amazon however has bypassed Google
almost entirely for its Kindle Fire tablet. Kindle Fire sold more than 6 million units in the 4th quarter of 2011, making kindle the second largest selling tablet computer in the world by a large margin.
Kindle Fire is made on the Android Platform
, however it features its own Market place and App store and doesn’t
come with the regular Google applications such as YouTube , Gmail etc.,
which are found in other Android Tablets. The issue of “control” thus
becomes significant for Google, who has missed out on the success of
Kindle because of this open source platform.
Samsung
Samsung moves more than 55% of Android
smartphones around the world and thus holds the potential to dictate
terms to Google about the future of Android. Google pays up to $1bn
dollars to Apple for using Google as the default search engine in Apple
machines. One may wonder what Samsung, who sold more than 35 million
smartphones for Android in q4 2011, could do considering it has greater
power of influence over Google than any other mobile manufacturer. (Source)
Motorola
Google may use Motorola to produce
exclusive Android phones with higher specifications than the models
available in the market. Google may even move its exclusive Android
phones without customization, the Nexus into Motorola smartphones and
make future upgrades available only for Motorola.
Google Nexus Tablet
Google is partnering with
Asus to compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire with a low price feature
packed Tablet. The Google Nexus Tablet is expected to be priced $50
lower than Kindle fire at $ 149. (Source)
Google no longer wishes to miss out on the
opportunity of an Android tablet, while Amazon Kindle and iPad reign
supreme in the market, not a single Android tablet has a market share
greater than 5%. (Source)
Perspective 3: Android User
Malware, privacy and security
Today’s smartphone user stores all his private data, be it photographs of near and dear ones, Banking passwords or even official email in the power packed smartphones . Android OS has been subject to heavy attack of Malwares in the recent past. The attack growing by up to 472% in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone, while iOS was left untouched (Source).
Having a popular open platform will often
come with this shortfall for Androids. While one group of developers are
busy making outstanding applications to gain traction, visibility and
generate revenues, another group would engage in developing malicious
content to take advantage of the unsuspecting Android user.
Google’s Android had even encountered
criticism similar to Apple for allowing applications to access private
photographs on User’s mobile phone. While allowing the application to
track location, the application also managed to gain access to user
photographs without asking for consent (source)
. Once the user allows an App to connect to the internet, it can
automatically upload the images to a remote server without asking the
user for permission. To a great extent, smartphones these days hold more
sensitive data than even the typical laptops and desktops. It is
alarming for an Android user due to the consequences of the complex
privacy policies stated by Google or individual App developers.
Google wallet had recently found itself
mired in controversy thanks to a hacker who found an easy way to crack
its 4 digit numeric Pin. Even though this issue happened for rooted
android phones, the security loophole has negative impact on users’
intent to adopt new payment methods (source).
If the security threats are not curtailed, users may slowly shift to more secure platforms.
Upgrades
Google has already released the latest version of Android, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in November 2011, yet only 1.2% of Android phones in the world have the latest Operating system (source). Apple’s devices get an automatic update of new operating system depending on the hardware capability. Users are constantly exposed to newer Apps and features that are launched even to the latest devices.
It is here that typical android user feels
left out. Despite shelling out considerably high amount of money, a
typical Samsung Galaxy S2 or Samsung Galaxy Note customer still have to
wait at least 3-4 months to be able to download the latest update of Ice
Cream Sandwich. The upgrade process is also equally difficult to do and
might not be possible for an average user. Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
today is available in over 60% of Android devices despite being launched
in the end of 2010.
The issue is not restricted to upgrades
alone. Even now newly launched entry-level smartphones and several
mid-range ones are being launched with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).
If Google aims to make Android the ultimate
smartphone operating system, it will have to reduce the delay in
adoption of latest operating system and provide for faster upgrades for
existent versions.
Dropping price points
Android is going to be available for the
average Joe in the market. With the prices dropping significantly the
world over and leading mobile makers planning on launching even cheaper
entry-level smartphones powered by Android, Android can expect
significant growth in market share. While low priced android phones have
been available for quite some time, they were not good enough for most
of the smartphone activity. But that has changed with the entry of
Samsung Galaxy Y. Even though the Samsung Galaxy Y price
is only slightly above the 100$ mark, it has not compromised on the
quality. With the Samsung Galaxy Pocket expected to be priced below the
Y, we can expect even greater number of people adopting the Android
ecosystem.
Summary
Android phones are becoming the top sought
after models in the market, perhaps second only to Apple. With a growing
user base and more applications available in Google Play, Google has
the platform set for a great future. However, growing crisis in privacy
and security would prove a turn off for users to adopt the phone
immediately and may even force them to move out. While Google’s lack of
control on its platform will always create potential for spin offs such
as Kindle Fire to arise and gain market share, Google’s real challenge
would be to provide greater monetization for its developers. If the
developers don’t find value in developing Apps for Android, they would
rather put effort in iOS and Windows phones to gain monetary benefit.
Developers on the other hand must also find unique methods to gain
market share and monetize their apps. Google must strive to make its
upgrades easily available for an ever eager user base. The future is
bright for Google; however it may turn dark if the issues it faces are
not dealt with swiftly and with determination.
About the Author:
Sitakanta is the co-founder of MySmartPrice.com. MySmartPrice helps you find the best price of anything sold online in India.
Source androids.in
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