Glenn Chapman San Francisco
Smartphones and tablets powered by Google’s Android software are devouring the mobile gadget market, eating into Apple’s turf by feeding appetites for innovation and low prices, analysts say.
According to industry trackers at IDC, the Android operating system powered nearly three out of four smartphones shipped worldwide in the recently ended quarter as the mobile platform dominated the market.
“Android has been one of the primary growth engines of the smartphone market since it was launched in 2008,” said IDC cellphones research manager Ramon Llamas. “In every year since then, Android has effectively outpaced the market and taken market share from the competition.”
In tablets, Apple’s market share has fallen to just more than 50 percent from 65 percent in the second quarter as Android devices gain ground, according to IDC figures.
“Having a lot of people building a lot of things covering a lot of price points with multiple brands in multiple places makes a big difference,” NPD Group analyst Stephen Baker said.
“Variety is strength when it comes to moving units,” he said.
IDC reported that Android smartphone shipments surged to 136 million, topping those in the same three-month period last year by slightly more than 90 percent.
Samsung’s Galaxy S3 overtook Apple’s iPhone 4S in the third quarter to give the South Korean firm the world’s best-selling smartphone model for the first time, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.
“The pace of innovation in Android is faster than Apple,” Gartner vice-president of mobile computing Ken Dulaney said. “They are just trying harder; Apple is way behind in that area.”
Android is benefiting from being an “open source” platform that gadget makers use free of charge and improve as they deem fit, providing Google with insights along the way.
Apple tightly controls its products from the software to the hardware and even the online shop for music, books, games or other content.
“What you get with Android is this incredible feedback loop with developers, equipment makers, customers, and designers,” Dulaney said.
“At Apple, as long as they have a great vision internally it is fine but they don’t have the feedback Android does.”
Having thousands of different Android devices vying for consumers’ cash is a strength when it comes to market share but puts hardware makers into a fiercely competitive arena, according to Baker.
“Other than Samsung, I don’t know if other Android guys are making money.”
Google gives Android away free, but the platform is crafted to make it easy for people to use the California internet titan’s money-making services such as search and maps, and get content at its online Google Play shop.
Forrester analyst Charles Golvin said that forces powering Android momentum included changing demographics of smartphone buyers.
Golvin said early adopters of smartphones focused more on new technology than on price. – Sapa-AFP