There has been a lot of questioning about who is really the King in the battle between Apple and Android as of right now. Both companies have been given the title this year, but how can we be sure which one is really on top. To add a new piece to the puzzle that everyone is trying to figure out, Google’s Chairman, Eric Schmidt has given an interview to Bloomberg in which he claims that Google is leading the way. He says that Google Android is growing in mobile software at a similar rate to the growth of Microsoft in the desktop software industry in the 1990s.
Here is a bit of the proof that Eric Schmidt provided to Bloomberg:
Android snared 72 percent of the market in the third quarter, while Apple had 14 percent, according to Gartner Inc. Customers are activating more than 1.3 million Android devices a day.
The chairman of Google states his confidence in Google’s winning of the war in mobile software. He also remarks that allowing other companies like Samsung to benefit from Google’s Android, the reach to mobile users is larger, and taking the sacrifice is well worth it.
The core strategy is to make a bigger pie. We will end up with a not perfectly controlled and not perfectly managed bigger pie by virtue of open systems.
Recent mistakes from Apple regarding its Apple Maps application have shifted popularity in Google’s favor indeed, especially since the leading competitor in maps is of course, Google. In another interview with Bloomberg, Apple’s Chief Executive, Tim Cook, stated:
We set out to give the customer something to provide a better experience. And the truth is it didn’t live up to our expectations. We screwed up.
As Apple is experiencing some bad reputation, it still seems like almost everybody we see walking down the sidewalk is texting, talking, playing, or listening to music on their iPhones. So, this makes it hard to understand how Google is still maintaining its reputation of being King in smartphones. The numbers that Schmidt provided show that it is clearly true, but the question I have is this; Why aren’t I seeing the millions of Android smartphones that are being sold, but iPhones are all over the place?
Of course, Android phones are all over the place, but what I am saying is that iPhones still seem quite popular, and they may not be as far away from Google in the race as the numbers make it seem. It does not matter as much how many phones the operating system providers sell, but rather what kinds of things these users are doing with their smartphones.
Google is selling the most smartphones, and that is all well and good. However, what is important to marketers, the race for the most engagement from mobile users between Android and Apple is much closer than are the respective market shares.
