Michal Marek In the past few years, many articles have appeared on the Internet about the fact that Apple is losing its long-term dominance of the mobile operating system market in favor of Android. Indeed, Apple's iOS is no longer the dominant mobile platform, resulting in many risks and shareholders increasingly fearing for their investments. Should Apple react to adverse developments and implement some measures? The company should not consider a decent change in pricing policy
Market dominance is always key, and this is doubly true in the case of operating systems. It is difficult and expensive for third-party developers to create applications, games and services for multiple different platforms. It will therefore logically focus on the biggest player on the market. If developers produce enough quality software, the power of that platform grows. What is more important than an app on a smartphone? In addition, purchased software somewhat binds customers to a given operating system. Anyone who has bought apps and games for iOS for a lot of money will definitely be very reluctant to convert to another platform. Once an operating system provider "breaks out" and gains market dominance and thus the favor of developers, it is very difficult to fight such a rival. A shining example is Microsoft and its incredible power in the nineties of the last century. Is Apple making a mistake by only caring about earnings and not market share? In the personal computer market, Apple has already made this mistake once, and from the position of a dominant innovator, it has relegated itself to the position of a de facto marginal player.
Android and iOS dominate the global mobile market, with the two platforms accounting for a whopping 90% share, according to IDC reports. Moreover, both of these leaders continue to grow, while the competition is losing. The company IDC reported on the results for the third quarter of this year, and the published numbers certainly did not please the shareholders of the Cupertino company. According to IDC, Android controls 75% of the market and Apple with its iOS only 15%. Apple is doing best in its home US market, where it currently has a 34 percent share compared to Android's 53 percent. However, there is a huge difference in the growth of both platforms. Apple has done quite well, and its iOS has increased its share from 25% to 34% in recent years. Android, however, has more than doubled its share over the same period to its current 53%. This enormous growth of the two largest platforms was mainly caused by the steep fall of former competitors such as RIM, Microsoft, Symbian and Palm.
Many Apple fans argue that Android can hardly be counted as a single platform. After all, this system exists in many different versions, with many different superstructures and on a huge number of different devices. Google is unable to provide all users with an update to the new version of the system, and very funny situations also occur. An Android phone is often only updated to a "new" version of the system when it is not new and another version is already available. This fragmentation makes even the most trivial application a considerable problem for developers, and it is difficult to achieve optimal functionality on all devices. In addition, the profits from Android Google Play are quite minimal, and for developers this app store is definitely not a big terno. iOS users spend many times more on software than Android device owners. Therefore, most developers still prefer iOS and develop apps primarily for this system. But will this be the case in the near future?
Apple always wanted to make only premium phones and tablets. Apple officials say that they only want to make devices that they themselves can use with love. Proof that Apple simply does not want to sell cheap products is, for example, the iPad mini and its price. Roughly a billion people already own smartphones and tablets. However, there are another 6 billion poorer people in the world, and they are yet to buy such devices. Logically, they will choose a cheaper brand, and this opens up a big opportunity for Samsung and other big, less premium brands. If Apple ignores these 6 billion people, will iOS still be a "big" system in even 10 years?
Most developers will then not decide whether this or that operating system is "cool" enough. They will create software for the market leader. A big advantage of Android is the ability to satisfy all layers of customers. With this operating system, you can buy a plastic toy for a few crowns as well as high-end smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S3.
Many customers are still loyal to Apple. They appreciate the quality of the app stores, the incredible simplicity of purchasing content for their devices, and perhaps the great interconnectedness of all products of this brand. iCloud, for example, is a very powerful tool that does not yet have full-fledged competition. However, Google is making progress in every direction with its Android, and it may soon catch up with Apple in areas where it still falters. Google Play is gradually being improved, the number of applications is increasing, and the qualitative demands on developers are increasing. There is also a big threat in the tablet market from Amazon and its own store, which looks very good and seems to work. So, is the unshakable position of iOS threatened in the future?
As a developer, I have to say that piracy on Android is at such a level that we are often on the fence about whether to waste our time with the Android version at all...
It is so. It could be said that piracy on Android reaches 80%, while on iOS only 20%. So 4:1. In other words, it is 4x more profitable for developers to develop an iOS app. In the event that Android will have such a dominance in the market that it will exceed the number of iOS devices by five times, then it can be considered that Android is the most lucrative, or more attractive, if you like, operating system. Until then, every developer will figure out which platform is the most profitable for him.
In addition, it would be worth distinguishing where those users come from. It's nice if Android beats iOS head on in Africa, Asia, Latin America, when the financial potential and willingness to pay there will be zero. A few tens of millions of users in rich countries is enough for it to be decisive for me. E.g. at this year's Oktoberfest, I saw iPhones with most people, that's another purchasing power.
Nicely written but I think the 3rd paragraph from the end should end with a question mark…
Only two criteria decide the choice of (primary) platform for (commercial) development: Ease of development (unified platform, quality SDK, developer support, community) and profitability (number of sales and not downloads). And AppStore simply has no competition in that - Unified hardware, software and payment channel. What's the point if there are 3x more Android users if they pay 50x less than on iOS.
The exception is free web application applications/clients - there is of course an interest in the greatest possible penetration among users. So the applications of banks, social networks and others will probably be on Android first, but that is a different business model and the developer will probably still receive some fixed amount from the client to make, for example, three versions for Android, iOS and WM8 at the same time. Today, however, Apple controls the commercial business model (selling mobile applications directly to the customer) quite safely
It's completely analogous to "big" game developers deciding between Xbox/PS and PC. Yes, the PC platform is sold 50 times as much, but the console has uniform hardware, SDK and a much lower level of piracy. Game publishers decided this for users a long time ago, and the biggest hits (Assassin's Creed, Red Dead Redemption, GTA 5) are not at all on PC or with a delay and not extra optimized. And it will be the same (in the near future) with iOS.
So that it doesn't turn out that Google or Samsung will have to pay selected developers to make some "exclusivity" for them, which will only run on a few devices with the latest build of Android, but it will be theirs and it will be the "killer app" that the AppStore has tens and free.
Only two criteria decide the choice of (primary) platform for (commercial) development: Ease of development (unified platform, quality SDK, developer support, community) and profitability (number of sales and not downloads). And AppStore simply has no competition in that - Unified hardware, software and payment channel. What's the point if there are 3x more Android users if they pay 50x less than on iOS.
The exception is free web application applications/clients - there is of course an interest in the greatest possible penetration among users. So the applications of banks, social networks and others will probably be on Android first, but that is a different business model and the developer will probably still receive some fixed amount from the client to make, for example, three versions for Android, iOS and WM8 at the same time. Today, however, Apple controls the commercial business model (selling mobile applications directly to the customer) quite safely
It's completely analogous to "big" game developers deciding between Xbox/PS and PC. Yes, the PC platform is sold 50 times as much, but the console has uniform hardware, SDK and a much lower level of piracy. Game publishers decided this for users a long time ago, and the biggest hits (Assassin's Creed, Red Dead Redemption, GTA 5) are not at all on PC or with a delay and not extra optimized. And it will be the same (in the near future) with iOS.
So that it doesn't turn out that Google or Samsung will have to pay selected developers to make some "exclusivity" for them, which will only run on a few devices with the latest build of Android, but it will be theirs and it will be the "killer app" that the AppStore has tens and free.
I have been associated with Apple products in one way or another since the 90s of the last century, and the only thing I need from Apple in the future is for it to maintain its policy of uncompromising quality. Then it will be enough if it maintains its market value somewhere in the first hundred companies. The rest is the problem of shareholders, but not of ordinary users.
I have been associated with Apple products in one way or another since the 90s of the last century, and the only thing I need from Apple in the future is for it to maintain its policy of uncompromising quality. Then it will be enough if it maintains its market value somewhere in the first hundred companies. The rest is the problem of shareholders, but not of ordinary users.
On the other hand, why deal with 6 billion people who want a cheap phone, but definitely won't buy apps? Most of the people I know just tap their foreheads at the mention of paying for an application, and that's why they choose Android, where it's easy to get everything on the side.
I'm honestly surprised that the developers are wasting their time with Android and releasing an older Android app for free. He doesn't deserve it. I myself have an Android device and nothing motivates me or forces me to pay for anything, whereas with iOS I am very happy to pay for specific and good apps and wait for further improvements. As a result, I don't use Android much anyway, and that's mainly thanks to the applications on iOS, which are always of better quality, and I simply can't find many on Android with an alternative.
With its style, Apple cannot count with the global majority when it comes to the phone as such, but it can still be number one among TOP smartphones that are not just for calls, and maybe it could aim a little in the middle, where the older model is partially successful. Basically, the model known from the desktop will be repeated. In addition, Apple has a desired brand, which is viewed more like Mercedes, which cannot be said even in the case of TOP products from other brands.
I agree with what was written here. Although our application is sold more on Android, this is probably due to a somewhat specific market (the Czech Republic).
But the only thing that annoys me as an iOS developer is the custom development environment and app approval, which is sometimes really a terrible pain. Sometimes I get the impression that developers are still somewhat inferior to users for Apple. But things are getting better lately.
If Apple offered the iPhone 4 for 250 euros and the iPhone 4S for 450 euros, it would have a lot of new customers. I can't produce iPhone 5 in sufficient quantity and the older models are too expensive, so they are not even worth buying.
Now it is heading towards the fact that Apple will have a 5 to 8% share in smartphones, similar to the way it has around 6% in computers.
I'm a big fan of Apple, but the idea that I would pay 15 thousand for a phone is completely unrealistic. Not because I don't have them, but simply because it seems too much for a phone. If the iPhone cost around ten thousand, one could consider it. I reject Android because I don't consider it a quality system. So I'm left with WP, which is just as usable and looks good. I'm going Lumia this Christmas.
As a food for thought, the article is fine, but it is a little off-base. Already at the beginning of the article, there is a graph from which it clearly follows that neither we nor Apple's shareholders need to worry about the market share of iOS. The above graph shows that the market share has remained the same for the last several quarters and has been growing for a long time. It is a fact that Android is growing faster, but the profitability, quality and potential of the AppStore for developers is still something that clearly speaks for Apple and will be for a long time. The graph also shows that iOS was never even a dominant platform…
Otherwise, for Mr. Dfxxfd: Apple's market share in computers was already around 10,5% in the first quarter of this year and is still growing (unlike the others), and these are numbers without the iPad.