And in the green corner, we have 13 different companies, with some 80 separate models, served by approximately 550,000 apps. After getting started about 2 years after Apple, on the face of it, these figures appear impressive.
There are those who believe Android is the better option - for a variety of reasons. But one huge reason why they are wrong, is that development and support costs money. When divided up between the 13 OEMs and then again between the 80 different models, the income get horribly diluted. And the profits, if there are any, get diluted even more. There just isn't enough money in the Android market to sustain real growth over time. There never was, and there never will be.
Even if half fell out, leaving just 6 players, that would still mean at best less than 20% of Apple's income per OEM. But that only accounts for income, not profit. Apple famously makes more profit per unit sale than any other computer, tablet or phone manufacturer.
Google's attack on Apple has some pace right now, but I see troubled times ahead. Those 13 different OEMs with their 80 different models is a big enough headache for app developers as it is. If, as is likely, even more OEMs join rather than leave [as was the case with PCs], this will cause more issues, and dilute the market even further.
25 billion iOS app downloads is impressive. 10 billion downloads over just eight months is staggering, and demonstrates rapid acceleration. 15 billion downloads per year is Android's number to aim for.
But this game never was about market share. It was always about profits. Had Google copied Apple's business model in 2007, bought its own manufacturing facility, kept Android for themselves, and launched its own Google phone, Apple would be in trouble right now. Apple would have a real rival.
Instead of trying to compete with Apple, Google turned into Microsoft 2.0 and tried to kill them. And that's sad. As Steve Jobs worked out, Google's dont be evil mantra: Its b u l l s h i t. But worse, they're not very good at business.
