Android, a platform, will outsell iPhone, a phone: Google exec
- March 14th, 2008
- 5 Comments
A mobile platform manager at Google said yesterday that he expects Android to outsell the iPhone, which, to me, truly sounds like comparing apples to oranges. Rich Miner points out that Android will be supported by no less than Motorola, HTC, Samsung and LG. Meanwhile, only one company is behind the iPhone, Apple. Never mind that Android is an OS while iPhone is an actual device.
Miner also points to the number of downloads Android’s SDK has gotten. It’s been downloaded more than 750,000 times “for a device that doesn’t even exist yet.” (The iPhone SDK was downloaded more than 100,000 times.) Yes, but the Android SDK was released in November, giving the Google-led OS a four month head start compared to the iPhone SDK.
This is more than a little disingenuous on Google’s part. Saying Android will outsell iPhone is like saying Johan Santana pitches better than Kobe Bryant—yeah, sure, but they’re in two different sports. Or, more appropriately for us here, that Windows outsells the MacBook Pro. I understand what Miner was trying to say, but it just seems strange.
More importantly, aside from Google and Apple shareholders, who cares what device/platform outsells the other? Why should that matter to us, the consumer? If nothing else, the existence of both platforms will only be good news for us. Some dev sees a cool app on the iPhone then codes it for Android (then releases the code for all to play with). Product wars are old hat.
Google Exec: Android Will Outsell iPhone [TechWeb/Yahoo!]
Mark Sigal (Who am I?)
6 months ago
Ironically, in a recent post that looks at the potential of the iPod touch as the first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform, I anticipated that friends Google and Apple seem destined to become frienemies (ala Apple/Microsoft years back) given the market dynamics.
This is the relevant blurb from the article:
This is a major storyline to watch for the year ahead; namely, in an industry where the once impenetrable walls between media, mobile, PC and Internet are crashing down, seemingly only two companies – Apple and Google – have figured out how to ‘Think Different’ enough to play the disruptor role across all of these segments.
Given their respective mammoth ambitions, are ‘friends’ Apple/Google destined to become ‘frienemies’ ala Apple/Microsoft (circa 1990), and if so, when?
Check out the full article, ‘iPod touch: take two’ if interested:
http://thenetworkgarden.com/weblog/2008/02/ipod-touch-take.html
Regards,
Mark
dwalk51 (Who am I?)
6 months ago
They can haz wierd saying making-no-sense?
Why yez they can!
Coleman Foley (Who am I?)
6 months ago
that android, a platform, will outsell the iphone, a phone, is an important point for the reason that it is comparing apples and oranges. google is going the far superior route by having an open platform. the approach is what matters. google is trusting the collective to beat Apple, and everyone knows crowdsourcing is the future.
dwalk51 (Who am I?)
6 months ago
My money is going for the iPhone. I bet that some tricky coder is going to port it over to the iPhone with the special key and then we will see Android on non-jailbroken iPhones!
Bot Hunter (Who am I?)
3 months ago
How can we track down the serial number of that prototype?