Why are Android phones so popular?
Android is the latest of the smartphones to make big waves in the electronic market. Windows tried their hand at something similar and failed to pull through due to lack of support and general problems with compatibility of the OS for application developers. Android on the other hand is aiming to be kinder to the user, and it seems to have paid off. An increasing number of people are turning to Google’s machine for their communication and media needs.
So the market is unstable, and the big players have managed to keep people out Apple and Blackberry seemed to have already carved out the market between them, with Blackberry for the serious professionals and Apples for pretty much everyone else, and the business people too in secret. But in the face of this Android has not only succeeded, it’s also overtaken the other OS out there and risen to the top of the ladder.
The reason for this seems to be the flexibility of the phone. It allows users to heavily customise, even hack, their phone to make it a more unique device for them. This is what apps aim to do in a simple way, but this differs as it is about more power to the user without extra consumption. This bodes well for the future of Google’s business as well, because you won’t be able to transfer Android software to Apple devices, so people that want to retain their unique OS setup will have to buy the next Google-powered phone as so on.
It isn’t all in Google’s favour though. The Android OS took a while to get off the ground, and app developers are still committing more time to Apple’s iOS due to its greater accessibility and more lucrative market. Also Google risks being fragmented by the very thing that makes it appealing – that freedom to do what you want. It makes it harder to keep the Android platform a controlled ecosystem, which means less tech-savvy people getting left behind in some ways.
Having said that it all looks good so far, and Google aren’t exactly inexperienced when it comes to rapidly adapting to face new challenges.
Speak to an Android developer about developing apps for your business.
