Android vs. iOS: Who Will Reign Supreme?

The battle continues over which is the superior platform – Android or iOS. Everyone from users to marketers have weighed in with their future predictions, past musings and current praises and complaints. From a developer’s perspective, things remain uncertain and, at times, contradictory. Here’s the low down based on the latest research.

A couple of months back, the general opinion was that app developers were turning their attention to Android over iOS, because of its rapidly increasing market share. A survey from Appcelerator indicated that the momentum was shifting in favour of Android, closing the gap on current app development that traditionally favoured iOS. The idea behind the supposed shift was that the Android platform is considered to have the best long-term outlook.

The latest news, however, turns that theory upside down. It appears that Android continues to take a back seat to iOS, in part because, well, it’s not as mainstream cool (those Mac commercials still make us chuckle). While Android operating system is still the big winner on the charts (46.3% of US smartphone owners running the mobile operating system) according to the Strategy Analytics’ survey, “App Developer Attitudes and Behaviours,” it seems that Apple’s iOS platform remains near and dear to developers’ hearts, with 51% saying they plan to write for the “iTeam” (iPod, iPad and iTouch) platforms in 2012. Yes, Android is fast approaching a majority share in smartphones among US customers, but it now seems that the platform is suffering among its app builders, with interest rising only 30% from 23% in 2011. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

That being said, it seems that Apple’s status among the people writing app code comes from the multiple device types now using the operating system, with the iPhone down 26%. In fact, the real growth for iOS comes from the iPad, which attracted only 8% of developers last year, but will get 19% in 2012 (+138%). With more than half a million apps now cataloged in the Apple App Store, over 150,000 are compatible with or written specifically for the iPad.

Experts such as Strategy Analytics report author and Director of Apps Research, Josh Martin, expect that money will talk and developers will continue to favour platforms that offer the most diverse ways of generating revenue.

Piper Jaffrey recently estimated that Apple’s App Store substantially outperforms the Android marketplace for developers, with Apple responsible for about 80% to 90% of revenue generated by the app market.

What do you think? Will iOS continue to corner the market in app developers despite Android’s appetite for market share? Or will the interest in the iTeam fizzle out and watch Android steal their fan base?

This week, the Internet marketing research giant and data specialist, comScore, released its MobiLens service data, revealing key trends in the Canadian smartphone industry. As of September 2011, eight million Canadians owned smartphones – a figure representing 40% of the total mobile market in Canada. The highly anticipated data reveals that the Canadian smartphone adoption rates are increasing aggressively; with a seven per cent increase in just the past six months! One surprising fact to come out of the comScore data was that RIM still leads the pack with a 35.8% market share, albeit, followed closely by Apple’s 30.1%. Also, although Google’s Android is sitting in the number three spot with only 25%, it is important to note that Android has doubled its market share during the last six months; corresponding fluidly with the global surge in Android device purchases within the past few months. (FYI: Android gobbled up more than half of all global smartphones sales in Q3 alone!) The dying fossil Symbian is ranked at the fourth spot, with 4.2%, followed by the new kid on the block, Microsoft (at 3.2%).

In terms of content use, it seems Canadians are using the phones to consume a very wide and diverse range of content and information, and of course to no surprise, the smartphone users are outdoing the feature-phone users in every form and aspect of mobile content consumption, as shown in the chart below.  With such a fast pace of smartphone adoption and such diverse and broad range of smartphone use, the Canadian market is shaping to be the perfect place for businesses to embrace mobile technology and provide the added comfort and value that the Canadian consumers are soon going to automatically expect.  Instead of waiting for mobile access to become a mainstream consumer service before you invest the necessary resources, which you will inevitably have to do, we suggest hopping on the mobile train in its relative infancy, and taking advantage of its current indie and avant-garde profile to garner some serious respect and up your street cred, or as we say in the marketing world “gain some competitive advantage by becoming and early adopter.”  For being so forward thinking.

The battle for market share, and bragging rights, continues between Nokia and Google.

Google has already captured the great wide outdoors with its Street View fleet logging outdoor spaces for Maps. Naturally, they’re now looking at documenting indoor arenas. According to today’s reports, the popular app 6.0 version is set to hit the android market in the US and Japan, including retail and airport floor plans.

And so, Nokia has apparently begun furiously preparing it’s own version of the mobile behemoth’s indoor maps for wireless users. They plan to use Bluetooth 4.0 for the indoor navigation and location service, with hopes to entice a gaggle of partners to outfit retailers, malls and other public spaces with inexpensive antenna arrays to track a user’s movements via device-embedded Bluetooth tags. They also mention equipping large stores with tagged carts to track and study consumer behaviour.

We can’t help wondering if this game of one-up-man-ship isn’t getting a little tired, but as mobile enthusiasts, we can’t wait to see what they’ll come up with next!

Take peek at the proposed equipment here.

In the News

Just some of the people who think we’re pretty cool (thank you!).

Bloomberg

Market Wire

Yahoo! Finance

Canadian Business Opportunities

Euro Investor

The Android App market has been growing at staggering rates, even though Apple still holds global dominance when it comes to number of total apps and app downloads, this dominance might soon come to an end. According to research by Xyologic, a mobile industry business intelligence firm and app search provider, monthly app downloads for Android devices can soon match those of iOS devices. Xyologic’s forecast predicts both app stores to reach 3.2 billion downloads by June 2012.

The forecast is based upon the hyper-exponential (growth within growth) growth Android Market is currently experiencing.  Although such aggressive growth rates are potentially hard to sustain, contrary to Xyologic’s previous expectations, Android Market has shown no signs of slowing down. Meanwhile, Apple’s established App Store is expected to maintain the same growth rate, without any sudden increases.

As of September 2011 Apple is still in the lead with 1.4B app downloads, vs 0.64B app downloads accumulated in that month from the Android Market. However, Xyologic is already noticing a change, with Android experiencing higher monthly downloads compared to Apple in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Portugal.  If this trend continues we can expect to see Android become the number one platform in more countries around the globe in the coming months, encompassing a bigger audience pool.

Although the total app download numbers are not the most important numbers to the publishers, they do provide them with an adequate feel for the size of the market, since other numbers such as app revenue are much harder to come by. So what could all this mean?

Well, having the largest app market, and highest monthly app downloads have always been an important pillar in Apple’s marketing strategy. Matthaus Krzykowski, co-founder of Xyologic believes If they are longer posses a clear dominance in the mobile app space, at least in terms of volume, then they might have to look for a new marketing angle by 2013.

Again, I want to make a note that the number of Apps available for download is not the most important figure, the quality of Apps available is also a big influencing factor, even if Android Market reaches Apple App Store figures, Apple could still lead in terms of quality.  However, a shift or change in app market dominance can encourage Android developers to boost quality.

So what do you think?

Will Android continue to enjoy the same staggering growth rates? And how will this affect the mobile space as a whole? Does Apple need to come up with new marketing angle?

Source: Xyologic

In 1997 Steve Jobs launched the ‘Think Different” campaign, and set out to change
the world. To state that in the last 14 years he has accomplished just that would be
precisely accurate.

As a leader and a visionary with exemplary passion and dedication he has set the
example for, not only the tech industry as it strives to serve society, but everyone
who has an idea and dares to be different…to think different. He had mastered user
experience before there was a term to describe it.

I’m not interested in recapping his accomplishments and successes as this is not an
obituary, but I can claim with confidence that if you’re reading this-and you can be
anybody- you already have had the experience of the very thing that Steve Jobs set
out to do. You have already experienced the soul of Apple and whether you care to
admit it or not, it changed your world and probably your life.

To put this man on a pedestal would be antagonistic to his idiosyncratic nature,
at the end of the day he’s only human but one that values greatness. That is the message that he has  infused into the
heart of Apple.

(May 3^rd, 2011)  Plastic Mobile and Pizza Pizza are honored to win a Webby Award for their recently launched pizza ordering iPhone app. Under the category of Mobile Shopping for smartphones, the members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences awarded the Webby to our Pizza Pizza app. This mobile ordering app was in the running with giant US brands such as Target, Walgreens, Consumer Reports, and Gilt.

In the entire category of mobile, both Plastic Mobile and Pizza Pizza are the only Canadian company to receive this prestigious award. “We are absolutely thrilled to receive this award and excited to represent Canada at the Webby Gala,” says Melody Adhami, co-founder of Plastic Mobile and crowned Queen of Apps, Globe & Mail.

The 15^th Annual Webby Awards attracted nearly 10,000 entries from all 50 US states and over 60 countries worldwide, as it’s the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet that includes mobile, websites, online film & TV, etc. The Pizza Pizza app has been ranked #1 Lifestyle app in the Apple iTunes store, and a favorite app among Canadians.

Share this news on Facebook and Twitter – use a shorten URL:

http://bit.ly/jefXOq

Our Twitter & Hashtag:
@PlasticMobile
@PizzaPizzaLTD
@TheWebbyAwards
#webbys

Download the Pizza Pizza app:
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/pizza-pizza/id425026119

Graphics of the app:

http://www.plasticmobile.com/media-pizza-pizza-iphone-app/

Media Contact for Plastic Mobile:

Salome Sallehy

April 4, 2011 — Pizza Pizza and Plastic Mobile Delivered a One of a Kind Pizza Ordering iPhone App.

Plastic Mobile has joined Pizza Pizza, Canada’s leading pizza chain, as their mobile agency to help build and launch an iPhone application to make ordering and delivering pizza both convenient and fast. This free app is available for all iPhone models, the iPod Touch, and the iPad. The app will let users build the pizza of their dreams; a half order of ham & pineapple and the other half Italian sausage, extra mushrooms, no cheese, and easy on the sauce? Looking to order a gluten-free pizza? Pay through your application or when it arrives. It all can be done with the Pizza Pizza iPhone App.

This innovative application will fundamentally change the ordering experience, making it fast, visual and convenient for the customer. By using location-based services (LBS) to locate the nearest Pizza Pizza restaurant, as well as allowing users to simply pay within the application, the app provides a seamless experience.

The application, delivered by Pizza Pizza and Plastic Mobile, can be downloaded from the App Store on iTunes. For more information on this app visit http://www.pizzapizza.ca/mobile.

Check out our news release here.

Plastic Mobile team had a great trip to South by Southwest Interactive. Austin, TX was buzzing with over 20,000 people traveling from around the world to attend the festival. We hopped from one panel to the next keynote speech to the various industry parties. Most importantly, we enjoyed connecting with talents in the digital space.

Over the last few years, SXSW has become a launch pad for many start-ups. Social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc all got their popularity boost from this festival. For the sake of mobile, here are some highlights from this year’s SXSW:

1) Group Messaging: Before the festival began, the hot thing expected for 2011 was ability to message an exclusive group of people. After SXSW, we still don’t think group messaging got its sex appeal (yet). It’s still a tool that people will find useful on the specific occasions. Beluga, Fast Society, Kik, Yobongo, and GroupMe were all contenders in the group messaging app battle. According to an infographic published in TechCrunch, GroupMe won at SXSW. Now, I’m not sure if the results were skewed since GroupMe were serving free beer and yummy grilled cheese sandwiches. Marketing is king at SXSW.

2) iPad 2: Opening day of SXSW fell on the same day that the iPad 2 became available in the US. Apple made it convenient for the fellow SXSW tech aficionados to get their hands on the latest tablet by opening up a pop-up store in the heart of downtown Austin. Yes, iPad 2 was heavily talked about at the festival. Plus, we saw a lot of tablets being held up in the air, as people were testing out its camera feature. (I hope this doesn’t become a trend) As expected, the iPad 2 was pretty much sold out…well, they only had 64G version in Austin.

3) Mobile app creator. Everyone wants to create a mobile application. Many bloggers and online publications have the influence but not the budget to invest on a mobile application. New platforms are coming out help alleviate that problem – so people can produce high-quality apps at an affordable price. Plastic Mobile will soon be launching its mobile platform called Joomo (pronounced “You-Mo”). It’ll create applications for all platforms on smartphones and tablets based on a site or blog. Learn more about Joomo by checking out our site (it’s in beta): www.joomo.com

4) QR Codes: The movie Source Code with Jake Gyllenhaal premiered at SXSW. Microsoft was a sponsor and used its Tag technology to promote the film. Essentially, Microsoft Tag is a form of QR Code where you scan the barcode and it’ll direct you to a specific site. The Source Code tag, took its users to a social game on Facebook. The game itself was based on the movie. Are we seeing a new trend for Hollywood in order to promote its films?

5) Deals: As Groupon leads the race on the daily deals space many other mobile applications are jumping on the bandwagon. Facebook has announced that they are testing daily deals in a few US cities. The co-founder of Foursquare, the geo-location mobile app, said in a SXSW presentation that they are aggressively looking into offering more deals for its users. All I have to say, let’s move away from the discounts on spas, massages, or bootcamp sessions. New deals please!