Android vs. iPhone

Seth Weintraub writes in PC World that: "New reports indicate that Apple's iPhone may not own a majority of the smartphone market anytime soon," and that's probably true. But there are many reasons for that. Weintraub reports:

"Today, Changewave issued a study of purchasing plans of smartphone buyers in their admittedly limited pool of respondents. While people who planned on buying iPhones did rise slightly (1% to 29% overall), people who planned on buying Android phones increased 9% to 30% overall, indicating that Android uptake will continue to outpace that of the iPhone in the coming months."

The graph displayed in the PC World article shows that both the iPhone and the collective group of Android smartphones both approach 50% of the user market, which disregards two very large cell phone companies that use neither the Apple or Android OS, so I take that piece of information with a large grain of salt.

Sure, Android phones have quickly caught up with Apple's iPhone in popularity. The iPhone is a very nice phone and easy to use. But, come on now . . . Android is today's new and sexy technology. The iPhone OS is now middle-aged and improving slowly, whereas the Android system is young and progressing quickly. Sure, Apple is currently suing Android phone producers, trying to slow down the competition, but that's not going to work because one shouldn't patent a general idea, as Apple has done often.

Really, the iPhone has little to worry about as far as sales go. The sale of Android phones will continue to grow fast and soon overtake Apple. But, that's not to say that Apple's iPhone sales will not also increase. The iPhone will just not be the leader anymore. That’s because the whole of the smartphone pie will be growing fast. So, even though Apple will no longer control half of those sales, their phone sales will still be increasing for the next couple years.

Soon, though, the Android OS will be so much more advanced than iPhone's that Apple will have to do a major overhaul to increase sales. And, because Steve Jobs has been so nasty to the leadership of many other companies, we cannot expect any of them to be willing to give Apple any type of break to help them stay solidly in the smartphone market.

This constant competition, of course, is great for consumers. Availability and choice will be better and prices will decease. Better yet, there will be thousands of great applications available -- besides just games and music. Already, reports state that many of the most prolific application writers are shying away from the constraints of the Apple iTunes store and instead writing applications for the new Android world of devices.

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