RSSGoogle's Miner: We will outsell the iPhone
By Ed Oswald | Published March 14, 2008, 4:04 PM
Search giant Google is certainly full of confidence when it comes to Android, arguing that it will have a much larger market than Apple's device.
Apple's small and tightly controlled market has often come up in criticism of that company's overall strategy. By locking itself to a small list of approved carriers, Apple may be hamstringing itself in sales.
So far, Apple has managed to sell some four million or more phones. However, some doubt the company's ability to meet its own 10 million unit sales goal for 2008 unless it significantly broadens its market worldwide.
Google mobile platforms chief Rich Miner argues that Android's larger reach gives it the upper hand. The devices will be produced by a multitude of companies, and the company's apparent openness to put the phone on a larger list of carriers is also a plus.
In addition, the company says that Android is completely open source, meaning that developers will have more control over building their applications. While Apple has released the iPhone SDK, Miner argued at the Emerging Communications Conference that it still puts restrictions on what developers can do.
The iPhone SDK has been downloaded over 100,000 times, but Android's SDK has been downloaded about 750,000 times according to Google's statistics.
Devices based on the Android platform are expected to make it to market in the second half of the year. Miner urged developers to work on both platforms if "you believe there will be lots of Android phones out there, as we do," InformationWeek reported him as saying.
Yea right. Thats a damn bold statement to make when you cannot back it up. Thats like putting out a new music player and saying "We are gonna destroy the iPod. I've seen it said, but never done.
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|Has anyone built a running Android application? Does the hardware even exist? People are running iPhone apps right now, and the SDK includes an iPhone emulator. I don't see how another phone OS is going to make things much different... Java, mini-osx, Android... who cares... you can build/port an app to these baby-os's rather quickly. If you want market, you'll stop aiming for one platform...
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|What app? You mean "web app" that anyone with a browser can run it?
I guess you haven't learn anything from Steve Jobs? If you build enough hype into it, people will buy it. iPhone is a great example, anyone who understand it's specs know it's trash. Yet, people rush to buy it because it's the most hyped product ever.
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|The hardware isn't the best, except for the 3 axis accelerometer and the multi-touch display, but the software is great. Once the hardware is as good as the software, a lot more people will buy it.
The difference with Google's Android platform is that it can be picked up by any company making phones. I'd suggest that Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola start using something that makes their phones easier to use because, while they have good hardware, they've got pathetically bad software.
Good luck to Google but they're likely to face resistance when it comes to actual deployments.
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|Don't be an idiot. There's more to the iPhone and Apple's other products than just hype. They almost always introduce a new way of interacting or looking at an everyday device - and the iPhone is no exception. It has a superb interface that has yet to be matched by competitors. It's not the ultimate device because it's limited by old hardware - but what it does it does better than any other phone out there.
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|Not only is that true, but also, even with "hacked" apps, mine seems to make a lot more out of its hardware than a Windows Mobile device I used to own which had a similar hardware config. That serves to show that bloatware doesn't come only in destkops. ;-)
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|Nokia's Symbian platform is no iPhone, but it's fairly usable. That's far more than you can say about Windows Mobile. I've yet to actually see a WM device which I ENJOY using, or can imagine myself productively using on a daily basis.
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|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....02/ipod-touch-take.html
Regards,
Mark
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|The argument isn't that the availability of more phones will make android better, per se, but rather more developers working on the applications. Not each developer on his own, but rather many in collaboration with one another, building off of each others work. The android platform is better positioned for this because 1) the sdk is free, and 2) its open source, which will bring a bigger fan/developer base in, and in turn enhance the evolution of application functionality exponentially. My prediction.
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|Google has a great point. The iPhone is great, but Apple has too many restrictions on the sales and software of the device. The speed and flexibility of Android make for a deadly combo. I have used and love both devices, but with Android I don't have to switch cell carriers to get what I want.
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|Remember that Google's SDK has been out for a while. The iPhone reached 100,000 in only four days. Also, how many non-developers will need to buy a phone with an open source operating system? Furthermore, Apple's SDK is also free.
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|Yeah.
Compare the sales of a consumer product with the release of an SDK.
Cute.
You do know it takes time to build from an SDK, right? How long has the iPhone SDK been out? Where are all of it's new Killer Apps?
Didn't think so...
Try again, sparky.
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|Quite a bold statement but one difference I see is that Google's SDK was probably free and that might be a HUGE difference why it was downloaded 7.5 times a much. From the bottom up apple's sdk policy may seem restrictive but from the top down this allows them to CONTROL the content and its release. Just b/c android is getting more platforms per se doesn't mean the software will be any better, in fact it will lead to countless overlapping applications which in itself is a "hamstring" and will become hamstrung in a future post you make! My prediction.
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