According to many reports, the rivalry between Google and Apple continues to heat up. For Android and Apple App Store, Apple holds the lead with over 15 billion downloads while Android grew rapidly with over 4.5 billion. The increased number of Android smartphone and tablets flowing into the stores will attempt to even the playing field with Apple’s iOS devices.
Google has attracted developers with Android’s open source platform along with support from other technology companies such as Sony. Sony’s move to go with Android have shown positive returns in sales as their Google mobile OS powered devices are making a majority of revenue.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia smartphones continue to contribute to Androids growth with plans to release two new tablets by this fall. Their latest tablet devices, the Sony S1 and S2, could bring in a fresh wave of Android users. Powered by the latest Google OS, the two tablets appear to be an innovative device that could alter the landscape of the market. At first glance, users will notice a new design that strays from the traditional flat rectangular slate. The Sony S1 integrates a design concept of a folded magazine while the Sony S2 can be folded to slip into your pocket. Sony’s S2 offers another unique design in having two touchscreens that can display multiple websites or pages from an e-book.
Not surprisingly, Google is now looking to Sony for adding onto the growth of Android users especially in the tablet arena where Apple’s iPad continues to dominate. Google has close to 135 million devices on the market, mostly smartphones, and is now looking to increase market share of tablet sales. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has driven Android into head-to-head competition with Apple but can Sony produce similar results with their new innovative tablets?
Google can potentially see increasing number of device activations and app downloads to surpass iOS if the pace continues. Currently over 550,000 Android devices are being activated each day and developers appear to be streaming into the Google mobile OS open platform, though Apple has recently won back developers recently due to the iPhone 4 launch on Verizon.
“Studying the numbers, it’s readily apparent that Android has lost developer support to iOS. Specifically, Android new project starts have dropped from 36% in Q1 to 28% in Q2. Overall, total Flurry iOS and Android new project starts grew from 9,100 in Q1 to 10,200 in Q2…Of note, this drop in Android developer support represents the second quarter-over-quarter slide, which follows a year of significant, steady growth for the Google-built OS. Over the course of 2010, Android developer support had steadily climbed each quarter, peaking at 39% in Q4 2010, ” said Charles Newark-French, Strategy Manager M&A at Vodafone, in Flurry’s official Blog.
The study conducted by Flurry, that deals with statistics regarding developer applications, said majority of the developers spent their time creating apps for Apple’s mobile devices in comparison to the Android OS.
Android continues to hold high potential to overtake Apple if it can maintain the current momentum of new devices and improved OS functions.
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