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Android vs. iPhone — Who Wins In 2011?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the a-good-reuben-sandwich dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes in Fortune Magazine that Apple and Google have two very different strategies in the competition shaping up in 2011 between Android and iPhone. According to the conventional wisdom as espoused by Don Dodge, a Developer Advocate at Google, both Apple and Google will win because they are playing different games. Android will win the market share battle, but Apple will generate bigger profits. 'Apple goes for the high end of the market where they can charge high prices and enjoy great profit margins. Apple has been successful with this strategy multiple times, and will do it again with iPhone,' writes Dodge adding that Google's strategy with Android is to generate revenue streams from mobile search and advertising. Another Google employee, Tim Bray, sees things differently and says he won't be surprised if Apple ships a cheap iPhone and if this time next year, dirt-cheap iPhones were competing against Androids that push the user-experience lever farther than Apple. 'There's nothing fundamental in Android that would get in the way of a industrial-design and user-experience rock-star team, whether at Google or one of the handset makers, testing the hypothesis that these things are central to Apple's success.'"

5 of 424 comments (clear)

  1. I meant to comment earlier by Rurik · · Score: 5, Funny

    I meant to comment earlier, but my iPhone alarm didn't go off.

    1. Re:I meant to comment earlier by The+End+Of+Days · · Score: 5, Funny

      I tried to text you to warn you that might happen, but my Android routed the SMS to your mother instead.

    2. Re:I meant to comment earlier by Lev13than · · Score: 5, Funny

      I just use my Blackberry as an alarm clock. Every night before going to bed I simply remove & replace the battery - I wake up to the sound of the finished reboot, alert and refreshed after about eight hours of sleep.

      --
      When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
  2. Re:The bigger questions is... by MichaelJ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IMHO Android would have been a non-starter if the iPhone had been available to all carriers (GSM & CDMA both) and not restricted to AT&T. A lot of people (myself included) passed on iPhones for the sole reason of refusing to use AT&T. Android currently suffers from too much product fracture. Too many different customer experiences based on vendor customization, and so much different hardware it's hard for developers to test everything, as well as hard to use newer, better APIs because older OS versions, whose updates are controlled by the carriers and may or may not happen, don't have them.

    --

    Michael J.
    Root, God, what is difference?
  3. What does "win" mean here? by joh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I mean, there is no doubt that Android will be on more devices sold. With uncounted devices from uncounted companies and carriers this is to be expected.

    What's interesting is if there will be *one* model of an Android phone that will sell better than the iPhone. If the iPhone will stay the best selling smartphone in 2011, well, it's still the bestselling smartphone.

    I'm totally expecting the prices for smartphones spiralling down. An unlocked Android smartphone for $99 with no contract should be possible. It will have crappy battery life, a crappy touchscreen and a crappy camera, though.