Google's Android is eating Apple's lunch

SAN FRANCISCO —

Smartphones and tablets powered by Google’s Android software are devouring the mobile gadget market, eating into Apple’s turf by feeding appetites for innovation and low prices, The Android operating system powered nearly three out of four smartphones shipped worldwide in the recently ended quarter as the mobile platform dominated the market, according to industry trackers at IDC.

IDC’s mobile phones research manager Ramon Llamas said, Android has been one of the primary growth engines of the smartphone market since it was launched in 2008, In every year since then, Android has effectively outpaced the market and taken market share from the competition. In tablets, Apple’s market share has fallen to just over 50% from 65% in the second quarter as Android devices gain ground.

According to research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung’s Galaxy S3 overtook Apple’s iPhone 4S in the third quarter to give the South Korean firm the world’s best-selling smartphone model for the first time ever, Android is benefiting from being an open-source platform that gadget makers use free of charge and improve as they deem fit, providing Google with insights along the way. Apple tightly controls its products from the software to the hardware and even the online shop for music, books, games or other content.

Google gives Android away free, but the platform is crafted to make it easy for people to use the California Internet titan’s money-making services such as search and maps, and get content at its online Google Play shop.

Forrester analyst Charles Golvin said that forces powering Android momentum include changing demographics of smartphone buyers. Early adopters of smartphones focused more on new technology than on price, but the devices have gone mainstream with cost increasingly important to shoppers. People are more inclined toward the Android platform because there is more choice and most of that choice is low price, also said you have this lengthy chain of intermediaries who are delaying the delivery of that new software and its innovations to existing devices in the market.

Apple pushes annual updates of iOS mobile operating system out to its devices, while new versions of Android hit more often but must get through hardware makers and telecom services to get onto people’s handsets. Android gadget variety can also make it tough to design accessories or even apps that can be used across the array of devices. For its part, Google has done an excellent job of improving the ecosystem of music, films, apps, books and more available for Android-powered devices, according to analysts.

In the red-hot tablet market effectively created by the iPad, strong growth is being seen by Android rivals including Amazon’s popular Kindle Fire and Nook devices from Barnes & Noble, which run custom versions of the software. Analysts believe that the Google-backed operating system is likely to spread to typically dumb gizmos like appliances.

Dulaney said, These platforms are becoming the molecule elements for building all kinds of hybrid devices.