BI: Differentiation and alliance centrifugation, Android's continued troubles

In 2011, Android was very popular in the mobile market. Mobile phone manufacturers, mobile operators and application developers all gave Android a lot of support and recognition. Android's market share was not low. However, from the end of 2011 to 2012, the media reported a lot more negative news about Android, and some of Android's partners also began to change their attitude. Why is this? What difficulties did Android face in its development?

Facebook acquires Instagram?

First, let's start with the headline news of this month: Facebook's acquisition of Instagram. Facebook spent $1 billion to acquire Instagram, which at least to some extent shows that app developers can develop a popular app without relying on Android. You might say that Facebook would not have paid $1 billion to acquire Instagram if Instagram had not launched an Android version in an attempt to occupy the other half of the mobile market, and the number of users increased within a few days of the launch. This statement is somewhat true, but there is another fact that you may not know: Instagram was considering Facebook's acquisition before launching the Android version. Moreover, before Android, Instagram was able to obtain $50 million in financing.

Of course, whether it was Facebook’s acquisition or investors’ money, they may have known in advance that Instagram would launch an Android version. However, when the market feedback of Instagram Android version was still unclear, the buyer or investor was willing to spend a lot of money for Instagram, which also shows their trust in the iOS market.

However, Instagram is not representative of the overall Android market situation. Let's take a look at the feedback from some Android partners.

Changing attitudes of app developers, phone manufacturers, and mobile operators

We have previously reported that the interest of application developers in developing for Android is waning . Why? There are too many devices running Android, which brings a lot of trouble to developers: they need to adjust the application according to the different screen sizes and processor specifications of the mobile phones.

Let's look at the problems of some Android phone manufacturers. Although Google's acquisition of Motorola may help it achieve market encirclement from hardware to software, some of the phone manufacturers that cooperate with it are beginning to be unhappy: they are afraid that Google will treat them differently from Motorola . After all, parents love their own flesh and blood the most. But then again, these partners currently have few choices. They can't produce iOS phones, and Microsoft doesn't seem to be much better than Google - Microsoft and Nokia also have a special relationship.

In addition to mobile phone manufacturers, some operators are also getting impatient. The Microsoft-Nokia alliance mentioned above is a "poison" to other mobile phone manufacturers, but it may be a piece of fat meat for operators. Verizon, a major operator partner of Google, is ready to bet on Microsoft, and AT&T is said to have invested $150 million in promoting Windows Phone.

Look at the Android data released by Google

Let's look at the internal problems of Android. According to data from Google's Android developer website, only 2.9% of Android devices have installed the latest Android 4.0, also known as "Ice Cream Sandwich" in the market. 63.2% of Android devices are still running Android 2.3, and Android 2.2 accounts for 23.1%.

Of course, there may be many possibilities behind this data, but three of them may be: either many users have not purchased new Android devices (these devices are most likely to install the latest version of Android 4.0); or it means that the feedback of Android 4.0 is not good and users do not want to update to the latest version; or users want to upgrade to the latest version, but there is no corresponding way. No matter which of the above three situations, it is not good news for Android and Google. However, the third situation is not a problem of Android alone. All software updates may have similar retention cycle problems, and the responsibility of multiple chains such as mobile phone manufacturers, sellers, and operators may be involved in the middle.

Finally, let's break down Android smartphones and tablets.

In fact, the reason why Android phones have been able to successfully enter the market since the end of 2010 is partly due to the support of mobile operators . Take the United States as an example. In the United States, users can only get iPhones by purchasing AT&T services. For some users, they just don't want to change mobile operators, so they choose Android phones that are within reach. Around the world, iPhone also has strict control over operators. China Mobile's negotiations with Apple have lasted for several years.

The weakness of Android tablets may be more supportive of the above view. Without the threshold of mobile operators, Android tablets, except for Amazon's Kindle Fire, basically have no way to compete with Apple's iPad (of course, the quality of equipment manufacturers cannot be ruled out). And the success of Kindle Fire in the market may not be a good thing for Android. Because Kindle Fire has deleted and adjusted some of its functions based on the basic architecture of Android. Therefore, if other tablet manufacturers follow Amazon's example, it will only make the entire Android system more fragmented and messy, and Google's control over the entire Android system will become more difficult. Now, some people have jokingly called this year "the year of Android's differentiation."

This article mainly introduces some existing or potential problems of Android. Of course, Android is not without its own advantages, and iOS is not perfect either. For example, Android 4.0 has been working hard to improve the problem of system differentiation . Google is also working hard to contact partners and promote the new version of Android 4.0. Personally, I think that given the current market size of Android phones and applications, developers, manufacturers, and operators will not cut off their relationship with Android all at once. For Google and the entire smartphone market, Android is still the main competitor of iOS. Android can hold on for as long as it can, and the appearance of Windows Phone is expected to ease the pressure on Android to fight against Apple alone. As long as Apple is not allowed to dominate the smartphone market, Google will have the opportunity to continuously optimize the system and even launch new secret weapons, and other giants will also have opportunities.

via BI Article from 36kr