Friday, October 30, 2009

Android to overtake iPhone? Not so fast...

With the release of the Verizon Droid, the buzz factor around Google Android is heating up. And like analysts did before the release of HTC Magic, another Android-based smartphone, the prediction is that Android will overtake the iPhone in 2012, conveniently coming in right before the end of the world.)

Not so fast...

Analysts are also predicting the iPhone will come to Verizon sometime late 2010. Projections put a Verizon iPhone at selling around 13 million units its first year, which is roughly the number of units AT&T is expected to sell this year. Taking into account that AT&T sells would drop, this could mean 20 million iPhones being sold in 2011.

This might put a little dent in Android's ability to overtake the iPhone before the end of the world.

It's no surprise that Android has a chance to overtake the iPhone in the future. Apple prefers to carefully control the hardware (and in the iPhone's case, the app store) in order to bring the best experience to its users. While this allows them to deliver quality products, it does so at the expense of dominating the marketshare. Android's ability to be custom fit to a variety of devices will make it a strong competitor in the smartphone market. And while no one single Android device might be the "iPhone killer", the whole of the Android marketshare may very well overtake the iPhone OS in the next five years.

Just not as soon as analysts predict.

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