Vision Mobile has just published a technical report entitled “Mobile Platforms: The Clash of Ecosystems”. In this report the most important mobile platforms are presented and trending topics, ranging from technical to marketing domains, are discusse
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Here we will briefly highlight some of interesting points of the report, however the complete document is freely available online.
- Smartphones represent a growing proportion of device sales in global markets. Although there is a wide variation: smartphones shipment penetration varies from nearly 65% in USA and over 50% in Europe to 17% in Latin America and 18% in Africa / Middle East, smartphones are taking a growing proportion of device sales in more cost-sensitive markets all over the world.
- App stores (e.g. Apple App Store and Google Android Market) control ecosystems and not profit from content: app stores have become the main distribution channel between developers and consumers in recent years. App stores are not only able to reach more consumers, but also to accelerate the applications delivery and payment.
- HTML5 has potential to work as a cross-platform technology for smartphones: HTML5 along with the recently launched CSS3 and more efficient JavaScript engines, has the potential to greatly increase the functionality of web applications requiring fewer lines of code
- App innovations chosen by users pushes mobile operators around value-added services, core messaging, and voice services: more and more people are able to start to write mobile applications, and communication applications pushes telecom services
- Consistency is key for the success of an application platform: applications must run on all implementations of the platform. A software platform, in contrast, needs flexibility, allowing it to fit the requirements of a wide range of product variants and reach supply-side economies of scale
- The user interfaces and applications, and not the hardware features, are driving the handset sales
- Application platforms (e.g. iOS and Android) are able to attract huge financial investments of developers, investors and brands
The smartphone OS market leadership is currently divided between Apple iOS and Google Android. iOS and Android triumph not only because of technological sophistication, but also because of the strength of their application ecosystems. They exemplify successful application platforms because they were carefully designed to connect both: users and developers. Apple is pointed as the staple for smartphone device specifications, user experience, ecosystem, browser capabilities and content. Android, on the other hand, comes from a company experienced in connecting online users and advertisers.
“For end-users, the new applications add value to the platform. And for developers, the platform gains value with each and every new end-user.”
