Motorola embraces Android

Recently motorola announced that they are going to adopt three different operating systems for all the cell phones. One of them being Android. I am a big believer of open source and think that this is a big step by motorola and also think Techcrunch comparison of this with IBM adopting Linux is a very appropriate one. 

BUT.... 

I am not very happy with the first phone with Android. Every review I have read about G1 is clearly stating that it is nowhere close to iPhone. 

Apple Appstore and Android Market

I strongly believe that whoever wins the application market wins in the long run...

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/23/android-market-takes-on-apples-app-store-games-still-rule-but-should-they/

This is a techcrunch review of the Android market version Apple Appstore.

Andriod vs iPhone - Coming Year

With the release of the first android based cellphone, the game has begun. I am now tempted to predict that Android will win over the next couple of years. Here is a link stating that motorola is going to invest heavily into this.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/28/motorola-building-up-350-person-android-team-nokia-also-sniffing-around/

Also considering the economic situation, Apple will face a lot of price competition from other cellphone manufactures and Android will win in this battle.

iPhone apps and network effect

Here is an interesting article on Techcrunch about this

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/07/most-iphone-apps-are-failing-to-leverage-the-network-effect/

I completely agree with the author. In addition, I have been pondering if Apple is doing something to promote apps that can become iphone only apps and hence driving the iPhone sales. This is a similar idea to certain video games driving the game console sales.

This can be approached in two ways:

1. Business route of locking up app providers in some kind of exclusive. I am not sure how this would be taken by app builders but I believe if the financial incentives are well aligned, this could be done.
   
2. Being a technologist, I believe this is always a better way :). So the idea here is to be able to promote app developers to build apps that have networking going between two iphone users. For example build an app that could use GPS features and send messages that can be opened on iPhone in GMAPs on iPhone. Another idea could be an application built on top of SMS capabilities and uses powerful iPhone features related to music or itunes website.
   

I am not sure if Apple is thinking along these lines but I think this is one way Apple can use the power of a platform to enhance the sales.

Andriod vs iPhone - retake...

Take a look at this video where people are predicting the fate of andriod...



Except for few people, all the people believe that Apple will win the war. I am holding my breath to see what the hardware vendors do with google software stack.

Android vs iPhone

Upcoming announcement about the iPhone SDK by Apple and the recent (few months old) announcement about the android platform from google make me think that this could be an interesting battle. The biggest advantage in google's approach is that the applications developed will not be tied down to a particular phone and hence customers would have broader choices. Also the companies that will be developing applications for the platform can use this to sell to larger customer base as well... so it definitely is a wiser business decision but let me pose another question:

Which of the approaches get me (a consumer) better phone and applications?

Some people think that Android platform is better in lots of ways (including UI).




But having better UI capabilities does not mean much. You need UI designers like apple has to build intuitive and clean applications.