Android Market Share down in EU? No surprise really.
I guess it is notable. But it is really the logical inverse of the fact that no one is surprised when Windows Phone's share of the market goes up by a bit. Basically, Android has so much of the market that it becomes, over time, more difficult to grow. Especially as a percentage.
The EU is also the least surprising place to see this trend. After all, they are being held up for antitrust charges there. And where there are antitrust charges there is generally a population which is concerned. Google isn't a European company, and the EU member countries can get fairly hostile towards abuse of monopolies. Especially by North American entities.
I'd also suggest that the platform is a victim of its own success, and I still expect to see this trend hit elsewhere eventually. What I mean here is that everyone got on the Android bandwagon. This caused a rush to the bottom with everyone and their grandmothers releasing budget phones. And, in many cases on the low end of the spectrum it feels like those people's grandmothers were those coding the Android variants running on those devices.
In a nutshell, in countries where budget phones are king Android will likely lose its market share fastest. Nothing Google has attempted to try and rein in the ecosystem in recent years has done anything to improve the average quality of budget Android phones. Flagship phones are great. But they rarely had problems on the factory OS's to begin with. And that is why we likely won't see similar drops here in North America any time soon. Thanks to subsidies, even jobless teens walk around with flagship devices.
But in those poorer markets the average person is holding onto the cheapest models possible. And if you've ever bought a pay as you go Android phone, you have a rough idea what the experience is like. Google doesn't need to worry about Apple here. They have no budget phones. The primary usurper in these countries will likely be budget Lumia devices. Even low budget Windows Phone perform stably and are generally quite performant. There are very few notable apps that won't run on a 512MB phone and most users report a positive experience. And this isn't likely to change. This remains one of the smart reasons for buying Nokia. That 1st party ownership of both OS and hardware means that they can keep making sure there is a wide offering of quality budget phones.
Another reason why it is easier for Google to lose hold outside of this continent is that the "app gap" is much smaller. Not every app available in the US has been localized or even offered for sale outside of that country. And, what is popular is also different which means which apps are most important is very different. The other thing is that there are many more app development resources in many of these markets. China and India have far more dev capacity than the US and at a much cheaper cost. More hobbyists and cheaper paid work means it is much quicker and easier to close the gap if/when there is demand or even potential demand.
But, while the market is ripe in emerging countries for competitors to take from Android's user base. There may not be any real reason to believe anything is afoot. As I said originally, Android had basically reached maximum saturation. Maybe they'll just fluctuate right back next time these stats are produced. It could be more. But, at this point there is really no need to read even as much into the numbers as I have.
The EU is also the least surprising place to see this trend. After all, they are being held up for antitrust charges there. And where there are antitrust charges there is generally a population which is concerned. Google isn't a European company, and the EU member countries can get fairly hostile towards abuse of monopolies. Especially by North American entities.
I'd also suggest that the platform is a victim of its own success, and I still expect to see this trend hit elsewhere eventually. What I mean here is that everyone got on the Android bandwagon. This caused a rush to the bottom with everyone and their grandmothers releasing budget phones. And, in many cases on the low end of the spectrum it feels like those people's grandmothers were those coding the Android variants running on those devices.
In a nutshell, in countries where budget phones are king Android will likely lose its market share fastest. Nothing Google has attempted to try and rein in the ecosystem in recent years has done anything to improve the average quality of budget Android phones. Flagship phones are great. But they rarely had problems on the factory OS's to begin with. And that is why we likely won't see similar drops here in North America any time soon. Thanks to subsidies, even jobless teens walk around with flagship devices.
But in those poorer markets the average person is holding onto the cheapest models possible. And if you've ever bought a pay as you go Android phone, you have a rough idea what the experience is like. Google doesn't need to worry about Apple here. They have no budget phones. The primary usurper in these countries will likely be budget Lumia devices. Even low budget Windows Phone perform stably and are generally quite performant. There are very few notable apps that won't run on a 512MB phone and most users report a positive experience. And this isn't likely to change. This remains one of the smart reasons for buying Nokia. That 1st party ownership of both OS and hardware means that they can keep making sure there is a wide offering of quality budget phones.
Another reason why it is easier for Google to lose hold outside of this continent is that the "app gap" is much smaller. Not every app available in the US has been localized or even offered for sale outside of that country. And, what is popular is also different which means which apps are most important is very different. The other thing is that there are many more app development resources in many of these markets. China and India have far more dev capacity than the US and at a much cheaper cost. More hobbyists and cheaper paid work means it is much quicker and easier to close the gap if/when there is demand or even potential demand.
But, while the market is ripe in emerging countries for competitors to take from Android's user base. There may not be any real reason to believe anything is afoot. As I said originally, Android had basically reached maximum saturation. Maybe they'll just fluctuate right back next time these stats are produced. It could be more. But, at this point there is really no need to read even as much into the numbers as I have.
Comments
Post a Comment