Verizon has launched an anti-iPhone advertising campaign, satirising the Apple handset and its exclusive carrier, AT&T, teasing viewers with the promise of its first Android phones in November.
iDon’t have a real keyboard … run simultaneous apps … take 5-megapixel pictures … allow open development … have interchangeable batteries,” say the advertisements, ending with: “Everything iDon’t, Droid does.
According to Eric Schmidt this month, “Android adoption is literally about to explode”. Android appeals as a viable alternative for mobile handset makers looking to break the dominance of Nokia, Research in Motion and Apple, which have two-thirds of the US market and an 80 per cent global share.
Ken Dulaney, analyst with the Gartner research firm, said:
“If I’m a hardware manufacturer who needs to license a smartphone operating system, my choice is [open source] Linux, which doesn’t have much of a UI [user interface], Windows Mobile, which people don’t seem to like these days because the UI is kind of antiquated, or Android”
Gartner sees Android eating into Nokia’s leading market share and featuring on 18 per cent of smartphones by 2012, up from 1.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2009. That would put it ahead of RIM on 13.9 per cent and Apple on 13.6 per cent.
Android will inevitably beat the iPhone, according to Ken Dulaney, if only because it will feature on many more handset models. Apple has only the iPhone and does not license its operating system or technology. Android handset makers are improving on the iPhone’s hardware, while a new version of the operating system and more than 10,000 applications developed for it are providing them with competitive software. Financial Times reports.
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