In five and a half years, Android has come from nowhere to
dominate the mobile landscape during the first quarter of 2013,
according to a new report from research firm Canalys.
The market — which takes into account smartphone, tablet, and
notebook shipments — grew to 308.7 million, representing year-on-year
growth of 37.4 percent. But despite this market segment including
traditional notebook devices powered by Windows, it is Android, a
product of the Open Handset Alliance, that is making the biggest gains.
During the quarter, Android was the operating system powering 59.5
percent of smart devices shipped. Behind Android was Apple's iOS with a
19.3 percent market share, and Microsoft, with 18.1 percent.
And it is tablets that are driving this growth, not smartphones, and
definitely not notebooks. Over the period, worldwide tablet shipments
increased by 106.1 percent year on year, to 41.9 million units, and
while Apple continues to be the big fish in the tablet space with a 46.4
percent share, even the iPad is not immune to Android, as it lost share
for the third consecutive quarter.
The Canalys data for the quarter speaks volumes.
But let's take this data and bake it into a pie.
Presented this way, it is clear that Android is crushing Apple and
Microsoft in the mobile device market, putting the squeeze on not only
Microsoft, but Apple, too, the company that sparked the smartphone and
tablet revolutions in the first place.
While some analysts are pondering Android's demise,
I really can't see how the operating system can put a foot wrong. About
the only weakness I can see is that one company — Samsung — dominates
the Android landscape.
Given Android's success in the mobile market, one has to wonder how long it will be until we see the operating system loaded onto PCs
and go head to head against Windows and iOS. Given the way that buyers
(consumers and enterprise alike) have embraced Android on smartphones
and tablets — activations of new devices sit at 1.5 million daily, or 45
million every month — it seems logical to give consumers what they
want, and put this operating system onto notebooks, convertibles, and
hybrid systems.
When it comes to PCs, neither Windows nor OS X seem to be igniting
the imaginations — and opening the wallets — of consumers. Cheap
(possibly in the region of $200) PCs would be just what PC OEMs need to inject a new lease of life into the stagnating market.
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