Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) is no longer the major challenge to the sales of Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android-powered smartphones are.
New data from comScore show that Android is still gaining on both Apple and RIM in the US market, and that, for the first time, the Apple mobile operating system has lost market share. Apple’s piece of the smartphone platform business fell 1.3% to 23.8% from April to July. Android’s share was up 5% to 17%. At that rate, Android may pass Apple early next year.
The loser in the operating systems business continue to be the leader, RIM. Its market share fell 1.8% to 39.3%. Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Mobile product continued to bleed out. Its market share over the period fell 2.2% to 11.8%. It has lost so much ground that it would seem that it has no chance to make any of it up.
The remarkable thing about Android is that it was not available as a mobile operating system three years ago. It is not clear why it has done so well. Some experts believe it is because the system is open source, so that developers can work with the source code for Android and make significant changes and modifications to fit it to hardware needs. Another reason Android has performed well is that it is the “Switzerland” of mobile OSs. It is not tethered to any Google product and Google does not favor any one smartphone handset firm over any other. Cellphone manufacturers do not have to worry that Google has a special agenda as RIM and Apple do, which is to promote the sales of their branded products.
The irony of the success of Android is that Wall St. still cannot figure how Google will make money on the software. It could be a future platform for wireless advertising sales. It could also be a Trojan horse to get Google’s search engine on more mobile devices. So far, there is littler evidence that either is true. It may be that Google simply wants to crippled rival Apple–perhaps for the fun of it.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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