It has been generally assumed that one of the advantages Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has in the smartphone business is its App Store. That may be much less true than it was a year ago. New data show that Android apps now number 200,000 and Android app downloads have reached 2.5 billion.
Analysts who follow Apple believe that its App Store has about 400,000 products and that download of these apps total nearly 4 billion. That still gives Apple a lead over Android, but the advantage appears to be disappearing.
In the Apple ecosystem, the app is the most important tether between the iPhone, iPad, and iPod customer, much as iTunes is, for iPhone owners. Apple consumer device owners can create a nearly infinite number of constellations of applications to personalize their devices. This level of personalization is not available anywhere else. The App Store is one of the most, if not the most, important reason to own an iPhone or, more recently, an iPad.
Android has caught and perhaps passed Apple in terms of smartphone operating systems in the US. That is not enough on its own to build a fierce loyalty to Android by handset customers. Android operates in a number of phones from several manufacturers. The operating system does not offer a constant and seamless experience for its users that Apple products do. It has been assumed that the loyalty to Android is further weakened by its lack of a large pool of applications. But, that does not seem to a problem anymore, and Apple’s competitive edge appears to have begun to disappear.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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