Android Maybe Slow To Market, But This Is Only The Beginning.
While checking out Tech Crunch this morning, came across an interesting article, which I just so happen to disagree with. The article was titled T-Mobile Is Dreaming Of Android Riches. And It Might Have To Keep Dreaming. Naturally, like most articles on Tech Crunch, the piece was well written and though out, but I believe they missed something.
No one can deny that the excitement around the Android platform has dwindled down to nothing (No thanks to Google and the Open Handset Alliance), but that doesn’t mean in the long run, Android will be a viable competitor to Apple. History has shown us over and over again, that executives have ignored new technologies, because of a lack of understanding and/or only concentrating on what’s hot.
My prediction for Android is this. A wave of new phones will finally start coming out with Android installed. These phones will be slightly cheaper or have features that the iPhone lacks (such as a physical keyword), which will cause a decent percentage of people to buy these new phones instead of the iPhone. Plus, you know mobile companies like T-Mobile are going to push consumers to buy their phones instead of Apple, duh.
Jump ahead a year or so and people’s awareness of Android will start coming around. Companies who ignore the current noise and have apps on the market for Android and will enjoy the first big profits. Naturally everyone else will jump on the bandwagon once they see money is being made.
In my opinion, the only real problem for Android is the hardware that the platform sits on. If the hardware is not up to par with Apples iPhone, Apple will win out. People will dish out money for an alternative to the iPhone, but it has to have similar or better hardware specs, end of story. Imagine if this new T-Mobile phone comes out without the capability or hard drive space for music or video’s, shit who cares about what platform it’s running then. (hmmm…kind of reminds me of the wars between Apples and PC’s which is till going on today.)
Tech Crunch is right in saying they should keep dreaming, but only if mobile companies fail to provide the adequate hardware specs. The Android platform itself may take longer to become mainstream, but over time, consumer demand for applications will be there.