Google’s Android is doing extremely well for itself in the OS market right now, primarily due to reasons like changes within Google’s hierarchy and new phone launches to rival the iPhone. Arguably its most threatening competition, Apple too hasn’t innovated much in the last quarter. This is uncharacteristic of the California-based firm as March is usually devoted to major announcements for the company. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Muster summed up the situation by saying that while no one was expecting anything major, a lot of people were left disappointed.
With reports that Apple’s iOS 7 may be delayed by a few months, Google has had time to tweak its already popular services. According to its GOOG column, the Google Play store is the first to be refurbished as Google is keen to improve functionality. According to a report compiled by TechCrunch, Google is trying to filter out spam-based and non-compliant applications from the Play store. This plan was seen in action when 60,000 programmes were obliterated from the store in February, which set the record for the highest number of deletions to date. Apart from removing apps, the company is also making an effort to redesign the Play store by making it much more user-friendly and solve issues related to discoverability of apps, which should help Google monetize the platform further.
Android is not dependant on Google to release new hardware because it also runs on hardware created by Samsung, HTC, Sony, Motorola and the likes. This quarter is set to have a lot more high-potential phones scheduled to release like the Samsung Galaxy S IV and the HTC One. These phones have the potential to generate a lot of buzz, and thus, may further assist in Google toppling Apple in terms of market share. Changes in leadership at Google too, have been in effect lately with Sundar Pichai (previously in-charge of Google Chrome and apps) replacing Andy Rubin, the Android’s veteran leader. The fact that Pichai is on amicable terms with Larry Page, the CEO of Google, and has a brilliant record coupled with the ability to actually take Android to new levels, helps his cause greatly.
Finally, Facebook Home for Android is all set to make an appearance on the HTC First, which should ideally open the floodgates for social-network software utilizing Android. It may however, also end up biting Google as it is set to directly compete with other applications vying for attention.
