Android is currently the most dominant platform on smartphones with around 50% of the smartphones running it but that number is seemingly meaningless when the true nature of Android phones is explored. Though there are more Android phones right now than iOS devices, which account for 32% of the smartphones, the number of devices running the threadbare Android platform is virtually nonexistent. The number of devices running the actual Android OS would be well under 2% and it appears that by acquiring Motorola Mobility Google is going to reclaim the Android OS. Until then, Android apps are going to be custom designed ones, fragmented to a large extent and essentially rip-offs of what the App Store features for the iPhone.
The difference between Android and iOS is that every iOS device is exactly the same. This means that application and product developers for the platform are sure about what they need to work with. On the other hand, there are several versions of the Android OS in the market at the same time and each one is modified to a different extent by manufacturers. For example, Samsung includes TouchWiz on its devices while the Sense UI is layered on top of Android by HTC. This causes a problem for developers as an application may not run on all devices.
Moreover, because of the modifications, irrespective of when Google releases a new version, the official update for a device has to come from the manufacturers. This explains why several Samsung devices continue to run Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) while the only device to feature the Jellybean OS is Google’s Nexus One. This device sold a mere 135,000 units in the first month whereas the Samsung Galaxy SIII crossed the 10 million mark easily. The only people using true Android are the ones with a Nexus phone and that accounts for hardly 0.5%, which is a conservative guess.
If Google has to retain its dominance in the smartphone market and consolidate it further by making its presence felt, then not only does it need to stiffen the competition against Apple but also rein in the hardware manufacturers who take the open source nature of the platform too far. Now that Google has Motorola with it and all the hardware at its disposal, it should revamp the strategy and sell a single Google Phone rather than the Android platform; like how Apple sells the iPhone and not the iOS.
