Localytics used the top 20 countries for mobile devices between December 1 and 20 to establish a baseline. The average daily activation rate for this period was compared to the average for December 25 and 26, to allow for devices given on Christmas to be activated the next day.
Android is destroying everyone, especially RIM, and iPhone is dead in the water. So says Henry Blodget, citing comScore’s recent US smartphone market share estimates for the quarter ending Feb 2011 (compared to the previous quarter ending Nov 2010):
Blodget goes on to say:
The Android gains matter because technology platform markets tend to standardize around a single dominant platform. And the more dominant the platform becomes, the more valuable it becomes and the harder it becomes to dislodge. The network effect kicks in, and developers building products designed to work with the platform devote more and more of their energy to the platform. The reward for building and working with other platforms, meanwhile, drops, and gradually developers stop developing for them.
But is market share a reliable metric of network effect? Google doesn’t charge handset manufacturers or carriers for using Android, so it should sell more strongly than Apple’s more expensive iPhone. It takes a conscious decision to pay extra for an iPhone, whereas carriers are giving Android handsets to many customers by default.  These customers may have little or no loyalty to the Android brand. In fact, many of them do not even know their phone is running Android.
As an alternative to market share as a metric of network effect, it may be more objective to consider mind share. Network effect is at least partly a social phenomenon. While ever a platform consciously commands people’s hearts and minds, it is presumably more likely to become dominant over competing platforms.
The Google Insights for Search chart below offers a comparison of worldwide search patterns for the terms ‘iPhone’, ‘iPad’, ‘Android’, ‘BlackBerry’ and ‘Windows Mobile’ over the 65 months since the iPhone was first rumoured. While searches for the term ‘Android’ are keeping pace with the term ‘iPad’, they have a long way to go before they catch searches for ‘iPhone’.
The chart may suggest that Apple remains well ahead in the race toward mind share, and therefore platform domination.
Domino’s Pizza today announced a 16% increase in profits, saying sales have lifted with the help of its iPhone App.
The app was released in Australia in November 2009, attracting 200,000 downloads and $2 million in sales in its first 12 weeks. It allows customers to design, order, pay for and track delivery of their pizzas.
Whilst announcing the results today, Domino’s chief executive Don Meij said:
“In Australia, our continued focus on the online side of our business also contributed to these results. Our online ordering, which includes orders placed through our highly-successful iPhone app, is advancing and we are seeing great growth.”
Senior Vice-President for iPhone Engineering, Mark Papermaster, has left Apple Inc after just 16 months in the job. Apple has refused to say whether he was terminated or left of his own accord. Some observers claim Papermaster was axed for failing to avoid issues with the antenna on the new iPhone 4, while others suggest he lost the confidence of Steve Jobs some time ago.
As an indication of the high expectations Steve Jobs holds over his management team, it’s instructive to review the transcript of his interview with Daniel Morrow of the Smithsonian Institute, back on 20 April 1995.
Jobs:
I always considered part of my job was to keep the quality level of people in the organizations I work with very high. That’s what I consider one of the few things I actually can contribute individually – to really try to instil in the organization the goal of only having ‘A’ players.
…
I have found, not just in software, but in everything I’ve done it really pays to go after the best people in the world. It’s painful when you have some people who are not the best people in the world and you have to get rid of them; but I found that my job has sometimes exactly been that – to get rid of some people who didn’t measure up and I’ve always tried to do it in a humane way. But nonetheless it has to be done and it is never fun.
Papermaster’s former responsibilities have been assumed by Apple’s Senior Vice-President of Computer Engineering, Bob Mansfield.
In 2007, Steve Jobs looked into the future:
“We’ve got two strong legs on our chair today — we have the Mac business, which is a $10 billion business, and music, our iPod and iTunes business, which is $10 billion. We hope the iPhone is the third leg on our chair, and maybe one day Apple TV will be the fourth leg.”
It’s a good thing Jobs used the word “maybe”, because the iPad has just sailed straight past Apple TV to become that fourth leg. During its first quarter on the market, iPad has already become Apple’s third biggest revenue stream. Despite supply constraints, the combined revenue of Apple’s two newest legs – iPhones & iPads – already exceeds combined revenue from the original Mac and iPod legs by 25%.
