Android tablets browsing share is still relatively low in Europe, but very strong in Asia. Despite the iPad’s head start in the market, Android’s tablet browsing share has nearly matched the iPad in Asia. More importantly, the overall trend is sharply in favor of Android tablets, which supports the strong shipment performance over the past few quarters.
Good analysis. Sameer Singh compares the growth trend of Android tablets to that of Android smartphones in the past, and it shows that Android tablet usage is actually growing faster than Android smartphone usage did in the past.
At this point, nothing seems to be able to stop Android’s total and utter dominance. Not Apple, not Microsoft. Scary.
There’s nothing to be scared about, the day the competition start doing something better people will shift, that’s the way it is.
I agree. There’s plenty of healthy (often passionate) competition on many fronts. Android isn’t one thing either, off shoots can and have happened which have had both negative (to the ecosystem) and positive (to competition) effects. Amazon shook things up for a while with its Kindle line up.
I’m waiting for the day a competent OEM which knows software does an interesting niche tablet (Maybe a Courier like digital journal or something) running Android.
I agree that it is not ‘scary’ as such. In fact, so long as Android continues to be available in it’s ‘free’ forms (like Cynogen) and there are adequate devices onto which you can install free versions then I think it’s great to have Android be dominant.
Android (Mobile Linux if you will) really delivers on the promise that Desktop Linux sort of failed to deliver on the desktop.
I also don’t think people will ‘switch’. There is simply no incentive to make anything ‘better’ since Android is free (as in beer). However, that does not mean Android can’t mutate into compatible or incompatible version that might gain or loose dominance.
Problem is that Android is not what mobile Linux is supposed to be. Real mobile Linux is only in the very beginning. If Sailfish and Ubuntu Mobile will succeed, then mobile Linux will have a chance. Android is completely severed from the desktop Linux.
The problem with what you said is Linux is a kernel not an Operating System. Saying “mobile Linux” means nothing. You’re talking about different Operating Systems utilizing the Linux kernel but they’re not compatible with each other.
Edited 2013-08-11 05:37 UTC
That’s irrelevant, since the post above was not talking about the kernel and you probably understood it as well.
Yep. That’s why it works.
Nope. It works because it was first. Not because it has any technical merits. It’s unfortunate, but glibc mobile Linux was too slow to emerge, that’s why it’s now playing a catch up and has to overcome stupidity and inertia of hardware manufacturers which don’t release glibc drivers.
Edited 2013-08-11 17:36 UTC
Famous last words.
I don’t mean to belabor the obvious but ‘nothing better’ has really emerged on commodity PC hardware because, from the OEM perspective, Windows is a reasonably cheap safe bet.
Sure there have been attempts (for example BeOS was far better in it’s time) but there was just inadequate commercial momentum for alternatives.
The same situation will undoubtedly occur in the phone and tablet markets where Android will dominate due to the fact that it’s free and it has great developer support.
It’s possible a company like Samsung or perhaps some combination of APAC companies could launch an alternative but it would be a real uphill battle.
It really wasn’t.
Care to elaborate?
Not in its time on x86 PCs – it was ported there too late, in the times of quite decent win98se and close to win2k.
Actually there IS something to be scared about, and it is the downside of FOSS which is thus…there is nothing stopping the OEMs from fracturing the hell out of the userbase, which they have, or keeping them from putting out unsupported versions which are infections waiting to happen, which they do.
I don’t know how it is in the EU but go to Walmart.com and see how many 2.x android devices are being sold, every one of which we now know is vulnerable to that one click key flaw. last i checked there were more 2.x devices being sold than 4 and by a pretty large margin, in fact last figures I saw had Gingerbread still being the most used android version which again is just a nightmare security wise.
So yes i say there is reason to be scared,with the cutthroat nature of mobile device sales they have every incentive not to run the latest and greatest as the older versions need less hardware to run and when these systems get pwned it isn’t the OEMs that will be blamed, its Android. this of course is also a PITA for devs as they can support a single iPhone or WinPhone but need to support at least 3 versions of Android to get the same coverage and its confusing for the users who wouldn’t know ice cream sandwich from an ice cream sundae, all they know is the box says Android.
Anyway you slice it its a mess and its gonna be damned hard to fix this late in the game.
2.3 is still less resource hungry than 4.x. Let’s hold Google to its promises on 5.0 and see how thing pan out.
Have they made any promises for 5.0? Or are you talking about rumors?
Rumours I guess, but I read it from several places.
Sounds like what happened to the Moto X. If rumors say your phone is going to be super cheap and you price it normally, it doesn’t matter how good it is.
What would be scary is if the ARM market was dominated but the likes of Microsoft where you are NOT ALLOWED to replace the operating system with one of your chosing. Now that is scary.
It would have been scarrier to see Microsoft or Apple in Android’s stead.
While Android dominates (the zerg like) nominal volume marketshare, Apple actually still dominates by a wide margin “Value”.
Tim Cook appears to be moving Apple to partially counter Android with lower cost offerings. Tapping into the budget constrained market.
This could change everything, as the Apple brand still has tremendous desirablility even more so in parts of Asia than USA.
Edited 2013-08-10 12:28 UTC
Android tablets under $100 are widely available in Asia. Under $50 is the next milestone. Apple just can’t compete at these prices. Just forget about it.
Who the hell wants to? Android Tablet market is becoming the Android Phone market where razor thin margins are the norm.
That’s not to take away from the happy medium of say $199 – $299 tablets that Android could become/maybe is strong in. If they can dominate those price points then the sub-$100 price points are just icing on the cake.
I think its been an impressive showing, but it almost feels like a fragile victory. The Android tablet ecosystem needs to rapidly expand (and with Google’s impressive I/O showing may do so) in order to meet rising volumes, or kill the baby in the cradle so to speak.
Then there’s Microsoft who is gearing up for sub-10 inch tablets and 10 inch tablet/hybrids which may trap Apple in a two front war and a pincer move. Interesting times ahead.
This tactic really helped Apple the last time they did it.
Wait.
It is scary because it means Google is going to have a monopoly soon. As big a monopoly as Microsoft has on the desktop OS front.
Google doesn’t assert their dominance in the same way Microsoft did. Unless the OEM blocks it, you can install a different ROM if you like, and on a tablet you don’t really need the Google apps at all.
Of course, an OEM that wants to use Google apps will need to play by Google’s rules, which is why Amazon does neither.
Google is a different company with a different business model. Not asserting dominance in the same way isn’t a sufficient enough standard to hold them to.
I don’t think they’re being outlandishly nefarious yet, but if it happens, using Microsoft as a measuring stick won’t be adequate.
Not yet anyway. The last thing I want to see is Android turn into another IE6, which I imagine WILL happen once they’ve crushed the competition.
Apparently, JBQ had to fight just to get factory images out there for Nexus devices, and more and more of Google’s services are becoming non-open with no API to access, so it’s already going that direction.
Point being, if you (and I don’t mean you specifically) trust Google more than you would MS or Apple, then you’re an idiot.
Wrong. I’ve got every reason to trust Google more than Microsoft and Apple. For one, I can buy their stuff and still own my own hardware.
Sure, things may change. But pretending they already did makes you the idiot.
How so? Most Android phones I’ve seen you have to jailbreak, no different than Apple or MSFT. Maybe its different in the EU but in the states there really doesn’t seem to be much difference in the companies.
I mean sure you can download the source, but what good is that when most of the drivers are proprietary and not included? You can download the source for TiVo as well, don’t do you any good though. i looked into this when folks started bringing tablets and cellphones into my shop and again at least in the states unless you are lucky enough to have cyanogenmod support your device you are SOL, so again I fail to see what magically makes Google better than the other two, in fact all the datamining done by Google is probably a little worse than the other 2.
Google’s devices are readily unlockable.
As are Sony’s, with drivers even included in the AOSP.
As are the Google Play Editions of the Galaxy S4 and One.
Actually, Android does not equal Google; Android can and is shipped in many areas without any Google-specific applications or tie-ins and as such Google does not have the kind of iron grip on Android as Microsoft has over Windows. It’s much easier to break away from Google and still continue to ship Android-devices and that’s an important distinction to keep in mind — it’s both a strong point for Android-usage and a weak point for Google.
Of course it is because Google doesn’t tie you into proprietary file formats, protocols and extensions to standards as Microsoft does. That’s what causes people to be stuck with Microsoft crap.
Google is doing this to get more Ad hits. Ad hits mean revenue for Google.
If they get to the point where the ads start going overboard people (like me) will start using AdBlockers and other means to keep the screen clear of crap.
My company intranet has in internet POP in NYC. So are ads for health clinics in NYC are of interest to me? No they frigging well aren’t because I am one big ocean away from NYC.
So I use Adblock+. No Ads mean no money for Google. Usingf a ‘googliesed’ OS allows them to bypass web Ad Blockers. The result is more ad hits.
Frankly, I have a policy of NEVER buying anything that is advertised to me. I wish Virgin Media would take the hint…
I am firmly of the opnion that no one company should be able to dominate any sector once it has matured. the PC sector is mature and is dominated by Microsoft but is shrinking.
The Tablet sector is just about to hit maturity and for Google to have more than 80% of the market is IMHO a clear and present danger. Who is going to keep Google in check? Apple, won’t do it. As long as they are making decent profits then they will be happy. Google actually need Apple to be successful…
Isn’t life strange?
We have already hit that point and Google has fired back by removing the adblockers from the store. Yes they can be installed other ways but 99% of users have no idea how so in effect Google has won that battle.
So Google have removed the AdBlockers from the store?
Google’s walled Garden then? Just as bad as Apple?
One reason why I don’t have a smartphone of any sort.
Except that Android lets you install whatever applications you want from outside the Play Store, so no, not at all like Apple.
No, Google’s Android is not a walled garden. Didn’t you read the quote above … they can be installed in other ways?
For anyone interested: my solution if to first visit the F-Droid site https://f-droid.org/ and from there install F-Droid and Firefox for Android.
Once Firefox is installed, one can then install the AdBlock Edge addon.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/adblock-edge/
Adblock Edge is a fork of the Adblock Plus version 2.1.2 extension for blocking advertisements on the web. This fork will provide the same features as Adblock Plus 2.X and higher but without “acceptable ads” feature.
Even without them being in the store its easy as hell to Google for them and install them. AdBlock Plus provides a page that tells you how to do so step by step. It’s so easy even an Apple user could do it. They haven’t won anything.
Remember when Apple got a large sum of money from Microsoft to keep running ?
So you never buy …anything? ;p
The only bad scenario I could see is that some PHB up Google management circles decides it’s time to milk that cow and than make some steaks, bc they can’t pay for it forever and the initial plan didn’t work.
And that means turning android into ad ridden nightmare until it is so undesirable that people run screaming back to buy Windows.
So, I’ve used iOS since 2008. I messed about with Android on my N800, but didn’t own a real Android device till the Nexus 7. Initially, that was a great device, but pre 4.3, it seriously struggled under heavy use. With 4.3 and a factory reset, its back to being a joy to use. And now I have replaced my iPhone 4 with a nexus 4.
I moved to Android full time because I’m a developer. I messed about with the Android SDK and fell in love, so that Aide was my new religion. On device development beats everything in my world.
To be honest, some of those Android tablets sold are crap and they are cheap.
It is those cheap Android crap tablets that are giving the whole Android tablets range a bad name.
My Cousin bought one of them and complained that it could’nt display HD movies despite the tech blurb saying that it could.
After digging, I found that it could but only if connected to a full HD display. Look at the same movie on the device itself and it was crap.
Frankly a lot of the cheap tablets suffer from the same problem as cheap laptops. viz, 1366×768 displays (or the 16:9 equivalent for tablets).
Once you get a decent display things look up a lot.
You get what you pay for but in these times there are a lot of people who can’t afford to pay for something decent and get put off by the crap device they can afford.
Edited 2013-08-10 18:31 UTC
I have a friend who bought a nexus 7 and was thrilled with it, and then sometime later was given a cheap lowend android tablet for free which he hated.
His comment was if that the cheap tablet had been his first experience of android it likely would have soured him against android, but that having used the nexus device he now knows what android devices can be like and thus recognises the cheap tablet for what it is.
Microsoft have always been in the same boat, the reputation of windows has always been made worse by unstable lowend hardware, poor drivers, poor third party software etc. MS also however used it as an excuse, as in many cases hardware which was terribly unstable under windows ran reliably if you put linux on it.
Windows 95, 98 and ME could be quite unstable although I do think a lot of that was drivers.
For everything in the Windows NT line I definitely blame the drivers for any instability. My home-built Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7 machines have always been very stable, probably because I never put any weird or cheap hardware in them.
Linux has had its problems getting driver information but when drivers are written the Linux drivers do a really good job.
With Windows hardware I sometimes think the drivers were written by contractors with no interest in a good job beyond getting paid. I once had a laptop whose Windows WiFI driver would crash if more than 1 GB of RAM was installed. It ran fine with the Linux driver though.
Uhhh I haven’t seen that in the shop for years, last one was the whole Vista debacle and that can be blamed squarely on Ballmer having the driver model altered not 5 months before release to please Intel, the so called “Vista Capable” mess. But if you skipped Vista which the vast majority did? Windows has been pretty damned stable, more stable than Linux in my experience.
With Android i don’t think its the cost so much as these devices simply can’t run the latest and greatest which will probably end up making for a security nightmare in the future. In my area the two biggest sellers are the straight talk phones ($45 a month unlimited) and the $100 Android tablets and having tried out both? They…well they run pretty damned nicely actually.
Unlike the first cheapies the screens are responsive, gets decent battery life, apps fire up quickly, decent cameras, all in all not a bad experience but you’ll never be able to update past 2.3 because I seriously doubt those 800Mhz SOCs and 512Mb of RAM would run ICS very well, but I certainly wouldn’t call them a bad experience.
All in all I’d say if you do a little shopping many of the cheapie Android devices are just fine for your basic tasks, in fact i liked the LG slider enough that I ended up getting one for myself and I have to say for someone who isn’t trying to live on the phone it works just fine, a hell of a lot better experience than I get having to fix the mess that is Win 8.
Most of the time an unstable system IS due to crap hardware or crap drivers so it’s hardly an excuse — it’s reality. It’s rarely the OS at fault. If hardware is unstable in Windows but stable in Linux, it’s almost a certainty the issue is a bad Windows driver. And then it’s unlikely the driver was written by Microsoft. So yes, Microsoft & Windows are constantly getting blamed for things that aren’t their fault.
And the same thing was said about the cheap Android smartphones.
No shit Sherlock. So what? There are also cheap devices that are good and expensive ones that are crap.
Edited 2013-08-11 17:41 UTC
Back in the PC days when Apple had 10% of the platform OS market and Microsoft had 90% that percentage difference mattered to a degree that was almost exactly proportional. It mattered in relation to money and it mattered in relation to end user experience.
In the PC days being on the 10% platform meant a narrower and more limited experience for the end user and being on the 90% platform meant a much richer experience. In some professional areas (graphic design, DTP, etc) the Mac software offerings were as a good as Windows, but only because in the professional markets the Mac market share was much bigger than the general market share. In the general software arena, an arena actually made up of lots of software niches such as programs for dentists, retailers, game players, genealogists, collectors, archivists, statisticians, etc etc, the offerings for Windows were much richer than for the Mac because the potential revenue earning for the software developers were proportional to platform market share. And of course this became a feedback loop, as more people and developers flocked to Windows it’s strength grew and the Mac weakened. This was not just true for software it was true for all sorts of peripherals and add ons.
So in the PC days the actual user experience on a minority platform was tangibly less rich and more constrained than on the majority platform. Lots of software and peripherals were Windows only.
Is a similar dynamic visible in the mobile device markets? Android devices have outsold iOS devices for a while now, the share of Android devices is increasing, it’s installed base is substantially bigger than iOS. But I cannot see how that translates into a disadvantage for any iOS user or an advantage for any Android user. If you are a majority platform Android user what is that you get as an advantage from being on the majority platform? Do Android users get better software, Android only killer apps, better peripherals, more digital content? No.
Given the enormous amount of software, peripherals and digital content available to iOS users, much of it in place because of very long term development strategies by Apple, it’s very hard to see how in the foreseeable future the user experience of any average iOS user is going to be adversely effected by the Android market share or the position of the average Android user is going to be tangible and significantly improved above the iOS experience by the fact that Android has the majority market share.
It seems that for end users in the mobile device markets OS market share is irrelevant. It has no impact on end user experience, there is no bonus for being on a majority platform and no penalty for being on the minority platform.
That’s interesting.
No, none of that is interesting.
Samsung. If they move of Android things could look rather different.
I’ve said that very thing before and been shot down in flames.
I get the distinct feeling that Samsung look at the iOS ecosystem with some admiration.
Samsung make a bit of money on the sale of the device and that’s it. Apple sell the device and for a good percentage if not a majority of users they also make money after the sale from iTunes and the Appstore.
I am sure Samsung are saying to themselves ‘If Apple can do this why can’t we?’. They are also looking at the issues that MS is having with their devices and ecosystem.
So if Samsung move, they will want to take their user base with them.
My thoughts are along the lines of
– change the O/S to one we can control
– Leave the user experience alone for the time being.
– Change the userland stuff over time
The 2nd point would be to let Android apps still work.
The downside to all this is that Samsing would have to fund continuious development of the OS and support but Apple can do it so why can’t a company the size of Samsung do it as well?
Samsung already has an Operating System they can use and which they control.. Tizen and they’ve already made it pretty clear they intend to use it everywhere from phones, tablets, smart TVs, media players, etc.
Thom seems to be quite panicky about Android’s increasing market share, but remember that we’ve been stuck with an even worse situation with desktops and laptops for several decades now.
Sadly, in 2013, it’s still very hard to find an OEM desktop (and particularly an OEM laptop) that doesn’t come with either any OS pre-installed or without Windows pre-installed. Microsoft *still* has a massive strangehold on desktop/laptop OEMs, far, far in excess than any “domination” seen in the smartphone/tablet OEM market.
So how come Thom isn’t screaming about this frankly awful Windows situation and instead constantly harping on about how Android shouldn’t dominate the smartphone/tablet market?
It’s very obvious to anyone that Windows did all of what Android is now doing – ofter the OS cheaply (or free) to any OEM who wants it (but offer a certification process – OHA in Android’s case – to allow them a logo [or Google apps]), place no stringent hardware restrictions on what can run the OS and allow bloatware to be added. Is it any wonder that we’re seeing a shift away from iOS to Android because of this?
Microsoft was so successful at reeling in and keeping OEMs (now with the added threat of losing their volume licensing deals if they stray elsewhere) that the vast majority of desktop/laptop users are trapped in the Windows ecosystem and it’s self-perpetuating now (“all my friends and family have got it, so I have to get it too”).
We aren’t quite in the Windows dismal situation yet with mobile devices – there still is some choice for pre-installed OSes: Android, iOS, BB10, Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 and Windows RT are all jostling to some extent at the moment. Yes, we are seeing Android’s much cheaper/freer licensing pulling in a lot of no-name “Others” in the stats (as much as Samsung’s market share!), but we’ve still got some years to go until *only* Android has >10% market share (which is the situation we’ve been in the desktop/laptop market for many years with Windows and the vast majority have now accepted as the “norm”, even though it’s a terrible situation).
Really? I just go to ceneo.pl (probably the most popular in PL catalogue of online shops), choose category “laptops”, tick filters “no OS” and “Linux” and… there’s over 300 products (out of over 2000), from major OEMs: http://www.ceneo.pl/Laptopy;017P8-250094-250095.htm
And that’s in Poland of all places, don’t tell me your place does anything-technology worse.
2 wrongs doesn’t make a right and all that.
http://www.ebuyer.com/search?a05471=No+Operating+System&cat=191
6 out of 107 offerings offer No OS
(not a great % is it)
only 1 site, so I’m not making much of a point apart from it’s not THAT hard to find No OS desktops at least.
But I think the big driver is that with OEM windows included with your purchase, it’s just that much cheaper than installed aftermarket windows (and you know that you don’t need to worry about updates breaking things or virii and spywares from dubious torrented downloads)
How many of us that would like to run linux/bsd’s/other real ‘FREE’ OSes, still have either a need or a desire to run Windows and or OS X for a chunk of the time..?
And if you have that need, you want probably want it cheap as poss – so might as well have it included with your CPU purchase and relegate Linux to the aftermarket install rather than the other way around..
Finding commercially available dual boot systems is the REALLY hard thing! In fact, is that prohibited by MS OEM Windows selling rules?
ps – sorry to go off topic there.
To address that a little, I’d be really interested to know if anyone can track down ANY tablet manufacturers that offer THEIR wares with ‘No OS’ installed..?
I know quite a few manufacters of development systems offer hardware that will run both Ubuntu as well as Android. but not offered as consumer systems, certainly not without an OS.
It would be really interesting if in the future, a provider step up and created Quality OS agnostic tablet hardware able to run Ubuntu, Android, …??Windows RT if MS were courageous in the future and opened up the RT platform to competition.(along with opening up the Windows Desktop capability on RT too..) THAT would be really interesting..
If they tank hard enough… maaaybe they might think along those scary lines..
and that is good since we not like to trade a bad for a more worse. Keep your eyes on FirefoxOS, Tizen, Sailfish, Ubuntu. Those are alternates. FirefoxOS has the Web and the others are Android compatible. The future are open ecosystems. That’s what Android gave us.
Edited 2013-08-11 17:24 UTC
What is scary about an open source operating system dominating the landscape? Microsoft and Apple are free to produce products with Android if they so chose. The fact is its Free Software and no one should be scared of software that guarantees users freedoms dominating the landscape.
development on android doesn’t require extra purchase of anything unlike ios or winphone development. just download and go. I don’t know how much google charges per android unit moved but I know MS charges substantial amounts per unit, and apple just folds it into their hardware cost.
The one extra player here which aren’t in the PC world are the carriers. I don’t know how much direct influence they have, and perhaps they could be seen as the brick and mortar part of the old computer days.
I also think Microsoft still makes more money on Android than on Windows Phone, from patent deals.
Domination in this instance isn’t scary at all.
1 – This dominance is a fragmented environment.
2 – Cost of switching platforms is negligible (unlike PC/IBM/Apple/Linux back in the days)
3 – Kids are fickle. Apart from Apple and Crackberry users, there tends to be little brand loyalty in the mobile market. Whatever is cheap (mainly) or exciting (less so) will attract the users
Is web devs will tame cut crappy Safari-only optimized mobile web pages and get prepared to provide some real compatibility.
Please note that non-default browsers (esp. Mozilla) are way more popular on Android and can’t be ignored either.
im pretty much indifferent to the whole market share thing. A lot of it can be explained by the explosion in consumer purchasing, Apple still sells a record number of iPad’s, their profits are still healthy.
Part of me love’s the openness of Android, it was always going to take something OSS like Linux to really unite the world under one platform for computing. We’ve had Windows and proprietary and we’ve all seen how it doesn’t work when it comes to playing with other technologies. We’ve only really seen an open Microsoft because of the massive pressure of Linux and tablets.
I love how everyone in the world now can pretty much affordabily join the Information revolution that has happened on the internet, before BRIC country residents could find it very hard to obtain and run a desktop, however a simple tablet is much easier.
My only concern is what happens next? When Google is all powerful which way are they going to go. Obviously they need there Ad’s for revenue so we know it’s still going to be add related. However will we see a Microsoft kind of move and find that one day Android will only support GMail (i know an extreme example). I don’t mind Android being the market leader as long as it stays open, the protocols stay open and it remains accessible to all (i.e. manufacturers all over the world can still download and install Android on their tablets without either paying a hefty manufacturers access fee or some other kind of Google lock in).