Hold onto your Androids folks as Business Insider’s newest report would have you believe — “The End of Android Approaches.” I wish I was kidding. To be truthful, their story is more based on a quote from Raymond James analyst Travis McCourt speaking to Forbes than their own actual reporting.
So, here’s a thought. Could it be the case that Google’s share of the smartphone market has peaked? That the phone-buying public simply is more inclined to choose Apple’s vertically integrated approach over the cacophony of the Android market? Could it, in fact, be the case that, while Google and Microsoft can innovate and find niche markets for their mobile OS offerings, that Apple has basically won the game, at least for the U.S. market? There’s no question that Android-based devices are crushing the likes of Nokia and Research in Motion at the low-end of the market, rapidly killing off the feature phone market. But at the top of the heap, Apple is crushing it. And iPhone 5 is just months away.
I’m not really sure what’s the cause for a “red flag” in the Android camp? Yes, Apple put out fantastic earnings yesterday and sold a ton of iPhone’s, but did I miss something — is Android not selling all of a sudden? Last I checked, Android and iOS are dominating the market with almost 80% market-share.
Still, Business Insider tries to stick the knife in a little deeper by saying that the “fundamental problem for Google” is that “people prefer the iPhone to Android. No matter how you try to slice it, when you give a consumer the choice between an iOS device and an Android device, they are picking the iOS device.”
I mean come on, really…I know you are going to disagree in the comments and you’re well within your rights to laugh at this claim. Google and Apple aren’t going anywhere, the same can’t be said for Nokia and RIM however. The mobile industry is clearly a two-horse race now and I think Business Insider may be the only publication who thinks Android is truly at its end.