I want whatever it is my Foolish colleague Hunter Pavela is eating nowadays. Here's what he wrote three weeks ago:
With Android 2.0 devices coming to market, Google will soon be partaking in that windfall. By limiting its killer product to AT&T, Apple
(NASDAQ:AAPL) allowed an opening for the competition -- an opening that Google seems well-prepared to exploit. I'd say that's a threat.
I would, too, especially after having seen new numbers from Google's
But Android may be an even bigger threat to Research In Motion
Operating System |
September 09 |
October 09 |
Difference (+/-) |
---|---|---|---|
iPhone OS |
48% |
55% |
+7 |
Android |
17% |
20% |
+3 |
RIM OS |
14% |
12% |
-2 |
Palm webOS |
10% |
5% |
-5 |
Windows Mobile |
5% |
4% |
-1 |
Source: AdMob. Figures are for U.S. traffic share.
Impressive, eh? This is beginning to look like a two-horse race -- the iPhone's Coke to Android's Pepsi, at least here in the States. Nokia's
Even so, Microsoft's
So Hunter had it right; Google's robot army is on the march. And while Apple may be the ultimate target, for now it's the lesser combatants that are sustaining all the collateral damage.
But that's my take. Now it's your turn to weigh in. How big a threat is Android to the iPhone and the rest of the smartphone industry? Please vote in the poll below. You can also sound off using the comments box at the bottom.