Posted
by Annette Tonti on Sunday Aug 22nd at 7:41pm
There will not be one unifying mobile phone platform across the globe - ever. Competition is stiff and the stakes are too high to own a piece of the enormous global mobile marketshare. Sounds like I’m stating the obvious but not so fast…
When iPhone launched in the US, there were many who declared “the winner” – iPhone. At MoFuse we heard people say “won’t everyone eventually own an iPhone?” or “What if we just optimize our website to work well on iPhone, won’t that
solve the mobile web problem?”
A little more than a year after iPhone launched along came Google’s Android platform. In less than 2 years since their launch, Android has made great strides to be a true global leader in mobile operating platform race. Here’s how fast the world changes in mobile: last year Android-based phones were only 1.8% of the market, by Q2 2010 Android captured 17.2% according to new numbers from Gartner Group. That is very fast market growth!
Eric Schmidt recently was quoted to say that 200,000 Android phones (mostly Motorola Droids) are sold every day. Growth of the mobile web continues and Android is pushing the mobile web audience. On the mobile website visitor front, those who advertise on mobile are ever aware of the various platforms viewers are accessing each month. Millennial media recently announced that Android accounted for 19% of ad impressions in July, up from 11% in June. Almost double in 30 days! This amazing growth vaulted Android into third place, behind Nokia's Symbian. Android also overtook RIM to become the No. 1-selling smartphone platform in the US. Android now powers smartphones made by a number of different manufacturers, including a revitalized Motorola's Droid -- the best-selling Android handset in the second quarter among U.S. consumers -- and Taiwan's HTC.
So what does this all mean – this mobile market moves very fast. Don’t declare a winner too soon (or ever). Mobile web platforms will proliferate. The market is too large to ever expect that there will be one mobile operating system that rules the globe. Competitive markets are working, you can bet that new and improved platforms will continue as the stakes to ‘own’ maketshare in the global mobile ecosystem are considerable.
You need to develop a mobile website that is optimized for all of these various operating systems and for new ones to come.
Today there are about 10 mobile operating systems that are worth tracking: Symbian, RIM, Apple, Android and Windows take the top 5 positions. This complexity is what makes optimizing a mobile website so important.
