Will Apple come to dominate the mobile world

[Former Member]

Android is fragmented and developers are losing interests. Microsoft is promising with Windows 8 but way behind the curve. So the question is whether iOS will become the ultimate mobile platform and come to dominate just like Microsoft did in the PC world?

Please share your opinion with supporting arguments and if you agree with the question please show it with a thumbs up.

Thanks.

Narendra

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

After having an iPhone for several years, I got an Android phone about 5 months ago. I was expecting great things. Android's openness encourages innovation in both hardware and software, right? And indeed it does, but there are downsides to that. I have installed apps from the Android marketplace that have caused reliability issues with my phone. My phone, despite me having had it only 5 months, is running Android 2.2 and will never run anything newer. This is common - most Android phones are released running out of date versions of the OS, and never catch up. The downside to Android's openness...

Apple's control of both hardware, OS and applications, avoids all (well, maybe most) of this. The downside of this control is lack of flexibility, of course. In the Enterprise world, though, I'd take reliability over flexibility every time. Every time. In my opinion, most enterprises will choose iOS over Android for some time yet.

I'm about to experiment with a Windows Phone (from Nokia). It isn't yet clear to me where these devices will fit. I suspect somewhere between iOS and Android in terms of control. Where that leaves them as enterprise devices is unclear to me. Developers don't seem terribly interested in the platform just yet, and that is going to take some time to fix.

[koehntopp · Accepted solution]

Steve Rumsby wrote:
My phone, despite me having had it only 5 months, is running Android 2.2 and will never run anything newer. This is common - most Android phones are released running out of date versions of the OS, and never catch up. The downside to Android's openness...

This is one of the biggest reasons why Android is not making progress in the enterprise. Where on a PC you'd be installing weekly security patches, phones rely on firmware upgrades to fix serious flaws.

Apple seems to have a grip on this: http://boongbi.com/61-of-users-have-installed-ios-5-1/

The reason why Android is so bad isn't really its openness, but rather the lack of commercial incentive for hardware vendors to care for you after they have your money.

Frank.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Supporting old Android devices is difficult because there are so many new ones. It just isn't possible to support them all. And each of them has such a short commercial life - who wants a 3-month-old Android phone when a better one was released last week? - that devoting support resources to a 12-month-old phone doesn't make commercial sense. Spending development resources on shiny new devices has a higher return.

Apple's "one new model per year" system makes supporting older devices much more viable. My original iPhone 3G was still running the most recent iOS 3 years after I bought it. Not much beyond that, to be fair, and by then it wasn't running it very well. But running it, it was.

In the enterprise world, you can't afford to have critical devices become obsolete after such a short period of time. Android devices need a guarantee of running the most recent OS for at least 18 months, I'd say. 2 years would be better.

[koehntopp · Accepted solution]

Steve Rumsby wrote:
In the enterprise world, you can't afford to have critical devices become obsolete after such a short period of time. Android devices need a guarantee of running the most recent OS for at least 18 months, I'd say. 2 years would be better.

That is exactly the point. Any vendor trying to get into the enterprise will have to provide a sound support strategy including OS update frequency. I'm still waiting for the first vendr to grok that...

Frank.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

The only way this has a chance of happening is via the Google/Motorola thing. For every other handset manufacturer, the OS is too far beyond their control. The fly in the ointment? Mobile service providers, who insist on their own customisations and so cause yet more delays to OS updates. Apple can just say "No" to that. Android manufacturers can't. This should affect tablets less than handsets I presume.

Overall, Android is just an uncontrolled mess:-)

[_IvanFemia_ · Accepted solution]

Software updates are still a big issue for Android phones, but what impressed me so much that Android phones have not an easy managing of HTTP proxy over WiFi (I don't know if ICS changed something), and this makes them not ready for enterprise at all.

[koehntopp · Accepted solution]

Yeah, that's weird to say the least.

It makes them look as if they're intentionally trying to make Android non-Enterprise-ready.

Frank.

[hofmann · Accepted solution]

HTTP over proxy Wifi on Android: mine does have the proxy option.

The funny part here is: Opera Mobile and Firefox allow you to configure the proxy in their configuration. Not intuitive. If your device is managed by your company, IT should be able to push the configuration to your device.

[Former Member]

And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse for Android, it seems Lenovo have decided they need to introduce their own "Enterprise App Store" - http://tcrn.ch/GXADWr (TechCrunch article). This is bad in multiple ways:

• If an "enterprise" app store is needed, then clearly the standard app store isn't appropriate somehow.
• Multiple app stores is bad for developers - where do you put your apps?
• Multiple app stores is bad for users - if your enterprise bans the normal app store on your device, you're going to miss out on useful apps.

On the plus side, at least it isn't called "Play".

[koehntopp]

They should take a hint from Apple's success - developers decided quickly that having the exposure of the one AppStore beats having individual stores.

Not everybody gets that.

Frank.

[hofmann]

Sure, that's the reason why people are jailbreaking their Apple stuff like crazy.

May it be Apple or Google, both are producing consumer devices. That they made their way into enterprises is nice, but companies are not the main focus group for them. Being serious about security or "enterprise readiness", Apple is as weak as Google; you'll have to take RIM or Microsoft. But none of them are offering devices that beat the "my stuff" factor of Apple or Google.

App stores: Sybase has one too where corporate users can download their stuff. And what can the iOS developer do when Apple decides to not publish the app in iTunes?

Tobias

[koehntopp]

Tobias Hofmann wrote:
Sure, that's the reason why people are jailbreaking their Apple stuff like crazy.

People are jailbreaking mostly because that is the only way to get pirated apps on an iPhone. If they cared so much about app freedom and open source they'd just get an Android phone instead.

May it be Apple or Google, both are producing consumer devices. That they made their way into enterprises is nice, but companies are not the main focus group for them. Being serious about security or "enterprise readiness", Apple is as weak as Google; you'll have to take RIM or Microsoft. But none of them are offering devices that beat the "my stuff" factor of Apple or Google.
App stores: Sybase has one too where corporate users can download their stuff. And what can the iOS developer do when Apple decides to not publish the app in iTunes?

That is true, the focus _is_ on consumers. Still, Apple has enough features to make their devices enterprise ready (hardware encryption, a good security model, support for proxies, VPN and the like) where Google has NOTHING. Android security is so bad that on a 2 day mobile security workshop we we done with Android security in like 10 minutes.

Corporate AppStores are a necessity, but that has nothing to do with what Steve said. Android has fragmentation in device features, OS versions _and_ App Stores, which definitely makes them less attractive for developers.

See http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/03/12/game-developer-leaves-unprofitable-android-market/ and http://www.seogate.net/se/google/skobbler-drops-its-android-sat-nav-app-laments-state-googles-ecosys... for statements from developers.

Frank.

[esjewett]

Doesn't Apple have a facility for "Enterprises" to put their own custom apps on non-jail-broken iPhones and iPads?

[Former Member]

Yes, there is a way of doing that. As an enterprise developer (which might be a different type of registration from a regular developer?) you can distribute apps without going through the Apple app store.

[Former Member]

Given the multiple advantages Apple is already enjoying I think it is going to be very difficult for Android to complete and unseat them. Customer loyalty, $100b of cash reserve, stellar AppStore and above all a strong track record is going to play in their favor.

Windows 8 could offer a credible alternative if Microsoft can pull it off and provide an easier migration path for old windows apps.

Overall it looks like  a war that is for Apple to lose.

[hofmann]

jailbreaking mostly because that is the only way to get pirated apps

And what about SAP customers that rooted their device simply because that was the only way they were able to install their custom app on the iPhone without pushing it out to iTunes or make use of that enterprise-ready iTunes for companies?

Google has NOTHING

Looking right now at me Android device and it offers me: VPN. What Apple offers is nothing compared to RIM (besides that sending in the whole iPhone just for getting the battery replaced is also nothing IT departments really like, as information is still saved on the internal memory). No matter what you choose: you should go for a device management solution ... and a hammer.

Android is less attractive because android users a less likely to buy apps. An iPhone user spends way more money on apps and services then the average Android user. Apple makes it easy to spend money: the device is registered with your credit card. "They spend money" is one of the "winning" arguments from RIM why developers should focus on BB (aka: managers use BB, managers do have money). But that has nothing to do with Android, as does the fragmentation of devices: there you have to talk to the device manufactures like Samsung or Motorola. These are ones that deactivate android functions and do not send out updates.

What's actually missing are enterprise grade phones: a combination of Android (flexibility), BB (security) and iOS (few device types).

[Ian_Thain]

It will be fair to say that they will dominate for a while, but folks like Samsung with our support are making inroads. Analysts are stating that in the Tablet Market specifically, that is being adopted by the Enterprise quite considerably, they will dominate for at least the next 18+ Months

Ian

[koehntopp]

I'd love to see competition. Unfortunately Android really blew their enterprise options by not getting security (big time) - and I'm not sure renaming the Market to "Google Play" is a step to remedy that

IMHO they will only be able to gain acceptance in the enterprise if they re-work security completely in one of the next versions. The way it is now you'd be foolish to allow Android into your corporate networks.

[Former Member]

It depends if APPL would be more generous to share its bread crumbs! (http://goo.gl/9v8xp) Android is not very diverse, but its proposition for revenue model seems to be loosely coupled. My PoV on M$T is that, it started late, like Android, but cannot match the bag of fag pack numbers that the rival corps try to establish, well SAP is no exclusion in selling PaaS . The numbers are just figures we can ignore & move on. Things like necessity, sustenance & usability come into play more than any aspects, rather than counting potatoes & carrots. There's a good piece from Ben Bjarin on why competing with APPL is so difficult. http://goo.gl/hWT8x Quotes : "It’s a hardware company, a software company, a services company, and a retail company. Most technology companies in the world can manage one or two of these disciplines, but only Apple has all four entities working in harmony."  I feel a comparison on this aspects doesn't hold good as M$T has aims to bring NAV 7 : CRM & ERP on cloud, similar to SAP On-demand applications & also Azure-Hadoop (http://goo.gl/bXr4D & http://goo.gl/jLVw3) If you wanted to discuss about whose in for world domination, hmm yeah, let's stick-out a note on those 'patent' companies which hold monopoly to licensing , access to component apis & pricing policies; 2012+ the way I see it would be custom development & dev community try to make a living customizing applications bypassing APP/SAP/MST/ORC, irrespective of how these organizations price & deliver their SDK platform : ) No pun intended, well intentionally (no). Thanks, AB

[_IvanFemia_]

I wrote a blog about 1yr ago

At the moment xCode, IMHO, is still the first choice for an enterprise developer, in the long run web based application will take the lead. Consider that last statistics say that Android ICS (and we are already talking of Jelly Bean) is available only on 2% of devices and iOS 5.1 on 60%...

Regards,

Ivan

[koehntopp]

Isn't it funny that Apple started with web apps only, then moved to apps because the market was not ready for online-only apps? HTML5 will provide the required capabilities to do that.