Recently, you might have noticed a new ad campaign airing during primetime television. It starts out with words against a white backdrop and happy background music, purposefully giving the impression of an Apple commercial. After a few moments of reading the text, it becomes clear that the commercial is taking shots at the iPhone, ending with the cryptic tagline, "Whatever iCan't, Droid does." Droid is Motorola's new smartphone that Verizon is positioning as the must-have phone of the holiday season.
Though the average viewer may think the Droid is another attempt at competing with the iPhone, much like the Blackberry Storm was last year, the technology community is buzzing about this phone for other reasons. The Motorola Droid is running Android, Google's mobile phone operating system. Android's current popularity is based on the following: it's free to manufacturers, it's open to all application developers, it comes with Google services, and Google updates it regularly. Though the growth of Android on T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon has prompted many to jump on the Google bandwagon, this success has less to do with the operating system itself and more to do with the current landscape of the cell phone industry.
Verizon is notorious for exercising control over the cell phones on their network. They generally force manufacturers to install Verizon-supplied software on the phones, preload them with Verizon services, and rigorously test devices before they are allowed to operate on Verizon's network. For them to turn to Android for their premier device reeks of desperation. Apple has dominated the "mindshare" of the cell phone industry since the launch of the iPhone. Although Verizon has maintained its customer base on the back of its superior network quality, they haven't had a device that has managed to rival the iPhone in pure consumer excitement.
Verizon's willingness to change its entire approach in search of a hit device is more of a commentary on the failures of Research in Motion (RIM) and Microsoft than the success of Google. While Blackberries are still popular and will continue to flourish through enterprise usage, RIM has been unable to create a breakthrough consumer device. The current state of Windows Mobile is an abomination. Verizon's ad campaign might be talking about Droid vs. iPhone, but what Android is really killing is Windows Mobile. Microsoft has failed in every sense of the term for mobile, repeatedly delaying the long-anticipated Windows Mobile 7 operating system, while releasing another minor upgrade called Windows Mobile 6.5 that is still using outdated touch screen technology and an interface that looks ancient compared to iPhone, Blackberry, and Android.
This all comes back to that idea of "mindshare." Cell phone manufacturers are unable to compete with the iPhone's grasp on consumer mindshare. The iPhone is successful for many reasons. It is a sleek device, it has a great user interface, and it has a robust application development community thanks to the App Store. A manufacturer can make an aesthetically pleasing phone, but they can't provide the plethora of applications that Apple can now offer to consumers. For a manufacturer to buy into an existing community of application developers means shipping their device with another company's operating system. Their options are Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Android. Windows Mobile is still licensed by many manufacturers but needs to be almost entirely retooled to compete with modern smartphones. Symbian poses similar problems to Windows Mobile. It relies on outdated technologies, lacks support for the latest touch screens, and doesn't have a centralized app store like Android, Blackberry, iPhone, and even Windows Mobile. This leaves Android as the only available option for any cell phone manufacturer looking to create a device that consumers could get excited about.
Short-term, Android is going to see great success, the beginnings of which are happening this holiday. The Motorola Droid is already receiving high praise and positive early reviews, and additional Android handsets from HTC are slated to hit Verizon from now into 2010. Android's long-term success is hindered by two major problems that the iPhone doesn't have. Android is free to manufacturers. That means that anyone can create a random device and throw Android on it as their primary operating system. This was an important reason for Android's current successes. Google wants everyone using Android to extend Google services' reach into mobile and so application developers are motivated to create apps for the Android Market, creating a robust ecosystem to theoretically rival Apple's. The problem with this is the classic reason why Apple is looked upon so favorably.
Apple devices are able to deliver high customer satisfaction because they control the hardware and software of their products. This allows them to have confidence in the products that they ship because they can make sure their software and hardware are designed to work together seamlessly. As Android is used by more manufacturers in a variety of devices, Google has no way of controlling the types of hardware Android is being installed on or the modifications that are being made to Android. This means that as Android grows, the number of devices on which application developers are going to have to test their applications will keep growing. Without Google taking a controlling stance on the types of devices Android can run on or what the code of Android needs to look like, the platform is doomed to splinter and provide headaches to both users and application developers who are unable to find a headache-free experience on any one Android handset. Android may be popular for now but the platform is destined for problems unless Google has some secret master plan they haven't shared with anyone. Until they reveal that plan, Apple has a lot of reasons to feel comfortable with their position in the cell phone industry.
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