Viva La Blog

There are two key growth numbers from Commscore’s latest report to the end of May 2010 (USA figures)

1. Smartphones up 8% since Feb
2. Android up from 9% to 13% of Smartphones since Feb

So, as previously predicted at Viva La Mobile, Android continues to steal market share from the other smartphone platforms. At the same time overall Smartphone numbers are growing, which points to a double gain for supporters of Android.

What does this mean? Quite simply, supporting Android wth your

from Moconews.net

key apps has become a ‘must’ rather than a ‘maybe’.

I saw my first Australian TV ad for an Android device this week. It’s an ad for the Motorola DEXT (aka CLIQ) and shows off the social network integration features of the MOTOBLUR UI. The ad, which is actually from Optus, does not mention “Android” anywhere while on the Optus website for the device the word “Android OS” is buried deep within the features list.

So where is Android at in Australia now?

Certainly Australian ‘Droidiness is lagging well behind Europe and the USA where carriers have been promoting android devices like the Motorola Droid and HTC Magic for some time, not to mention selling them in large quantities. In the USA Android is the fastest growing Smartphone platform.

Android gaining at the expense of others

I think we will see a similar effect in the Australian market over the next 6 months. Telstra, Optus and Vodafone Hutchison are all launching multiple Android handsets this quarter, and it is great to see Optus advertising them (even if it neglects to mention the presence of Google’s OS at all). The variety of designs and advanced apps on offer should give consumers a welcome alternative to iPhone and provide an escape from iPhone me-too syndrome. Yes, that’s right young hipster, you can be unique again!!

My prediction: While no single handset model is likely to have the impact the iPhone has had (possibly ever), the cumulative weight of cool advanced Android devices will be far greater than iPhone in the longer term. As the Android market share rapidly grows here so will the demand for localised apps. This is where the brands and agencies of this country need to be alert and remove their iPhone blinkers. Apple now has company in Australia and ignoring that would be a mistake.

Update: some more android growth info

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/03/how-the-iphone-could-end-up-in-second-place/

Hi World.

So, we’ve been a busy little team lately and the new website is starting to take shape for 2010. The mobile apps and games industry has changed an awful lot since we started out in 2003 and it makes sense to start discussing these changes and where things are going. Hence this blog.

What we’d like to do is to not hold back. We’d like to discuss what really is going on, who’s winning, who’s losing, what’s working and what really gets our blood boiling.

Okay…i’ll start:

Right now i’m loving Android. It’s the vibrant young prince waiting in the wings to knock off the doddering old King J2ME. It’s got style, it’s got panache, it’s fit and has the world at it’s feet. Unfortunately, just like a young prince, Android is also impatient, misguided and won’t listen to its sage advisors.

I greeted the release of the Android SDK with open arms and a cry of  “huzzah! an end to the woes of J2ME fragmentation”. Sixteen months and seven SDK versions later (count them… 1.0, 1.1, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.01, 2.1) the no-fragmentation dream seems to be in tatters. What is Google doing?!? While iPhone rips it up, releasing just one new SDK about every 18 months, Google is driving developers nuts with the constant updates, API changes and class deprecations. Combined with a distinct lack of useful documentation, I sometimes wonder if Google is having a gag at our expense over at the ‘Plex.

Our current project ran into it’s first major frag-snag when implementing an email contacts function. On 1.6 and below you use one system to get all your contacts email addresses. On 2.0 they scratched that, and replaced it with an entirely new way. That’s right, they didn’t just deprecate the old method and advise you to upgrade your code for the future. They simply removed the old way completely. Bloody hell!

Next came the multiple screen sizes. When we had 240 x 320 and 320 x 480 we were going ok. Then the Droid appeared with 480 x 854 and I started worrying that this was getting out of hand. When the Nexus One debuted with 480 x 800 I wanted to punch the little green Android mascot hard in it’s stupid smiling head. Harsh, I know, but someone please think of the developers!!

Still, despite it all, I think Android will be huge and once Google feel they have ‘got it right’ they will slow down to smell the roses and let the developers get on with the business of making great apps that can work on millions of handsets *crosses fingers*.