So what do you do when your the Apple marketing chief and it’s the eve of the Samsung Galaxy S IV announcement? You do a little trash talking, but in this case Phil Shiller didn’t really go after Samsung, but instead went after Android as a whole. Where do we begin? He started off by saying that products that run the Android software are inferior to Apple’s iPhone. He went down the fragmentation path as he said that a lot of Android users are running old operating systems. In his defense, that is absolutely correct. Only about 15% of Android users are actually running Jelly Bean. In Android’s defense, I will say that most consumers aren’t all that concerned with that.
He continued with, “Android is often given as a free replacement for a feature phone and the experience isn’t as good as an iPhone.” Overall, Shiller thinks Android’s weakness is a result of many manufacturers making phones whereas Apple is in complete control of the hardware. Again a very true statement and is definitely the reason for fragmentation, but unfortunately Android as a whole is still the better OS. The consumer is the judge of that. According to Gartner, the iPhone represented 19.1% of the global market share while Android had 66.4% in 2012. Of course Mr. Shiller will give you a different story as their research suggests that four times as many iPhone users switched from an Android phone than to an Android phone in the fourth quarter 2012. He also downplayed market share estimates by saying, “I’m not sure that the estimates and the modeling accurately gives an accurate picture of it all.”
This outburst was obviously out of anger as Android has astounded even myself with the amount of growth it has achieved in the last couple of years. At the same time, Samsung is now a force to be reckoned with. Samsung is now the face of Android and they will announce a new phone tomorrow that will prove to be yet another thorn in Apple’s side. Shiller makes some valid points, but talking isn’t what sells phones. It’s innovation and something Apple has lacked for a while now.
source: WSJ
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