Android Fans think Android FTW! Obviously.

One of the AndroidGuys speculates on whether Apple rushed out the iPhone 3G in an attempt to pre-empt Android:

“I’m going to make a prediction; Apple will find themselves in the unenviable position of fighting for market share. Yes, I know that everyone compares phones to the iPhone and its touch screen interface. A year from now, there will be touch versions of Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile. Apple will be handcuffed by the fact that they only offer one model and one aesthetic. Android and the other players will be available in many shapes and sizes.”

The rest of the discussion turns into the ‘things which are missing that Android phones will likely be built with’.

The article reads like the AndroidGuys are actually watching their chosen platform spin down the plughole.

It. Is. Not. About. The. Features. Dummy.

Apple has already been fighting for market share against SonyEricsson, Motorola (maybe not so hard a fight), Nokia, RIM, LG and every other maker of every other handset. If a phone does email and internet, then it’s competing. And Apple has the advantage of 6 million handsets out there currently and likely another 10 million by year end. I don’t think that’s an unlikely prediction. It’s now available in 70 countries, nearly everyone who had an iPhone will be getting a cheap upgrade (or free in my case).

AndroidGuys continue:

I hate to break it to the Apple fanboys, but there will be more powerful Android devices coming and likely in the same price point, if not lower.

Spoken like a true fanboi.

The problem with a platform that hasn’t released any hardware to the public is that hardware specifications will always be changing and every new innovation that comes from companies who actually innovate in this space is going to be copied for use in Android (or at least it will be added in a bullet point marketing exercise). So there’s a feature creep, a slide where the hardware gets improved more and more and expectations change constantly. Not all features will be supported by all phones.

What AndroidGuy misses is that Apple is very comfortable with being both the underdog and the 800lb gorilla in a market. They’re doing okay with that ‘Mac thing’ with only a 8% market share (or whatever it is these days) and they’re also doing fine with that ‘iPod thing’ which gives them a 72% market share in that market. What percentage of the phone market do you think Apple is aiming for?

And considering the recent price drops for the iPhone and the consideration that everyone and his cousin will be buying one, why would anyone buy an Android phone until there’s a considerable market for them? Case in point:

I’m getting a free iPhone 3G when the darned thing is released. My existing iPhone will be converted to Pay As You Go and probably given to a family member. Apple will have doubled their market share in my household and this is something that is being repeated multiple times in my circle of friends and colleagues. The exception being the people who are keeping their iPhones as development devices which is already a tiny percentage of the overall market (registered developers are in the hundreds of thousands as opposed to the millions of iPhone users out there).

When Android hits the market, it will be faced with Windows Mobile 7, RIM’s new Blackberry devices and Apple’s iPhone/iPod juggernaut. And maybe something new from Palm. Or not. Their developers will be fighting a marketing battle against all of these new innovative handsets and with very little to differentiate them (oh, it’s free? Yeah, big deal).

I do hope they love a challenge.