It is going to be a busy fortnight in the tech industry, with WWDC kicking off yesterday, E3 on June 10th and android 4.4.3 releasing. And what comes with WWDC? iOS 8? Yes, but the funniest part of it is watching Apple try to claw down the ever rising Android with thinly veiled jabs and often mis-interpreted statistics.
Yes, Apple has attacked android again… this time in the form of percentages of fragmentation, malware and customer satisfaction. During the opening Keynote of WWDC, Tim Cook spoke about the percentage of customer satisfaction when leaving Android for iOS, was around 97%. Seems a bit desperate trying to get people to move…but thanks for the mention!
Next, he spoke about that he went on about android and it’s fragmentation. Only 9% of android users are running the latest version of android compared to 89% on iOS. Apparently, a third of them are still running software over 4 years old, which simply isn’t true. Gingerbread came out 3 and a half years ago and has 16% android share. Before that is Froyo which only makes up 1% and the rest don’t even rate. He also went on to say that the phones on older versions don’t get new features, which is partially true, however Play services are running on older phones like the original Samsung Galaxy S. While Apple maintains API levels across their devices, feature fragmentation affects iOS devices as well, for example Siri doesn’t run on any device before iPhone 4S.
Lastly, Mr Cook brought out the big guns, Malware. Suggesting that Android devices make up 99% of the malware affected devices in the mobile industry. Having 79% market share of the worlds MobileOS would certainly account for this, Microsoft themselves certainly know that being the largest target brings all sorts of problems.
But, Google has taken many steps to avoid malicious Apps within Google Play and in the Android eco-system as a whole over the last year or two. First they introduced Bouncer, to scan apps uploaded to Google Play and then added additonal layers of on-device security such as app scanning. And it seems to be working, Android’s security chief Adrian Ludwig, last year released statistics showing that from a sample of 1.5 Billion downloads of Android Apps less than 0.001% are able to evade their defenses and cause harm to users.
Apple is brilliant at this, marketing is their strong suit. And it is sure to work on a few people, but how many people of the general public watch WWDC? Apple is preaching to the die hard Apple fans. iOS 8 now in the open – at least as a Beta- so, what will Google bring to the table in a month at I/O? I hope it will be bigger than last years.
It is always a sign of weakness to attack one’s competitors. It also means Apple is feeling even more threatened. So, it could be seen as good news for Android. Perhaps Apple should be looking at the statistics of Apple users migrating to Android – they are far greater in number than vice versa. I feel sorry for the fanboys who must be mourning the long gone days when Apple was breaking new ground.
It makes sense… There really wasn’t that much to talk about in iOS 8, so how else was the poor guy going to fill in the time slot before the yummy lunch they were all waiting for!
one thing I don’t understand is why The Android community, manufacturers don’t try and wipe out apple. I know competition improves productivities , but really Apple doesn’t like to rely on their phones to sell their product names. because they are spread out to thin they certainly cannot be in a position where they have a huge market advantage over their competitors. Apple had a great product about 10 years ago. but the market has changed and people want diversity in what they buy. they don’t want to be forced only to buy products from one place. as this leads… Read more »
As long as Apple’s methodology is completely opaque, I suppose they can say whatever they like, since numbers can be misconstrued to suit any narrative. Also note that Cook was addressing a room full of Apple enthusiasts who then hooted and clapped like seals at Seaworld after a bucket of chum.
but they have apple employees at the front with the mics and when they clap and cheer it sounds like the room is watch wwdc closely and u see people in the back sitting normally
If you got past the Android bashing, its amazing how much iOS 8 is becoming like Android. Not a lot new that Android does not have. What I like about Google at previous I/O is they ignore Apple and focus on Android only. Love that better
yeah apple are increasingly coming off like bitter second-placers playing catch-up.
Apple is brilliant at this, marketing is their strong suit.
They just copy Samsung, right?
well i watched the keynote and i gotta say it came across as if Apple is opening up more. It should be interesting to see how features like icloud drive work in the real world. But thats the beauty of android.. if you don’t like something,you have choices 😉
Nicely written Elliot, I thought Cook looked like a child rattling on with crap in his presentation. That he said what he did shows he is scared, their OS still looks like a cartoon and is more and more copying Android features. Woohoo iOS finally got swipe….
swiper no swiping! swiper no swiping! swiper no swiping! ya we stopped swiper