Found an interesting post the other day on Store Wars – Close knit with Star Wars -

Encourage you to pay attention, especially if you are in the App market…

Android – the smart platform launched by Google. Purchased by Google in 2005, Android Inc (developed by the Open Handset Alliance), has a community of developers writing Apps to extend device usability.

This platform unlike iOS ( managed by Apple), which doesn’t allow installation to third-party hardware, is available under a free and open source software license which means it can be installed and run on any hardware. (Google certifies compatibility when it comes to trademarking Android)

I remember last year – attending one of Google’s training sessions at our media agency and listening to our account manager present the Android handset, explaining its functionality and extended user friendliness similar to Apple hardware. Back then I thought I’d get into it sooner, but its been a year and I am on iPhone 4 and just recently had a first approval from Apple for a TV1 Trivia app.

Having said that – with a personal preference for Apple and thinking it is more main stream, I am not surprised that Android have grown 500% YOY vs Apple at 100%, considering the open source software licensing (very smart thinking Google!)

This change didn’t hit  until 3-6 months ago, where Apple started losing some serious share to Android (Android now holds 36% of all smartphones in comparison to Apple’s 26% and Blackberry’s 23%). More apps on average are used with iOS devices: 48 for Apple and 35 for Android.

More apps in the Android market are available for FREE – another clever share steal tactic.

If Google continues to innovate and plan as they have, we might be seeing a new market in the next couple of years – and the Saga, as they say, Continues!

Courtesy of Digitalbuzzblog and WebPageFx