Tekedia is very excited to share some numbers we have collected on Android. The mobile operating system powered about 700,000 smartphones in 2008. By 2009, the numbers moved to 8.4 million. By 2010, it jumped to 75 million. It is expected to rise to 206 million in 2011. These numbers are courtesy of Canalys, a market research firm.
Android is becoming ubiquitous – more than 400,000 Android devices are activated daily. Google nailed this through its open platform model. Android will eclipse Apple’s iOS – a mobile operating system used in iPhone and iPad. While Google Android is used by more than 300 manufactures, iOS is simple one company and that is Apple. So with Android, you get more than 300 insights, with iOS, it is simply iPhone. This alone will define who wins this race in near future.
Android is doing something – it is making the mobile ecosystem to become like the Internet. Entrance by hardware makers have become easier. All you need is buy a chipset and give your product a name and you are brand owner. Android will make the telecom industry transition to be like the Internet and more people will access it, easily. The old closed order of the big telcos is crumbling with the Android rise. They used to dictate what phones cannot do, now, you have got more choices.
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The telecommunication industry is growing at an alarming rate. According to Gartner, a market research firm, there were 2 billion mobile handsets in 2005, today that number is about 5 billion. Compare the fact that the world has not sold the 1 billionth PC despite the PC having been invented for many decades, then, we can appreciate the momentum of this industry.
This is simply the reason why many think the future is mobile and others say better that now is mobile. The best of the phone of the last era, Motorola Razr offered nothing much. Today, your phone is a small computer. And it is just the beginning.
Android through Huawei is going to reach more handsets through the fast selling IDEOS which sold excess of 180,000 units within 6 months in Kenya and we estimate will sell up to 300,000 in Nigeria this year. That phone is $100 making it one of the most affordable smartphones on sale, globally. Starcomms sales it in Nigeria.
Globally, Android had 35% share of new smartphone shipment in Q1 2011. This number is better than Nokia Symbian, an also-ran OS. It is expected to add up to 8% on this by the 4th Quarter of this year.