According to a recent study, as of this publication smartphones have currently penetrated 27% of the mobile telephone market. In a market that a 2010 pole estimates at roughly 5.6 billion people world wide, this is a huge percentage of people who on a daily basis interact with, and are mediated by Apps. With such a huge percentage of the global population in the mix, who are the agents that make up the mobile App market? How best does one parse the smartphone App market?
To better analyze this, Wired Magazine posted a chart that more clearly shows these agents. The chart both indicates the market percentage that each agent currently controls as well as the mobile operating system that each smartphone runs and it's percentage in the market.
In terms of smartphone percentage (Handset OEMs), Apple and Noika hold the lead with 5% of the market, Samsung (Galaxy) holds second with 4%, followed closely by RIM's BlackBerry and HTC at 3%. These players make up the big 5 in the mobile smartphone market. The little players maker up roughly 5% of the market and are represented by players such as LG, Motorola, Huawei, Sony Ericsson and ZTE.
For our intents and purposes what is interesting to look at is the percentage of operating systems that these mobile devices run on. Contrary to the percentage of mobile smartphone ownership that has Apple (iOS) in tie for the leading market share, on the operating system platform, Android reigns supreme with 11% of the market. Apple's iOS and Nokia's Symbian OS - again tied - with 5% of the market.
Apple's iOS and RIM's BlackBerry OS - which are seen as the two predominant iconisised "smart phones" in popular media, play a much lesser role in the operating system game. RIM's BlackBerry holding out with roughly 3% of the OS market.
So what do these numbers mean for Apps, and the larger App developers market? What does this information do to our understanding of the mobile ubiquity of Apps? For our intents and purposes it is interesting to parse the dichotomies of agency surrounding mobile Apps and their associated mobile OS platforms. In particular the perceived dominance of Apple and Nokia in the mobile smartphone market. From an outward point of view one would assume that because Apple and Nokia lead the market share of smartphones that they would also have the most people using Apps on their smartphone devices.
For an App developer it would make sense to target the Apple market for developing your app on their iOS platform? Right? Yes, but for the random torque within the system that leads this notion astray. As Wired's circular diagram points out, Apple does not hold the lead in operating system because of its singularity as an operating system. iOS only runs on Apple devices, iOS Apps therefore only run on Apple devices. When it comes to the larger trope of Mobile smartphone platforms, Android takes a dramatic lead because of its multiplicitous ability to cross platforms.
On the operating systems level, it is a completely different ball game. Players that were prominent on the Handset OEM's trope completely disappear at the Operating Systems trope (Such as Nokia, HTC, and Samsung). Likewise on the Operating Systems level, new agents emerge that are not present on the Handset OEM level. New agents that dramatically change the game such as Symbian OS (Nokia OS) BlackBerry OS (RIM) and more importantly Android. What we have here is a re-catagorization of Smart phones based on Operating System. Android here takes the lead because of its ability to run on different mobile devices (Handset OEMs) Androids multiplicity in this context is smart because it enables an App developer to reach a broader spectrum of the Smartphone market with a single coding designed for the Android platform.
The App in the Android market becomes rather like a boundary object for App developers and App users alike, permitting them to cross between different tropes: that of the Handheld OEM. For a developer having an App on the Android OS permits him/her to disseminate their App across a multitude of devises: HTS, Motorola, LG, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, ZTE ..etc. By teaming together and choosing a common smartphone mobile operating system, the agents infrastructure associated with the mobile smartphone created a viable competitor to deal with RIM's BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone who dominate the idea of a "smartphone" in popular visual culture.
By parsing this dichotomy between Handsets and Operating Systems and the respective agents involved, this allows us -the App interested- to have a better insight into how each of these different mobile platforms effects the App on a multitude of levels. How do Apps differ on different OS platforms? What is the user experience like? Who uses Apps on different mobile platforms and devises? Why might one choose one devise /mobile OS platform over another? etc etc.
Now that the gears in the proverbial "clock" App are ticking, I'll leave you to ponder while I charge my iphone. These questions and more will be explored in later blog posts.
