Google's Eric Schmidt says Android 'clearly' winning against Apple in phones
With a wide range of devices at numerous price points running the Android operating system, Google's mobile platform is "clearly" winning over Apple's iOS, Eric Schmidt believes.
Schmidt, the chairman of Google, made the comments in an interview with Bloomberg published on Wednesday. He noted that customers are activating more than 1.3 million Android devices every day, while the latest data from Gartner gives Android a 72 percent of the smartphone market, compared to Apple's 14 percent.
"This is a huge platform change," Schmidt said. This is of the scale of 20 years ago â Microsoft versus Apple. We're winning that war pretty clearly now."
Of course, while Android controls the lion's share of the smartphone market, its dominant position has not translated into dollar share â a measure where Apple is the clear winner. Google gives away the open-source Android operating system to its hardware partners, in hopes that a market dominated by Android will drive demand for Google's services supported by mobile advertising.
Schmidt's comments have been publicized just after Google CEO Larry Page spoke with Fortune about the highly competitive mobile landscape. Page admitted that "monetization is at an early stage" with the Android platform.
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt talking to AllThingsD in October. | Source: AllThingsD.
Schmidt explained that Google's strategy is to make a "bigger pie," making Android as widely available as possible, in an effort to hook users in to Google's online services.
"We will end up with a not perfectly controlled and not perfectly managed bigger pie by virtue of open systems," Schmidt said.
While Google is playing the long game in hopes of boosting revenue from Android, Apple's iPhone accounts for nearly three-quarters of the total operating profit in the mobile industry, according to data compiled earlier this year. Apple's control of the industry's profits came with just an 8.8 percent total unit share among mobile devices sold worldwide.
Schmidt was a member of the Apple Board of Directors from 2006 until 2009, when he was forced to step down due to growing competition between Google and Apple in the mobile space. At the time, Schmidt was the CEO of Google, but he eventually relinquished that position in early 2011 to allow Page, a company co-founder, to take over.
227 Comments
HE is all of the trolls here. That's the only way to explain the things he's saying.
If he's so deluded as to think he's "winning" because of volume, let him die the same death Microsoft is dying.
I guess he hits a nail here
[quote name="Tallest Skil" url="/t/154974/googles-eric-schmidt-says-android-clearly-winning-against-apple-in-phones#post_2245208"]HE is all of the trolls here. That's the only way to explain the things he's saying. If he's so deluded as to think he's "winning" because of volume, let him die the same death Microsoft is dying. [/quote] [I]And there I was, all the time thinking he is showing Google's marketshare in that picture...[/I] Then again, I do hope he stays on the board. Just like Ballmer, I'd like to hear more of this nonsense coming from him. Creates FunThreads.
He is winning at what? Apple never sold as many phones, the difference between the iPhone and the competition (android) is as big as 2007 levels (with every single android phone being trounced on all benchmarks and measures besides cpu vs cpu only (and even here the difference is irrelevant, since the iPhone has so much faster UI speed. Blame Java.) and Apple makes more money from phones than all OEMs combined.
I don't get it. Maybe I need another Masters degree so i can understand it.
For me, this is just PR for stupid people (Almost all androids are stupid, fact. I can prove it).
I guess Schmidt and that other guy aren't on the same Page.
These statements really don't sound like a guy who just wants to get along with others.