iOS vs Android vs Blackberry OS – Let ‘The Battle’ begin

A recent survey of Nielsen Company has made Smartphones - the talk of the town. Every blog and news website is publishing and writing about this sudden rise in demand for the Smartphone and the mass populace of United States now has to reconsider which OS is the best and serves as the best for their individual needs. In the fiscal quarterly results, at the end of Q2 2010, U.S. Smartphone market share was ruled by Blackberry but the survey done in October by Nielson company completely turned the table upside down.

According to the surveys conducted in United States, Android and Apple iphone OS are the only cutthroat contenders in the stratum of ameliorated mobile technology whereas Blackberry OS occupies the third place. The research concluded that 29.7 % of U.S. mobile subscribers own Smartphones that completely run on fulltime OS. Taking into account the whole OS market share of the U.S., Apple iOS rules the market share just by couple of points as against Blackberry, with 27.9% and 27.4% respectively. The third place is occupied by the Android OS by 22.7% share, which has seen an eye-popping rise of 14% since January.

As questions for the respondents were narrowed down and made specific about which OS they are most likely to upgrade to in the future, iphones and Android OS were voted highest compared to Blackberry OS with 30%, 28% and 13% of votes received by respective Smartphone players. The numbers between Apple’s iOS and Android has meagre difference which personifies that the competition between these 2 looks tough.

That’s all about the U.S. mobile market share and ‘most desired’ Operating System. What about the scenario in India? Is there any competition between OS or Smartphone players? NO and YES. Confused!? Well as far as the OS goes Android OS rules the Indian mobile subscriber market as it is available on the feature-led mobiles too. In India, there is a large variety of Smartphones available in the market with economical price tags. After U.S., India has emerged as the second-biggest user of Mobile Internet, according to data from 15,000 mobile websites checked by Google.

From a couple of recent stories that I came across in The Economic Times too, suggested the following points :

• Canalys gauged the Indian Smartphone market in 2009 at ~ 2.1 Million pieces.
• Permeation of Smartphones is estimated to have risen from 1% at the end of 2009 to above 4% by Nov 2010.
• The standard selling price of Smartphones has slumped from Rs. 19,000 in Q3 of the year 2009 to Rs. 13,000 in Q1 of the year 2010 to about Rs 10,000 by Nov 2010, according to Analysis Mason.

Clearly, India is not falling behind when it comes to using technology, though some consider viewing and using internet on mobile phones as a ‘pain-stacking process’. In contrast to other countries where the eminent usage of internet happens via Smartphones, in India, mobile companies like Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and more rule the market.

Moreover, why is it that Smartphones like Apple iPhones come with a tag of Rs. 30,000 and even higher whereas Smartphones from Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson come at a far lesser price. There are obviously several prices-related reasons like brand-name, no. of apps in a Smartphone, and still more nitty-grittial issues.

All said and done, there finally seems to be some real competition in the Smartphone market specifically against Apple iPhones and its iOS.