After months of meteoric growth, is Android set for a painful burn-up on re-entry?! Also, are trite similes like this killing online journalism? Click READ MORE for the answer!
No, really, the Macalope doesn’t expect that Android will suddenly crash and burn. It certainly does seem, however, that it’s increasingly a horse caught in the mud.
Ah, trite similes! The Macalope could never quit you!
It’s easy (and fun) to throw around idle accusations like this. Does the horny one have anything to back up this assertion? Quick! To the evidence-mobile! [Batman music]
First there’s the ITC ruling in favor of Apple, saying that HTC did infringe on the company’s patents in the creation of its Android-based handsets. As Florian Mueller explains, the patents “appear to be at the core of Android and infringed by all Android devices.” Yee-owtch. That’s gonna leave a mark. As if it’s not bad enough that Android handset makers might have to shell out as much as $15 per unit to Microsoft, now they’ll have to deal with Apple, assuming this holds up. Mueller predicts Apple won’t even grant them a license. Sorry, looks like it’s back to rotary dial for you, Android fans!
PCWorld’s Tony Bradley speculates that the bad position Android is in with regard to patents will drive handset manufacturers and carriers into the arms of Microsoft. Those are some seriously sloppy seconds but the Great Satan from the Pacific Northwest will take what it can get!
Moving right along from that bit of bad news, we see that the green iPhone line is on the rise while the blue Android line is… (all together now)… DEAD IN THE WATER. Which is, of course, why it’s blue. Not to symbolize water, but because it’s sad. Tech coverage is very complicated.
The ChangeWave survey results shown in the graph attempt to predict purchasing decisions in the next 90 days, so this doesn’t measure actual purchases. The Macalope fully expects these lines to both be in flux for the foreseeable future. But it’s still interesting to see and, as ever, fun to pile on Henry Blodget. It’d better be fun, because the Macalope does it just about every week.
Contrary to Blodget’s declaration that developers would flee iOS for Android, just the opposite appears to be happening.
Marking a shift in the mobile computing space, Google’s Android platform has begun losing developers to Apple’s iOS, according to data released last week by mobile application analytics provider Flurry, which tracks developer support across various platforms.
Boy, Henry. Don’t you ever get tired of being wrong?
Look, the Macalope doesn’t really wish Android ill. As long as developers develop for iOS and Apple has a decent market share and takes all the profit, what is there to hate on? Frankly, he’s much more concerned about developers fleeing both platforms (tip o’ the antlers to the Loop), but he doesn’t have anything funny to say about that and, well, he’s got a job to do.
Again, it’s silly pundits and their presumption of facts not in evidence he’s got a beef with, not Android itself. He’ll leave that to the people who force themselves to use it for extended periods of time.
[Editors’ Note: In addition to being a mythical beast, the Macalope is not an employee of Macworld. As a result, the Macalope is always free to criticize any media organization. Even ours.]