Marketing Fight: iPhone get's Whipped by Android

So in recent news and at coffee shops we’ve seen a surge in Android Users, making online and mobile marketing a much broader market. Some say the Iphone is better, some the Android. I have not seen an official survey to get a good balanced view of the pros and cons but one thing that we have seen is a surge in Android Users. According to Business Insider (dot com) the Smart Phone Market is being dominated by Android’s growing market share.

For now let’s set aside the differences of the platform, and focus on their marketing. What makes one viable competitor increase market share over another viable competitor?

1. Android gave their users fewer restrictions. In short, Android allowed the customer to design their own device, carrier and other factors. Giving the buyer more freedom to decide what they want allows you to structure your product more to them. I’m not talking about making more choices, and introducing information overload. I’m talking about an open source model (which can apply to any industry) that leaves future product improvements to the user. Case in point, some of the OS updates were simply making feature and function add on apps a standard feature in the OS.
2. Android has Movability. People who joined the iPhone society when it was a new device have become extremely loyal. this is a strong point for iPhone. Apple has always been innovators and they have great hardware. One of their biggest drawbacks is that the iPhone is currently only available on one carrier. If the quality, price and coverage of the carrier was an uncontested – than who cares right? The fact is, some people are dissatisfied with AT&T’s coverage quality and will pass on the iPhone for that reason only. Android offers you the choice.
3. Device Choice. I have at one point stated that the variety of devices can lead to app design issues, the differences from device to device mean not all devices support an app equally. I will not comment on this further, call a developer and ask them, but setting that aside, I believe it to be the best move they have made. They are able to create demand to more users by tapping into the manufacturing capabilities of 3 or 4 mobile device manufacturing companies. This means that there is constantly a new product available and new marketing resources (not to mention the various carriers marketing efforts). Apple’s product is phenomenal, but Android is within reach to more.

The fact of the matter is that innovation is what increases market share. Both companies have shown this to be a benchmark in their success. The Quality of the Android products improves quicker and expands quicker all around because they have tapped into you and many more resources instead of attempting to keep it all in house. Think of how this can apply to your business. How can your customers be a part of your innovation team? How can you create powerful partnerships that cause your market penetration to explode?

redwall LIVE : Experiential Marketing is an Indianapolis Marketing Company that provides Campaigns, Strategies and Tools for Successful Marketing