Mobile Platforms August 2014

Some completely personal consideration on the current status of mobile platforms, with a few interesting links.

Some completely personal consideration (not an Embarcadero point of view) on the current status of mobile platforms, with a few interesting links. Given this is a specific topic, I didn't want to include these in my Delphi bi-weekly blog posts. These are mobile posts with some comments:

IDC numbers regarding last quarter smartphone shipments (that is, new phones), indicate that Android lead is growing (both in absolute and relative numbers), iOS is growing in absolute numbers but reducing in market share, while Microsoft is doing pretty bad on both counts: http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25037214. From the graph you can also see that iOS has a good percentage on the high-end devices (which is why Apple keeps making a lot of money), while Microsoft is focused on the lower and, even more than Android.

I find some Microsoft defenders tentative to belittle iOS a little childish. See for example Thurrott (see winsupersite.com/windows-phone/how-perception-will-kill-windows-phone): the value of the iOS market is beyond the device numbers. The Apple ecosystem is very healthy. Latest estimates I saw (sorry, cannot find the link any more) claim the developer ecosystems for iOS and Android to be very similar in size. What's about Microsoft? Their quality App Store seems not so quality driven (not that Android is that great, either, but it was supposed to be a great differentiator for Redmond).

Not saying this is the complete picture... but this is how it looks to me. Do you think Windows phone still has a real chance? That Android dominance is going to reduce over the next couple of years (by iOS, Windows, Tizen, or some other OS)? I think Google greatest enemy is Android forks, like Amazon, the many in China... and the now defuct Nokia X.

Update

Found a related additional article on Forbes about how the apps define the ecosysten and lock it: www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2014/08/26/how-every-app-developer-helps-defend-android-and-ios-against-a-smartphone-revolution/

I think that Forbes article nails it perfectly: they're not "smart phones", they're "app phones". In fact, my iPod Touch, Nexus 7, and iPad Air all work just fine with a Bluetooth headset and Skype to let me make voice and video calls anywhere in the world, so even the "phone" part is becoming irrelevant. In the world of studio audio equipment, for example, I've been scratching my head for years wondering why there are so many hardware companies wasting so many R&D resources cranking out one new piece of hardware after another, year after year, when 90% of the actual improvements have all been done in firmware inside the devices. Their insistence of locking people into their proprietary formats and interfaces has gone on just about as long as it possibly can. In fact, most hand-held recorders today support both WAV and MP3 file formats on removable media that can be accessed directly on virtually any computer -- and up until a few years ago that was unheard of. I kept waiting for a company to introduce a "black box" that you'd mount in your rack and simply select functions to download into it for audio signal processing. A couple of companies have come close, but their prices are ridiculous. Today you can buy a tablet or even a phone or iPod-like device that has the CPU horsepower and software available to handle most signal chain processes that any recording engineer would ever need or want. And there are dozens of choices for software from creative developers all over the world. You're no longer locked-in to a specific vendor's hardware or software, knowing that they rarely upgrade the firmware in the equipment you just spent $1500 on. If you want improvements, you'll need to shell out $1500 again next year for a new piece of hardware with the latest features! Mobile devices have become the long-awaited "black-box" technology that will enable them to be programmed to do just about anything you need, given an appropriate interface device. The App Stores and the pricing models make it both inviting and affordable to developers and consumers alike. Handling two ecosystems is plenty for now. Delphi is even making this far easier. I'm eagerly awaiting the time when we see dozens of job ads for mobile developers with the requisite "3 years minimum experience" with Delphi mobile development. :)

It may be too late for Windows Phone, but I hope not. I own the Lumia 520 and 822. It would be great for Embarcadero to add Windows Phone support since I really don't want to learn C# or Javascript. I made a blog post about it several months ago. Microsoft really hurt developers by not offering an app store for desktop apps. It would have been great if Microsoft made Intel based phones that ran desktop apps with guidelines. I think that would be their only chance at this point. This would allow developers to use various programming languages. That would be an advantage over the other phone platforms.

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