The rise and fall of mobile platform empires

WE HAVE a fair share of loyal iOS and Android users in the office.

While Xiaomi, Oppo and Sony Xperia managed to find their way into the hands of some of my colleagues, majority of the Android users (at least in my vicinity) are still sporting a Samsung. There are also some, who eventually decided to part ways with Android making a switch to an iPhone.

At the consumer’s end, Samsung is still one of the top of the mind brand users would go for when considering a smartphone. The Korean technology company is a clear winner in terms of the smartphone sales volume, however in the past year Samsung has been hit hard by competitively priced Xiaomi and Oppo in selling budget phones in the emerging markets.

In the grand scheme of things though, it is reported that while Android currently dominates the market at 81 percent, the smartphone manufacturers are not profiting much off off it. In stark contrast Apple raked in 88.7 percent of all smartphone profits, while taking control of 14.8% of the global smartphone market.

With a combined stake at 96%, iOS and Android dominate the smartphone market amid increased consumer demand for a more robust app ecosystem.

Having taken different approach in driving growth, Apple and Google have created a vibrant ecosystem for application developers. The gap between the two leading mobile platforms and the rest would continue to grow, and increasingly so, the market is becoming more biased to the two platforms.

For many new businesses and brands, it has become a no brainer that should they decide on a mobile-first strategy, majority will look to Android or iOS to reach a critical mass of users — unless you have a very specific target market in mind, i.e. Blackberry enterprise users.

Are we all becoming too dependent on iOS and Android mobile ecosystem? Housed with superior content whilst offering a consistent user experience, it is seemingly impossible to topple the two mobile platforms.

Will, say…the third mobile ecosystem contender, currently at 2.7 percent of the global marketshare— Microsoft’s Windows Phone make a comeback?

Let us visualise Windows Phone for a bit. It is, hands down, a very beautifully designed piece of software. I adore how the Windows Phone’s Tiles animate upon my touch, and how People Hub integrated social so seamlessly together. Microsoft Cortana might even beat Apple’s Siri or Google Now. And you can’t rule out the fact that the Lumia series does have its own character.

But what the platform lacks is what drawn me to iOS in the first place — the many high quality apps that are free on most occasions, and then some that I would not mind spending a portion of my hard earned cash for.

I may be biased here, since I am so entrenched in the iOS ecosystem, also a huge fan of Google’s myriad of products, but at least for now, I am a satisfied consumer of both mobile ecosystems.

We live in interesting times. This is an era where we see the previously impossible becoming a reality.

Anything is possible in the realm of science and technology, as is the case with the predecessors, the rise and fall of an empire (Siemens, Nokia, Blackberry, etc.) greatly depends on how fast it adapts and evolve.

As the demand for more personalised mobile experience continues, there will always be an opportunity for others to become the next dominant force in the market.

By then, a new narrative will emerge. Never say never.