Surprise: Android tops iOS for device satisfaction and brand loyalty

TabTimes reporting:

If you think the iPad and the iPhone are the undisputed champions of the tablet and smartphone, it’s time to think again. In the space of a week, two new studies claim that it is Android which now attracts greater user satisfaction and brain loyalty.

The first of these reports came from media brand researcher Brand Keys, which indicated that Samsung and Amazon are now beginning to overhaul Apple for brand loyalty in both the smartphone and tablet markets.
The firm even spelled out in its 2013 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index how Apple’s brand loyalty is slipping, paying particularly close attention to Samsung’s increasing market share in the smartphone space.
 “It is an enormous switch-over,” Robert Passikoff, president of the New York-based Brand Keys, told Mobile Marketer. “The more personal aspects beyond just connectivity are becoming the important emotional engagement factors and that, generally speaking, brands that cannot do that are not going to be at the top of the list...
...On Device Research carried out a study of 93,825 U.S. mobile users between July of last year and January 2013 and discovered that Apple’s iPhone 5 only ranked as the fifth best smartphone, a result which led the iOS device trailing four Android-powered models.

Users were asked to rank their smartphone between 1 ( “very unsatisfied” ) and 10 (“very satisfied”), and while the iPhone 5 scored respectively (8.23), it was still leapfrogged by the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (8.26), the HTC Rebound 4G (8.32), the Motorola Droid Razr (8.5) and Motorola Atrix HD (8.57).
Announcing the results in London today, the researcher also highlighted that 4G smartphone owners are more likely to be satisfied with their device, and told TabTimes that the iPhone 5's relatively poor showing was down to the battery life, maps on iOS 6 and -- more surprisingly -- the size of the device, a sign perhaps of increasing demand for bigger smartphones....
http://tabtimes.com/news/ittech-stats-research/2013/02/08/surprise-android-tops-ios-device-satisfaction-and-brand

Apple’s Tablet Market Share Drops to 50.4%

Mashable reporting:
Apple‘s tablet market share has dropped to 50.4% in Q3 2012, down from 59.7% in the same period last year, IDC’s latest report reveals.
Samsung, on the other hand, has experienced huge growth, jumping from 6.5% to 18.4% in that same period. Amazon holds the third place with 9%, followed by Asus with 8.6% and Lenovo with 1.4%.
The old Silicon Valley joke, which claimed that “there is no tablet market, only an iPad market,” is obviously no longer true. According to IDC’s numbers, Samsung shipped 5.1 million tablets worldwide in 3Q12, up 115% from 2Q12 and 325% from 3Q11.
Things are looking very good for Amazon, also, whose rapidly expanding Kindle Fire lineup has helped it double its market share quarter-over-quarter.
http://mashable.com/2012/11/05/apples-tablet-market-share-drops-to-50-4-percent-report/

Android tablet for kids

TabTimes reporting: 

Looking to wrestle back the iPad from the clutches of your kids? TabTimes looks at five excellent (and affordable) Android tablets for young children.

Toys 'R' Us Tabeo

U.S. toy retailer Toys 'R' Us is coming to the tablet game with the Tabeo, a 7-inch Android tablet which is due to launch on October 21.
On specs alone, the Tabeo looks like a solid device. The tablet has a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen display, runs Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and offers front and rear-facing cameras, as well as 4GB of expandable memory and a HDMI port. The battery life is reasonable too at 10 hours for Internet browsing and up to 7 hours for video content.
Toys 'R' Us says that the WiFi-only tablet will come pre-loaded with over 50 apps, while another 6,000 free educational programs, games and books will be available from the Tabeo app store.

LeapFrog LeapPad 2

Following on from the success of the original LeapPad tablet, and LeapFrog launched the LeapPad 2 -- an upgraded model with two cameras, a more powerful processor (550MHz versus 393MHz on the original) and more memory (4GB rather than 2GB).
As with the first model, the 5-inch tablet (480 x 272 resolution display) comes with a stylus so children can write or draw on the educational apps, while users can tap into Leapfrog's library of 325 game cartridges, apps, videos and music.
The tablet comes pre-loaded with five fun apps; Pet Pad (essentially looking after a digital pet), Cartoon Director (making your own cartoon with pictures of friends and family), LeapFrog Learning Songs and Art Studio...
http://tabtimes.com/feature/ittech-os-android/2012/09/12/5-affordable-android-tablets-your-children

 

Developers Slowly Losing Interest in Android

adweek reporting:
The fragmented Android universe may be causing app developers to think twice about bothering with the increasingly popular mobile platform, according to a new report.
Though Android smartphones and tablets are outselling Apple’s iOS devices, a new survey conducted by mobile platform company Appcelerator and research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) suggests that developers are gradually losing interest in the Android platform because the landscape is just too complicated.

According to a quarterly survey of Appcelerator developers around the world, interest in Android phones fell 4.7 percentage points to 78.6 percent quarter-over-quarter, and interest in Android tablets dropped 2.2 percentage points to 65.9 percent during the same time period. The researchers said the declines are close to or within the margins of error, but have been consistent over the past three quarters.

“What this tells us is that the fragmentation Android is experiencing at both the smartphone and tablet levels is really turning some developers off  the platform,” said Mike King, mobile strategist for Appcelerator. “Unless Google begins to curtail that fragmentation, we think that they’re going to continue to lose interest of the developers.”
The erosion of interest in Google’s mobile platform could also be due to monetization models, he continued. While iOS developers can only sell their apps through Apple’s app store, Android developers can take several paths to monetization.
“That’s more difficult, confusing and expensive,” King said.
While the survey suggests that Google may have some work to do when it comes to fragmentation issues, said King, it also revealed that the tech giant is making some unexpected strides in impressing developers interested in social mobile applications, particularly when compared to social media titan Facebook.
When asked which company they thought was better positioned to support them in developing social mobile applications, 39 percent said Google’s networked properties were more important to them than the scale of Facebook’s social network.
The expectation, King said, was that given its volume of subscribers and credibility as a social network, Facebook would significantly outshine Google.
Instead, he said, they found that “Google’s punching way, way above its weight.”
When asked why developers backed the different platforms, those that supported Facebook pointed to its scale (not surprisingly), and those that indicated a preference for Google cited its many networked properties (including Google+, Google Maps, search, Gmail, etc.) and its developer outreach and engagement.

App-Happy with Android: The Most Popular Android Apps by Age

Nielsen reporting:
Facebook and apps from Google like Gmail and the Android Market are the most popular smartphone apps among Android owners 18 years and older in the U.S. according to Nielsen’s latest research on smartphone usage. To rank mobile apps by active reach, that is, by the percentage of Android owners who used the app within the past 30 days, Nielsen analyzed usage data from its proprietary device meters on the smartphones of the thousands of consumer panelists who agreed to be part of Nielsen’s ongoing Smartphone Analytics research.
Staying Social
Facebook’s popular app is the most active among Android owners 18-24 and 25-34, who both hover at around an 80 percent active reach. Additionally, more than three quarters of users 35-44 used the app recently as well.
Google’s YouTube app gets heavy usage from Android smartphone owners 18 -24: 64 percent have used it in the past 30 days, compared to 56 percent and 51 percent of 25-34 and 35-44 year olds. A preference for media apps with a social dimension (e.g. Words with Friends) among the 18-24 set is also reinforced by their sizable usage of music and video apps (e.g. Pandora) compared to older demographics.
Play Time
Not just for the kids, the ubiquitous game, Angry Birds, appeals more to those 35-44 when compared to other age groups: 35 percent of them have used the app in the last 30 days, while only 22 percent of those 18-24 and 29 percent of 25-34 year-olds launched the game.
Apps and More for Sale
Apart from gaming, the 35-44 segment demonstrates a greater inclination to shop using the Amazon AppStore: 24 percent of them used the app in the last 30 days, while only 14 percent of those 18-24 did the same. Groupon appeals more to those 25-34, not even making the top 20 ranking for those 18-24. A similar trend was found on Google+: active reach was higher for those 25 and older when compared to the 18-24 demographic.
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/app-happy-with-android-the-most-popular-android-apps-by-age/

Amazon's Kindle Tablet could slaughter the Android tablet market

zdnet reporting:
We’ve been talking about the Amazon Kindle Tablet for what feels like forever, but now that someone has had a hands-on with this device, the reality of just how toxic this could be to other Android tablets is sinking in.
First to post his thoughts on the tablet is TechCrunch’s MG Siegler.
Here’s the deal:

• 7-inch full-color screen, no eInk (10-inch coming in 2012)
• Two-finger multitouch support
• Runs a version of Android that’s older than 2.2 but it’s been heavily customized
• No camera
• UI looks and feels like Amazon’s iOS Kindle app
• 6GB of storage
• The killer - $250

A few things stand out here. First is the price. $250 is a little bit higher than some people were expecting ($199 was touted as the sweet spot). $250 will wipe the floor with tablets from other makers. Seriously. Amazon has huge market reach and this will have a huge effect on other tablets … even possibly the iPad.
Another interesting point is that Amazon has decided to go it alone with a pre-2.2 version of Android, which means that Google will have to come to terms with a major fork in the Android code. The fact that Amazon didn’t go with ‘Honeycomb‘ or ‘Ice Cream Sandwich‘ (and that the Kindle Tablet will never get either of these) will be a major blow to both Google and OEMs who have been putting a lot of effort (and faith) in these releases.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/amazons-kindle-tablet-could-slaughter-the-android-tablet-market/14572?tag=nl.e539

Leaderboard 2011: The 10 best Android smartphones

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By Jason Hiner

From TechRepublic

April 1, 2011, 9:25 AM PDT

Takeaway: Hot, new Android devices hit the market almost every week. To help you sort through them all, here’s our list of the 10 best Android smartphones, especially with business users in mind.

...I’ve created a leaderboard of my top Android picks. This is a dangerous task because it is very subjective stuff. The smartphone that is the best fit for you is going to depend heavily on your needs and preferences. But, since I’ve had my paws on virtually all of the Android devices and I’ve written reviews of the best ones, I decided to rank them in terms of the overall quality of the devices. Since my audience is primarily IT and business professionals, I’ve developed this list with them in mind. A list aimed at consumers would certainly look a little different.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/leaderboard-2011-the-10-best-android-smartphones/8042?tag=nl.e019

Today Amazon locked up the android ecosystem

ZDnet reportint 29.3.2011
Amazon’s conquer of the Android ecosystem began quietly at the launch of the Android platform. It leveraged its Kindle ebook system on the new platform by building the Kindle app for Android.
...
The company was quick to get the Amazon MP3 app on Android, too. It was like putting its MP3 store in the pockets of millions of customers. That number kept growing along with the Android platform, just like Kindle book sales. Rapidly Amazon was becoming a major force in Android-based retail.
The recent launch of the Amazon Appstore to sell Android apps firmly entrenched the company’s business in the platform ecosystem. One could argue that it is the beginning of a process whereby Amazon takes over the ecosystem, by subtly pushing the Android Market to the side.
...Today’s launch of cloud services is the next step in the Android takeover. It makes it easy and cheap to move all MP3 shopping/listening to both Amazon and Android. Hit a button, buy a music album that is stored in the Amazon cloud and listen to it on any Android device.
...Today’s launch of cloud services is the next step in the Android takeover. It makes it easy and cheap to move all MP3 shopping/listening to both Amazon and Android. Hit a button, buy a music album that is stored in the Amazon cloud and listen to it on any Android device.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/today-amazon-locked-up-the-android-ecosystem/1663