According to research firm, Gartner, Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are the current dominators of the smartphone Operating Systems.
Android has seized 36 percent of the market, pulling ahead of Microsoft’s Windows and Research in Motion’s Blackberry OS.
Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, accounts this to the broad app selection of the two Operating Systems.
This sees Apple being pit head-to-head against Android. It puts it in a dangerous situation where it can lose its market leadership.
We’ve put together 4 things that Apple can do to continue to own Android as the preferred Operating System.
1. Be Cheap
Every time that Apple releases a new generation iPhone, the price of the previous generation phone drops to about half the initial retail price.
The lower price makes it an attractive phone to get. However, the one discouraging factor is the phone’s last generation technology.
Perhaps what Apple can do is to produce a mini-iPhone with lesser specs, but equipped with the latest technology.
Rumours of this ‘mini-iPhone’ have been circulating for months. Some speculated that it would have been released on 19 May, the 10th retail anniversary of Apple. However, like the wrongly-predicted Rapture, 19 May came and went without much fanfare.
2. Have a Cloud Service for iOS
The trend nowadays is for users to store their media online. Apple could capitalize on this and fashion a robust cloud-media feature for the iOS.
This would attract a large pool of consumers who plan on using their smartphone as a multimedia hub.
Apple seems to be going in that direction, signing deals with Sony, EMI Group and Warner Music. According to Bloomberg, this lets users ‘access their songs from their handheld devices via the Internet’.
However, a bigger step in that direction would make the iOS even more attractive to users.
3. Bring Them to Court
In April, Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung. It alleged that the look, packaging and user interface of Samsung’s smartphones and tablets copied Apple’s iPhone and iPad. Apple has also filed suits against Nokia, HTC and Motorola.
Intellectual-property lawsuits will not discourage people from adopting Android phones. But at the very least, it slows down the flood of Android devices hitting the market.
4. Make Friends with Enemies
The old saying goes that ‘the enemy of one’s enemy is one’s friend’. While it seems like an unlikely partnership, Apple and Microsoft have a lot to gain by joining forces.
Apple stands to gain as Microsoft invests more into its Windows Phone. The more Microsoft pushes its phone to app developers and consumers, the more it dilutes the hold of Android on the market.
It may not necessarily nip consumer purchases, but at the very least slow it down.
