 Use by device -- all applications (green -- Android, Red -- iPod Touch, Blue -- iPhone) (Source: Flurry)
Apple's competitors are hanging tough, but failing to appeal in gaming, social networking
Flurry, a company that tracks smart
phone/MID usage via an API, is beginning to provide some unique
real-time information on the health
of various mobile platforms. The company tracks 45 million
consumers on 4 platforms -- Apple (iPhone and iPod touch),
Blackberry, JavaME, and Google Android -- via 3000 applications that
have integrated the company's API.
The latest data shows some
intriguing trends. Droid,
the Verizon/Google/Motorola competitor to the Apple/AT&T
iPhone showed a great deal of traction. However, according to
the report, "While the Android platform is the most legitimate
challenger to iPhone smartphone dominance, it's important to remember
that the iPhone's flank is protected by an often overlooked, powerful
fighting brand: iPod touch."
The report estimates that 24
million of the 58 million iPhone OS devices sold as of September 2009
were iPod touches. While the iPhone's sessions marketshare
dropped from 57 percent to 50 percent between June and November, and
Android's share grew from 10 to 14 percent, according to Flurry,
there's more to the story, as the iPod touch grew from 31 to 35
percent of the sessions marketshare.
This could bode well for
Apple. Explains Flurry:
As all industry eyes look to the iPhone, the iPod
touch is quietly building a loyal base among the next generation of
iPhone users, positioning Apple to corner the smartphone market not
only today, but also tomorrow. In terms of Life Stage Marketing, the
practice of appealing to different age-based segments, Apple is using
the iPod touch to build loyalty with pre-teens and teens, even before
they have their own phones (think: McDonalds' Happy Meal marketing
strategy).
Flurry goes on to explain that iPod touch users will become sucked
into the Apple ecosystem (iTunes, app purchasing, etc.) which will
breed familiarity with more expensive products like iPhone later in
life.
Other promising signs for Apple are its dominance -- both with the
iPod touch and iPhone -- of social networking and
gaming. Google's Android has shown little traction in these
arenas. Another growing field is manga releases for the
iPhone.
Flurry notes that the number of manga
books available for the iPhone has been soaring. It
describes, "We can expect this kind of content, well suited for
the iPhone to continue to expand faster than Godzilla stormed Tokyo."
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