iPhone and Android Stranglehold on Web Mobile Traffic

Just as soon as you’ve adapted yourself to all the exciting nuances and features that your phone offers—web browsing, email, video, GPS—the manufacturers go and change the whole phone. Their claim is that they’ve made it better, easier, and faster. And often, this is exactly the case. In fact, pushing the limits of what a smartphone is capable of is at the very core of the technology frenzy.  After all, doesn’t everyone and, consequently, everything, want to be smarter? In 2007, Apple launched their much anticipated iPhone. Consumers did not let the exorbitant sticker price of $600 deter them from owning the latest and coolest in handset web mobile device. Apple sold 146,000 iPhones in its first week’s debut alone. Despite having a myriad of problems ranging from poor network connection to inconsistent product performance, the lure of exclusive software apps and streaming media all in the palm of one’s hand has steadily motivated customers to gobble up the iPhone at record numbers. According to TechCrunch.com, Apple sold 4.4 million iPhones in the first fiscal quarter of 2009. As one very astute TechCrunch reader calculated, “That’s one iPhone every 2 seconds!” Not to be outdone, Google quickly joined the race to create the biggest and baddest in smart, and I mean REALLY smart, web mobile phones. They even gave it a formidable name—the Android. A quick video demonstration reveals that the Android can do all that of your super speedy personalized laptop, and also fit snugly in the pocket of your favorite jeans. Two weeks ago, Google introduced its newest Android offspring, the Droid. Already, the Droid accounts for 24% of all web traffic from the Android network. Did I mention that it’s only been two weeks? Though there are many other contenders in the realm of smart mobile phones—Nokia, Motorola, Palm—none are in the same class of the iPhone and the Android. The latest statistics show that, combined, the iPhone and Android make up a whopping 75% of all web mobile traffic in the U.S, (55% and 20%, respectively). And the statistics for international use isn’t that much different at 61%, (50% and 11%). Both have seen growth from the previous month, and both are continuing to grow with no end in sight as more major carriers embrace the open source philosophy. While other companies are seeing dwindling traffic on their devices, iPhone and Android are gaining momentum. FYI, I got the G1 phone the FIRST day it came out. In fact, I woke up very early and was the first person in line because I truly believed, even back then, that mobile is not just the FUTURE, it’s the NOW.