Technology is making progress around us with speed of nano seconds and we are amazed at the wonders that the age of Internet and Information technology has brought about. Searching through library and catalogues and books is now a mere click away. Knowledge and its application has brought wide and far ranging applications in our daily life. Recently Apple iPhone brought about its web 2.0 but against it Google launched its Android-which one is better? well Google launched its Android last year as its open-source mobile phone platform. At that time when iphone 2.0 was not there, we might have assumed the Android is gaining a good edge at pinning down the iPhone mainly because:
  • Android is open-source, so developers could freely create applications for the phones.
  • Android phones were set to be priced around $200, while the iPhone at the time was priced at a minimum of $400.
  • AT&T and Apple signed a contract with each other pertaining that iPhone is bound in USA to the wireless company for five years, where as Google's Android phones were being built by various manufacturers and were being supported by many carriers.
But Apple is not watching it by. They have stepped up their game to take on Google with iPhone's 2.0, a second generation of iPhone. iPhone 2.0 will let third party developers distribute their own applications and added on it are the 3G and GPS features. Although some obstacles in this regard still remain such as:
  • iPhone is not open source yet
  • it is still bound to AT&T for another 4 years
  • it is having only one look and a time may come when the iPhone will become so common that people won't want to buy one with the same look.
Few suggestions that Hai of Mobile Madness pointed out for Android developers to dominate the iPhone are as follows:
  • Make software distribution decentralized, but organized so that application distribution can become viral.
  • Improve and encourage consistency of design among Android applications
  • Target third world countries.
Such strategies are good and any company can follow them given the vastness of opportunities still lay in this field, and keeping in mind Google's history of successful products we can bet that it's not an easy game now to sustain leadership.