Tag: mobile market

The latest report issued by Kantar Worldpanel has shown that the two platforms are drawing closer.

The latest mobile commerce news report has just been issued by Kantar Worldpanel and has indicated that the market share gap between iOS and Android smartphones is narrowing in some markets, while Apple’s portion is strengthening in these important global regions.

In some very key markets Apple is beginning to grow even stronger than it was before.

Year over year, the mobile commerce report predicted that iOS would be making gains in the United Kingdom, the United States, and France. This, despite the fact that Android has been making tremendous surges in popularity and its penetration has become even greater than it ever has before, within the last twelve months.

The mobile commerce report showed that Android has managed to hold its lead but iOS is strong.

According to the Kantar Worldpanel ComTech mobile commerce data that was released this week, “Android has retained its lead in smartphone sales for the 3 month period ending June 2013, with a 51.5% sales share of the smartphone market, while iOS follows with 42.5%, growing 3.3% compared to last year.”

The advances that are being recorded by iOS in the mobile commerce marketplace have primarily been at the expense of the market share held by Android. Over the three months that were completed in June 2013, the sales of iOS smartphones were made up of 8 percent from T-Mobile, 10 percent from Sprint, 39 percent from AT&T, and 40 percent from Verizon.

The mobile commerce news report suggested that the largest increase in Apple device sales came from T-Mobile. This did not come as much of a surprise to many, as the iPhone has only been recently added to the carrier’s offerings. That said, Verizon is still maintaining the largest number of sales during the period covered by the report. The next few months, as new devices are launched in each platform, should be very defining for the direction that the market will be taking at least for another year. Analysts will certainly be watching the numbers closely.

Internet giant Google has settled with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) in regards to its antitrust lawsuit that allows smaller players in the mobile industry access to mobile patents. The move is said to lower the amount of suits related to patent holders.

Google’s hold on patents

Philip Solis, of ABI Research in Oyster Bay, NY, stated that concerns have been raised about Google buying ‘standard essential patents’ from Motorola, essentially giving Google the ability to greatly suppress smaller competition. This settlement states what Google has said all along – that they would not use the patents in such a manner.

“It could start a trend around standard essential patents not being used for offensive purposes,” Solis said. “That is a good thing because it means potentially less litigation.” He goes on to say that bigger companies are not effected by having to work around patents in the mobile industry, but smaller companies lack the resources to do so.

What it means for competitors

Smart phones, gaming consoles, tablets, and even online search advertising are all affected in this settlement. Google will allow competition to license patents on what are called critical standardized technologies for all of the above. When Google acquired Motorola Mobility, it gained hundreds of different patents. Many of these are for most basic functions like device internet connectivity.

Google agrees to allow use of standard patents and thus the number of patent-related lawsuits should drop. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement that Google has made a step that allows consumers to enjoy the benefits of competition in the online marketplace as well through the gadgets that they buy.

“This doesn’t remove the patents issue in general,” Solis said. Overall, he believes that this agreement opens up markets in both advertising and the mobile device market. Google has agreed not to use patents to delay other companies from releasing new products in a timely manner. It is not perfect, however.

Online Advertising

Google is known as an online giant in search and also in search related advertising. As part of this agreement, Google will give those that advertise online more flexibility to use their program as well as the advertising programs of their competitors. The company also promises that any site can remain excluded from Google vertical search results while still remaining visible under their standard search.