HTC/Google Nexus One
Piper Jaffray technology analyst, Gene Munster, was a guest on CNBC’s FastMoney program today. The focus was the newly unveiled Google/HTC Nexus One phone and how it might fare in the competitive smartphone marketplace. There was also plenty of focus on iPhone and the competitive advantage Apple enjoys with apps and iTunes. As Munster put it;
The reality is this … people aren’t buying a phone because its got a cool screen. The reason people are buying iPhone, or any device, is because these apps … 10 million apps are being downloaded per day for the iPhone, and so Google can come out with whatever they want … they have 20,000 apps in their app store. Apple has about 125,000 apps. People are doing great things with their iPhone and this (Google’s HTC phone) just doesn’t change the landscape.
Watch video below >
Tags: AAPL, applications, FastMoney, Gene Munster, GOOG, Google Phone, iPhone, Jim Goldman, Nexus One, Piper Jaffray, Video
That all sounds well in good… and to some degree is true… but I believe once you hit a critical mass of useful apps the value begins to be hard to differentiate for the consumer. 25,000 or 125, 000 doesn’t matter, what matters is can you get a facebook app for iPhone or Android base phones… and the other most popular consumer apps.
Apple’s lead in content deals and content providers relationships on the other hand is a significant advantage that Google will be scurrying to redress as fast as they can to catch up.
Fortunately most content providers (newspapers, music and movie industries) will not want to be tied to any one piece of hardware.
Tai-Pan
http://www.shanzai.com
@Tai-Pan … Thanks for weighing in
I’m sure some savvy developers can articulate the problems they face in developing for multiple Andriod variants (fractionalized by handset, by carrier). But in the end, I suspect you are right … there will be two left standing — Apple’s iPhone OS and Google/Android. And both will have many thousands of cool app offerings.
Apple and Google will emerge as the clear winners in the smartphone wars. The biggest problem for Google will be “fractionalization” and conflicts with their Android channel partners. Telling was Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha’s late (almost no show) arrival for the Nexus One unveiling.
Verizon can’t be too happy with Google’s Nexus One promotions and nor can many other major carriers who’ve promoted Android. Now they have to compete with Google.
As far as Apple’s other major smartphone competitors … RIM and Nokia need to address serious OS/software shortcomings. If they don’t, they will continue to bleed smartphone marketshare.
One thing you can take to the bank … Apple is not done innovating. The tablet will very likely be unveiled in a few short weeks and there will be new iPhone models this summer. Apple also has powerful advantages with iTunes, multi-touch their integrated platform.