A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirement for the Degree of

Master of E-Business Management

at the

Graduate School of International Management

International University of Japan

Title:
THE FUTURE TRAJECTORY OF GOOGLE ANDROID:
A STUDY FROM OPERATING SYSTEM, APPLICATION
STORES AND HANDSET MANUFACTURERS

By

Student No. Name

2A8201 Abdullah Humayun, Mohammed Yacoob
2A8205 Dang, Thao Thi Phuong
2A8207 Himawan, Arya Gumiwang
2A8209 Koirala, Yasha
2A8215 Ridwan, Rizki Muhammad
2A8220 Wibiyanto, Dimas

Faculty Supervisor:

Professor Philip Sugai

(Approval Signature)

August 2009
 TABLE OF CO
TE
TS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...................................................................................... 1

ABSTRACT............................................................................................................ 2

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 3

1.1. GOOGLE INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 3

1.2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE .............................................................................. 4

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH BACKGROUND ........................................................ 5

2.1. GOOGLE’S VISION ....................................................................................... 5

2.1.1 Mobile Internet ........................................................................................... 5

2.1.2 What is Google Android?........................................................................... 7

2.1.3. Competitive Features ................................................................................ 7

2.1.4. Android Architecture/Framework ............................................................. 9

2.2. BUSINESS MODEL ..................................................................................... 11

2.2.1. The ‘Ecosystem’...................................................................................... 11

2.2.2. Collective Interest of the Stakeholders ................................................... 14

2.2.3. Individual interest of the stakeholders .................................................... 14

2.2.4. Revenue Stream ...................................................................................... 16

CHAPTER 3 OPERATING SYSTEM ................................................................. 19

3.1. OPERATING SYSTEM COMPETITION .................................................... 19

3.2. ANDROID AGAINST OTHER OPEN SOURCE OPERATING SYSTEM 20

i
 3.2.1. Android vs. Symbian ............................................................................... 22

3.2.2. Android vs. LiMo .................................................................................... 24

3.2.3. Android vs. Mobilinux ............................................................................ 25

3.2.4. Android vs. Maemo ................................................................................. 26

3.2.5. Android vs. OpenMoko ........................................................................... 27

3.3. ANDROID AGAINST PROPRIETARY OPERATING SYSTEM .............. 28

3.3.1. Android vs. Research in Motion ............................................................. 30

3.3.1.1. Push API ........................................................................................... 31

3.3.2. Android vs. iPhone .................................................................................. 33

3.3.3. Android vs. Windows Mobile ................................................................. 36

3.3.4. Android vs. WebOS (Palm) .................................................................... 37

3.4. KEY CHALLENGES .................................................................................... 38

CHAPTER 4 MOBILE APPLICATION STORES & ANDROID MARKET .... 41

4.1. NON-ANDROID MOBILE APPLICATION STORES................................ 41

4.1.1. Mobile Application Stores Features Comparison ................................... 43

4.1.1.1. Apple App Store ............................................................................... 43

4.1.1.2. BREW............................................................................................... 44

4.1.1.3. Handango .......................................................................................... 45

4.1.1.4. GetJar................................................................................................ 46

4.1.1.5. Nokia –Download Store ................................................................... 48

4.2. ANDROID MARKET ................................................................................... 49

4.3. MOBILE APPLICATION MARKET PLACE COMPARISON .................. 50

ii
 4.3.1. Revenue Sharing Model .......................................................................... 51

4.3.2. Payment and Billing ................................................................................ 52

4.3.3. Mobile Ad Web and Handset Sales Market Share .................................. 52

4.3.4. Internet Browsing Market Share ............................................................. 53

CHAPTER 5 HANDSET MANUFACTURER ................................................... 56

5.1. HANDSET COMPETITION ......................................................................... 56

5.2 ANDROID HANDSET .................................................................................. 62

5.2.1. T-Mobile G1/HTC Dream....................................................................... 63

5.2.2. Android G2 – HTC Magic ...................................................................... 67

5.2.3. Samsung i7500 ........................................................................................ 69

5.2.4. Motorola .................................................................................................. 70

5.3. NON-ANDROID HANDSET ....................................................................... 70

5.3.1. Nokia ....................................................................................................... 70

5.3.2. Apple ....................................................................................................... 72

5.3.3. Blackberry ............................................................................................... 73

5.3.4. Sharp ....................................................................................................... 74

5.3.5. Competitor Responses towards Android................................................. 75

5.4. ANALYSIS ON ANDROID HANDSET ...................................................... 76

CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ......................... 79

6.1. OPERATING SYSTEMS .............................................................................. 79

6.2. APPLICATION STORES AND ANDROID MARKET .............................. 80

6.3. HANDSET MANUFACTURERS ................................................................ 81

6.4 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................... 84

iii
APPENDIX ........................................................................................................... 86

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 119

iv
 I
DEX OF TABLES

Table 1 Market share in mobile internet browsing as of March 2009 .................... 6

Table 2 Competitive features of Google Android .................................................. 7

Table 3 Stakeholders of Google Android ............................................................. 17

Table 4 Comparison of Android and Other Open Source Operating System ....... 21

Table 5 Comparison of Android and Proprietary Operating System.................... 29

Table 6 Mobile Application Stores Comparison .................................................. 42

Table 7 Features Comparison of Mobile Application Stores ............................... 43

Table 8 List of Google Android Applications as of May 8, 2009 ........................ 50

Table 9 Mobile application market place comparison .......................................... 50

Table 10 Android Vs i-phone market share during the 1st quarter ....................... 54

Table 11 Worldwide: Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor, 2008 (‘000

units) ..................................................................................................................... 57

Table 12 Customer Internet Browsing Experience ............................................... 60

Table 13 Comparison of Android and Non-Android Handset.............................. 61

I
DEX OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Android architecture/framework .............................................................. 9

Figure 2 Android ecosystem ................................................................................. 11

Figure 3 Google’s revenue stream ........................................................................ 12

Figure 4 OHA members ........................................................................................ 13

Figure 5 Relationship between Android’s stakeholders ....................................... 13

Figure 6 Android’s revenue stream ...................................................................... 16

v
Figure 7 Google Revenue Illustration ................................................................... 17

Figure 8 Operating System Market Share, 4Q2008.............................................. 19

Figure 9 Mobile operating system open/proprietary mapping.............................. 20

Figure 10 Android OS Stack................................................................................. 24

Figure 11 Symbian OS Stack ................................................................................ 24

Figure 12 Software stack comparison between Android and RIM ....................... 30

Figure 13. Blackberry push request process flow ................................................. 32

Figure 14 The IPhone OS Stack ........................................................................... 33

Figure 15 IPhone OS vs Android OS feature ...................................................... 35

Figure 16 Mobile ad Market share in US operating system as in March 2009 .... 53

Figure 17 Smartphone Market Share 2004-2008 .................................................. 56

Figure 18 Worldwide Smartphone Market Share 2008 ........................................ 58

Figure 19 Growth of Mobile Internet Usage (Jan 08 – Jan 09) ............................ 59

Figure 20 Penetration of Mobile Phone Technologies in Western Europe .......... 61

Figure 21 T-Mobile G1 Home Screen .................................................................. 63

Figure 22 Android G2 Phone ................................................................................ 67

Figure 23. Nokia N95 ........................................................................................... 71

Figure 24 Apple iPhone 3G .................................................................................. 72

Figure 25. Blackberry Curve 8800 ....................................................................... 74

Figure 26. Sharp Willcom D4 ............................................................................... 75

Figure 27 Subscription to Internet Broadband...................................................... 82

vi
 ACK
OWLEDGEME
T

We would like to extend our gratitude to the people who have supported the

successful completion of this research possible;

To our thesis supervisor, Professor Philip Sugai, we are grateful for his guidance

and patience, which have led to the quality of this research.

To Tom Moss, Head of Android Asia Pacific, Google Inc, who provided us with

insight views regarding Google Android development.

All our families, and friends especially E-Biz class 2009, whose support has

made all the difference. We thank them for being there during the time of

research from Fall 2008 – Summer 2009 at International University of Japan.

1
 ABSTRACT

More than four billion mobile phone users is an appealing reason for Google to

expand its competitive advantage in the mobile internet advertising with Android.

This report addresses a research question “What is the future trajectory of the

Google’s Android OS?” by identifying the key challenges of Android’s future

success. Key challenges in term of Android OS, its handset, and the Android

Market are discussed that lead to recommendations. The key for the Android OS’

success is to be a platform that enables the best user experience. Android OS

must have an architecture that eases developers to deliver a high quality of

application for consumer’s best experience. Any fragmentation in Android OS

must also be avoided such that compatibility across various handsets remains.

Related to handset, key challenges are to come up with an affordable price, but

still comply with the latest network requirements ahead, such as the LTE. Lastly,

key challenges for the Android Market Place, it should offer more attractive

incentive for developers and provide different pricing scheme, particularly the

subscription-based payment. Android Market should also be a single market

concept, which does not just provide applications, but also other mobile contents.

2
 CHAPTER I

I
TRODUCTIO

1.1. GOOGLE I
TRODUCTIO

Google's mission was (and still is) to organize the world's information and

make it universally accessible and useful. Google's founders Larry Page and

Sergey Brin developed a new approach to online search that took root in Stanford

University. Today, Google is the world's most popular search engine -- an easy-

to-use free service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second.

According to britannica.com, about 70 percent of all online search requests are

handled by Google, placing it at the heart of most Internet users’ experience. This

not only generated advertising revenues from internet search, which continues to

remain its cash cow, but also established the “Google” brand.

Google has been ranked #1 brand in 2009 yet again by Milward Brown, a

global market research and consulting company. Google has not only been a

brand to reckon with but has become synonymous for online search as well. In

order to sustain and increase its relevance in the future Google has moved into

the mobile internet market as well.

On 5 November 2007, the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) was formed to

promote a free open-source operating system based on Linux for mobile devices

and Android code was launched under Free/Open Software license. The Open

Handset Alliance is a consortium of dozens of technology and mobile telephone

companies, including Intel Corporation, Motorola, Inc., NVIDIA Corporation,

3
Texas Instruments Incorporated, LG Electronics, Inc., Samsung Electronics,

Sprint Nextel Corporation, and T-Mobile (Deutsche Telekom). The first phone to

feature the new operating system was the T-Mobile G1, released on Oct. 22, 2008.

Android-based phones require the latest third-generation (3G) wireless networks

in order to take full advantage of all the system’s “smartphone” features, such as

one-touch Google searches, Google Docs, Google Earth, and Google Street View.

1.2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The objective of this report is to answer the research question “What is the

future trajectory of Google Android?” This report is based on publicly

available sources such as reports and news articles on Android between October

2008 and July 2009. We will analyze and identify the key challenges of the

Android project at three different levels, at the operating system level, the online

application store level and finally the handset manufacturers’ level. In the final

chapter we will identify the key challenges and suggest a few solutions for the

overall success of Android community.

4
 CHAPTER 2

RESEARCH BACKGROU
D

2.1. GOOGLE’S VISIO

Google is a search engine which helps to connect the world together. Its

vision is to make a search engine so robust and powerful that it can understand

the entire world. Its goal is “to provide much higher level of services to all those

who seek information, whether they are at home, office, businesses or in travel”.

It has continuously focused on innovation so that it can provide fast, accurate and

easy-to-access search engine services which can be accessible from anywhere. At

the same time they have been constantly improving the user experience as well.

Google search is not only limited to the personal computer world but it has also

set foot in the mobile internet world with their Android OS.

2.1.1 Mobile Internet

Mobile Internet is the wireless internet services that can be accessed using

handheld devices such as mobile phones. Mobile Internet can be classified as

limited and unlimited based on the service provider. In limited mobile internet

service subscribers have to pay on downloaded packet basis for the internet

service whereas in unlimited mobile internet services subscribers will receive

unlimited access to news, entertainment, email etc for one month of subscription

fee.

5
 Mobile internet is growing rapidly. More than 50% of mobile subscribers use

mobile internet these days and according to adMob report, there are 8 billion

requests for the mobile ads worldwide at the end of March 2009. In the mobile

internet market, iPhone is leading the market share while Android is the next and

is rapidly gaining market share. The figure 2 below shows the graph of the

market share in mobile internet browsing.

Table 1 Market share in mobile internet browsing as of March 2009

Mobile Browsing by Platform Total Market Share (%)

iPhone 64.23

Android 8.30

Java ME 8.08

Symbian 7.46

Windows Mobile 5.54

BlackBerry 3.61

Palm 2.22

BREW 0.56

From the above chart we can see that iPhone is leading the market with 64.23

percentage of market share. Google Android is in second place with 8.30

percentage followed by Java ME, Symbian at 8.08 and 7.56 percentage of market

shares respectively.

6
2.1.2 What is Google Android?

“Android is a software stack for mobile device that includes an operating

system, middleware and key applications”. It is a mobile platform that is

complete, open and free. Android Inc. was co-founded by Andy Rubin and was

later acquired by Google, the largest search engine corporation, in July 2005. On

November 5, 2007, the Open Handset Alliances, a consortium of several

technology and mobile companies, was founded to promote and support the open

source operating system based on Linux called Android.

The third party developers can create applications, which are written in java

programming language based on Linux Kernel, using Android SDK, JDK 5 or 6

and Ellipse IDE version 3.2 or any latest version of Ellipse IDE, with the rich set

of Google Android API (Application Programming Interface).

2.1.3. Competitive Features

The current features of Google Android are as follows:

Table 2 Competitive features of Google Android

(Source : wikipidea.org/wiki/Android)

Features Classification

Handset Layout The platform is compatible to larger, VGA, 2D and 3D

graphics library based on OpenGL ES 1.0 specification, and

smartphone layouts

Storage The Database Software SQLite is used for data storage

purposes

7
Connectivity Android supports connectivity technologies including

GSM/EDGE, CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

Messaging SMS and MMS are available forms of messaging

Web browser The web browser available in Android is based on the open-

source WebKit application framework

Dalvik virtual Software written in Java can be complied in the Dalvik virtual

machine machine, which is a specialized virtual machine

implementation designed for mobile device use

Media support Android supports the following audio/video/still media

formats: MPEG-4,H.264, MP3, AAC,

MIDI,OGG,AMR,JPEG,PNG,GIF

Market Android Market is an open content distribution system that

allows consumers to search, purchase, download and install

various types of contents. Paid- for apps have been available

on the Android Market in the US since 19 February 2009

8
2.1.4. Android Architecture/Framework

Application

(Home, Contacts, Phone etc.)

Application Framework

(Window, Package, Location manager etc..)

Libraries Android Runtime

Dalvik VM Core Libraries

Linux Kernel

(Drivers, Power Management, Wi-Fi, Camera, Display drivers etc..)

Figure 1 Android architecture/framework

Figure 2 shows the Android architecture or framework which contains the

major components of Android operating system. There are four layers in this

framework with the Linux Kernel layer at the base and application at the top most

layers of the framework. Each section is briefly described below.

Application layer contains a set of core applications such as email client,

SMS program, calendar, maps, browser, contacts and others. All these

applications are written in Java programming language.

In application framework layer, developers have full rights to access the core

application framework. This application framework simplifies the reuse of

components; any developer can publish their application capabilities and any

other application developer may then make use of those capabilities. This

framework layer consists of services including views, content provider, resource

manager, notification manager and activity managers.

9
 Libraries and Runtime layer includes a set of C and C++ programming

languages and some of the core libraries are system libraries, 3D libraries, SQL,

Surface manager etc. Dalvik virtual machine is used to compile (run) the program

written in Java languages.

Finally the Linux kernel is the operating system which handles the physical

hardware and manages variety of services such as security, networking, memory

management, drivers for variety of devices and Power management. The kernel

also acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware and rest of the software

stack.

10
2.2. BUSI
ESS MODEL

2.2.1. The ‘Ecosystem’

Figure 2 Android ecosystem

(Source: http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/11/12/google-calling-inside-the-gphone-sdk.html)

In order to maintain its relevance and sustain its business which depends

mainly on Internet search, Google must formulate novel ideas to gain more

advertising income. Unfortunately, as we are now entering a hyper informed

society, simple market intensification would not be a compelling story for the

advertisers. In other words Google has to find a new market for revenue

generation. Fortunately, three billion users on the mobile industry can be an

appealing market for those advertisers. The figure 2 above shows us the

opportunity for Google to move the competition and future development on

customer web experience to mobile internet to increase their business size from

their main revenue stream which is advertising as shown on the graph on the next

page.

11
 A research shows that in the period
between July and September 2007, Google
advertising revenue surpasses one of the
UK’s TV channel revenue for about £ 10
million in the same three-month period

Figure 3 Google’s revenue stream

However, as Google is not a main stream player in mobile industry it needs a

vehicle to enter the staggering competition in the fast growing industry with a

proper business model.

Starting off with analyzing the increasing future trend of the mobile industry

and connecting it to a business revenue stream, Google must enter with a

platform which can support the customer web experience through a cost

competitive, high-tech, and dependable media to face the current mobile industry

competition. Google did that in the Q3 2005 with the acquisition of Android Inc

by the search engine titan.

However, having this platform is far from sufficient to conquer the mobile

industry. Google has to come up with something bigger and better. Google needs

something that gets people’s attention with real intrinsic long term value for the

stakeholders. This belief is what led to the founding of Open Handset Alliance

12
(OHA) on the 5th November 2007 (less than 1-month after the acquisition of

Android Inc)

With the OHA, Google tries to introduce ‘openness’ to the members which

consists of 34 mobile industry players (another 14 new members as of December

9th 2008) as shown below

Figure 4 OHA members

The relationship between the parties involved in the consortium can be drawn

similarly as per below

Figure 5 Relationship between Android’s stakeholders

13
2.2.2. Collective Interest of the Stakeholders

With the OHA, Google tries to leverage on the collective interest of all the

members in the consortium to make Android successful in the current market of

mobile telecommunication. And clearly, this consortium assembles nearly all 2nd-

tier players in the mobile communications market who are more than willing to

be advocates of ‘openness’ with their financial rewards. Largely, the collective

benefit for OHA members is the nature of Android being an Open source

operating system.

Open source which means innovations, new features, bugs fixing happen in

scale of weeks not years. Overall, the ecosystem development should be faster

than proprietary platforms.

2.2.3. Individual interest of the stakeholders

Customers - four core values that are related directly to customers are

cheaper mobile devices, rich portfolio of applications, fast growing innovations,

and high tech devices, which can be derived from the ‘openness’ of the Android

platform.

Handset manufacturers (OEMs) - cheaper bill of material which can

directly waive 25% of total direct cost on licensing fee, technical development

support from the ‘open’ community and also the support from Google on the

virtual java engine called Dalvik Virtual Machine. Furthermore there are no

licensing fee from SUN Microsystems’s Java Micro Edition (JME), which is used

in Java application engine for mobile platforms.

14
 Mobile operators - greater flexibility to customize and differentiate product

offerings supported by wider and faster range of innovations which can come

from diversified applications and a bigger pool of developers.

Software companies - the open-source platform enables the software

companies to streamline their product integration to fully utilize each stack of the

Android platform.

Semiconductor companies - for these companies Android opens a bigger

market beyond mobile phones, as it has a great potential to penetrate into markets

beyond mobile telecommunication like netbooks, set top boxes, VoIP phones,

karaoke machines, security and monitoring systems, and digital photo frames)

Commercialization companies - for them, the modern mobile technology

provides a platform which will unravel the future potential of mobile industry

such as ‘Android Market’ (Android market for applications).

Google - the aim is still the same, to increase its revenue from advertising as

the community grows. In fact, in this scenario Google has better advantage

compared to the current mobile telecommunication players, because essentially

they are aiming for two different things. Google’s aim is to increase its

advertising revenue which has no correlation to other mobile telecommunication

business model where they aim to sell more mobile phones and also gain a higher

market share of the mobile phone users market.

15
2.2.4. Revenue Stream

As we have explained above the benefit for each stakeholder in the

community varies based on their individual interests. The figure below will

simplify the scenario explained in the previous section.

Figure 6 Android’s revenue stream

From the image above we can identify two revenue streams for Google and

the OHA stakeholders.

16
 Figure 7 Google Revenue Illustration
(Source : http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm and
http://www.google.com/finance?q=goog)

The image above shows the projections of a new market for Google

advertising supported by mobile internet experience which could increase their

advertising revenue growth rate to nearly 300%.

And secondly, the revenue model for the stakeholders as Google should also

consider about the growing concerns of other stakeholders in the OHA ecosystem.

The success of the OHA consortium determines the future trajectory of Android

development which will significantly impact the future of mobile internet.

The table below shows the stakeholders and their revenue source.

Table 3 Stakeholders of Google Android

17
 For most of the stakeholders the definite qualitative benefit is the potential to

grow faster since Android is an open source platform, which means that

innovations can be done much faster than other prevalent proprietary models.

Further, there are also sources mentioned the potential about the mobile AdSense

which can be considered as derivative product (Google extension) within mobile

ecosystem. With this application in place, the opportunity for advertising revenue

sharing is not only limited to mobile operators but also mobile websites owners.

18
 CHAPTER 3

OPERATI
G SYSTEM

3.1. OPERATI
G SYSTEM COMPETITIO

This section will discuss the major competitors to the Android operating

system (OS). A brief introduction to each OS is provided in the Appendix 2.

The figure 9 below depicts the market share figures of OS worldwide in the

4th quarter of 2008. For the past decade, Symbian has had the largest market share

in mobile OS worldwide. This matches the success of Nokia in the mobile

handset market share worldwide. Based on the figure, Android is part of the 8%

Linux market share. Gartner estimated that Android OS accounted for 20% of the

total Linux market share, which is around 1.6% of the worldwide market share.

The major competitors for Android are Symbian, Research In Motion (RIM),

Microsoft Windows Mobile, Mac OS X (iPhone OS), Palm OS, and some Linux-

based mobile OSes, such as Mobilinux, LiMo, Maemo, and Openmoko.

Palm OS Other OSs

1% 1%
Linux
8%

Mac OS X
11%
Sym bian
Microsoft Windows 48%
Mobile
12%

Res earch In Motion

19%

Figure 8 Operating System Market Share, 4Q2008

19
 Analysis based on either open-source or proprietary system will be discussed

in this section. The following figure depicts the open/proprietary mapping for the

operating system (OS) discussed in this report.

CLOSED OPEN
SYSTEM SYSTEM

Figure 9 Mobile operating system open/proprietary mapping

The mapping shows a trend that the operating systems are moving towards

the two extremes. Palm, which was initially open for some handsets, is now

following the iPhone and is in the process of creating a proprietary Linux-based

operating system. On the other hand, Symbian OS is going the opposite

direction towards the open source OS like Android. In this case, we can see a bi-

polar market each trying to accomplish the same thing, which is to make a

successful mobile operating system.

3.2. A
DROID AGAI
ST OTHER OPE
SOURCE OPERATI
G

SYSTEM

Since Android shares the same roots as other Linux-based mobile OS; open

source OS is another hurdle that Android should overcome to avoid being yet

20
another open source mobile OS. The following table summarizes the comparison

of Android with the other open source OSes.

Table 4 Comparison of Android and Other Open Source Operating System

Android Symbian LiMo Mobilinux Maemo OpenMoko

Full-stack
Yes Expected No No No Yes
open source?
Symbian
Symbian
C++,
Programming Java, C++,
C++ C/C++ C/C++, Python
language C/C++ C/C++,
Java,
Java, Python
Python

Multitasking Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Required,
Porting Not
except Java- Required Required Required NA
redevelopment required
based apps.
Flexibility Battery- Designed
Full-stack High
Unique of Royalty- usage for Mobile
free open customizati
Features programmin free maximizatio Internet
source on
g language n Device
Processing Medium-
High High High High High
Speed low
Development
Fast Medium Medium Medium Medium Fast
period
Eclipse
License Apache 2.0 Public GNU/GPL GNU/GPL GNU/GPL GNU/GPL
License

Some advantages of Android compared to other open source OSes is, first, it

is the only full-stack free open source OS (access to all levels of the OS) backed

by alliance of companies that distinguish itself from OpenMoko. Second, it does

not require redevelopment for porting among different handsets since Java is

utilized as the programming language. A survey shows that 89% of respondents

expressed enthusiasm for Java as it provides an effective handheld platform that

can support multiple device types. Third, the development process is relatively

21
faster than other mobile OS since Java is easier to code compared to others like

C/C++. Fourth, Android also provides flexibility for developers to develop native

applications (based on C/C++), bypassing the virtual machine where the common

java-based application works on top of it. Five, the Apache 2.0 license is more

attractive to developers compared to GNU/GPL in terms of revenue generation or

viable commercialization opportunities since Apache 2.0 does not oblige

developers to release the derived application.

The following sections will further compare between Android and other

open source OSes.

3.2.1. Android vs. Symbian

In June 2008, The Symbian Foundation released the biggest evolutionary

leap in Symbian OS since its creation, making the platform open source and

planning to deliver the full open source in 2 years (June 2010). The foundation

started its operations in the first half of 2009, subject to the closing of the

acquisition of Symbian Ltd. by Nokia. This OS and some of its source code are

currently available under a royalty-free license to the foundation members.

Unlike Android which is a truly open source OS, Symbian is still on its

way towards becoming a full-stack open source OS. Symbian Foundation has

released the beta version of the security package in July 2009 under the Eclipse

Public License (EPL). EPL allows the package to bypass export regulations on

cryptographic products from the UK, Symbian's home base, under public

licensing rules. However, the current Symbian OS includes a lot of proprietary

22
codes, which will need to be licensed under the EPL in order for Symbian to be

an open source OS. This is still a big challenge for Symbian to be a ‘truly’ open

source OS like Android.

In comparison to Android, Symbian is a multitasking operating system

that could execute multiple applications simultaneously. The platform supports

several programming languages, notably C/C++ for porting existing UNIX

applications, and Java to port Java ME applications. However, the primary

programming language for the platform is Symbian C++, a language that makes a

steep learning curve for developers. This makes Android more preferable to

developers in general. It almost always guarantees a standard application

environment across Android devices. The virtual machine provides a layer for

programmers so the developers do not have to worry about the underlying

hardware on which Android is deployed. Therefore, redevelopment of the

applications is not required when porting between Android-based handsets.

The following figure shows the comparison between the two OS stacks. It

is clear that all bottom-up Android OS stack can be accessed by developers,

while the Symbian is only up to the middleware layer. Developers can create

more features by having more access in the Android OS.

23
 Figure 10 Android OS Stack

Figure 11 Symbian OS Stack

(Source: http://www.ddj.com/mobile/216300179)

3.2.2. Android vs. LiMo

What distinguishes Android from LiMo is that LiMo is just a middleware

where it can run on top of various operating systems, whereas Android is a full

operating system (which has its own middleware). Middleware only, meaning

LiMo only handles things that are tucked below what the user actually sees. User

24
experience items, such as the interface, are the responsibility of those developing

the device. LiMo aims to ensure compatibility across the industry, without taking

away operators' ability to put their own proprietary applications on top. LiMo is a

validation of a collaborative-development model that allows proprietary and

open-source software to co-exist within a single platform. This could attract

developers who want to develop a proprietary application on top of an open

source middleware. It is reported that some delegates at Handsets World were

generally enthusiastic about the potential of Android rather than LiMo.

In terms of programming languages, comparing LiMo to Android would be

similar with the Symbian and Android comparison earlier. Android applications

have flexibility to be written in Java or C/C++ while LiMo applications are

written in C/C++ only. Development cycle for LiMo would also be longer than

Android since development in C/C++ is harder than in Java. LiMo OS based

developers will also have to redevelop their applications whenever they want to

port into other type of handsets.

3.2.3. Android vs. Mobilinux

One key differentiation of Mobilinux is its advanced power (battery)

management. This could be the reason for the success of Mobilinux and be a

major player so far. The usage of C/C++ as the programming language would be

the main factor to achieve longer battery life. In the case of Android the battery

life is relatively shorter. Multi-tasking feature in a Java-based application system

is one of the main reasons for this problem. Mobilinux could win over Android in

25
this point. However, it is the consumers who eventually decide who wins based

on their experience. Consumers will most likely make their decision based on the

user interface (UI), where Android has superior UI than Mobilinux.

Compared to Symbian and LiMo, MontaVista wants to integrate Android to

enhance its Mobilinux portfolio in the mobile OS arena rather than compete

directly with Android. MontaVista has announced that it will support its

developers who use Mobilinux kernel with Android application. MontaVista

wants to have a better UI with Android by maintaining its core kernel with

Mobilinux. To show off its Android work, MontaVista has demonstrated the

Android OS stack running on top of MontaVista Mobile Linux on a Texas

InstrumentsOMAP3 system-on-chip (SoC). This is an evidence of Android

bringing the Linux-based mobile OSes to work together in the same platform.

3.2.4. Android vs. Maemo

With the announcement of collaboration with Intel, Nokia could bring

Maemo to a higher level. Compared to Android which is supported by an alliance

(OHA), Maemo was supported by Nokia only until its collaboration with Intel

was announced in June 2009. Maemo is intended more for Mobile Internet

Device (MID) usage instead of a typical mobile phone. MID generally has bigger

size, needs more power, and thus Maemo was designed specifically to cater to

such requirements. The comparison of Maemo and Android in terms of

programming language, porting development, processing speed, and development

period, it is very similar to the Symbian versus Android comparison in the earlier

26
section. Based on the comparisons, Maemo would not be a direct competitor for

Android at the moment since Maemo is still figuring out its path in mobile

computing arena. Until that time when Maemo will also enter the mobile phone

OS market, it does not pose a serious challenge to Android.

3.2.5. Android vs. OpenMoko

OpenMoko would be the only OS similar to Android, a full-stack free

open source Linux-based OS; however, OpenMoko does not have strong

supporters like the OHA for Android. Its unique feature is high customization on

the handset applications; even a user can customize it further easily. However,

instead of using Java, OpenMoko utilizes Python, a scripting-based programming

language. By using such scripting-based language, development cycle period will

be much faster than a typical development period of a C or Java-based

application.

It is reported that a lot of work is being done to get the Android OS to

function properly on a FreeRunner and it is likely that Android will be the

distribution most suited for using the FreeRunner as a phone in the near future.

Therefore, OpenMoko seems to take the same path similar to Mobilinux, which

will collaborate with Android. This is yet another evidence that Android has

successfully brought the Linux-based mobile OS community closer and work

together in the same platform. Both OpenMoko and Android leverage the power

of the Linux kernel and other open-source projects to provide a free software

platform for mobile devices.

27
3.3. A
DROID AGAI
ST PROPRIETARY OPERATI
G SYSTEM

Proprietary system is considered a conventional system however compared to

the open system, it also has its advantages. Proprietary softwares are usually

more stable because it has been tested through several trial and error routines.

Furthermore it also carries the goodwill of the OS brand. The documentation of

all OS development is strictly enforced and easier to follow however in the case

of open source development documentation is still a challenge because there is a

sense of volunteerism amongst the open source community. This means they will

only contribute to the kind of work they find interesting (like creating specific

apps).

However, Android, as an open operating system will cost less than

proprietary since developmental cost will be shared between the developers and

the company. The company is no longer solely responsible for maintenance. They

avail themselves of more developer input than they could ever manage on their

own.

However being an open system there is a potential liability in terms of

intellectual property infringement because it contains contributions from many

contributors and almost impossible to audit the entire code based on violation of

previous license. Android community prevents this by using the Digital

Millennium Copyright Act so that Android could terminate an application if

infringement of any sort is involved.

28
 The proprietary operating systems being used for comparison are RIM, I-

phone, Windows Mobile, and Palm

Table 5 Comparison of Android and Proprietary Operating System

Windows
Android RIM i-Phone Palm
Mobile
Programming
Java & C/C++ Java C-objective C++ Java
Language
Multitasking Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Porting Not Not
No Not Applicable Required
Redevelopment Applicable Applicable
Push Email, Easy
Full stack free Deck of
Unique Feature office Long battery life Synchronizati
open source Cards
application on
Internet
Integrated
BlackBerry Integrated
entertainment
Push API Address
system
book
Permission/ Advanced Exchange
User Encryption Active Sync,
Password
Security Authentication, Standard, Remote wipe device
protection
data encryption device password,
(developing) password remote wipe
Processing
Medium-high Medium High High Medium
Speed
Development
Fast Fast Medium Medium Fast
Period

The advantage of Android is the usage of Java programming language, the

application in Java has benefits in terms of portability and multitasking. If we

compare iPhone and Android, Android certainly has higher value to offer to the

consumers in terms of security, as it uses permission/ user authentication.

However, iPhone is soon catching up as they are developing encryption based

security and high possibility for “Remote Wipe” implementation. In terms of

processing speed, Android is considered medium-high due to the use of a virtual

machine.

29
3.3.1. Android vs. Research in Motion

In terms of operating system, although RIM is a proprietary system, the

application developer (third party) can write software using application

programming interface (API) such as Novell Group Wise, Lotus Notes as well as

the proprietary Blackberry APIs. However, the application developed using

certain type of restricted functionality have to be digitally signed, so that it can be

accounted to a developer account at RIM. This signing guarantees the authorship

of an application, but does not guarantee the quality or security of the code.

While for Android, it allows developers to write managed code in the Java

language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries. Android

offers a full stack of operating system meaning that Android provides more API

as opposed to RIM. Based on the below stack comparison, it’s clear that the

developer could access Android until the Linux Kernel layer whereas in RIM,

only until middle layer, the applications and Java classes and frameworks.

Figure 12 Software stack comparison between Android and RIM

(Source : http://www.ddj.com/mobile/216300179?pgno=4)

30
 In terms of security, the security of RIM OS has been tested by Fraunholer

Institute of secure IT. RIM provides high quality security architecture and strong

data protection this ensures the security of the pushed content. Blackberry RIM

uses Advanced Encryption Standard hence the email and other data remain

encrypted at all points between the Blackberry phone and enterprise server.

Android’s security architecture is based on permission however, encryption based

security is being developed currently. This could provide the same or even higher

security level than Blackberry RIM.

3.3.1.1. Push API

Push API is programming interface which enables the developer to push an

update in the application. This API is gaining more popularity since it could

increase the money flow. Some of the benefits of push API are:

• Immediate information: information can directly and time-efficiently be sent

to smart phone users.

• Money-saving efficiency: by using Push API, the applications do not need to

repeatedly poll servers for new data, although these polling requests are

considered small, the costs could add up quickly in the case of multiple

applications.

• Reduced Network Latency: this is related to customer satisfaction. Wireless

bandwidth is less than wired networks hence transfer rate is also slower. The

Push API delivers data to Blackberry without user involvement hence no

waiting time from the user’s perspectives.

31
 The RIM OS provides robust wireless synchronization which means

applications could be pushed easily from PC to handset and vice versa. Although

RIM’s focus is on the business tool, they are beginning to pay attention to

multimedia features starting with the RIM Blackberry Pearl which has built-in

media players. This is one of the ways RIM is gaining and expanding their

market share.

RIM is releasing the Blackberry Push API (Application Program Interface) to

infuse the Java applications from developers. This is done to overcome the

application limitation problem. PUSH allows for the delivery of data to a handset

without the handset having to submit requests for it. Previously the Push

Technology has been used to push emails to users and synchronize calendar

information and other enterprise-based solutions. With Blackberry Push API,

Push Technology is extended beyond enterprise to all Blackberry users.

Figure 13. Blackberry push request process flow

Android has the Push technology however it is only limited to push-email and

SMS currently. It is not impossible for Android to have Push API like RIM since

32
both are using Java programming language which enables the developers to

develop dynamic applications.

3.3.2. Android vs. iPhone

The major update with the iPhone OS is the release plan for iPhone OS 3.0,

which will provide some of the missing features in the iPhone, such as the peer-

to-peer file sharing, voice recording, and copy-and-paste. However, video

recording and application multi-tasking (background processing) will not yet be

provided since there is not much memory to run more than one additional

application at a time. Moreover, landscape mode will be supported by more

Apple applications. The following figure shows the iPhone OS stack, which

depicts parts of the OS that can be accessed by the developer in developing

applications.

Figure 14 The IPhone OS Stack

(Source : http://www.ddj.com/mobile/216300179)

33
 In terms of the OS licensing, comparing the Android OS with iPhone OS is

basically comparing an open source OS with a proprietary one. As a full-stack

free open source OS, Android gives freedom to its developers to modify the OS

the way they like for any hardware they want to port in. This would lead to more

innovations, although such freedom could also increase the risk of fragmentation

within the Android OS itself, which the OHA needs to control. As a proprietary

OS, iPhone OS is only intended for a certain hardware, i.e. the iPhone or iPod.

Compared to Android, there is a greater room for Apple to deliver an integrated

user experience, and seamless synergy across its services. As for Android, since it

runs on various hardwares with different configurations; that sort of software-to-

hardware synergy control will not be as easy as the iPhone.

In terms of the OS features and capabilities, as shown in table 4, there are

some features that iPhone OS 3.0 does not satisfy when compared to Android,

and vice versa. One key difference is that Android supports multi-tasking of

applications while the iPhone OS does not. This has enabled Android to have the

multi-notification drop down “window shade” that shows all alerts in one place,

such as new SMS and new mail, which the iPhone lacks. However, Android uses

background processes in this multi-tasking task which drains its battery life.

While it is good that Android runs background processes, iPhone has advantage

in saving the battery life. Moreover, iPhone has a feature to search phone-wide

search as well as direct Bluetooth peer-to-peer file sharing, which Android lacks.

34
 Figure 15 IPhone OS vs Android OS feature
(source : http://lifehacker.com/5173441/Android-versus-iphone-30-the-showdown)
In terms of programming language, iPhone OS is based on its own proprietary

programming language, the C-Objective language, whereas Android is based on

Java, which is a common programming language. With Java, Android will have

benefit in terms of ease of developing as well as attract the existing Java

developer’s community. Moreover, common development tools are used for

Android, whereas a dedicated development tool and station (only Apple PC) is

used for iPhone. In this case, Android development is more familiar to common

developers.

Discussing about the trends, a survey by Strategy Analytics claims that the

global shipment of Android OS will grow 900% in 2009, which is mainly due to

healthy support from operators, manufacturers, and developers. iPhone is

following Android with a 79% growth rate. Android is expanding constantly if

this trend continues it could potentially outgrow the iPhone OS, the report says.

Moreover, Android’s free-licensing model and its open-source structure plays

35
well in today’s tough economic climate in attracting all the parties in the smart-

phone ecosystem.

3.3.3. Android vs. Windows Mobile

Windows Mobile (WinMob) is proprietary open technology architecture for a

widely used High Level Operating System (HLOS) for smart-phones. Its main

target is the individual consumer end user as opposed to RIM’s business target.

Windows mobile is considered proprietary since its architecture and development

is controlled by single company (Microsoft). This proprietary OS is openly and

freely licensed to over 20 OEMs which manufacture the WinMob-based mobile

devices. Windows mobile is an operating system based on Microsoft Win API

that available in Microsoft Windows OS.

From the security point of view, Microsoft and Windows Mobile have

cooperated with regard to security management through Exchange Activesync.

This enables Windows Mobile users to activate the client-based authentication

and use it together with other security features such as device password and

remote wipe to erase all data upon user’s request if the phone is lost or stolen.

Whereas for Android, it uses the security architecture that no application has

permission to perform any operation that will severely impact other applications

operating system. Android conducts several permission-based functions. In

order to perform the function, the permission from user must be obtained.

However the open system makes it vulnerable to outside threats since the code is

36
accessible by everyone in the market. On top of that Android does not have

remote wipe capability that would be useful for lost or stolen phone.

3.3.4. Android vs. WebOS (Palm)

In terms of similarities, both platforms are open source based on Linux, and

utilize Java as the programming language. However, WebOS is not a full-stack

open source OS like Android. Since WebOS came later than Android, WebOS

Software Development Kit (SDK), a so called Mojo SDK, has not been released

yet. Unlike Android SDK, Mojo SDK will not be released publicly, and thus

Mojo SDK will not be available to all developers, which may result in fewer

developers for WebOS compared to Android. Moreover, WebOS has multi-

touch feature, a feature that Android lacks currently. Although both support

multi-tasking, WebOS has a unique multi-tasking feature called “Deck of cards”,

which is a multiple programs task bar interface that enables fast switching, and

notifications from other apps while maintaining the task at hand. Another unique

feature of WebOS is its synergy feature, which merges the phone contacts into a

unified address book that integrates with e-mail application to indicate whether a

contact is online (like in Gmail or Facebook) at the moment for a chat via instant

messaging.

37
3.4. KEY CHALLE
GES

The key for the Android OS’ success is to be a platform that enables the

best user experience. There are some challenges that the OHA needs to overcome

in order to deliver a high level of user experience.

• Enable developers to deliver a high quality of application for consumer’s

best experience

The first key challenge is that Android should keep improving its OS

architecture that eases developers to deliver a high quality of application for

consumer’s best experience. Such OS architecture enables full support at any

layer of OS, from the kernel into the application API (application programming

interface), such that developers can leverage the full potential of Android OS.

With deep flexibility for developers to cultivate the OS, there will be greater

possibility of creativity, which will lead to the best application that will deliver

the best consumer experience.

• Prevent Android OS from any fragmentation

Another crucial challenge is that OHA must avoid Android OS from any

fragmentation, a common problem in the Linux world. Fragmentation would lead

to incompatibility issues, which will confuse the consumers later on in choosing

which applications are compatible and not. Fragmentation commonly occurs

when there is lack of support from the open source community in providing a

certain feature that is required by a certain party in the community, who will then

create another version of the main platform that will fulfill the requirement. It is

therefore crucial to provide a very rich, uniform environment and a set of APIs

38
(application programming interfaces) that are needed to deal with everything by

the OHA to the developers.

Instead of further fragmenting the mobile Linux world, the following facts

show a trend that Android is most likely unifying them instead. First, MontaVista

Linux, which has a significant share in the mobile OS market, was demonstrating

the Android applications stacks on top of the MontaVista Linux OS. Previously,

the CEO of MontaVista had also shown his confidence in Android and stated that

MontaVista will join the OHA, although there is no further confirmation on this

matter. The CEO believes that Google's role in delivering a success for Android

particularly, and for linux based mobile OS generally, is very

positive. Secondly, this wiki for OpenMoko OS stated clearly that Android is

likely to be the distribution most suited for the FreeRunner phone.

• Easy integration with the handset

Related to handset manufacturers, a key challenge that Android OS is facing

is in providing easy integration with the handset. Android OS’ value proposition

of such easy integration will convince the handset manufacturers more, besides

other benefits such as free license, rich features, and full-stack open source. As a

result, handset manufacturers will show their loyalty to use Android OS in their

handset.

• Increasing the security protection for the operating system

Currently Android security is based on the user authentication including the

user name and password utilization. Currently Android is developing the security

by data encryption as utilized by RIM’s Blackberry. However, problem might

39
occur when the Android phone is stolen, since personal data could be leaked if

the phone is hacked.

• Medium-high processing speed

Since Android is using Java programming language that requires Virtual

Machine, the processing speed is considered medium-high relative to iPhone and

Windows mobile. It is even slower if multiple applications are opened at the

same time.

40
 CHAPTER 4

MOBILE APPLICATION STORES AND ANDROID MARKET

4.1.
O
-A
DROID MOBILE APPLICATIO
STORES

Mobile Application Stores (MAS) is an online storefront where users can

download mobile applications for their handsets, this is in addition to the existing

on-device storefront available in most of the mobile phones. This promises to be

a very profitable revenue stream ever since the success of Qualcomm’s BREW

which had “an average of 80 million applications-downloads per month in 2007

and over $1 billion shared with developers as of early 2007”.

However, all eyes are on Mobile Application Stores after the success of

iPhone App Store. Every other major OEM, carrier, mobile OS community and

even independent stores want to have a piece of the Mobile Application store

market pie. Below is a comparison of some of the operating systems and the

features they provide for Mobile Application development.

The three features compared are as follows:

i. Developer Community and Support – The developer communities are

extensive and are generally from the respective OS however in the case of

open source operating systems like Android the communities are extensive

and growing. The fundamental advantage of open-source software when it

comes to support is that it is always possible to retain a company to provide

support. Because the source code is freely available, organizations are not

limited to obtaining support from the authors. There is no restriction on other

41
 suppliers learning enough about the software to provide adequate support

whenever demand exists.

ii. Market Penetration – This is directly proportionate to the market share of

their respective handsets. Symbian, Java ME, .Net compact have large

market penetration for the above reason. However, in the Smartphone market

Apple, Blackberry and Palm are the leaders. If the market penetration is high

the community of developers and support may also grow.

iii. Distribution and Licensing – Proprietary companies generally have all the

distribution and licensing rights. There is an increasing trend of companies

making their OS or a part of the OS which pertains to application

development open source. Symbian foundation’s initiatives are a step

towards that ends. In the case of Android, the Apache License vendors are

free to add proprietary extensions without submitting those back to the open

source community.

Table 6 Mobile Application Stores Comparison

.Net
Symbian Java ME Android Flash Lite BREW Palm OS iPhone BlackBerry
Compact
Limited at
Developer
Recent, http://brewfo Recent,
Community Extensive Extensive Extensive MSDN Extensive Limited
growing rums.qualco growing
and Support
mm.com

High in
Deployed Japan. One of the One of the
on a large Average in Fifth largest largest player largest player
Market
number of Extensive Growing Average Average the U.S., player in in in
penetration
high end and low in Smartphone. Smartphone Smartphone
devices. other market. market.
countries.

Symbian
Signed and
Distribution None (Java
limited Apache None Proprietary Proprietary Proprietary Proprietary Proprietary
and Licensing Signed?)
Open
source

Note: Flash Lite should not be considered a mobile operating system like Symbian OS or iPhone

OS: it is a technology for developing applications that run on a mobile operating system.

42
4.1.1. Mobile Application Stores Features Comparison

Table 7 Features Comparison of Mobile Application Stores

(Source: Vision Mobile Research)

Some of the leading and most successful Mobile Application Stores are

compared in the above table based on fundamentals, performance and features.

At the time of writing of this report a few other Mobile Application Stores were

open however, the performance data was not available. A detailed analysis

between Android Market place and others is done later.

4.1.1.1. Apple App Store

Apple has an on-device storefront as well as an online storefront. While

Apple has stated that they do not expect to profit from the store, it has been

43
predicted by Piper Jaffray that the App Store could create a profitable

marketplace with revenue exceeding US$1 billion annually for the company. As

of July 2009, more than 1 Billion apps have been downloaded and 50,000 apps

were available.

4.1.1.2. BREW

The on-device storefront is very successful in Japan due to the existing

Mobile ecosystem. BREW's download system offers one of the most advanced

ranges of billing models, including subscriptions and prepaid credits that can be

used for purchasing applications or content. However, their attempts of opening a

global marketplace are not a success yet. Currently, Qualcomm is working on

releasing Plaza Retail, an online storefront, which gives publishers and

developers the ability to make their content available to multiple retailers

instantly, regardless of their development platform. This they believe will

increase the market opportunity for developers and publishers by offering a much

wider range of distribution channels, with new opportunities for both new

customers and the BREW community. Most importantly because content is not

tied to the device, application retailers can offer consumers the benefit of being

able to upgrade or change devices without losing their application investment.

44
4.1.1.3. Handango

It is one of the first application retailers founded in 1999 that sells mobile

software with over 140,000 applications (including variants) in its online stores

and over 100 million applications downloaded to date. Handango offers

worldwide distribution, support, and e-commerce services to its partners.

Company's customers include consumers, software developers, mobile operators,

and original equipment manufacturers. Handango supports all mobile devices

which include Palm handhelds, Windows Mobile Pocket PCs and smartphones,

Symbian OS devices, and BlackBerry devices.

Handango offers InHand that is available since first half 2007, is an on-device

application store for finding, installing and buying software for your mobile

device. Application download and purchasing are completed directly on the

device, so sync with a computer is not necessary. Description, rating and

screenshots are available for all applications. Software for using Handango

InHand is available for free for PalmOS, Windows Mobile, Symbian UIQ, and

Blackberry.

Handango offers application developers three channels of distribution:

- Direct, via handango.com

- Via channel partners such as Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, Alltel, Nokia,

RIM, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and AOL. Handango has recently expanded

with distribution through physical retail stores, namely BestBuy and Carphone

Warehouse.

45
Via Handango’s commerce engine web-shopping infrastructure used by over

1,000 content providers, Handango uses revenue share model with developers

and gives 60-70% to developers.

4.1.1.4. GetJar

GetJar is an application distribution and developer community, with over

200,000 developer and beta-tester accounts founded in 2004. GetJar connects

mobile consumers, developers, publishers, and advertisers in an interactive

environment, and gives users a unique and active role in product development.

As of October 2008, GetJar got more than 14 million downloads per month, with

300 million downloads to date. The company is based in the UK, Silicon Valley,

and in Lithuania.

Registered developers: 274,926

Registered beta-testers: 35,955

Supported Devices: 1,333

Total Game/Application Files: 43,843

GetJar started as a beta-testing community. Due to the large number of new

applications that were submitted for testing, GetJar subsequently became popular

with the general public as a free application download site. However, GetJar’s

central goal remains to provide a community where developers can upload their

content for free testing, access a broad group of users to download it, and get

advice from the community about how to improve their application. GetJar is

46
similar to Wikipedia: one person uploads an application, and the community

helps to improve it.

Despite lacking an on-device storefront, GetJar is a successful and

profitable Mobile Application Store. GetJar started as a community site,

connecting developers with beta testers, where users can download and test

applications. It has since evolved into a distribution channel for application

developers including brand-name applications like Opera Mini and Google Maps.

GetJar features mostly free and ad-supported applications. Developers can upload

applications to GetJar for free, and get downloads for free. Developers monetize

through four revenue models:

1. Free applications with no advertising

2. Ad-supported applications, where the developer monetizes through GetJar’s

in-house ad-injection (CPM) system, or other ad systems (e.g. Greystripe,

Smaato) for interstitial ads.

3. Trial applications, where the activation or upgrade takes place via the

developer’s own website.

4. GetJar plans to add a centralized billing facility via credit card to support

paid-for applications, according to Bill Scott, GetJar’s SVP.

GetJar also offers application store hosting solutions for operators. The

company allows operators to build own-brand or co-branded mobile application

stores in what seems like a no-brainer deal: GetJar offers the hosted solution to

the operator for free and is also willing to share part of the ad revenue. GetJar

47
operates custom portals for 11 operators and OEMs, including Three, MAXIS

Malaysia and Optimus Portugal.

One downside of GetJar is that it does not offer an on-device storefront,

where we may see the company partner with on-device portal providers.

4.1.1.5.
okia –Download Store

Nokia Download Store is a Web shop for trying and buying content for your

Nokia device. From Nokia Download Store you can find, preview and buy a wide

variety of content, applications and services from a range of different providers.

Previewing and downloading applications doesn't cost you anything, but if you

want to buy something, you may have to pay for that item. Currently they only

support Nokia handsets: N-Series and higher.

Ovi is the name for Nokia's "umbrella concept" Internet services. Centered

on ovi.com, it will market as "personal dashboard" where users can share photos

with friends, buy music and access third-party services like Yahoo's Flickr photo

site. It has some significance in that Nokia is moving deeper into the world of

Internet services, where head-on competition with Microsoft, Google and Apple

Inc. is inevitable. During his keynote speech to the 2009 Mobile World Congress

in Barcelona, Nokia Executive Vice President Tero Ojanperä announced that the

Ovi application store would be launched in May 2009.

Nokia says it will give 70 percent of all download revenue to developers, just

like Apple, if consumers pay by credit card. But developers will earn less per

transaction if consumers opt to pay through their operators, an option that will

48
initially be available in nine countries. "Because of geographic coverage, credit

cards will probably remain the main payment method" said Marco Argenti, vice

president of media at Nokia. "It’s going to be the default payment system across

the world. (But) in nine countries developers can activate operator payments."

Thus far, in cases where consumers can choose between paying via their operator

or using a credit card, more than 80 percent use operator billing, Nokia's own

data from the usage of its N-gage gaming service shows.

4.2. A
DROID MARKET

Android market is an open source or an open content distribution system that

lets consumers to search, purchase, download and install various types of content

such as games, music, news, maps etc. The different contents developed by many

developers are connected to users through Google expertise in infrastructure,

search and relevance. Developers are able to make their content available in this

open source platform that has similar features of feedback and rating system as of

YouTube. There are three simple steps to present the content in the Android

market place. They are:

- Register online as a merchant

- Upload and describe the uploaded content in detail

- And then finally publish it for the end users

As shown in table 1, there are 3817 applications available in the Google

Android market today and 38648 i-phone applications store in counterpart. These

49
 applications include communication, location based tools, travel guide, games,

barcode scanner etc.

Table 8 List of Google Android Applications as of May 8, 2009

Communication 199 Shopping 61

Entertainment 727 Social 99
Finance 110 Tools 785
Lifestyle 284 Travel 138
Multimedia 171 Demo 61
News and weather 86 Software libraries 16
Productivity 206 Games 695
Reference 179

As more developers are getting attracted in the Google android market, these

numbers of applications are increasing per month.

The recent updates in the android market includes access for developers to

target new countries for free applications, local language support improvement

for additional countries and every published applications are required to indicate

a minimum SDK version in the manifest file.

4.3. MOBILE APPLICATIO

MARKET PLACE COMPARISO

In order to compare the market place of each operating system, four criteria

are being used i.e. revenue sharing model; payment and billing; mobile ad web

and handset sales market share; internet market browsing market share.

Table 9 Mobile application market place comparison

Symbian
Android RIM i-Phone Windows Mobile Palm (
okia) others
Developers 0.70 0.80 0.70 0.70 0.70 .70 -
Revenue
Model Company 0.20 0.30 0.30 0.30 .30 -

50
 Share
Carrier 0.30
>$ 99 with
maximum of
> $ 25 >$99 >$ 99 with
5 free
one time >$299 for maximum of
application
subscript companies 5 free application
listing per
Payment and ion with 500 listing per year
year
Billing fee employees > $ 99 additional
app in excess of 5

Mobile Ad Web
and App Usage 0.03 0.09 0.43 0.05 0.02 0.36 0.02
Handset sales <.01 0.17 0.08 0.12 0.02 0.52 0.09
Current
Market
(US
based) 0.0842 0.0347 0.6481 0.0552 0.0739
Lunch
Internet
Month
Browsing
Market
Market
Share 0.0000 n/a 0.0017 n/a n/a n/a n/a
Share
Month 2 0.0348 - 0.0410 - - - -
Month 3 0.0453 - 0.0496 - - - -
Month 4 0.0665 - 0.0654 - - - -
Month 5 0.0728 - 0.0729 - - - -

4.3.1. Revenue Sharing Model

In the revenue sharing of Google Android, the developers gets 70 percentage

of the revenue from each purchase of the application and the remaining 30

percentage will go to the respective carriers. Google itself does not get any share

from this revenue model. Whereas its big competitors such as iPhone, Window

Mobile, Symbian and Palm takes 30 percentage of revenue share for every

application that is sold by the company itself and remaining 70 percentage goes

to the developers . Research in Motion (RIM) revenue model is slightly different

from the Android and other players in the market. In RIM’s revenue model, the

developers will get 80 percentage of the revenue from each application that is

sold and the remaining 20 percentage goes to the company itself. From the

51
revenue models of i-phone, RIM, Windows Mobile and Palm we can clearly see

that the operators are out of the model and have no control in it but Android has

given some place to the operator in their revenue sharing model.

4.3.2. Payment and Billing

In the payment and billing system, Android’s developers have to pay $ 25

for one time subscription fee. This application fee is online registration fee in

order to confirm that each developer is responsible for their applications. In

contrast, i-Phone developers have to pay $99 per year and for the companies with

500 or more employees who are creating proprietary in-house applications have

to pay $299. Besides, developers for other players like Windows Mobile and

RIM have to pay $ 99 per year to list their item in the store and they can save the

money by submitting 5 applications by the end of the year. In Window Mobile

developers have to pay additional $ 99 for each program listed in the Window

Mobile market place store.

4.3.3. Mobile Ad Web and Handset Sales Market Share

- Global Market Share

The world wide Smartphone market share by operating system, which was

released by AdMob in April 2009, shows that i-Phone is leading with market

share of 43% and the second leader Symbian with 36%. While Android only has

3% and the other operating system such as RIM and Windows Mobile have 9%

52
and 5%. Android can still capture 3% of market share world-wide during 5

months period biting Palm which has only 2 % of market share.

i-Phone comprised 8% of Smartphone market shares but generated 43% of

mobile ad request. The market leader in terms of handset sales is Symbian with

52% of market share. RIM, Windows Mobile, Palm and other has 17 %, 12%, 2%

and 9% market share respectively. In comparison to these players in the market,

Android has less than 1 percentage of market shares worldwide. This means that

Android had still challenges ahead in the market in order to increase its market in

the handset sales.

- US Based Market share

Google Android ad market share is 6 percentages and it has caught Palm in

US market as well. Window Mobile OS has decreased from 13% to 11 % while

the RIM OS has maintained the growth of 22%. I-Phone is still dominating the

market with 50 percentages of ad market shares. The Pie-chart below shows the

percentage of the mobile Ad market share in US operating system.

Figure 16 Mobile ad Market share in US operating system as in March 2009

4.3.4. Internet Browsing Market Share

53
 The major competitor of Google android in the market is iPhone and it has

tough battle ahead of itself against the iPhone. Although Google Android has

been recently launched last year, T-Mobile G1, the only Android device that is

being sold, had crossed the million devices in the first quarter as on April 23rd

2009. This number is one-third of the number of Apple Inc. iPhones that sold in

the first two quarters.

The graph below shows the neck to neck internet browsing market share of

Google Android and iPhone. Android has the same web browsing market share as

iPhone and also being in the same stage of life cycle. This report shows a

comparison of the overall browsing share for the first months of the iPhone and

Android’s lunch.

Table 10 Android Vs i-phone market share during the 1st quarter

Months After Launch i-Phone Share% Android Share %

Launch Month .0017 .0000

Month 2 .0410 0.0348

Month 3 0.0496 0.0453

Month 4 0.0654 0.0665

Month 5 0.0729 0.0728

From here we can see that the android phone users are using their internet

browser as much as possible. In the internet browser market share, Android

market share is almost the same as i-phone during the first 5 months of the launch.

This shows that Android is doing well in the internet browser market share and

has future ahead in the upcoming months in the market. Since the Android

54
operating systems are also used in devices other than mobile, like netbooks, we

can predict that the number of internet browser users might have increased in the

Android market share than its competitors.

Based on the internet browser, the mobile Ad market share also fluctuates in

the market. The AdMob , the largest mobile advertising market place measured

72 million ad request for Android in March 2009 while the i-phone ad request

was 607 million in the US in the same month.

55
 CHAPTER 5

HA
DSET MA
UFACTURER

5.1. HA
DSET COMPETITIO

When analyzing the current ‘smart-phone’ market we must take the handset

capability into competition. Thus we will show and compare the following

handsets that dominates the global market since 2004 to 2008 accordingly

Figure 17 Smartphone Market Share 2004-2008

(Source: http://gizmodo.com/5101114/iphone-conquers-166-percent-of-world-
smartphone-market)

From the graph above we can clearly see that Symbian (or interchangeably

with Nokia) who has been ruling the smart-phone market since quarter one 2004

decline in market share starting in the 4th quarter of 2007 from roughly 60% out

of the Smartphone world population to less than 45% in the quarter three 2008.

Meanwhile the ‘middle-class’ competition we can see that generally Blackberry

and Windows Mobile were hold on together taking about 10% each of the world

56
market share from 2004 to 2008. So basically, nothing changed in the ‘middle

class’ competition. However an interesting phenomenon happened with Apple.

They launch their first iPhone on June 3rd 2007 (Q2 2007) and quickly after the

phone hits the market it became the most favored Smartphone of choice which

reflected in the next quarter Apple report (as they can embrace roughly 5% of the

world Smartphone population in a smooth quarter movement). And after this,

their Smartphone sales are going up (and reported 18% of the world population

on 2008 3rd quarter). From these series of events we can analyze that part of the

reason why Symbian sales is going down is actually because of iPhone who’s

entering and winning the Smartphone competition using their market disruptive

strategy

Table 11 Worldwide: Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor, 2008 (‘000

units)

(Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/blogs/articles/1863/20090312/iphone-sales-
soar-245-in-2008-nokia-still-dominates-smartphone-market.htm)

And in 2008, Apple ‘market disruptive’ strategy pays off handsomely with a

245.7% growth rate since 2007, followed by Research in Motion (RIM, who act

57
on behalf of Blackberry as their proprietary platform as discussed earlier) with

96.7% growth rate, and the new ‘Open-source’ player with its HTC Dream

(Google Android) with 58.5% growth on the third place

Meanwhile others are still struggling to maintain their year-to-year growth.

These three main players are already entering a new form of competition with the

upper market giant (Nokia). However, in order to compete with this well-known

handset player, the other three major players has to prepare a solid, value and

content rich handsets to enter the head to head competition in the near future.

Figure 18 Worldwide Smartphone Market Share 2008

(Source : http://www.ibtimes.com/blogs/articles/1863/20090312/iphone-sales-
soar-245-in-2008-nokia-still-dominates-smartphone-market.htm)

While as for 2008, the winner is still Nokia (can be seen on the graph above).

Maybe this scenario will changed should these powerful new players think and

develop their handset carefully. Thus, we will give a brief analysis of each

player’s handset capabilities in correlation to Android and the Google business

model

58
 Firstly, as this moment we understand that the competitive advantage the

Android has for OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) is basically the

waiver of their licensing fees. Thus we will try to compare the licensing fees for

each handset above

Secondly, we use mobile internet usability of each handset as if we cross-

reference this to the business model. Mobile internet would be the objective of

Google. We have some underlying assumptions that mobile internet might be the

next step for mobile development, for instance from the chart below we can see

the year-on-year growth of mobile internet usage

Figure 19 Growth of Mobile Internet Usage (Jan 08 – Jan 09)

(Source: AdMob Mobile Metrics Reports http://metrics.admob.com)

Using this criterion we are assuming that the user experience is relatively

important to the continuity of the business model therefore we will measure the

supportive function for internet experience and the accessibility to the internet of

each handset. Additionally we also analyze whether each handset offers widget to

59
support the internet accessibility as we also find that widget can improve

customer browsing experience quite significantly as mentioned on the next table

Table 12 Customer Internet Browsing Experience

(Source: Widget Improve the Convenience of the Mobile Internet, Pete Nuthall,
December 2008, Forrester Research)

And to support the development of the mobile internet it may opens the door

to many other opportunities such as mobile advertising which commercialized by

Admob, mobile social networking (in Japan they have mixi or mobage-town).

Even though there are concerns like the usability of the current worldwide web

HTML based websites to be comfortably browsed from handset with limited

browsing feature as in desktop or laptop

And lastly, we will compare the hardware capability to offer high speed

data transmission, as we believe that upon developed environment this function

will become necessary. As some research mentioned trends towards this speed

connection will be the interest for many parties for European market starting

2010 as shown on the graph below

60
 Figure 20 Penetration of Mobile Phone Technologies in Western Europe
(Source: European mobile forecast: 2008 to 2013, Pete Nuthall, March 2008,
Forrester Research)

Based on the above, the comparison table for handset manufacturer is as

follows. Five criteria are being used to compare: hardware that support internet

experience; software that utilize the internet Google resources; network

connectivity; price; and market share.

Table 13 Comparison of Android and Non-Android Handset

61
5.2 A
DROID HA
DSET

According to PC-mag stating from Roiters that sales of Android phone will

be 10 folds compared to 2008. Google's Android was introduced in the United

States in the second half of 2008, and now all top cell phone vendors

except Nokia have said they would use Android. Experts from Strategy Analytics

have good opinion about Android, he said that Android has good position to

become a top-tier player in Smartphones over incoming years.

Mawston - Director of Strategy Analytics said that handset vendors and

operators like T-Mobile and Vodafone are attracted to Android's relatively low-

62
cost licensing model, its semi-open-source structure and Google's support for

services. That explains why T-Mobile and Vodafone have been the main carriers

of a number of Andoid handsets which mushrooming presently and in coming

time.

5.2.1. T-Mobile G1/HTC Dream

a) Home screen

Figure 21 T-Mobile G1 Home Screen

One of Android's most valuable qualities -- and perhaps the first thing new

users will pay attention -- is the home screen. First off, the users can add

shortcuts to applications, web bookmarks, individual contacts, music playlists,

and pretty much anything else an app developer wants to expose. These all look

just like the icons on PC, and the users can position them wherever they like.

The second part of this one-two punch would be the widget support, and this

is where the home screen's true value lies. It reminds us a little of TouchWiz

concept from Samsung, but by the nature of Android's extensibility, it'll be far

63
more useful. Although developers cannot build their own widgets in version 1.0

of the SDK, but Google says support is on the way.

The widgets will turn the home screen into a destination. The users will come

to the home screen to check the weather, news, sports scores, the RSS feeds, run

a couple web searches, and do pretty much anything else the legion of Android

developers can dream of cramming into a pretty little space.

b) Trackball

The trackball of T-Mobile G1 is nearly identical to those found on

BlackBerry devices. For many users, with a touch-screen and a full keyboard,

they did not think that they would be going to use the ball very often, but it's

actually a great help moving around pages with a lot of links, or while editing

text. The users can use the rubbery nub for navigation, and it's also clickable for

making selections.

c) Browsing

Although not support flash, the G1's WebKit-based browser does bang-up job

of rendering sites as faithfully as Mobile Safari. First, the issue of how G1 does

not support the multi-touch - the G1 doesn't support it at this point. The G1 offers

best single-touch experience for browsing. Flick gestures work exactly;

continuing to move the page after the users’ fingers have left the screen and

slowing to a stop. Panning brings up zoom buttons which located at the bottom of

the screen, but the key instrument might actually be the magnifying box, which is

called up by pressing an icon in the lower right of the app. The box automatically

zooms out the page, offers a small and magnified box that the users can drag

64
around and zoom into that area – but many experts say that it became hard to

control on large pages because even a small movement of the user’s finger

translates to a significant amount of scroll on the zoomed-out preview.

The page load times is behind the iPhone 3G when both devices were in 3G

coverage, but once the pages were loaded, scrolling was smoother on the G1.

Actually, both devices scroll pages smoothly - but the G1 was able to do so

without resorting to temporarily filling your screen with a checkerboard pattern

until it could get around to re-rendering your view. The users can zoom in on

pages by tapping an icon on the screen; it usually takes a tap or two to get to the

point where you can accurately hit links with their fingers (though they can

always use the trackball). While pages show in portrait or landscape mode, the

users need to switch to landscape mode and pop out the keyboard if you want to

enter text.

d) Make use of all Android OS and Google Support

etworks connects

Despite the shortcomings, Google has still managed to completely eliminate

one of the biggest pain points in the wireless world: changing phones. Even with

ActiveSync, iSync, Intellisync, WhateverSync, the process of bringing a new

phone online has usually been hairy at best, largely because you're moving across

heterogeneous platforms. Sometimes the sync goes the wrong way and wipes out

data on PC, sometimes data just flat-out refuses to transfer, and quite often,

you've got to physically connect the device to your computer to make it all

happen.

65
Email and SMS

Android's Gmail client is considered amazing. It offers push that is actually

assertive to be called "push" -- in some cases, the user actually received new

emails on the G1 before the web client. It is also created to mimic all of the web

version's most important Gmail-specific features, for example conversation

threading, archiving. Naturally, this facility knows how to integrate with your

contacts, and like almost everything else here, it makes best use of the

notification system.

In terms of instant messaging, G1 offers AIM, Google Talk, Windows Live,

and Yahoo! Messenger. The AIM client, unlike many mobile clients, accesses

their entire buddy list. The customer can log in to one account per service and

leave each running in the background.

otifications

It might seem like a minor point to make, but it is surprised to know that how

quickly it became a huge part of the G1 experience: The first piece of the puzzle

is a totally average-looking status bar that appears at the top of basically every

screen. Next, the users get the standard information every self-respecting phone is

going to provide: time, battery charge, signal strength, data network status, WiFi,

and silent mode. On the other hand, any app can place an icon to indicate that

something interesting has happened -- instant messages, emails, voicemails,

schedule reminders, and so on -- and optionally scroll a brief message (say, a

snippet of a received SMS). Perhaps the most attractive feature here, though, is

the security warning for each app the users download. Android can determine

66
what potentially sensitive features of the phone the app will have access to. It gets

really in-depth, too - it doesn't just tell the users that the app has accessed to their

personal information, for example; it notifies that it can read contacts and

calendar entries.

5.2.2. Android G2 – HTC Magic

Figure 22 Android G2 Phone

Android G2 would be launched with T-mobile
mobile and Vodafone. On T
T-Mobile it

would be called HTC G2/Magic or T-Mobile

T G2, this will be sell in US market.

On Vodafone
ne it would be called HTC Magic. Its initial
initial markets will be in UK,

Spain, Germany, France

rance and Italy and the phone will be a timed exclusive with

Vodafone.

a) Home screen and

avigation ball

Similar to HTC G2 with Android 1.5, the Trackball is with Enter button,

capacitive touch-screen
screen with on-screen
on screen keyboard (both portrait and landscape)

b) Browsing

67
 Thanks to the Cupcake OS, the HTC Magic has a very useable and smooth

browser. Scrolling is as fast and smooth as the Safari browser but Google, being

the Internet giant, added a very useful add-on aside from the circular scroll wheel

for zooming in and out of webpage: a magnifier. With Android browser, users

can scroll through the zoomed out view of the webpage and magnify the contents

of the page they are scrolling so they don't have to guess where is the about me

link or contact link of the website.

c) Make use of Android OS and Google support

HCT Magic make use of the update of Android 1.5, however, there are

several changes.

According to HTC, the Magic which runs on a 528-MHz Qualcomm

processor has 3G and Wi-Fi, and its 3G radio absolutely positively does not work

at all in North America. The phone also has a 3.2-megapixel camera, a built-in

compass and GPS.

The Magic runs an upcoming version of Android 1.5 with the biggest new

feature of soft keyboard, which lets user to enter Web addresses, e-mails and

other text without a physical keyboard. The soft keyboard works in both portrait

and landscape modes. When the user touches a key, a bigger version of the letter

that was typed will pop up on the screen in order to confirm user’s choice.

The Magic's photo gallery app has built-in video playback. Users can record

videos with the phone, as well, at two quality settings - "low" and "high." The

video player plays movies from a microSD card in full-screen mode. In the

68
Magic's Gmail app, users can check off multiple messages to archive, label or

delete them.

5.2.3. Samsung i7500

The Samsung I7500 is the first Android mobile phone provided by a leading

brand manufacturer and will be exclusively available from O2 as of June 2009 in

all O2 Shops, the specialized trade on the internet from June 2009. The device

can be combined with all tariffs and data packages.

Also Samsung just sent out its press release without giving any further

information except that the Samsung I7500 will be available in major European

countries from June, 2009. No word yet about a possible North American launch,

even if the I7500 supports T-Mobile U.S. UMTS frequency

a) Home screen and

avigation ball (track ball)

Home screen with size and feel same as HTC- G1 and HTC G1 version 2; and

no track ball.

b) Browsing

The i7500 will come with usual Google application set including Gmail and

Chrome browser. The handset will also support Android Market for downloading

applications.

c) Make use of Android OS and Google support

Similar to HTC G1 version 2 and HTC Magic, I7500 mobile phone is

expected to be the running version 1.5 Android. The phone offers users access to

the full suite of Google services, including Google Search™, Google Maps™,

69
Gmail™, YouTube™, Google Calendar™, and Google Talk™. The integrated

GPS receiver enables the comprehensive use of Google Maps features, such as

My Location, Google Latitude, Street View, local search and detailed route

description.

To sum up, the value of Android phones does not lie in the handset itself.

Android has an expanding application market, so that the handset is always

leveraged and it has left rooms for developers to create applicable and useful

applications.

5.2.4. Motorola

Verizon is reported to offer a Motorola device similar to the T-Mobile G1

with a touch screen and a slide-out keyboard. The first alleged spy-pics of

Motorola’s long-rumored Android phone, the T-Mobile-branded "Morrison,"

have filtered their way online, and hinted that the company could be taking

Google's mobile OS in a new, decidedly mainstream direction.

The Morisson is a QWERTY slider in the tradition of the G1, though judging

by the bright styling, generously-size d-pad and smooth lines; it seems to be

oriented toward a broader audience than its blocky T-Mobile stable mate. In fact,

the Morrison would sooner pass as a messaging-centric feature phone than a full-

fledged smart phone.

5.3.
O
-A
DROID HA
DSET

5.3.1.
okia

70
 Nokia N95. Receive a tagline as the ‘anti iPhone’
mobile cellular from Nokia
Presumably this series predetermined to fight with
the new emerging high tech mobile phones (i.e.
Apple iPhone, Google Android, Blackberries)
Supported by the solid functionalities presented
below, this can be considered a very powerful
handset for heavy user, despite of its high price on
the trade off

Figure 23. Nokia N95

(Source : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2113507,00.asp)

Some news shows that Nokia will assign N95 (to be followed by N96 and

N97 – upcoming model) to directly compete with these emerging Smart phones.

Priced at USD 749, this handset will enhance the user social networking on

mobile experience through its wide screen size (2.6 inches), 5 mega pixel camera,

high tech multimedia converter and GPRS support. For connectivity to support

the mobile internet, it offers email messaging, web browsing (with downloadable

browser), and local Wi-Fi even though unfortunately it doesn’t support 3G.

Additionally these handsets also support the GPS function aside from its built-in

map function (only worked in U.S and Canada). However, some concerns on the

non-expandable memory and battery lifetime are still on debate subject to those

features which drains the battery.

And operationally, these handsets are still supporting a keypad typing model (to

some extent, preferable in some countries).

71
5.3.2. Apple

“The Market Disruptor”

Apple iPhone 3G. The latest handset
from Apple computer that successfully
taking away some of the Nokia market
shares percentage in the early 2008
Also called as the pioneer for the new
breed of ‘computing platform’

Figure 24 Apple iPhone 3G

(source : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2319438,00.asp)

With a relatively low priced (USD 299 – when initially launched) and

supported by a set of powerful applications (related to browsing and multimedia

application in particular), this handset successfully grabs the market from Nokia

as the main player on the world handset manufacturer.

It has a slightly larger screen size compared to Nokia N95 (3.5 inches) and

has a lower specification on the camera with only 2 mega pixels to support the

user social networking on mobile experience.

On the flip side, other than concern about the non-removable battery, the

handset also doesn’t support for additional memory stick. However, as Apple

might have anticipated this, the battery lifetime actually can stay up relatively

longer than most Smart phones. Apple also use this handset to grow the iTunes

72
store, yet according to some reviews Blackberry Curve audio device is still

slightly better than Apple.

It has the built-in GPS intact to facilitate the user mobility experience. In

addition to that, web browsing is also one of the measures to facilitate the mobile

internet experience.

On the hardware side, the touch screen keypad offers a new stream of mobile

messaging as the built-in slide typing function which saves users time to write

and deliver messages.

Yet overall, the number of buggy unit that represent low quality control from

Apple manufacturing are still on the main cons area for this new age hand.

5.3.3. Blackberry

The main strengths of this handset are the QWERTY keyboard, music player,

and trackball. It also offers built-in GPS function within. So far, this handset

manufacturer focusing themselves on the middle handset market, as they

positioned themselves in a very niche and selective positioning.

73
 Known as the most widely used handset type
for internet browsing from Blackberry
(Research in Motion)

Figure 25. Blackberry Curve 8800

(Source: http://www.nielsenmobile.com/documents/CriticalMass.pdf)

This product sample of Blackberry compete directly in the similar market

position with Apple iPhone, Nokia N95, or even Google Android as they are all

sold at the relatively similar price range. The high tech model from this

manufacturer called Blackberry Storm was released last November 2008.

With a relatively similar screen size to Nokia N95 and its 2.5 mega pixels

camera, it offers the customer a social networking handset capability. And

supported with a proprietary web browser and quad band functions complete the

offers for mobile internet experience as part of their direct competition strategy

with Apple iPhone.

Yet overall, it doesn’t offer the 3G connectivity but on the trade-off it offers a

removable memory by providing a memory card slot under the battery stock.

Additionally, it is also using a QWERTY keypad instead of touch screen pad as

those of Apple iPhone. This handset sold for USD 299.

5.3.4. Sharp

74
 Sold at USD 1500, it positioned itself a little bit above the market players for

this handset segment. And as mentioned above, this handset design is focusing

for mobile internet customer, as the super-high-resolution large screen size plus 2

megapixels camera will enhance the customer mobile internet experience,

especially for social networking.

The first Windows Vista powered

mobile handset released by Sharp
(made exclusively for Japan
market)

Figure 26. Sharp Willcom D4

(Source: http://gizmodo.com/379297/sharp+willcom-d4-umpc-first-with-intel-
atom-centrino-windows-vista-too)

And to ensure the delivery of such convenience 1GB RAM is added to its

memory to ensure the hardware capability matches the requirement. On top of

that as it runs on Windows Vista platform, users can opt to remove Windows

Aero functionality to increase the CPU speed (1300 Mhz). However for this type

the RAM is not upgradeable.

The cons for this social networker handset are the design is still very large,

the add-in for ‘grab and drag’ browsing function is not as smooth as other

platforms and lastly HSDPA or 3.5G technology is not a built-in feature.

5.3.5. Competitor Responses towards Android

75
 Steve Balmer (Microsoft) is questioning Google’s ability to make money with

Android. While, Nigel Clifford (Symbian) also saying that Android is merely

another Linux platform. Eric Schmidt (Google CEO and Apple Board)

commented on his dualism position as normal, he responded “From my

perspective, I don’t think Google sees Apple as a primary competitor” .

Mr. Schmidt said that if there were areas of competition between the two, he

would withdraw from discussions. He added that it was well known that he

typically withdraw himself from Apple board discussions related to the iPhone.

5.4. A
ALYSIS O
A
DROID HA
DSET

By looking at the Android handsets we came up with those common features

as compared above. We saw the trend of Android smart-phone is very much

Mobile -Internet - oriented. The Android phone’s value proposition lies in the

“package” of internet access convenience (network and connectivity), internet

browsing experience, storage capacity and the Google’s resources. As Android is

open source, so handset manufacturers or network operators are free to create

their own versions of the platform. Also, it is free of charge, providing a potential

saving on the mobile OS license fees charged by Symbian (currently about USD

4.80 per handset), Microsoft and other providers. The idea of cutting out the

license fee from the bill of materials and being able to create a tailored version of

an OS without having to share those innovations with their competitors will

definitely appeal to handset manufacturers. It will also be attractive to network

76
operators who want to specify a particular platform for use on certain devices but

don’t have the resources to build it themselves.

However, there is a little benefit of using an open source platform like

Android if a handset manufacturer makes on the license fee are going to be

outweighed by the additional costs of training staff on new tools, a bigger bill of

materials and reduced time-to-market. There’s also the issue of fragmentation.

Google’s licensing approach carries a fundamental danger of increasing

fragmentation within the industry by spawning a wide range of Android variants,

each adding to the costs of the manufacturer, operator or Chipset Company which

developed them. Even if integral support for open web standards makes it

possible for third party developers to write applications across these different OS

builds, handset manufacturer has still got costs being duplicated throughout the

supply chain, making the devices themselves less economic to build. As the result,

Google has a lot of questions to answer in this area.

Dr. Won-Pyo Hong from Samsung to present the handset manufacture point

of view on Android strategy once said: "Our commitment is more to the Android

phone than the Google Experience device," Hong said. This means Samsung is

straight forward on customizing the handset on top of the Android platform to

make it well connectable with operators and satisfied by the users.

As we know, in any circumstances, Google still benefit as its revenue lies in

the internet advertising. The competition therefore, is: among Android phones

manufacturers and between Android and non-Android phone manufacturers. The

customization and privatization of each handset is highly required. This questions

77
a handset manufacturer to consider carefully before joining the game of

producing Android smart phones. If handset manufacturers make sure that they

can produce types of Android phone which have friendly user interfaces, fast and

convenient internet access, durability, support the current carrier business model

and AFFORDABILITY, they can think of joining the competition.

78
 CHAPTER 6

CO
CLUSIO
S A
D RECOMME
DATIO
S

6.1. OPERATI
G SYSTEMS

Based on the analysis in chapter 3, the following recommendations could be

concluded.

Google’s continuous role in the Android OS development - Although

Google makes Android as a fully open source OS, it is crucial for Google to

continuously support the OS development. The fact that developers decided to

jump ship from other Linux based OS for Android development is because of the

brand Google behind it.

Increasing the security protection for the operating system – As

mentioned in chapter 3, the Android security is based on the user authentication

including the user name and password utilization. Problem might occur when the

Android phone being stolen since personal data could be leaked if the phone is

hacked. In view of this, it is possible for Android to adopt the “Remote Wipe”

feature as utilized in Windows Mobile and iPhone. Hence the user could remotely

delete the data available in the handset.

Medium-high processing speed – As mentioned in chapter 3, Android is

using Java programming language that requires Virtual Machine which make it

slower if multiple applications are opened at the same time. Android must find a

method to trade-off this minus point. One method is to improve the user

experience since based on the Director of Symbian Foundation, Lee Williams, the

79
most important items for customer are the “User Experience then followed by

security and power”.

6.2. APPLICATIO
STORES A
D A
DROID MARKET

The following 5 features are the key for the success of any Mobile Application

Store:

Single Marketplace – They should provide other contents like ringtones,

themes, wallpapers not just applications like what BREW does with their on

device storefront. The online application publishing process should be simple and

transparent with QA process, where the applications are approved within 7days.

The testing and certification process should be simple and easy over different

OEM, MNO or distributor requirements. The developer should have choice to

choose over different pricing scheme like in-app payment, subscription based, per

download etc. The marketplace should provide analytics on downloads and

estimated revenue, something like Google Analytics which provides web

analytics. The marketplace should be open to applications from all major

platforms like Java, Symbian etc.

Fair & Ubiquitous Billing – Revenue sharing method which favors

developers. A transparent mechanism for processing credit card purchases, a

single-click, operator independent mechanism for operator billing, a clearing

house which allows quick settlement for developers.

Addressable Market – On-device storefronts are more profitable than Online

stores given that most of the mobile users make their application purchase using

80
their handsets rather than downloading from the Internet. Storefront should be

pre-loaded on devices and should also include operator-customized storefronts if

necessary. The market should support global distribution where users can

downlaod apps from other countries as well.

Provisioning – Licenisng an application to a particular subscriber and device.

There has to be features which could prevent fraud against sideloading. Simple

and transparent installation process without continual user prompts. Support

transparent updates for applications and storefront framework. Automatically

restore or transfer purchased applications onto a device.

Storefront – An on-device catalogue located within 1-2 clicks from the idle

screen. There should also be WAP and Web based i.e. Online storefronts as an

alternative distribution channel which provides multiple channels for app

discovery such as user ratings, top 50 apps, location or friend based

recommendation. Opportunities for developers to promote or market in on-device

storefronts.

6.3. HA
DSET MA
UFACTURERS

Our final conclusion and recommendation for the OEMs taking the concerns

on the identified key challenges to go forward are basically consist of several

actions

Firstly, taking into consideration that the market is moving towards faster

connectivity proven by the stage of mobile broadband growth stage in the

previous tables (penetration of mobile phone technology in Western Europe) and

81
also the concerns by the mobile operators at the 2008 Mobile World Congress in

Barcelona, Spain which shows the movement towards the importance of

connectivity to support the ecosystem. LTE (Long term evolution) which is the

enhancements of the UMTS system is also working towards the adoption of 4G

technology that offers 20 times faster than 3G connectivity to support the growth

of user on mobile internet platform as shown below

Figure 27 Subscription to Internet Broadband

(Source: http://www.ericsson.com/technology/whitepapers/lte_overview.pdf)

And as we know that the movements toward these technology is still ahead of

us, it is going to be better if the OEMs thinking about this functionality

implementation as mobile operators (Vodafone, AT&T, and Verizon wireless)

are ready to move into this connectivity starting 2010.

Secondly, OEMs also should take a look at their savings on the licensing

price. There are certain savings that can be achieved by OEMs using open source

platform instead of paying to license to use the proprietary operating systems.

82
Brief example from the comparison we can see savings per handset made by

android users compared to other operating system. However, the concern further

is whether the handset manufacturer or OEMs will fully utilize this competitive

advantage and use it in the competition, because up until now the open source

(Android) based handsets are sold within a relatively similar selling price to end-

users. It means that either higher margin at the OEMs or the mobile operators in

which the handset being operate it. And certainly the competition will find a way

to overcome this hurdle which ultimately moving towards better pricing structure

and technology.

Thirdly, we are also concern about the competition within the user interface

criteria. As we also know that the most current mobile innovations basically lead

by Apple innovations. This innovations is not only limited to open source and

close source or proprietary, it is also appear to occur between open source OS

providers like Symbian (even though they limit the SDK based on membership)

and Android, or even innovation competition within the open source platforms

such as Android OEMs themselves. We think that going forward OEMs has to

think about their handset capabilities that differentiate themselves than other

competitors regardless of operating systems as mentioned above. And ultimately

to find better resources to create efficiency not only from the operating system or

software level but also the hardware vendors as the market requirements getting

higher and any form of efficiency can assist the OEMs to lower their bill of

material.

83
 Lastly is the concern on the mobile operator relationship. We think that

mobile operators as the pipeline of services to end-users. Meaning that the

technology congruence between the handsets being sold and the service being

offered should match otherwise there might be much inefficiency of investments,

seeing from both handset manufacturers and mobile operators. Underlying this

concern is also the fact that currently many mobile operators dedicated to provide

better connectivity for better user-experience, thus handset manufacturers could

also use this momentum to lead the market by choosing the right mobile

operators to partner with and by choosing the right technology to invest in.

However, there is also perspective that shows ‘feature phone’ which defined

as “any phone that is not smartphone or PDA phone” will still be the market

leader for mobile telecommunication based on several criteria such as

affordability, battery life, usability, customer minimum requirements, and so

forth. These are exactly why we think that our concerns above might works to

improve the OEMs competitive capability beyond operating systems.

6.4 CO
CLUSIO

Although at the current early stage of its life, Android has shown a clear

trajectory it follows on as the mobile internet platform in the near future. The key

for the Android’s success is to be a platform that delivers a high level of user

experience. To reach its success, firstly, Android OS need to continuously

enhance its architecture that will ease developers to deliver a high quality of user

84
interface for consumer’s best experience. Any fragmentation in Android OS must

also be avoided such that compatibility across various handsets remains, and

Google’s continuous support the OS development is crucial in this regard.

Related to handset, it is crucial to come up with an affordable price and easy

integration between OS and the handsets for a high level of user interface

experience. The handset is also required to support faster network connectivity

that comply with the latest standard, such as the LTE. As for the Android Market

Place, it should offer more attractive incentive for developers and provide

different pricing scheme like in-app payment, subscription based, and per

download. Moreover, to get broader segment of customers, Android Market

should be a single market, which does not just provide applications, but also other

contents like ringtones, themes, and wallpapers.

85
 APPE
DIX

1. Stakeholders of Android Ecosystem (Open Handset Alliance™)

Open Handset Alliance™ (OHA), is a group of 47 technology and mobile

companies who have come together to accelerate innovation in mobile and offer

consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience. They joined

together building the first complete, truly open, and free mobile platform called

Android™

The idea was started by Google, who initiated the Android™ open-source

platform in the first place since acquire the newly startup company in Nov 17th

2005. With aim to build a better phone for customers which roughly consist

around 3 billion people around the globe, innovating in the ‘open’ where all

members of OHA are committed to a greater openness in the mobile ecosystem to

respond and innovate better to customer demand, and making a vision a reality by

fully utilizing this Android™ platform to reach their collective objectives

1.1. Handset Manufacturers

1.1.1. OHA handset manufacturer members

Presently there are nine members under the OHA handsets manufacture

category. Together with mobile operators, handset manufacturers join the

Alliance to develop handset based on open platform. Being a member of the

Alliance, handset manufacturers will get the benefits from lower software bill of

material (BOM) cost to faster time to market the handsets. Furthermore, the

86
handsets offering will be more valuable in customization and differentiation.

Following is the brief information about the handsets manufacture members of

OHA.

• ASUSTeK Computer Inc. is a leading company in the new digital era for IT

and communication products. The company's turnover for 2007 was 6.9

billion U.S. dollars.

• Garmin International, Inc. is the global leader in satellite navigation and has

built millions of products that serve the automotive, wireless, OEM, fitness,

aviation and marine markets.

• HTC Corporation focuses on driving cutting-edge innovation into a wide

variety of mobile devices to create the perfect match for individuals. The

company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498.

• Huawei Technologies is a leader in providing next generation

telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world.

• LG Electronics, Inc. the brand that is Delightfully Smart; is a global leader

and technology innovator in consumer electronics, home appliances and

mobile communications. LG's vision is to supply top-of-the-range innovative

digital products and services and ensure customer satisfaction.

• Motorola, Inc. is known around the world for innovation and leadership in

wireless and broadband communications.

• Samsung Electronics, a leading innovator and provider of mobile phones and

telecom systems.

87
• Sony Ericsson is a top global mobile phone manufacturer with sales of over

100 million phones in 2007. With operations in over 80 countries, Sony

Ericsson was established as a 50:50 joint ventures by Sony and Ericsson in

October 2001.

• Toshiba Corporation is a world leader and innovator in pioneering high

technology, a diversified manufacturer and marketer of advanced electronic

and electrical products spanning information & communications equipment

and systems.

1.1.2. Android handsets manufacturers

The Android platform is the first open platform that the OHA members

work on to developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile

operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design

products.

Gadgets include smart phones from HTC, Samsung, Motorola, LG and

Huawei and likely notebooks from HP and Eee PC maker Asus. Within the

scope of this thesis we would like to focus on analysis of Android mobile only.

So far, the handsets applied for Android OS (operating system) or so called

Google Phone on the market is T-mobile G1 and HTC Magic of which in US

the network is operated by T-mobile and handset is manufactured by HTC.

HTC

HTC is a Taiwan owned handset manufacturer which has good prestigious

trademark in the mobile industry for its cutting-edge innovation into a wide

88
variety of mobile services to create the perfect match for individuals. By

participating in the OHA and being the first handset manufacturer offering

Android OS phone, HTC confirmed the benefits of expanding their device

portfolio into a new category of connected mobile phones that change the

complexion of the mobile industry and re-create user expectations of the mobile

phone experience. So far HTC has offered two ranges of Android OS phone:

HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) and HTC Magic. The value of the first Android™-

based phone which HTC highlights in their advertising campaign is the

smartphone with easy-to- use webmail and chatting applications like Google

Talk™ or a cell phone that can guide you to your destination with built in GPS

and navigation programs.

Figure 28 HTC handset

The HTC Magic, powered by Android™, is designed stylishly with a

number of capabilities. It provides the Google suite of services like Gmail,

Search, YouTube and Maps. Accompanied with Outlook® synchronization,

Smart Dialer, and an onscreen keyboard with predictive text, the HTC Magic is

a “true entertainment and communication powerhouse”. Meanwhile the

Android™ powered HTC Dream “surpasses all conventional ideas about what a

89
phone can be” quote from HTC website. HTC Dream leverages the usage of

Google Map in HTC Magic to be able to immerse oneself in the location and

get to truly experience the destination. Explore fascinating cities like New York,

Sydney, London etc and take a virtual walk. With 360º panoramic scenes,

Google Maps Street View offered by HTC Dream is the next step in the

evolution of maps.

According to DigiTimes, HTC is set to release 10 new handsets in 2009. ALL

of these devices will be based on either Windows Mobile or Android. That means

there is a pretty good chance that HTC alone launches 2 or 3 new Android

devices in 2009.

Samsung

Figure 29 Samsung

The Samsung I7500 is the first Android mobile phone provided by a leading

brand manufacturer and will be exclusively available from O2 as of June 2009 in

all O2 Shops, the specialized trade on the internet from June 2009. The device

can be combined with all tariffs and data packages.

As the first Android mobile phone, the Samsung I7500 offers a 5 megapixel

camera with LED Flash. The big 3.2" AMOLED display ensures the brilliant

90
representation of photos and videos and reduces the battery power due to the

energy-saving technology. The battery which has been the limitation of HTC

Android phones has been improved in Samsung I7500 with generous dimensions

(1500 mah) and ensures that users enjoy long calls and access to the web. The

device also includes WLAN (802.11 b/g) and Bluetooth 2.0. Supporting various

multimedia codec formats, the I7500 is a multimedia all-rounder. With its

memory capacity of up to 40 GB it offers enough space for pictures, music and

videos.

Samsung also praises the open platform of the Google Android because of the

optimal customized features of the device. A variety of applications and services

is available in the Android market. The contact to friends is guaranteed by

integrated and freely available Web 2.0 applications like Facebook, Flicker and

Instant Messaging. Customers are always up to date anywhere they go due to the

automatic synchronization of emails, contacts and appointments of Google

accounts. All other popular email accounts can be accessed. The integrated GPS

receiver enables the comprehensive use of Google Maps: local positioning,

detailed route description and simple navigation. The application Wikitude

available in the Android market allows customers to access details of unknown

sights via photos on the web. The combination of a camera, GPS and a web

browser turns into a personal and interactive guide.

91
Motorola

Motorola has long been an advocate of open software for mobile platforms.

Although the decision has not yet finalized, there is a source of information that

by year end, the U.S. handset maker plans to roll out several smartphones based

on the Android operating system. According to Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha,

stated by Business Week, Motorola remains on track to have Android devices in

the fourth quarter 2009, for the holiday season. It is said that the new handset’s

name is Calgary and it will focus on social networking features. This is supposed

to be a vital part of a new Motorola smartphone powered by Google Android.

Although there's no mention of whether the rest of Good Mobile's offering will

be ported to Google Android, we assume Motorola will use this opportunity to

spread all its services to the platform.

Figure 30 Motorola's first Android phone

In terms of hardware, the new Motorola Android smartphone is supposed to

offer a capacitive touch screen like the Apple iPhone 3G and the recently

released Motorola Krave ZN4 - though there are no further details with regards to

how it will work exactly. Additionally, the smartphone is said to offer a slide-out

QWERTY thumb board. Overall, Business Week suggests that the Motorola

92
Android smartphone will be a higher-end version of the first Android smartphone,

the T-Mobile G1 by HTC. According to Business Week, the Motorola Android

smartphone will retail for $150 with a two-year contract and is scheduled to be

launched in Q2 2009. It's also supposed to be released in Europe in Q3 2009.

There's no word on which bands the Motorola Android smartphone will operate

on, but given Motorola's release strategy in the past, we wouldn't be surprised to

see both CDMA and GSM versions appear down the road.

LG

Figure 31 LG Handset

According to Reuters Barcelona - LG Electronics plans to start selling a

phone model running on Android, the highly anticipated mobile phone operating

system, at the start of next year at the latest, a senior official said.

In an interview at the Mobile World Congress trade show, Chang Ma, LG's

vice president for marketing strategy told Reuters that they will bring the phone

out late in 2008 or early 2009. The new handset is LG KS360 or LG Tribe or LG

Neon which will apparently be LG’s first Google Android platform mobile phone.

93
Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson was expected to give several new; gorgeous Android based

devices in coming time. However, being affected by the global financial crisis

which caused Sony Ericsson cut down 2000 jobs worldwide, the company has to

delay the time to launch the first Android device. According to Soni Ericsson’s

Chief Executive Hideki Komiyama, the development of Android based products

requires a lot of evaluation, as well as a lot of testing, a lot of acceptance from a

consumer viewpoint, and there is still time to go.

However, basing on the source of DigiTimes, citing a report in the Chinese

language Commercial Times newspaper, Sony Ericsson is likely out-source the

production of its initial Android based smartphones to Taiwan's Foxconn

Electronics. In an interview with Reuters, the CEO praised the Android as an

important OS, however, the Chinese newspaper, citing an internal document from

mobile network operator; Orange indicated that the MNO is working with Sony

Ericsson for an Android handset launch around Q3 of this year. Based on typical

Sony Ericsson announcement; to launch timelines, it would suggest a product

announcement no later than the end of June. The company seems concerned with

differentiating its Android products from those of other companies, since all the

devices will be running the same base level software.

For Android lovers, this is excellent news. Sony Ericsson did a great job of

customizing Windows Mobile for its XPERIA X1 smartphone, so it should do

just a good job with the Android OS. Given that the default Android user

94
interface is already pretty slick, adding a Sony Ericsson custom paint job on top

sounds mouth watering.

Huawei

Back in December of last year, Huawei - Chinese phone manufacturer -

announced that they planned to release an Android powered handset in the third

quarter of 2009. The announcement came shortly after the manufacturer officially

joined the Open Handset Alliance.

When unveiling the new device at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

last week, the company didn't give any details regarding the availability of the

handset, nor the carrier that will introduce it to the market. However, a recent

article published by the news site DigiTimes states that Huawei already

announced its partnership with T-Mobile, and that the manufacturer would start

shipping its touchscreen Android-powered smartphone during the third quarter of

the ongoing year. In related news, we learn that the new Huawei Android –

powered device will also go to South America in the second half of the year 2009.

Also according to an announcement on their official website, Huawei plan to

showcase a "Smart mobile phone based on the 'Android' platform" in a section of

their booth named "Mobile U-life".

Although Huawei has shown everyone its first Android device at the

MWC (Mobile World Congress) without mentioning a lot of important details,

so far we know the handset will support a 5-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm-

headphone jack and WiFi and a large touchscreen. The phone should arrive in

95
late 2009 and T-Mobile might be the carrier to sell it in the USA and maybe in

other markets too. That’s all confirmed by a Huawei spokesman but we’re still

waiting for the official press release. The phone is rumored to be called the G3

once T-Mobile gets it but that’s still long from being absolutely accurate.

1.2. Operators

The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) currently has nine operator members that

spread throughout America, Asia, and Europe. Originally there were only five

operator members:

TT DOCOMO

DOCOMO is Japan’s largest mobile carrier with more than 54 million

subscribers. DOCOMO also is an influential force in the continuing advancement

of mobile technologies and standards. In 1999, DOCOMO launched i-mode™,

the world's most popular platform for mobile Internet services including e-mail,

browsing, downloading and more. Over 48 million DOCOMO subscribers now

use i-mode. In 2001, FOMA was introduced by DOCOMO as the world’s first

3G commercial mobile service based on W-CDMA. It transformed the mobile

system in Japan and also bringing DOCOMO to received global recognition.

DOCOMO saw the opportunity of mobile phone as part of “lifestyle tools” as it

launched Osaifu-Keitai, a mobile wallet enabling The role of mobile phones as

"lifestyle tools" was cemented when DOCOMO launched Osaifu-Keitai™, a

mobile wallet platform enabling quick, contactless transactions for cash, credit,

96
ID, and more. More than 32 million phones equipped for Osaifu-Keitai services

are now in use.

KDDI Corporation

KDDI is a telecommunication operator that provides wide-ranging services

from mobile to fixed line in Japan. KDDI is a union of 3 different companies

DDI, KDD, and IDO which was merged in 1991 with one of the main objective

was to compete more effectively to NTT group. KDDI has become the second

largest mobile operator in Japan, with 18.1% market share or more than 30

million subscribers, after NTT DOCOMO. The mobile business of KDDI, known

as “au”, is focusing on young and dynamic market.

Currently au is working with Motorola to develop au box with based on

android system which will be launched in fall 2009.

Figure 32 Japan mobile phone subscribers shares by operator

97
Sprint-
extel

Sprint-Nextel is a US-based company that focuses its business in mobile

communication and internet services. It was formed in 2004 as the result from

merger between Sprint and Nextel. It currently offers cellular service under Sprint

and Nextel brands. The internet service is under the name SprintLink. The

business is not only available in USA but also in several Asian and European

countries. Sprint Nextel wholesales capacity on its PCS wireless network to

Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO); this means the MVNO uses the

Sprint PCS network for cellular services. The MVNOs resell wireless services

using their own brand.

Despite of the growing market, Sprint-Nextel business is losing customer.

This is one of the reason it joined Google’s OHA as one of the founder

companies as they view Android is “something exciting to attract new customers”

T-Mobile

T-Mobile, which headquartered in Bonn, Germany, was founded in 1990 as

subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. T-mobile market is available throughout Europe

and USA. The main business is mobile telecommunication, home-fixed network,

and also enterprise/company solution. In terms of subscriber, T-mobile currently

is the eighth operator worldwide with more than 128M subscribers. In United

States, T-mobile was the first operator to launched smart-phone with android

system (G1-phone developed by HTC). T-mobile is the fourth largest wireless

carrier in the US with more than 32M subscribers.

98
China Mobile

China Mobile Communications Corporation or China Mobile is China’s and

world’s largest mobile phone operator. It has customer based of 415million.

China mobile also ranks fifth in global brand equity and first in Asia according to

Brand. Its business is only focus on mobile communication; the group’s GSM

global service cored 219 countries and regions in addition to its GPRS services

that covered 138 countries.

Its target market is varied from the customer with high to low level of income

with the stratification of its service (Go-tone, M-zone, and easyown)

In December 2008, there were 14 companies entered the OHA; amongst them,

four were mobile carriers, which were:

Softbank Mobile Corp

Softbank Mobile Corp is the subsidiary company of Softbank Group that

focuses in mobile communication business. Softbank is the third largest mobile

carrier in Japan after Docomo and KDDI. Softbank mobile currently operates in

PDC (Japanese 2G) and W-CDMA (3G). Softbank mobile was previously known

as Vodafone before Vodafone group decided to sell its shareholding of Vodafone

Japan to Softbank group in 2006. In order to strengthen its position in Japanese

mobile market, Softbank mobile cooperates with Yahoo! Japan to provide mobile

as well as fixed-network services.

99
Telecom Italia

Telecom Italia, with more than 70 million subscribers, is the largest

telecommunication company in Italy. The business is available in fixed line,

broadband, and mobile. It has market presence in Italy and Brazil. The target

market for Telecom Italia is ranging from youth, professionals, and regular based

on their available product. Telecom Italia is paying high attention to its

stakeholder by creating sustainability strategies which focused in economic,

environmental, and social sustainability.

Telefónica

Telefónica is Spanish telecommunication carrier that operates globally and

has market presence mostly in Europe and Latin America. After acquiring O2

plc., Movistar and Manx Telecom, it become the third largest fixed-line and

mobile telecommunication after China Mobile and Vodafone. The merger with

O2 will strengthen Telefónica’s position especially in Ireland, UK and Germany.

Movistar gave benefit to Telefonica in terms of customer based USA and Latin

America. Besides being an OHA member, Telefonica has already launched Apple

i-phone and it brought a positive impact in its 2008 results. And Telefonica also

planned to launch Android-based mobile phone in 2009.

Vodafone

Vodafone is the second largest mobile operator after China mobile and has

market presence in more than 25 countries and partnership in more than 42

100
countries. Vodafone is divided into two major business units: Vodafone Global

that maintain the mobile operation in UK and Vodafone Global Enterprise which

handles Vodafone's multinational clients. It is the high end business to business

section of Vodafone group, and acts like an operating country. In terms of

Android phones, Vodafone is planning to release several series in 2009 namely

HTC magic.

101
1.3. Content Provider

The developers and content providers are the second most important

stakeholders in this mobile ecosystem after customers. The developers could be

individuals or companies both small and big. The founding members of OHA

were 10 companies namely Ascender Corporation, eBay, Esmertec, Google,

LivingImage, NMS Communications, Nuance Communications, PacketVideo,

SkyPop, SONiVOX. Currently there are 16 companies in the consortium. Apart

from these software and content providers there are thousands of individual

developers.

The open-community of developers is one of the key drivers in Android’s

mobile eco-system. Android Market, a software application developed by Google

for Android devices, which allows users to browse and download applications

published by third-party developers, features content from both big media

companies and hobby developers, bridging the gap between premium and user-

generated content. Currently, only developers in the US and UK are able to

publish priced applications. Below is a brief description of some of the content

providers.

Ascender Corp.

Ascender Corp. is a leading provider of advanced font products and

innovative applications for mobile devices specializing in type design, font

development and licensing.

102
LivingImage

This company based in Japan consists of renowned engineering, marketing

and creative experts in the audio visual arena. By using Android platform,

LivingImage will propose tools that give life to a new sphere of visual

communication by combining photos, movies and sounds.

Myriad group AG

Myriad is a leading provider of multi-media solutions and end-to-end

integration services. They are one of Europe’s largest mobile phone software

companies, with a global team of 800 software engineers, and a worldwide

customer base that includes all major phone manufacturers and 30 mobile

network operators.

uance Communications, Inc.

Nuance is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses

and consumers around the world. Their contribution to Android, helps developers

begin to build mobile applications with basic voice command functionality in US

English. Nuance will offer a complete portfolio of language models, services,

applications and advanced technology programs.

OMRO
SOFTWARE Co, Ltd.

OMRON SOFTWARE is a leading embedded device software company,

provides innovative / universal language and image processing technologies for

mobile devices.

103
Packet Video (PV) (www.pv.com)

PacketVideo (PV) is a multimedia software company whose software powers

the world's leading mobile entertainment services, including Verizon Wireless'

VCAST music and video services, NTT DoCoMo's 3-G FOMA service and

Orange World by Orange. PV provides OpenCORE, the multimedia subsystem to

Android.

SkyPop

It provides next generation services for mobile devices.

SO
iVOX

SONiVOX is a premier developer of audio technologies and solutions that

empower consumers to create “Sound That Rocks”. They are the sole MIDI audio

solution in the Google's Open Handset Alliance. MIDI audio are used primarily

to create interactive gaming applications.

1.4. Consumers

Mobile consumers are the end user or the mobile subscribers who use the

services and benefits from the mobile operators. Mobile consumer can be defined

as the consumers who use mobile voice subscriptions, messaging, web access and

other mobile data services. These days, mobile consumers are defined by the

application they acquire to personalize their mobile experience such as their

convenience in shopping, billing and other mobile services. Mobile consumers

can be anyone from the public (individual or household) to the business or

government end users. Business or government end users are concerned with the

104
reliability of the communication services they contact for while the public

whether individual or household are concerned with any type of technological

services.

According to the ABI research, the subscribers of worldwide mobile

consumers are expected to reach 4.3 billion at the end of 2009 and this growth

continue to be 5.4 billion by the end of 2013.

In the ocean of mobile phone subscribers, Google android has also sailed its

boat. There are about 6% of Google Android consumers among the 4.3 billion

subscribers in the world.

1.5. Business Commercialization Companies

Commercialization companies are the bridges for all OHA members to realize

their Android product development, specifically in hardware and software design,

development, and integration. Their roles in the OHA are crucial particularly in

supporting operators and handset manufacturers who plan to ship devices and

services based on Android. They enable mobile handset manufacturers to have a

faster, lower development cost and lower risk. With their assistance, handset

manufacturers can offer best Mobile user interfaces design to the consumers.

They also help to develop, run, and manage device software faster, better, at

lower cost and more reliably. Moreover, they provide technical framework and

training for systems integration, test, customization, and management. The

current commercialization companies in the OHA are as follow:

105

oser Engineering Inc. (www.noser.com/oha) is the core contributor of the

Android Platform in the system integration and customization.

Wind River (www.windriver.com/oha) enables companies to develop, run,

and manage device software faster, better, at lower cost and more reliably

Aplix Corporation (www.aplixcorp.com) enables mobile handset

manufacturers to have a faster, lower development cost and lower risk route to

deploy wireless Java solutions.

Borqs (www.borqs.com) provides operator-centric mobile handset

operating system (OS) software products and mobile internet service platforms

and solutions.

Teleca AB (www.teleca.com) is a global supplier of innovative software

and solutions to mobile communications companies. Teleca has about 2,000

employees in Asia, Europe and North America.

TAT - The Astonishing Tribe AB (www.tat.se) is a specialist in mobile

user interfaces, recognized for its design capabilities and for its software

solutions that enable richer user experiences on any platform, to date embedded

in more than 140 million devices.

106
2. Competition Landscape

2.1. Operating System

2.1.1. Proprietary Operating System

Symbian OS

In June 2008, The Symbian Foundation released the biggest evolutionary leap

in Symbian OS since its creation, making the platform open source and planning

to deliver the full open source in 2 years (June 2010). The foundation started its

operating in the first half of 2009, subject to the closing of the acquisition of

Symbian Ltd. by Nokia. This OS and some of its source code is currently

available under a royalty-free license to the foundation members. For the past

decade, Symbian has the largest share in the mobile OS worldwide. This matches

the success of Nokia in the mobile handset market share worldwide. The current

version is Symbian 9.0. The APIs are publicly documented and up to Symbian

8.1 anyone could develop software for Symbian OS.

Figure 33 Symbian OS Screenshot

107
Research In Motion (RIM)

RIM OS is the proprietary OS for the BlackBerry handsets. It is a proprietary

OS since it is only available for only the BlackBerry handset. RIM OS mainly

focuses with business related features, such as email exchange, calendar and

contacts synchronization, and documents servers. However, to compete with

other consumer-oriented handset like i-Phone, RIM released the Blackberry

Storm in 2008.

Figure 34 RIM OS in BlackBerry Bold Screenshot

Windows Mobile OS

Windows Mobile OS is designed to be somewhat similar to the desktop

versions of Windows so that synchronization between devices can be easily

carried out. Devices that run Windows Mobile include Pocket

PCs, Smartphone, Portable Media Centers, and on-board computers for

certain automobiles. The current version of OS is the Windows Mobile 6, which

was released on February 12, 2007 at the 3GSM World Congress 2007. It comes

in three different versions: Standard, Professional, and Classic.

108
 Figure 35 Windows Mobile 6 OS Screenshot

iPhone OS (Mac X OS)

The iPhone OS is a derivation of the Mac X OS, the Apple computer based

OS. Similar to RIM OS, it is a proprietary OS only for the iPhone handset. This

OS is the first OS who successfully provide the multi-gesture touch screen

feature, which led to richer user experiences with mobile handset. In order to

open for more innovations, Apple has release the iPhone SDK on March2008 for

the developers to make various applications, as well as test them in an "iPhone

simulator". However, loading an application onto the devices is only possible

after paying an iPhone Developer Program fee.

Figure 36 iPhone OS Screenshoot

109
2.1.2. Linux-based OS

Similar to Linux-based OS for desktop, there are fragmentations in the Linux-

based OS for mobile handsets. Some major platforms are Mobilinux, LiMo,

Maemo, and Openmoko.

Mobilinux OS

Figure 37 Mobilinux OS Screenshot

Mobilinux was announced by MontaVista Software Company in 2005 as a

commercial-grade Linux development platform for wireless handsets and other

mobile devices such as GPS devices, portable medical devices, and wireless Point

of Sales (POS) terminals. It is a proprietary development platform with the

customizability and control of an open-source Linux environment. Unlike freely-

available source code, Mobilinux is productized and tested by MontaVista's

testing facilities. Mobilinux is based on open source and open

110
standard technology, designed for scalability and maximized battery power usage

for single-chip mobile phones. The current version is the new Mobilinux 5.0.

Mobilinux 5.0 is the new version of the operating system used in 90% of Linux-

based smartphones. More than 35 million phones and other mobile devices run on

Mobilinux.

Linux Mobile (LiMo) OS

LiMo OS is developed by LiMo Foundation, an industry consortium

dedicated to create the open, hardware-independent, Linux-based operating

system for mobile devices. The LiMo Foundation was founded in January 2007.

The founder members of the LiMo Foundation are NEC, NTT DOCOMO,

Orange, Panasonic, Samsung and Vodafone. The mission of the LiMo

Foundation is to create an open, Linux-based software platform for use by the

whole global industry to produce mobile devices through a balanced and

transparent contribution process enabling a rich ecosystem of differentiated

products, applications, and services from device manufacturers, operators, ISVs

and integrators. There are currently about 40 types of handsets available,

including some handsets by Motorola, Panasonic, NEC, and LG.

Figure 38 LiMo OS Screenshot

111
Maemo OS

Maemo OS is a Linux-based OS for mobile devices developed by Nokia in

collaboration with many open source projects. Maemo OS is mostly based on

open source code, thus it is not a fully open source. Currently it is used only by

Nokia-based handsets. Maemo Community is a non-profit organization sponsored

by Nokia, which has over 16.000 registered members that contribute to more than

700 development projects.

Figure 39: Maemo OS Screenshot

Openmoko Linux OS

Openmoko Linux OS is an open mobile product that empowers developers

and consumers to personalize the devices in any way they see fit. Unlike most

other mobile phone platforms, these OS are designed to provide end users with

the ability to modify the OS and software stack. Almost everything involved in

the creation of an Openmoko phone is open source, from the operating system to

applications to reference designs. The most recent product is the Neo FreeRunner.

This OS is funded by First International Computer, Inc. (FIC) is a

Taiwanese computer and components manufacturer.

112
 .

Figure 40 Openmoko Linux OS

2.2. Mobile Application and Application Stores

Mobile applications are viewed or used on mobile phones, like ringtones,

graphics, discount offers, games, movies, and so forth. As mobile phone use has

grown since the mid 1990s, the significance of the devices in everyday life has

grown accordingly. Owners of mobile phones can now use their devices to make

calendar appointments, send and receive text messages (SMS), listen to music,

watch videos, shoot videos, redeem coupons for purchases, view Microsoft Word

documents, and so forth. The use of mobile applications has grown accordingly.

Many mobile applications, such as SMS/MMS clients, browsers and music

players, are pre-installed on mobile phones, whereas others may be provisioned

and/or configured post-sales. For example, user can download applications over

wireless network and then install them themselves, or they can have them loaded

and installed in the mobile operator’s store. Mobile applications are a large and

continuously growing market and served by an increasing number of mobile

113
application developers, publishers and providers. The types of mobile

applications could be categorized as following.

• Communications: E-mail clients, Mobile Web and Internet Browsers,

News/Information Clients, On-Device Portals and Social Network Clients

• Games: This is the biggest and most sought after category by consumers.

• Multimedia: Graphics/Image Viewers and Video/Audio Players

• Productivity: Calendars/Calculators/Diary,Notepad/Memo/Word Processors,

Spreadsheets, Banking/Finance, Address Book/Task Managers and Directory

services

Mobile Application Stores (MAS) are a new solution market which

promises the development of a new revenue stream for operators, handset OEMs

and application developers. The success of Apple’s App Store has been well

documented; more than 5,000 new applications, $30 M revenue in the first 30

days of operation, 200 million downloads in the first 100 days. The facts point to

a rediscovered revenue source that the mobile industry is eager to capture.

Since Apple opened its goldmine iPhone App Store, all eyes have been on the

upstart mobile provider and its business model. Now that their success is beyond

argument for e.g consumers have already downloaded 1 Billion apps by April

2009, every other major provider has either launched a similar application

marketplace or announced plans to do so. Let's take a look at the status of the

various mobile application stores:

Apple

114
 The iPhone App Store is the original mobile phone application center on the

block. With more applications on the iPhone App Store than anywhere else,

Apple's application center is the one to beat.

Figure 41 : Apple iPhone App store

Palm

Palm has announced the Palm App Catalog, an "on-device application

catalog to deliver your apps directly to users" on the new Palm Pre operating

system. The Palm Pre's app architecture is already winning praise with analysts

for its Palm WebOS, which will run applications written in HTML5, CSS and

Javascript - meaning developers won't have to reinvent the wheel to write Palm

Pre apps.

BlackBerry

The BlackBerry World App, an on-device application catalog is now

available through the BlackBerry Storm software version 4.7 and will differ from

115
the iPhone App Store in that different carriers will have separate marketplaces

where they can offer their own, carrier-specific applications.

Figure 42 BlackBerry App World

Google Android Market

The Android Market is open for business, and looks to be the most serious

of the iPhone competitors. Although it doesn't (yet) have as many applications

available as the iPhone store, Google, as always, has their sights set high.

Figure 43 Android Market

116
Symbian App Store

Both
okia and Samsung are developing Symbian app stores. Samsung's is

called Samsung Mobile Applications, while Nokia's is called the Ovi Store and

is slated for release in June on the Nokia N97.

Figure 44: Samsung mobile applications store

Figure 45 : Nokia’s Ovi mobile applications store

Microsoft

Microsoft's SkyMarket is set to launch with Windows Mobile 7.

SkyMarket could turn out to be the IPhone App Store's biggest competitor,

117
considering that Windows Mobile already sports more than 18,000 applications.

Currently, Windows Mobile Catalog provides options to buy mobile

applications using Handango or Pocketland.

Figure 46 Windows Mobile Catalog

Besides these vendors there are other communities such as -

GetJar

GetJar is application distribution and developer community, with over

200,000 developer and beta-tester accounts founded in 2004. GetJar connects

mobile consumers, developers, publishers, and advertisers in an interactive

environment, and gives users a unique and active role in product development.

Handango

It is one of the first application retailers founded in 1999 that sells mobile

software with over 140,000 applications (including variants) in its online stores

and over 100 million applications downloaded to date.

118
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andrefski, Jodie (February 17, 2009), Gadget Tell: Vodafone and HTC make
Magic together. Retrieved on July 09, 2009 from
http://www.gadgetell.com/tech/comment/vodafone-and-HTC-make-magic-
together/

Android an Open Platform for Mobile Devices. Retrieve on May 01, 2009 from
http://www.slideshare.net/ftbalagt/android-an-open-platform-for-mobile-
devices

Android Developers: Security and Permissions. Retrieved on June 22, 2009 from
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/security/security.html

Android Market Place Rankings. Retrieved on July 02, 2009 from

http://www.androidstats.com/home/categories

Android Open Source Project. Retrieved on February 18, 2009, from

http://source.android.com/license

Apple Website Frontpage. (December 05, 2008). Retrieved on June 29, 2009
from www.apple.com

Asay, Matt (December 22, 2008), CNET News: In Google we trust? Retrieved on
July 10,2009 from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10127876-16.html

Babriel, Carolone (April, 15, 2009) Japan takes Android beyond Phones: :okia
may respond with Maemo. Retrieve on May 01, 2009 from
http://www.rethink-wireless.com/?article_id=1264

BBC Online: Google Ad Revenue to surpass TV. Retrieve on April 19, 2009,
from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6108678.stm

Blackberry: Advanced Security Features for Government. Retrieved on June 15,

2009 from http://na.blackberry.com/eng/ataglance/security/government.jsp
1.
Blogulate. (July 3, 2007). The Sources of All its Riches. Retrieve on April 15,
2009 from http://blogulate.com/content/the-source-of-all-its-riches/

Brown, Eric (November 19, 2008), MontaVista touts Android readiness.

Retrieved on June 03, 2009 from http://www.linuxdevices.com/news
/NS3442336407.html

Browne, Jonathan, August 2008, Forrester Research: Japan’s Mobile Social

:etworks :eed Some Usability Tweaks

119
Business Week. (August 17, 2005). Google Buys Android for its Mobile Arsenal.
Retrieve on April 19, 2009, from http://www.businessweek.com/technology
/content/aug2005/tc20050817_0949_tc024.htm

Business Week Integrated Solution: RIM Blackberry Case Study. Retrieved on

July 10, 2009 from
http://mediakit.businessweek.com/pdf/researchservices/BlkBryCaseStudy.pdf

Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. About Open Source.
Retrieved on June 15, 2009 from http://www.cippic.ca/open-source

Check Market Online Surveys: Burn the Brand. Retrieve on April 15, 2009 from
http://www.checkmarket.com/fe/support/articles/brand-survey/

Constantinou, Andreas (November 14, 2008), The Mobile Application Store

Phenomenon. Retrieved on June 29, 2009 from
http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/2008/11/the-mobile-application-store-
phenomenon/

Drego, Vidya. L, July 2008, Forrester Research: Usability and Cost Slow Mobile
Internet Adoption

Eddy, Nathan (February 16, 2009), MWC: :okia Announces 'Smart Store' Ovi.
Retrieved on July 02, 2009 from http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-
Wireless/MWC-Nokia-Announces-Smart-Store-Ovi/

Eddy, Nathan (March 18, 2009), :okia Looks to Challenge Apple App Store.
Retrieved on July 02, 2009 from http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-
Wireless/Nokia-Looks-to-Challenge-Apple-App-Store/

Encyclopedia Britannica: Searching for Business, Google-Inc. Retrieved on

February 18, 2009, from
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1017491/Google-Inc

Explain.(May 20, 2008). Driving Innovation on new Platform: Android and Open
Handest Alliance. Retrieve on April 20, 2009 from
http://www.exxplain.com/TrainingDetails.aspx?Ticket=de5d0d74-0f06-4a4f-
be8e-ec31f80ff968
Gabreil, Caroline (July 10, 2009), Symbian releases first fully open package.
Retrieve on May 08, 2009 from http://www.rethink-
wireless.com/?article_id=1662

Get Jar Website, Get Jar Software. Retrieved on June 29, 2009 from
http://www.getjar.com/software

120
Gilbert, Sarah (May 25, 2007), Blogging Stocks: iPhone launch date: Everything
we know about when the iPhone will be available. Retrieved on July 09, 2009
from_http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/05/25/iphone-launch-date-
everything-we-know-about-when-the-iphone-wil/

Gohring, Nancy (November 16, 2007), Google and Sun May Butt Heads Over
Android. Retrieve from http://www.itworld.com/071116googlesun

Google. Digital Millenniun Copyright Act-Android. Retrieve on June 15, 2009

from http://www.google.com/android_dmca.html

Herrman, John (June 22, 2009), Gizmondo: Is This Motorola's First Android
Phone? Retrieved on July 09, 2009 from http://gizmodo.com/5299453/is-this-
motorolas-first-android-phone

Hiner, Jason (June 1, 2009), Five reasons why the Palm Pre will be a homerun.
Retrieved on July 10, 2009 from
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=1706&tag=nl.e101

Intel News Release : Intel and :okia Announce Strategic Relationship to shape
:ext Era of Mobile Computing Innovation. Retrieved on June 10, 2009 from
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20090623corp_b.htm?iid=p
r1_releasepri_20090623rb

June, Laura (May 10, 2009) Engadget Mobile: Samsung's i7500 Android phone
shows up in another, more epic hands-on video. Retrieved on July 09, 2009
from http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/10/samsungs-i7500-android-phone-
shows-up-in-another-more-epic-han/

Kharif, Olga( June 22, 2009), T-Mobile’s :ew my Touch 3G. Retrieved on May
21, 2009 from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2009
/tc20090621_705265.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-
+temp_news+%2B+analysis

Kumparak, Greg (May 14, 2008), Android vs. LIMO: What’s the difference.
Retrieve on May 08 2009 from http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2008/05/14/
android-vs-limo-whats-the-difference

Lee, Jean K (July 28, 2008), Willcom D4 UMPC early impressions. Retrieved on
July 10, 2009 from http://www.pocketables.net/2008/07/willcom-d4-
umpc.html

Lee, Jean K (August 12, 2008), Review: Willcom D4 (Sharp WS016SH).

Retrieved at July 10, 2009 from http://www.pocketables.net/2008/08/review-
willcom.html

121
LinuxDevices, Monta Vista touts Android Readiness. Retrieved on June 29, 2009
from http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3442336407.html

Malik, Om (April 9, 2008), LTE Jumps Ahead in the Race to 4G. Retrieved on
July 10, 2009 from http://gigaom.com/2008/04/09/lte-jumps-ahead-in-the-
race-to-4g/

Market Share by Net Applications, iPhone vs. Android Browsing Share.

Retrieved on July 09, 2009 from http://marketshare.hitslink.com/mobile-
phones.aspx?qprid=62&sample=33

McGlaun, Shane (June 23, 2009), PhoneMag: Verizon and T-Mobile plan to
launch Motorola Android phone. Retrieved on July 10, 2009 from
http://www.phonemag.com/verizon-and-t-mobile-plan-to-launch-motorola-
android-phone-069242.php

McLean, Prince (October 01, 2007), Apple Insider : :okia launches anti-iPhone
campaign amid controversy. Retrieved on July 10, 2009 from
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/01/nokia_launches_anti_iphone_
campaign_amid_controversy.html

Millward Brown Optimor. 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2009: Mobile
Operators. Retrieved on February 18, 2009, from
http://www.millwardbrown.com/Sites/Optimor/Media/Pdfs/en/BrandZ/Brand
Z-2009-Report.pdf

Mobile Browser Market Share. Retrieve on April 15, 2009, from

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/mobile-phone.aspx

Moris, Simon (December 2004), Feature Phones Will Continue To Dominate

Smart Phones. Retrieved on July 10, 2009 from
http://www.wsdmag.com/Articles/ArticleID/9426/9426.html

MsCracken, Harry (May 06, 2009). Smartphone OS smackdown: WebOs vs. the
world. Retrieved on June 29, 2009 from
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/306505/smartphone_os_smackdown_
webos_vs_world?pp=4&fp=2&fpid=2

Musil, Stevev (April 26, 2009) Report: First Android :etbook to cost $ 250.
Retrieve on May 01, 2009, from http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-
10227770-1.html

Mobilinux article, :ew MontaVista Moblinux 5.0: The World’s Most Advance
Mobile Operating System. Retrieve on May 15, 2009 from
http://www.mobilinux.com/product_detail_mob.php

122
Open Handset Alliance. Retrieve on April 20, 2009 from
http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/press_releases.html

OpenMokoWiki: Android. Retrieved on June 15, 2009 from

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Android

Qualcomm Press Release (May 18, 2009), App Store Pioneer to Take Mobile
Retailing to Any Device on Any :etwork with Plaza Retail. Retrieved on June
29, 2009 from http://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2009/090518
_App_Store_Pioneer_to_Take_Mobile.html

Ricker, Thomas (June 30, 2009), Engadget Mobile: SciPhone Dream G2 Android
charger is best ever. Retrieved on July 09, 2009 from
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/tag/G2/

Shankland, Stephen (November 12, 2007). Google’s Android parts ways with
JAVA industry group. Retrieved on June 15, 2009 from
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13580_3-9815495-39.html

Siegler, MG (June 11, 2008), Analyst: There’s a great future in iPhone apps.
Retrieved on June 29, 2009 from
http://digital.venturebeatcom/2008/06/11/analyst-theres-a-great-future-in-
iphone-apps/

Segan, Sascha (March 02, 2007) PCMag review: Blackberry 8800. Retrieved on
July 10, 2009 from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2093340,00.asp

Segan, Sascha (June 22, 2007) PCMag: The Anti-iPhones. Retrieved on July 10,
2009 from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2113514,00.asp

StrategyAnalytics, Android Smartphone Shipments to Grow 900 Percent in 2009.

Retrieved on June 22, 2009 from
http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=PressReleaseViewer&a0
=4728

Symbian’s CEO Richard Clifford dismissed Android as just another Linux

platform (November 13, 2007). Retrieved on July 10, 2009 from
http://www.symbian-
freak.com/news/007/11/android_just_another_linux_platform.htm

Symbian Website: About the Symbian Foundation. Retrieved on July 10, 2009
from http://www.symbian.org/about/index.php

Times Online. (October 30, 2007). Google Shows ITV a Vision of the Future.
Retrieve on April 16, 2009 from

123
 http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article2
767087.ece

Tindal, Suzanne (November 6, 2008), Ballmer dismisses Google Android.

Retrieved at July 10, 2009 from http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-
10083590-94.html

Turner, David (June 25, 2009), Introducing Android 1.5 :DK, Release 1.
Retrieve on May 05, 2009 from http://android-
developers.blogspot.com/2009/06/introducing-android-15-ndk-release-1.html

UMPC Portal Review: Sharp Willcom D4 WS016SH. Retrieved on July 10, 2009
from http://www.umpcportal.com/products/Sharp/Willcom%20D4/WS016SH

Weintraub, Seth H (May 8, 2009), Google's Eric Schmidt doesn't see board
conflict with Apple? Retrieved on July 10, 2009 from
http://blogs.computerworld.com/googles_eric_schmidt_see_board_conflict_w
ith_apple

Wikipedia: 3GPP Long Term Evolution. Retrieved on July 10, 2009 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Term_Evolution

Wikipedia: :okia :95. Retrieved on July 10, 2009 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N95

Wikipedia: Open Handset Alliance. Retrieve on February 18, 2009 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Handset_Alliance

124