[photopress:androidviphone.jpg,full,center]
A mobile platform manager at Google said yesterday that he expects Android to outsell the iPhone, which, to me, truly sounds like comparing apples to oranges. Rich Miner points out that Android will be supported by no less than Motorola, HTC, Samsung and LG. Meanwhile, only one company is behind the iPhone, Apple. Never mind that Android is an OS while iPhone is an actual device.
Miner also points to the number of downloads Android’s SDK has gotten. It’s been downloaded more than 750,000 times “for a device that doesn’t even exist yet.” (The iPhone SDK was downloaded more than 100,000 times.) Yes, but the Android SDK was released in November, giving the Google-led OS a four month head start compared to the iPhone SDK.
This is more than a little disingenuous on Google’s part. Saying Android will outsell iPhone is like saying Johan Santana pitches better than Kobe Bryant—yeah, sure, but they’re in two different sports. Or, more appropriately for us here, that Windows outsells the MacBook Pro. I understand what Miner was trying to say, but it just seems strange.
More importantly, aside from Google and Apple shareholders, who cares what device/platform outsells the other? Why should that matter to us, the consumer? If nothing else, the existence of both platforms will only be good news for us. Some dev sees a cool app on the iPhone then codes it for Android (then releases the code for all to play with). Product wars are old hat.
Google Exec: Android Will Outsell iPhone [TechWeb/Yahoo!]