Back in January of this year I reviewed the state of Android manufacturers up to that point. In January Samsung was the only major Android OEM that was making any money on Android phones. HTC had posted its first quarterly profit decline in two years while Motorola continued its financial decline amidst regulatory approval of Google’s then-proposed, now-approved purchase of the manufacturer. How is the ecosystem doing nine months into the year?
This is the year that Google was supposed to double down on tablets. That promise, made way back in March, was fulfilled in some ways by the Nexus 7. Instead of going head to head with Apple or preparing for Microsoft’s entry into the consumer tablet space with Surface, Google pointed their efforts at fighting back against the Kindle Fire. While the iPad has continued to dominate the market, the only other tablet to show any sizable adoption (aside from the TouchPad) has been the Kindle Fire. Amazon claims (without any sales numbers) that the Kindle Fire has 22% of the tablet market while Apple claims that the iPad has 68% of the market, leaving 10% remaining for Nexus 7, TouchPad, Galaxy Tab, Xyboard, Flyer owners.
While Google is expected to sell 8 million Nexus 7s by the end of the year (compared to around 5.5 million Kindle Fire sales), Amazon just launched a refreshed Kindle Fire and two Kindle Fire HD models. When shoppers visit Amazon.com to get holiday shopping done, they won’t be presented with a Nexus 7, but a Kindle Fire HD. Hopefully Google will be able to push Nexus 7 sales, but even if they’re able to match Amazon’s sales they’ll have done nothing to counter sales of Apple’s iPad. Add in the possible success of Microsoft’s Surface (or a number of other OEM’s Windows 8 offerings) and Apple’s expected entry into the 7-inch tablet space and Google will still be facing an uphill battle. While Amazon may be getting Android into the hands of users, Google can’t be happy that Amazon’s version of Android has been winning in the marketplace instead of theirs.
The Nexus 7 hasn’t been Google’s only move to control their version of Android. Google recently forced Acer to cancel the announcement of a device running Aliyun, a forked version of Android, because doing so would violate the terms of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA). Members of the Open Handset Alliance have agreed to not ship non-compatible Android devices, instead trying to build a unified, compatible Android ecosystem. To be clear, Acer can leave the OHA at any time to pursue Aliyun development, but if Acer wants to keep shipping devices with access to Google’s apps and ecosystem then they can only ship devices with compatible versions of Android.
Shortly before Samsung’s unsurprising
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