Eugene Kaspersky, Co-Founder of Kaspersky Labs, makers of one of the leading antivirus solutions on the market, if you’re the type of person who’s irresponsible enough to get a virus because you browse shady porn sites, made a controversial statement at Mobile World Congress. According to The China Post he said that Google’s Android operating system will eventually own 80% of the smartphone market and that the remaining 20% would be split up between Apple and RIM. Eugene may be onto something since the analysts at Canalys declared that Android devices outsold Symbian devices for the first time, ever, during the last quarter of 2010.
“I believe that if Apple, BlackBerry, Microsoft don’t change their strategy very soon we will soon have the same mobile operating system landscape as we have with computers,” he added. The Microsoft and Intel monopoly that gave rise to the computing revolution, successfully putting a Windows PC on every desk, has now become the Android and Qualcomm monopoly that’s giving the people a good enough handheld computer that fits in their pocket. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing, for consumers, but Nokia’s new CEO, Stephen Elop, he mentioned that Android was a “black hole for innovation” for the wireless industry, quickly driving commoditization, and that’s why Nokia decided to bet their future on Windows Phone.
It’s a bit too early to say how things are going to turn out. What gives Android the advantage in the smartphone space is that people naturally tend to associate the Google brand with the internet. Many, if not all, of today’s alternatives to Internet Explorer make Google their default search engine, and people can’t really get anywhere on the internet without plugging a query into a search box. Bing! doesn’t have that sort of brand value, RIM has their BlackBerry Messenger client, but everyone else … what chance do they have at making it?