Android smartphones expected to gain ground in local market

Mobile phones that run the Android operating system (OS) are expected to take “the lion’s share” of the local smartphone market next year, according to a mobile industry expert. “The Android operating system is leading in the world,” Mohamed Kais Zribi, Middle East and North Africa regional manager at HTC Corp., told The Jordan Times recently. But figures in a recent Arab Advisers Group report indicate that the Symbian platform, which is mainly used in Nokia phones, currently leads smartphone operating systems in Jordan with a 62 per cent share, followed by iOS and Blackberry OS in second place, and Android in third. Zribi insisted, however, that “the whole mobile world is going Android and Jordan is not isolated from this trend”. His view is shared by Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company, which said in a recent report that Android is expected to become the most popular OS worldwide by the end of 2011, and will build on its strength to account for 49 per cent of the smartphone market by 2012. In 2011, Android is projected to represent 38.5 per cent of the global smartphone market, followed by the iPhone OS with 19.4 per cent and Symbian with 19.2 per cent, according to Gartner. Android is an open-source platform backed by Google and Samsung, along with major hardware and software developers, such as Intel, HTC, ARM and Motorola, according to web sources. Google’s Android will take the lead among other operating systems due to many factors, another mobile industry expert told The Jordan Times on Thursday. “Android is the only OS that is considered an open-source system. This makes it easier for developers to create applications and develop them,” he noted. “Developers can see the code of the Android and adapt it to their applications unlike other systems whose codes are restricted,” added the expert, who preferred anonymity. In addition, there are more than 150,000 applications that Android users can download, while fewer applications are available for users of other systems such as iOS, Windows and Symbian. “Android… is attaining the popularity of Google. Android users have access to a wide range of services enabled by Google,” the expert said, noting that Android is also expected to lead as several mobile manufacturers are focusing on the system. “Major mobile companies such as LG, Samsung, HTC and Sony Ericsson are creating Android-based mobiles, a matter that will eventually lead to more Android-based devices in the market and among users,” the expert added. Noting that the majority of mobile phone owners in Jordan currently use Symbian because they have Nokia devices, the expert said Nokia used to enjoy the largest sales in the market. “Nokia is very famous in Jordan. I believe its usage in Jordan increased significantly as Nokia was smart in providing a simplified user interface in its devices,” he said. “When Nokia devices were introduced in Jordan, they were the easiest and the simplest people could use although their prices were higher than other brands,” he added. But this will change in the long term, according to him, as Jordanians are changing to smartphones which will be mostly powered by Android. “In brief, however, Android is the future,” the industry expert said. Zribi agreed, noting that there is a rise in demand for smartphones in Jordan, which is a “very significant and strategic” market in the region. Smartphones constituted 41.6 per cent of total cellular handsets in Jordan by the end of July, according to the Arab Advisers Group report. The survey also revealed that 95.8 per cent of iPhone and 87.5 per cent of BlackBerry owners use applications through their smartphones, compared to 57 per cent of Symbian users. According to www.insightsmena.com, 75 per cent of Jordanians own mobile phones. Zeid Farouq, a mechanical engineer, said he prefers using an iPhone rather than other Android-based devices. “I’m used to the iPhone, although I have to pay fees for some applications,” the 26-year old told The Jordan Times. “Many of my friends use Android phones, and they tell me it is good because it is faster and there are more free applications for Android than the iPhone, but I also hear from other friends that Android devices are vulnerable to threats and hacking,” Farouq said. The applications available for iPhone users have to be approved by Apple, after which all applications are permitted the same access to the user’s resources, according to web sources. On the other hand, Android users are not restricted to applications designed by Google, because it is an open source system. Users are informed of the data that the application attempts to access, and it is left up to them to install it. But malicious applications are potentially dangerous to both operating systems, according to experts. Coverity, a San Francisco-based software integrity company, said in a report last year that the Android kernel it tested revealed 359 software defects. According to the report, 25 per cent of the defects found are high risk with the potential to cause security breaches and crashes.