This past month, Asymco released a study of the smartphone market that included the following graph on market shares of smartphone platforms, 2007-2012:
Interesting, no? Meanwhile, a recent Fortune article asks the question: “Are Apple and Google really ready for patent detente?”
The answer, which I believe has a ring of realism to it, is also included in the article:
“Smartphones are the fastest growing segment of the trillion dollar mobile phone industry, thanks in large part to innovations introduced five years ago by the iPhone. … Having achieved dominance in a market that generates hundreds of billions of dollars a year, [Google] is not about to cave over a $1.05 billion verdict against [its] clients. Nor is [Apple] likely to back off [its] insistence that competitors “invent their own IP” on the strength of one verdict and a handful of patents. Apple has tens of thousands of patents and dozens of lawsuits pending against manufacturers of Android devices.”
I have a feeling Apple is not going to kiss and make up anytime soon, especially after a big win like the Samsung verdict. To get a feel for what Android has cost Apple in terms of smartphone market share, all you have to do is look at Asymco’s graph.
Yikes!
