SUMMARY
This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.
Google's Android platform racked up a 300% spike in use, leading the pack among increases in operating systems offered by Smart Communications Inc.
MANILA, Philippines – Taking Smart Communications Inc., the Philippines largest base of mobile subscribers, as a microcosm of the industry, Google’s Android operating system is gaining popularity among Filipino users.
Google’s Android led the pack among operating systems, according to data culled by Smart from a series of one-day snapshots of their network taken every month from the end of August to the end of December 2011.
- 300% increase – Google’s Android
- 66% increase – BlackBerry
- 62% increase – Apple’s iOS
Yet those numbers might not give iOS it’s fair share of the usage pie. Smart Chief Wireless Advisor Orlando B. Vea said, “The growth of iOS is significant given that Smart started offering iPhones only last December 2011.”
Smart had launched several phones utilizing Google’s Android platform in the middle of 2011, when rival Globe Telecom was still the exclusive carrier of iPhones in the Philippines. In 2011, Smart came out with the affordable Netphone 701, then the Samsung Galaxy Y Netphone and the SmartNet suite of applications.
The data racks up to just another small battle in the larger Android and iOS war. Steve jobs launched the first iPhone in 2007 and since then iPhone fever has swept the planet.
The first Android phone hit the market a year later and since then has seen steady growth, taking advantage of an open source approach which benefits from the fact that many more Android devices are unleashed in the market every year than iOS devices, such as the iPad, iPod and iPhone.
Either way, both platforms look to benefit from the explosion in smartphone usage. Smart expects usage in the Philippines to see a sharp increase in 2012 given the momentum established in the last four months of 2011. In that period Vea says the company saw a doubling in smartphone subscribers.
Vea attributes the rise to the growing demand for Internet on-the-go and the increased availability of devices.
– Rappler.com
Add a comment
How does this make you feel?
Loading
There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.