The term “Android” has become quite vague over time. Now, more than ever before, it seems that people are adding their own personal touches to the platform in ways that change how it is used and perceived.
This creates an uncomfortable situation for both users and marketers. You have different individuals using the same software platform with totally different perceptions and expectations. This can be very confusing as well as frustrating at times.
It also opens up opportunity for new brands to create large followings by appealing to these different audiences. More opportunities exist for companies to gain exposure when there are so many options available.
Luckily, we can learn some valuable lessons about what makes someone use the app regularly to help determine if an app will succeed or not. In this article, we will talk about five key features of apps that make them successful.
We will then apply those to see which ones you have and why you may or may not want to add them to your current collection.
Samsung is a company that makes smartphones and tablets
As mentioned before, Samsung is a smartphone manufacturer as well as a tablet maker. They make their products very accessible to most people.
Their phones are usually on-par with the others in terms of features but cost much less than similar quality devices. This is due to them using software that can be customized or replaced easily!
For example, instead of buying an expensive device that comes preloaded with Google’s apps, you could simply download them yourself. Or, if you don’t like one set of apps, you can replace or add new ones.
With this approach, there is no need for risk.
Android is a software development kit
This means that Google gives people free access to most of the functions of the operating system, along with easy installation procedures. People can make their own changes or modifications to better fit their needs.
This also means that there are an infinite number of ways to use the OS. There are so many apps for it that you could spend hours just finding new uses for it.
The downfall of this is that not everyone will feel comfortable editing the source code. This is very risky if you want to be really in-depth when changing things around!
Another downside is that even though you have free access to all of the features, some may be completely undocumented, making it hard to find answers or solutions to problems.
They are not the same thing
Let’s begin by talking about what makes one platform better than another. This will be our major focus in this article!
I think it is very important to understand that what made one smartphone or operating system (OS) succeed has little to do with what makes the next one successful. In fact, they could exist separately for quite some time without anything ever linking them together.
What ties all of these platforms together is something we call “platform influence.” A well-designed OS or mobile phone gives you easy ways to accomplish easy things, but also adds powerful features and functions that make your life easier. These advanced features are either built right into the platform or are easily accessible via apps that use the platform’s tools.
Why does this matter? Because even if one device is totally free, there may still be reasons why its users prefer the other ones more. For example, people who love how intuitively Google Maps works probably would never switch from the stock iOS map app to Navigator. Or someone who loves having every tool at their fingertips can now choose whether to buy the next iPhone with or without the Amazon app preinstalled.
In this article, I will discuss three different types of phones that feature strong ecosystems:iOS, Windows Phone 8, and BlackBerry 10. Then, I will compare and contrast each one so that you get the best possible picture of which one is the most like Android and vice versa.
Samsung owns the trademark “Android”
Let us take a look at some of the ways that Samsung has controlled the ecosystem around their mobile operating system, Google’s open source platform. First off, they have owned the term “Android.” For years now, they have marketed themselves as having an even more advanced version of the software than what Google originally released.
This isn’t too surprising since we already know that Samsung makes its own app store and it is almost guaranteed that this app store would not allow apps made by or for other companies to be available.
We also discussed how Samsung takes great pride in tweaking the interface and design of the OS so that it looks most like iOS. This includes changing the colors and adding features that are similar to those used by Apple.
All these things together mean that most people will assume that anything bad about Samsung is because of either jealousy towards them or because they are trying to copy Apple. These ideas hurt their reputation and brand while undermining the trust users put in them.
Samsung and Google have a partnership
As mentioned earlier, Samsung is not an independent company but rather a subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate LG. Not only does this limit their independence as a company, it also means that they are not able to control how developer tools like Android are designed.
Samsung’s smartphone division has been very successful over the past few years, so why worry about limiting competition? It is clear that Samsung doesn’t care much for open source software when it comes to mobile operating systems, which is probably one of the reasons why its market share continues to plummet.
By developing proprietary closed-source apps and services, Samsung is actively preventing users from using third party apps on their phones or switching out OSes altogether. This isn’t good for business!
Google makes no secret of the fact that Android was originally built with free and open source software in mind. The goal back then was to create a sustainable ecosystem that allowed developers to make money while keeping the technology accessible to anyone who wanted to use it.
Since then, however, things have gotten pretty ugly. Developers have slowly lost access to key features of the platform, leaving many projects with limited or no support.
Hopefully you’ve already found some great alternatives at least, if not all the ways Android sucks by now.
Google uses Samsung’s software
While some people may think that making changes to Android is only for large corporations, this isn’t true! Anyone can contribute by registering as an alpha tester or beta user. Even if you are not very technical, there are ways to help out by becoming a community manager or marketing officer.
By creating an app, website, or feature yourself, you can add it to the platform and give feedback to improve the experience for other users.
This is why even though Apple has their own mobile operating system, they still have lots of apps on their store. There are over 1 million apps in the App Store alone! This includes games, fitness trackers, and almost anything else someone wants to make.
Google does the same thing with Samsung’s software. By having many different types of apps available, it gives people more options than just using the Amazon app or The YouTube Channel.
Google uses Android
Over the past few years, you may have heard people talk about how much of an empire Google has built with its platform-owning smartphone software, called Android.
You might also have noticed that many big companies seem to prefer using the stock version of Android over alternatives like Apple’s iOS or Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mobile.
That’s because when they preload your phone with apps, they usually go through a process known as “Android certification.” This means verifying that all of the app functions are in line with our most trusted source for information — Google!
By adding this layer of security, developers know that their products will be accepted by Google at any given time. Which is why there are so many Gmail apps, YouTube apps, and Maps apps out there!
But what if we told you that everything I’ve mentioned up until now was false? That not only does Google NOT own the mobile operating system space, but that it doesn’t even control the software that makes up the core of Android itself?
Yep, that’s true. And it gets even more confusing from here.
They are similar but not the same
As we have seen, there is no one “Samsung” way to use their phones or android as a platform. Different people have different needs and preferences that they like to have in apps and features.
If you look at the app store for an iPhone, you will see that some of the applications are totally missing, while others are very limited in feature set. This comes down to personal preference more than anything else!
There are several reasons why certain apps may be less popular than others. Some feel that the application is too expensive, it does not offer enough value, or it just simply doesn’t work for them.
For example, someone who loves using Google Maps probably cannot afford the $10 per month fee that Apple requires users to pay.
Alternatively, someone might find that Anki, which costs around $25, offers all of the features that they need and therefore don’t want to spend money on something extra that they can get for free.
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