Is Google's Android OS for smartphones really that popular?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 05 January 2010 10:12

Opinion and Analysis

A new survey from ChangeWave Research suggests surging interest in smartphones powered by Google’s Android OS, but when you look at the survey results and when the survey was done, it seems clear that the Motorola Droid launch and rumours of the Nexus One has skewed the results far too much for this survey to be taken all that seriously. Read on…

What’s one way to get survey results to show something that might not actually be the truth?

Timing. As we all know, timing is everything, and ChangeWave Research’s survey results of 4000+ people seem to clearly indicate that the early November launch of the Motorola Droid, along with insane amounts of hoopla over the fact it offered free voice-controlled GPS navigation software, along with rumours of the Google Nexus One, has skewed the results.

After all, the Droid would have been heavily advertised by Verizon as an iPhone-killer following the “iDon’t” advertising campaign, and interest in all things new is a normal reaction once products actually hit the shelves and consumers want to compare Apples and Googles to see what they think for themselves.

Given the Droid’s inbuilt slide-out keyboard, larger screen and superior 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, the Droid definitely beats the iPhone 3GS in terms of specs, but fails to deliver multitouch, while only offering around 20,000 apps compared with the iPhone’s 100,000+.

As for the Google Nexus One, rumours started appearing online towards the end of ChangeWave Research’s survey period (from Dec 9 to Dec 14), which also may have skewed the results as attention started inexorably shifting away from the Droid to the Nexus.

However, these are only my interpretations, and despite a few deficiencies compared with the iPhone OS, Google’s Android OS is still very impressive, seriously knocking about Palm’s WebOS and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS.

So, what did the ChangeWavers say about their survey, and what does it truly say about the future intentions of smartphone buyers?

Answers as I see them on page two, please read on!