Android set to rule
The biggest battle in the world of personal computers, is not Intel v. AMD or Windows v. Mac OS. Those battles were decided a long time ago, with the next round nowhere in sight. We expect a new AMD mobile processor to be out early next year, will give it a bigger market share in the notebook and low end laptop segment. Apple's laptops having dropped in price the past few years have improved Apples share in the mass market. But as far as laptops are concerned, Intel and Microsoft have their places secured for the foreseeable future. The big fight now, is who will win the battle of the hand held PC's. The share of smartphones in the mobile phone market will continue to grow, thanks to Apple's Ipad, tablets will soon be offered by most every computer manufacturer. In this arena, Symbian, RIM and Windows peaceful world was rocked by Apple's iOS. Than came Google's Android OS. And it looks like Android is winning this one. Gartners' report on worldwide sales of smartphones to end users shows that Android has made the leap from sixth place last year, to second place this year. Android is eating everyones market share.
Year-on-year, only the Android OS has shown to be the only smartphone operating system to have increase its market share, and it did so by a factor of 7. And this battle will carry over to the tablet market. While Apple rocked the smartphone world with is iOS, and change the landscape of mobile computing with its Ipad, unless Apple offers lower cost offering of its Iphone and Ipad soon, Android will rule this segment with low cost Php12,000-Php14,000 offering like the Samsung i5700 Galaxy Spica and LG Optimus One P500 and the lower cost Archos and other sub-20K 7 to 10 inch tablets we expect to see after the new year.
LG Optimus One P500 - Android 2.2 (Froyo) at Php12,990
Archos 7 - A 7" Android Tablet at Php11,500