Android fails to conquer European smartphone market. What do European readers think about Android?
December 7, 2009 | by Andrew Kameka
Androinica.com has quite a few European readers, so I’d like to pose this question to them: what do you think of Android?
The reason I ask is because IDC released a report saying that Europeans are not too keen on Android devices. According to IDC, Android’s market share increased slightly in the recent quarter — from 4.2% to 5.4% — but sales numbers are worse than expected, despite the obvious benefits of a Google tie-in.
“Consumers steer clear of Google’s OS and sell-out is below everyone’s expectations. Consumers recognize the Google brand, but still do not understand what Android is,” IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo said in a statement.
Nokia and Symbian continue to dominate the mobile phone industry in Europe (48 percent of the market runs Symbian), so I’m not surprised to hear that Android is struggling to make major strides. However, IDC asserts that “lack of devices” didn’t help Android’s cause. That’s not exactly true given that Europe has had the Dream, Galaxy, Hero, and Magic for quite some time now. Is it really a lack of devices or a lack of devices that speak to the needs of European consumers?
So, European readers, what are your thoughts on Android? Will the upcoming or recently released big-ticket items like the Milestone or XPERIA X10 change your opinion on the OS? What are your friends, families, and co-workers thoughts about Android?
I and a South African and live in the UK.
I got my G1 a year ago and I couldn't imagine using another mobile OS. I enjoy being constantly 'connected' and love the Android interface. I am an avid user of Googles products (mail, docs, maps, etc), so Android suits me perfectly
I have also since taught myself java and android and written my first app. I am only a small, part-time developer, but I have loved the whole process!
Viva Android, Viva!
here in germany, at my school quite a few people have android phones.
i think the number equals the number of iPhones.
Especially in the last 2 months the number increased and many girls own android devices.
I'm from Lithuania, not a lot of us have android devices. At my university I saw just one android device, besides mine. I think its because of the price, because our average salary is ~740$ and ~500 euros. So an android phone is quite expensive, almost a months salary. But I think there will be more and more androids here, because the iphone did not yet become very popular.
IDC report is about Western Europe. So I guess this does not include countries such as UK, france, germany, spain, italy,…?
Also note that in europe, Droid did not come as early as in US. (and anyway, Google Maps Navigation is not available outside of US)
Another feature is missing in europe : voice recognition. (And text to speech is only usable since android 1.6 -before that, french tts was awful- ).
"IDC report is about Western Europe. So I guess this does not include countries such as UK, france, germany, spain, italy,…? "
what do you think is western europe when not the mentioned countries?
Well the problem in Finland is that the first available phone that went on sale here was the Hero. So It's a "late arival", the second issue still is that there isn't localisation for the Finnish language. The third problem is that the market is missing paid apps..
But still my Hero kicks the butt of any Nokia phone. (and i say that even though I live 2km away from the nokia headquarters ;P)
Hi, in the UK the g1 wasn’t a big hit, only a cult following. We only got the hero late summer as well as other HTC’s.. Android hasn’t really had the phones or high profile (droid) to be known, that is now changing with more and more phones being released.
Sigg , western Europe means UK,France,Spain,Germany,Scandinavia etc.
"Sigg , western Europe means UK,France,Spain,Germany,Scandinavia etc. "
yeah that was my words
i know , but it seems cece doesn`t
yes, of course… my bad :-p
Sorry, I must have read the news upside down.
Here in Norway, I’m surprised how many I’ve seen with a android phone since it’s arrival this summer. But there isn’t possible to get paid apps in market, that is a problem. I think 2010 will be Androids year, wait and see it rise!
Here in the UK android phones are much rarer than, for example, iphones, as far as i can tell – I think it's probably due to carrier exclusivity (only the hero is neutral) and lack of any big ad campaigns… I think it's true that not many people know what android is.
I wouldn't change my magic for anything though!
Here in Germany (Regensburg) I have yet to see another person running around with an Android phone (I have an HTC Magic) but they do sell them in MediaMarkt and other places so the phones are there. I think alot of people have yet to receive word that Android is out and available here. Personally.. I am glad I have mine.. rooted and all!
Another problem, at least in Germany, might be, that Google has not such a positive image as in US. At the moment, all people go for the iPhone if they can afford it.
OK, Switzerland here. I got myself a G1 from the US about a year ago. For a long time, I was the only one I knew with a phone running Android. But since the Hero hit the market here with all 3 major operators, suddenly a lot of my co-workers and friends dumped their iPhones or Symbian handsets for a Hero.
In the UK the major issue is that the total cost of ownership is about the same as an iPhone. This leads onto the second problem and that's there's close to no mainstream advertising/marketing for Android itself (or the specifice handsets), in this regard Apple is peerless.
However, in my particular case, I had built a sizeable loyalty based credit with T-Mobile, which allowed me to get the Hero for free on an 18 month contract at £20/month (which includes "unlimited" internet). If I had gone with either the Palm Pre or iPhone, it would have meant switching carriers (T-Mobile doesn't have either), losing the built up credit, and it would have ended up costing me hundreds of pounds more.
I agree with norsecode above.. have had my HTC Magic here in Norway for 6 months or so, and was blown away by how easy it was to use compared with my old Nokia E61. But, I am mad as hell with Google for not opening up paid apps here.. Telenor offfers half a dozen Android models, but there are a lot more Nokia phones on offer.
Android is growing in popularity here in the UK. I became aware of Android early on but only came in to contact with it early ‘09 in the form of a mates G1. Very impressed I was too. As soon as I could(about 2months ago) I upgraded from Nokia 6500s to a HTC Hero on Orange. Can’t imagine not having Android now. A few mate have followed suit too. 2010 will be the year of Android.
I think lack of advertising has let Android down in the UK. I got my G1 after seeing it featured on Channel 5's The Gadget Show. If you searched the internet at the time, you would have found reviews from UK based tech sites and magazines, but I don't remember seeing a single TV ad. There was the odd poster around town, and a couple of ads in newspapers, but that was about it. Considering its exclusivity to T-Mobile, you'd have thought they would've tried harder, whereas O2 have been flogging the iPhone to death since they started selling it!
For me at the moment, I love my G1 and cannot wait to see what will be available by the time I can upgrade on my contract in July 2010. As some people have said, I think 2010 could very well be the year of the Android.
I’m from Holland and absolutly love Android. Long time symbian user, tried wm. Never going back to another os. Friends of mine have the same. Others just don’t know what android is and what the possibilities are. They are affraid to try an android phone and stick to symbian or wm just because it’s familiar.
I’ll keep trying to convert them
.
Had my G1 for about year now and Android is/was a HUGE leap for cell phone OS’s here in the UK so its no doubt people are/were sceptical. Besides there hasn’t been a big push for Android since G1 launched. You have to take into account that 18-24 month contracts are the norm in the UK now and its only been a year since the G1 launched, I cant see those stats increasing for at least another 18-24 months.
What to look out for?…Personally, I NEED a qwerty, candy bar form is by far my fave so I’m looking forward to HTC Salsa and the mysterious data only Google phone, not gonna happen in UK with lack of GVoice!!!
Sort it out Google!!
Echoing others thoughts here but Google does need to expand it’s full support to the UK and European shores for it to really start to make a measurable impact on symbian,winmo&iPhone, I’m talking 2.X updates(I know,network dependent), Google maps navigation, Google goggles etc… all good stuff and possible selling points but we’re not able to use it and people won’t hear about the great new features. Full feature set+advertising+great handsets=success & an increase in market share. 2010 will be interesting.
are you sure Google Goggles isn't available in UK? I saw a British person commenting on how much he loved it.
I'm from Spain and I have a Hero bought in Expansys.
The problem in Spain is that there is no ad campaigns for Android phones from the carriers: Vodafone has the Magic, Orange the Hero and Movistar the Dream but no one has publicized them
I'm from Sweden and I like to think that Android is growing here. We got the Magic really late followed by the Hero and i think it's Hero that is really finding its way here. We have Galaxy as well.
But I am convinced that the trend will take off when more modells come along and the suppliers realise that it is safe to go with Android based systems.
I'm trying my best to hold on to my money until next-generation devices hit Sweden!
I'm from Portugal and Android is very appealing to me. I'm thinking about buying an Acer Liquid A1 in a near future.
The main reasons I haven't bought an Android-based phone are quite simple:
- Quite expensive (the most expensive phone I've bought cost me 200€) but this is a general problem these days
- No "decent" hardware
The second reason I stated is because I was waiting on the Snapdragon's processor (which comes with the A1). Oh, and A1 is quite cheap around here.
Another thing: No decent marketing on Android where I'm from. Let's hope that improves…
Android just don't even started to be selling as it is now in the states. We are missing the thing people are calling "advertisements". Mobile operators are selling it but without any advertisements. People do not know about Android. This is the thing. Lithuanian mobile operators just do not know the true potential of android and keep selling crapy symbian because it is "popular". I hope thins going to change in the nearest future.
I'm from the Netherlands and my experience is that the dutch don't even seem to know that their cellphone has a OS at all!
Nokia / Symbian are so populair that people aren't even thinking about anything else, or so it seems. Not for me. I'm going for Androïd! So let the HTC Bravo be released as soon as possible
I'm from Germany and I think the problems are:
1. Android as a moniker for a phone OS is only known to a few nerds.
2. People who know that Android phones are the ones with the OS from Google often have a problem with that fact. Google has a very bad image in Germany because people here are privacy crazy. And they compare Google with a kind of Stasi, collecting all kinds of information about everbody in the country. Checkout your history text books and you might understand them.
3. People in Germany often don't have credit cards (we simply don't need them in our every day life) and thus can't purchase apps in the Market. That is leading to German devs not developing for Android as they can't get rich this way and also not spreading the word about Android.
4. There's a lack of ad campaigns for Android phones in Germany.
4.1. Even if an ad prominently displays an Android phone (like in the T-Mobile spot in which a girl craves about how easy it is to identify a song with her mobile phone) they don't mention the fact that it is Android.
4.2. There are stupid companies like O2 who were first with the Motorola Milestone in Germany. (That's the GSM variant of the Droid.) You would think that they had exploited this with ads, right? Nope, they didn't. They are still advertising the Palm Pre like this was the best smart phone since the iPhone.
But on the other hand, in certain circles the Android system is catching up. In our company for instance more and more employees are choosing an Android phone when they pick their company sponsored mobile phone.
Also people like me are dropping their iPhones in exchange for the Milestone. I like the freedom and hate the iron grip on everything that Apple is providing you with.
Hello, I'm from Czech Republic, here we have these problems: 1. No campaign for Android phone (only something small T-Mobile for G1), we can see campaign for Nokia, Samsung … but nothing for Android. 2. Android phone come to us too late, I'd like to buy a Motorola Milestone but we don't know if this phone would be possible to buy here and when. 3. Android market and missing paid apps, as in other countries. I hope that in 2010 it would be better with Android not only in Czech Republic but also in other smaller counties in Europe.
I think the "failure" of the success it mostly due, as many already stated, to lack of advertising/marketing. Here in Luxembourg we have 3 mobile providers. They are have the iPhone. In their shops they have human-sized iPhones standing around. People buy it and it's considered "hipp".
The Hero or Milestone are as good or better phones, depending of usecase of course, but nobody is aware of them…
Another point is:
Why are not simply all the android handsets available in all the countries? Why no galaxy in the US? Why no tattoo here in luxembourg?
If you want to see to Joe Sickpack, make sure Joe sees the stuff you want to sell him. Make ads, market it, talk about.
Germany: Vodafone and T-Mobile just advertises for their own services. You can see a Android-Phone, but theres nowhere the Word "Android OS" in the commercials. Nowhere. Stupid thing, only Freaks like us now, what Android is.
I'd like to mirror previous comments about lack of publicity in the UK. T-Mobile did advertise the G1 briefly but it was a lacklustre effort compared with how we're constantly bombarded with Palm Pre commercials and that annoying "There's an app for that" iPhone ad. Looking around now though, perhaps 10% of the people I know have Android devices including the G1, Magic and Huawei Pulse – actually more than have iPhones (however I'm sure that's not the norm and I know I've had a hand in influencing a few peoples' choices).
I'm portuguese, and android is going nowhere aroud here.
It's expensive and underpowered, android phones aren't as stylish as an Iphone (sometimes 100€ diference from one android phone to an Iphone, so that's why there are so many) and software… Iphone didn't get any advertisements in here and is leading the smartphone market! Or so it seems… Therefor, and repeating myself:
1 Expensive
2 Underpowered
3 Not stylish
4 Lacking software
Here in Israel I don't think many know it because only 2 android phones are sold with out any hype. This week the iPhone blitz will start when all 3 carriers will start selling the IPhone at the same day! So the iPhone shadow is too big now. If the google navigation was to be available here it could change things. Killer apps is the way to go. I'm using Hero and had to try for a week to get an Hebrew support and install it by my selg.
I've just been in a well known British supermarket that happens to sell mobile phones (and has their own network twinned with 02) and spotted at least two Android devices, all HTC, and nowhere in the features list does it mention Android – only that it is "touch screen."
We have 4 mobile operators here in Czech Republic and only one (T-Mobile) offers 1 Android device – G1.. nothing else.. And mobile internet connection cost a lot of money here so not a lot of ppl want phone which is based on fulltime connection…. I own G1 for 1 year now, but I'm not sure if my new phone will be Android powered….
I can’t find Google goggles in the market anywhere, using orange UK hero running 1.5? Any ideas anyone?
From Romania: 3 guys in our office (including me) have android phones. We're thrilled about the os, applications and devices.
In the Netherlands there has been NO Android commercials ever.
Only commercial promoting an android device is one from HTC (the a phone that gets you) commercial.
And I have only ever seen 1 other Android device so far. I do hope to convince my friends to get one though, because using google talk is way easier then