Andreu Castellet Universidad de Murcia
Juan Miguel Aguado Universidad de Murcia
Inmaculada Martínez Universidad de Murcia
The new players that changed the rules and the
game itself: how Apple and Google transformed
the content distribution business
Internet becomes mobile u 1,224 billion connectable devices sold in 2012 Tomi Ahonen Consulting, 2013
u 695 million smartphones sold Tomi Ahonen Consulting, 2013
u Not included
u 100 billion app downloads 2010-2012 Svanberg, 2013
u The biggest expectations in consumer goods come from mobile technologies
The growth of the mobile market
215 million smartphones sold
in 2009
695 million smartphones sold in 2012
Source: Tomi Ahonen Consulting, 2013
The growth of the mobile market
215 million smartphones sold
in 2009
695 million smartphones sold in 2012
Nokia and RIM have 64% of the market
Google and Apple have 87% of the market
Source: Tomi Ahonen Consulting, 2013
Our research questions u How have they developed their platforms in order to achieve
market hegemony?
u Have Google and Apple developed their respective platforms in equal ways?
u Has any of them copied the other in crucial steps of platform development?
The era of platforms
Devices
OSs
App stores
“Industry platforms are technological building blocks (that can be technologies, products or services), that act as a foundation on top of which an array of firms, organized in a set of interdependent firms, (sometimes called an industry “ecosystem”), develop a set of inter-related products, technologies and services”. Gawer, 2011
The generation of Apple-iOS ecosystem
All users registered
Paid and free apps
Direct sales and advertising revenues In-app purchase
Proprietary
On sale All retail channels
The generation of Google-Android ecosystem
Open-source Free license
Open Handset Alliance (OHA)
On sale All retail channels
Paid and free apps
Direct sales and advertising revenues In-app purchase
Loose control
A face-to-face view
Enabler Platform The platform owner controls many of the necessary assets to ensure the value proposition, but does not control the customer relationship Ballon & Van Heesvelde, 2011
Integrator Platform The platform owner controls many of the assets to ensure value proposition, and establishes a relationship with end-users. Entry of ‘third-party’ service providers is actively encouraged Ballon & Van Heesvelde, 2011
Different platform architectures
Core legacy business
IT hardware contents aggregation
Year of launch 2007 2008
OS proprietary, closed free, open
Devices licensing no yes
OS licensing no yes
Devices under leader’s brand
yes yes (< 1%)
Access to platform free, under registry free, no registry necessary
Relationship towards users
personal anonymous
Further lines of research
u How and why have the losers missed such a big business opportunity?
u Mobile platforms as private spaces of regulation
Our conclusions u Both Google and Apple have gone through major internal and external
transformations to take advantage of their respective starting points: Google’s was an information utility one, while Apple’s was a hardware one.
u With Android, Google has set up a platform based on cooperation of several diverse players, bets on a free OS financed by advertising revenues, and allows other players to keep their own relationships with customers. Apple bets on a tightly controlled platform, based on iOS, a proprietary system, and only allows others’ players, users included, if they accept Apple’s strict rules.
u It doesn’t seem that anybody copied the other, although an ordinary user doesn’t notice big differences between them. However, their observe each other’s steps and tend to emulate some strong points of their opponent.
Thank you. Remarks are welcome
Andreu Castellet Universidad de Murcia [email protected]
Juan Miguel Aguado Universidad de Murcia [email protected]
Inmaculada Martínez Universidad de Murcia [email protected]