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The new platforms expect 2015 to be their year
Written by
December 31, 2014 at 13:17
As usual, the arrival of the new year is full of purposes and objectives to be achieved in the following 12 months. Not only people like us will set goals for 2015, companies also do it, and depending on their situation, they aspire to one or the other. The new platforms that have emerged in recent times, including Android One, Firefox OS or Tizen, they want 2015 to be the year of their “explosion” and they will fight to be the main alternative in the low range and emerging markets.
Normally, when we talk about low-end, we usually think of consumers who do not want to spend a lot of money on their next smartphones and do not take into account a factor that is key and will continue to be for the next 3 or 4 years. Although it seems strange, there are many people around the world who still use conventional mobiles, specifically 34% in the third quarter of 2014 according to Gartner. These users will gradually move on to smartphones until the figure drops to a 10% in 2018. It is precisely these buyers of "first-time" smartphones that seek to replace their old devices that would give analysts a great boost to the platforms mentioned above.
The main reason behind these studies is quite clear: the price. The difference that exists economically speaking between a conventional mobile phone and a smartphone today can be considered large. Although surely many can discuss this statement, and with all the reason, since the gap is rapidly narrowing, and in part it is thanks to the collaboration of manufacturers with Android One, Firefox OS or Tizen, which are launching smartphones by value from 50-100 euros, even less in some cases. In this way, they seek to take advantage of the potential in emerging markets like India, where they can obtain great benefits, and incidentally, they can favor the rest of the world.
A new competition
There is a market and there are possibilities to grow. The question now is how these new platforms spread the cake, and they are moving to take most of it. Mozilla, responsible for Firefox OS, has reached agreements with important brands such as TCL, ZTE, Huawei as well as Spreadtrum as a chip supplier, and has already put 14 models on sale in 30 markets. Google and Android One seems the clearest alternative for the global dominance of Android. The Mountain View have established ties with Micromax and Karbonn although they are also looking for more powerful partnerships with Qualcomm, HTC, Asus, Acer or Lenovo Looking to next generations. The one with fewer options, simply because Samsung is betting more on other projects, is Tizen, we are still waiting for the launch of the Samsung Z1, the first that will carry this operating system.
Via: phonearena
