T-Mobile has announced that the G1 has reached the 1 million mark in terms of units sold. This might be small news compared to Apple’s iPhone. It has reached this mark in its first week alone. Plus, sources indicate that 1 billion apps for the iPhone have already been downloaded, as of this week . That goes to show how much iPhone users love to download stuff.
Android is growing at a fast rate but the iPhone is on the news these days, with version 3.0 along its way. There are also talks about the new platform coming with a new model as well. A look at smartphones, and you’ll see that the HTC Dream, the very first Android-based phone, is in fourth place behind the iPhone, Blackberry Curve and Blackberry Pearl.
The Android phone is catching up with its competitors, but it is not moving at the rate iPhone did when it was launched. The Android had a 47% growth per month during its first five months, while the iPhone’s growth was 88%. Much of the sales were because of the hype the iPhone got before it was released.
1 million G1 users might be a small number compared to the numbers of iPhone fanatics – but it’s an indication that more Smartphone users are switching to the G1 over time. Maybe they’ve discovered that the Google Android is similar, and yet has unique features as well.
One feature that the Android has, as an advantage over the iPhone, is that Android apps can run in the background. That makes it easier for developers to make apps with push notifications or IM capabilities.
Among the features the Android shares with iPhone are Skype, Shazam, Meebo, MySpace mobile, I Tweet! and Last.fm. There are several noteworthy apps that are not yet available for the G1 as of now, such as Tweetie. Some developers think that it is more profitable to make apps for the iPhone, than for the G1, for now.
This is why the iPhone is still dominating in the apps department. Developers make a decent living, making apps for the iPhone platform. But there are plenty of possibilities with the Android. Like I said before, its apps can run in the background. Not only that, but developers can get support from Google, and its user base is still growing. iPhone 3.0 might be getting the media hype these days, but I’ll still stick with the Android G1.
Many people really prefer IPhone due to many available applications that you can use to it. But sure that Android G1 will still be my 2nd choice.