Android Takes First Place in PCWorld’s Top 100 Tech Products in 2010
PC World’s just published their list of the top 100 technology products that have been released in 2010, and something amazing has occurred: the iPad wasn’t at the top of the list. Sitting just above it in the number 1 spot was the Android operating system (2.2, specifically.) And in 5th place was the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and there are a whole lot more Android devices and apps sitting on that list.
Google’s gained a lot of steam coming out of their I/O developer conference in May after announcing revolutionary new features for Android (2.2 and beyond.) It doesn’t surprise us that their momentum has picked up ten-fold. In this year alone, Android was predicted to overtake Nokia and Symbian as the number one mobile operating system by 2014. And if we know anything about analysts’ track record with Android predictions, we know that Android has always met – if not bested – everyone’s expectations.
Since the beginning of this year, Android’s caught the attention of everyone in the smartphone market, including competitors. For a majority of the year, if you weren’t creating your own mobile operating system, you were using Android. And if you weren’t using Android, then you were at least thinking about Android as it has become one of the biggest threats you’ve had to deal with in a long time.
Times have changed in the second half of the year, though. Specifically, the launch of Windows Phone 7 has gone underway and Microsoft is looking for developers (and more developers, says Steve Ballmer) to come along with what they expect to be a smooth ride in a new car.
Still, that doesn’t seem to be slowing Android down. In fact, I can only imagine that everyone welcomes the healthy competition as competition has always been a motivator to innovate. Heading into 2011, Google’s going to be entertaining an emerging tablet market and we’re going to see Android evolve to take advantage of that.
As Android looks to become a huge part of Google’s longterm mobile ads and search strategy, we expect it’ll be sitting at or near the top of “top lists” for years to follow.