Eating Each Other's Lunch

I was amused by this story in The Register about Google now having a ‘Switch To Android’ app in the iOS App Store, several years after Apple’s ‘Switch To iOS’ app entered the Google Play Store.

As the article notes, encouraging people to switch platforms is now more of a necessity, both due to market saturation and regulatory scrutiny.

Will these apps actually help either Google or Apple? In the short run, maybe, though not by much. Longer-term, there are clouds looming on the horizon. People are keeping their devices for longer, and may not have the money for a flagship model. Plus, I have a feeling it’s going to get harder to source the raw material needed for new devices, which may mean a radical re-think of how they’re manufactured. Perhaps that’ll be what ultimately disrupts both Google’s and Apple’s domination of the smartphone market…