Apple is on an incredible roll with its mobile products, but Google is piecing together a formidable rival with the Android platform. The difference in approaches comes down to control. Apple, notoriously control freaks, have a relatively closed operating system while there are dozens of permutations of Android. In the history of the Internet, open has nearly always trumped closed. Will that be the case here? It looks that way, judging by a report released by Nielsen on smartphone use. But it depends on how you work the numbers. Android’s overall share of the market is higher than iPhone and BlackBerry, but Android’s chunk is split among several handset makers. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is betting consumers have little interest in that type of fragmentation.

More in Media

Podcast companies turn to live events to capture growing advertiser spend
The surge in the number of live podcast events in 2025 reflects a broader shift: advertisers are betting bigger on podcasts — not just as an audio channel but as a full-fledged creator economy play.

Media Briefing: ‘Cloudflare is locking the door’: Publishers celebrate victory against AI bot crawlers
After years of miserably watching their content get ransacked for free by millions of unidentified AI bot crawlers, publishers were finally thrown a viable lifeline.

How Vogue could navigate potential industry headwinds as Anna Wintour — who agency execs say made ad dollars flow — brings on new edit lead
Anna Wintour’s successor at Vogue will have to overcome the myriad of challenges facing fashion media and the digital publishing ecosystem.