Another Salvo in the iOS vs Android War... WWDC 2013 Aftermath!

When it comes to operating systems, whether it be for personal computers or for mobile devices, success in terms of popularity is highly dependent on the number, of what was then called "programs" or more currently, apps that are available for that platform.  The most popular platform is the one with the most apps, popularity means more "paying" customers, and that is where the bigger market is for developers to prioritize, which means EVEN more apps, and the cycle continues.  When developers perceive that a platform is running out of steam, that's the start of the fall.

The portion in Apple's WWDC 2013 Keynote that showed the graphs comparing iOS and Android were quite compelling, and I believe they prove that iOS is still a force to be reckoned with and is definitely far from losing steam.

When the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 came out, with the synchronous release of Android Jellybean 4.2, many naysayers were chanting that, "Apple is in trouble!"  In trouble?  A company with over 137.1 billion dollars in liquid assets is in trouble... I just wish I was in such big a trouble!  Honestly, for me the fact that Android and Samsung are doing well is great news BUT let's put it into perspective, even if Apple's product releases for next 5 years were lemons, they still wouldn't be in trouble, and they would still have enough left over to get their act going and get back on their feet.

Now that the I got THAT little irritation off my chest, let's look at the presentation...

According to Tim Cook, there are are 900 thousand apps available in the App Store and 93% are downloaded per month, which is not suprising as there are 575 million accounts, most of whom have credit cards registered, in the store.  Ten billion dollars to date have been paid to developers for the iOS platform.  If you were a developer, what platform would you decide to work on?  Of course, the one with the most income.

Take note at the graph in the left.  At first, I thought that this was different from other statistics I've seen wherein Android had the larger market share until you take a closer look.  This graph refers to the APP REVENUE, and not plain number of downloads.  Android may have the larger marketshare, as far as smartphones in general, but if you're a developer trying to decide which platform will be more profitable, this graph tells him to choose iOS.  Result, more content or apps for iOS.

This is also validated by data from appannie.  Although iOS still has more downloads, it is only slightly ahead that of Android's.

However, when you look at revenue, the iOS App Store is almost 3x that of Google Play!

Again, a developer choosing a platform to prioritize, based on the added revenue, will choose iOS over Android.

Which in terms of the number and the quality of apps in a platform, this puts the advantage in the iOS corner compared to Google.

A more in-depth analysis was made by Time's Harry McCracken in his Technologizer column.  To quote him, "Android if you’re talking about market share; iOS if you mean financial success."

I believe that these figures show that more "paying" customers are with the iOS ecosystem... or that iOS users are more willing to pay for their apps than Android users... or whatever way you want to look at it.  Personally, competition of this magnitude shows one clear winner... us users!

iPads for Hospitals

To replace hospital charts with iPads is a no brainer, especially when one has watched any episode of any of the Star Trek shows where there's a scene in Sickbay.  The key to using iPads as patient charts is a fully functional, implemented and utilized electronic medical record (EMR), a concept which in the #HealthIT community is easier said than done.

Utilization, among health care personnel especially doctors, has been poor resulting in many EMR projects failing initially.  As the younger crop of doctors are coming in, doctors who grew up with computers, and their allied personal technology, utilization is improving.

One main obstacle to EMR utilization by doctors is the consequent alteration in their respective workflows that the system needs to impose.  Instead of writing on a chart, which you can do standing, sitting, in the patient's room, at the nurse's station, or in the pantry, a traditional EMR required the doctor to sit down on a terminal, usually needing to rewrite what you had written in your tickler, and frequently competing with other doctors, nurses or students who need to use the same terminal.

An iPad that connects to the hospital's WIFI network that accesses the EMR using a web-browser-based interface, gets you as close as possible to complete EMR utilization without altering the doctor's workflow by much.  Being browser-based, this makes it platform independent, allowing the doctor to access the EMR using his smartphone, tablet, or even laptop without any need for customized and installed software or a specific hardware and operating system requirement.

An article showed that one hospital piloted the use of iPads and computed it's return-of-investment (ROI) rate to be 9 days.  These numbers were based on time and motion studies and how clinical workflow impacted labor costs.  In other words, the iPads increased productivity allowing the staff to do more tasks with the same time as compared to their old workflow.

Unfortunately, in this country such a system isn't possible as a Hospital Information and Management System with a full-featured EMR with 100% utilization has not happened and thus an iPad solution won't fly as of yet.