Android Disruption And Innovation

Android disruption is not only within the smartphone market. There are indication that disruption and innovation of Android is in even more areas. C-level executives' growth focused significantly on innovation last year. Well-defined innovation process is important to establishing a culture of innovation. Organizations today are working on new innovation models and partnerships to further cultivate innovation.

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Wikipedia defines disruption as a disruptive innovation is an innovation that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually goes on to disrupt an existing market and value network (over a few years or decades), displacing an earlier technology. The term is used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically first by designing for a different set of consumers in the new market and later by lowering prices in the existing market.

The tablet market is still nascent for Android to disrupt in such a way like smartphones. According to Gartner, “Tablet Shipments Increase 53.4 Percent, “Worldwide combined shipments of devices (PCs, tablets and mobile phones) are projected to reach 2.32 billion units in 2013, a 4.5 percent increase from 2012. The market is being driven by a shift to lower-priced devices in nearly all device categories.” The report this month indicated Android will lead the trend as number one in low-end smartphone market growth leaving Apple far behind at number three.

Android is poised to remain a market leader. Android 4.4 smartphones which are lower in cost are aimed to gain big wins over its consumers. With many versions of Android’s low cost smartphone now on the market, consumers can benefit from many areas such as low cost, lower resolution displays, minimal data speeds and smaller memory.

It is predicted that the landscape will evolve within the next 5 years. PWC also states, “Companies often start with individual freedom or open innovation and progress to other models. What we’re experiencing right now is companies transitioning to the next stage of innovation. Within five years, we are going to see a different landscape, where incubation expands and corporate venturing and design thinking catches fire.”

Companies are showing no signs of waiting for disruption to leverage innovation. The study also indicated that executives increasingly realize that courageous innovation is imperative in the digital age where potential disruption is lurking around every corner. PWC believes any no-name company or “digital disruptor” can quickly capitalize on technology and a novel business model and bring a corporate behemoth to its knees.