A few days ago, Google released Google Now, an Android feature for iOS through an update to their Google app. The feature is like Siri, only for Google searches. By releasing it on iOS, they made it available to over 500 million iOS users. However, on Android, it's only on at most 120 million Android phones. Yes, a key feature of Android, their version of Siri, is available on more iOS devices than Android devices. It's not because of marketshare, it's because of fragmentation.
Google Now only works on Android devices using Jellybean, the latest version of the OS. Less than 25% of people have the latest version of Android. Unfortunately, since upgrading the operating system is left to the manufacturers who have made their own Android customizations, users don't often get updates. In fact, unless you're using a Nexus device, the best way to keep up to date with the latest OS is to buy a new Android phone. Of course, phone manufacturers don't mind that, but users probably do.
Issues like this are probably why Gizmodo called the iPhone one of the best Android phones. Google is more interested in selling their services, rather than their phones. That means getting it to as many people as possible. Since they can't get it to many Android users, they have to share their services with iOS.
via TheTechBlock, photo via Chris Barischoff
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