There is plenty of competition, good competition, but the trademarkrd little green droid is eating applesauce and blackberries for lunch. Earlier this month, the Canalys research firm reported that globally, the Android platform shipments topped all other platforms. For the fourth quarter of 2010, that amounted to a whopping total of 32.9 million Android-based devices shipped.
The point spread may not be quite as large in the United States, but even here, Android smartphones are preferred by businessmen. Evidence of this is seen in the fact that for the month of January, 2011, 83% of all new smartphone merchant accounts with PaymentMax where for Android smartphones. 11% were for the iOS run on iPhones and iPads. BlackBerry came in third, accounting for 6% of the newly opened mobile accounts.
Canalys went on to project that even in the face of market concerns over platform fragmentation and Verizon’s addition of the iPhone 4, Android will continue to grow at more than twice the rate of its major smart phone competitors in 2011.
Canalys’ analyst, Chris Jones, stated, “The growth of Android has been phenomenal… we believe that growth will continue. Vendors working on Android have leveraged the open source platform to push prices down and bring smart phones to the mass market.”
Android mobile devices are expected to continue to be strong sellers among small business professionals. Both smartphones and tablet computers have opened up new possibilities in the arena of mobile commerce.
PaymentMax offers merchant accounts to these entrepreneurs with features specially designed for small and midsize businesses. These include one flat monthly fee for statement and gateway fees, special low rates for swiped cards, and no mandatory long-term contractual commitments. Business professionals like being able to use the hardware that they already have in place, and being able to stick with the same data package provider that they currently use.
Max Payton, Director of Business Development at PaymentMax, says, “Our company gives owners of Android mobile devices all the help they might require to process credit cards.”
About Canalys
Canalys specializes in compiling and publishing market data, analysis, and advice to the world’s leading technology vendors. It was founded in 1998 by Steve Brazier and has locations in the United Kingdom, Singapore, and the United States.
About PaymentMax
PaymentMax was incorporated in 2004 to provide credit and debit card processing. The company serves professionals and merchants throughout the US.
