The extraordinary growth of Google's (GOOG) Android phones can be traced in six months of smartphone advertising data from Millennial Media, the largest independent mobile ad network.

In a series of pie charts, they show Android overtaking Research in Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry between July and August in ad impressions, gaining rapidly on Apple's (AAPL) iPhone between June and September and finally coming even with iOS in October with a 37% share apiece.

But an interesting thing happens in Millennial's November report, released early Tuesday. It shows Android and iOS tied for the second month in a row, at 38% each.  After six months of breakneck gains, we have something that looks like equilibrium.

Apple is still the No. 1 smartphone manufacturer, as it has been for 14 months in a row, but there are signs that the iPhone is approaching saturation in the developer community. In a Millennial survey, Android was the No. 1 platform developers plan to support in 2011, with Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Phone 7 and the iPad tied for second. The iPhone was relegated to fourth place, after the BlackBerry.

Below: Six months of Millennial pie charts.

Source: Millennial Media

If you have ever spent time with someone under 18, or have fond memories of your own raucous youth, you will no doubt appreciate how changeable in affection a young person can be. 

What might be the hottest trend one day can quickly become “so last season.” 

 

So how does this key, yet fickle, demographic impact the mobile phone market?

 

 

According to a recent study conducted by Harris Interactive, among a nationally representative sample of young people between the ages of 10 and 18, nearly three out of four (72%) indicated that they use a mobile phone.  The US Census Bureau estimates the population between the age of 10 and 18 at approximately 41.5M, which translates into about 29.9M “millennial” mobile phone users.  Their impact is significant and cannot be ignored!

 

So how have mobile phone manufacturers done keeping up with the ever-changing tastes of this influential demographic?

 

Microsoft crashed and burned with the Kin One and Kin Two, a smartphone aimed at teens. Some analysts estimate that the Microsoft/Verizon tandem sold an insanely disappointing 506 phones.  That is not a typo – only 506 sold!  After two months, Microsoft recognized its failure and killed the Kin experiment.  Microsoft put far too much focus on the data-hungry social media capabilities of their phone, forgetting that teens primarily use their mobile phone for phone and text.  In fact, the study mentioned earlier suggests that only 17% of teens use their mobile phone to access the internet, including sites like Facebook and Twitter.  Lest we not forget that mobile data plans are expensive, especially with mobile carriers starting to do away with the "all you can eat" unlimited plans.

 

So which brands are capturing the "hearts and minds" of the youth market?

 

It should come as no surprise that the same brand that has dominated the MP3 market for the last decade with the iPod and outperformed the PC market at 3:1 in Q3:2010 is also the most preferred brand of smartphone among 13 to 18 year olds. Apple wins again.   

 

While the Google based Android smartphone has come out of nowhere as the second most preferred brand, the road to dominance will be difficult as long Apple continues to develop products that simply “work” and that young people consider “cool.”

Longtime Internet pioneer, AOL today matured its mobile platform with a two new applications for Android handsets and an HTML5 version of the AOL Mobile website for smartphones. The new site — still found at http://m.aol.com — now supports richer content and media on handset browsers supporting HTML5. While it’s not surprising that AOL is looking to support advanced devices such as smartphones, the selection of Android over iPhone for the new software title is notable.

Speaking of Mobile Strategy...

It is an interesting choice and certainly not a bad one specifically due to the momentum of the Android platform. They can follow this with an iPhone app and not even miss a beat.

I like it because they are not following the crowd. It shows both leadership and independent thinking... Although we don't have visibility into all the reasons why AOL chose Android over the iPhone it does put a marker on the ground and shows they are thinking things through and not bowing down to the buzz.

I like it.

A few years ago in speaking with customers their priority for development was:
- BlackBerry
- iPhone

Then it became:
- iPhone
- Android
- BlackBerry

Will it soon become...
- Android
- iPhone
- ... and maybe BlackBerry?

As more companies embrace social media, the chatter about return on investment, or ROI, has amplified as executives attempt to determine whether the money they’re spending is worth it. In theory, it’s a good exercise but given it is still early days for social media, it is a challenge to accurately quantity its impact right now.

Rather than focus on ROI, companies should be looking long and hard at SMO – social media optimization.

So, what is SMO? One way to define is that SMO is a focus on making sure that a company’s social media activities are as efficient and effective as possible. It means creating content – be it blog posts, tweets, videos or Facebook updates – that can be easily used and leveraged across multiple social media platforms.

It means making sure a company’s social media person or team is highly productive so that their day-day-day activities are focused and productive as opposed to having a scattered shot-gun approach that consumes too many cycles.

Yes... and no.
I agree 100% that our work needs to be optimized. Social Media is no exception to anything else that is done in an organization and as such is not exempt of falling prey to waste and inefficient processes. There are multiple tools that can help improve this. But beyond the tools we must first look at how we are organized/structured. Does our organization's design aid or hamper our productivity?

We talk so much about relationships in social media that we forget about our internal structure and relationships.

Where do I disagree? There are still ways of measuring of ROI. Everything can be measured... everything can be tracked. It's just a matter of how we do it and how we interpret that data.

The new tools allow Google Apps Premier and Education Edition administrators to manage enterprise smartphones directly from the Google Apps control panel, without having to deploy additional third-party mobile device management software offered by vendors like Sybase iAnywhere and Good Technology (formerly Visto).

IT administrators can lock down and remotely wipe data from lost or stolen mobile devices and establish more complex password administration protocols. Google Apps Premier business customers pay $50 per user per year, while educational institutions receive the service free.

Google Apps supports almost every device on the market today, including RIM BlackBerry with the introduction last year of its Connector for Blackberry Enterprise Servers. However, interestingly, Google has yet to produce enhanced security and mobile management support for RIM BlackBerry or even its own Android phones like the Droid and its recently unveiled Nexus One.

When it comes to entering the enterprise, Google’s moves, so far, appear deliberate and calculated. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported Google plans on launching an online business software store packed with third-party applications that seamlessly integrate with Google Apps, which may replace today’s Google Solutions Marketplace. Google would not confirm the plans, saying only, “We're constantly working with our partners to deliver more solutions to businesses, but we have nothing to announce at this time.”

The company also remains mum on when it will commit fully to an enterprise Android strategy. A Google spokesperson told Channel Insider, “To date, Android-powered phones have been targeted toward consumers. Future versions of Android will introduce more functionality for IT managers to deploy enterprise devices, which will be of particular interest to our Google Apps customers.”

Google’s silence is not stopping some business-to-business software developers and VARs from supporting Android, however. DataViz, the creator of Documents to Go and RoadSync, is experiencing substantial success in the Android Market, telling Channel Insider that it is close to reaching 500,000 downloads of its introductory version in the Android Marketplace. The company’s software also comes preloaded on RIM BlackBerrys, and supports Symbian-powered phones and iPhone.  DataViz also offers an enterprise version of its software, complete with volume licensing. The company has a variety of resellers like CDW and Insight.

Good Technology, a provider of enterprise mobile security and device management software as well as mobile e-mail and collaboration software, recently announced its support for Android. Good faces an uphill battle as its offerings are slowly being challenged with the release of the ActiveSync protocol and bundled versions of mobile device management and security offerings by Microsoft and Google.

Enterprise mobile application and platform provider Antenna Software supports Android as well, and sees the growing pervasiveness of Android in the enterprise as key to its business.

“Overall, we believe very much that device diversity is a wonderful thing—people love choice, and the fact that Google is creating choice is great for the market. We see a good amount of interest and pull for Android from our customers,” says Jim Somers, Antenna’s chief marketing and strategy officer.

The mobile OS wars continue to provide sport and plenty of blood-letting for those interested, and the fun is only beginning. Apple and Microsoft are facing a massive threat with the increased adoption of Android and Google Apps. Apple CEO Steve Jobs thinks he knows what Google wants, telling employees recently, “Make no mistake, they want to kill the iPhone.” Jobs continued, using an expletive to describe Google’s “Don’t Be Evil mantra,” which the search giant quietly dropped last spring.

Time will tell, but if Google’s early 2010 moves are any indication, the mobile enterprise is set clearly in the company’s sights.

Google is not going to ignore enterprise mobility. It is too big an opportunity to pass by.

As a Google Apps user I welcome any and all improvements to the Google Solutions Marketplace which is not very user friendly or intuitive. In fact it is the main reason I haven't really extended my Google Apps beyond the basic stuff.

What’s CoPilot?

It’s a high quality mobile application that effectively transforms your phone into a GPS navigation device. It ain’t cheap, but it’s a lot cheaper than a dedicated GPS device.

What’s the news?

CoPilot announced that the Android version of the application was compatible with the new Nexus One. To which my response was “well, yes, it’s an Android.”

But two pieces of info have since come to light which have softened my cough.

First, only yesterday did Google actually release the Software Development Kit that allows developers to check whether or not their apps can run on the Nexus One. So making sure that CoPilot actually runs on the phone would have involved an awful lot of experimentation and leg work.

Second was info I got from CoPilot itself. They said a considerable amount of work goes into making sure software is compatible not only with new Android handsets, but also the updated Android OS. The example given was the previous version of CoPilot Live for Android. It was fully compatible with the Motorola Droid in the US. But there was a slight change in the Android ROM for the European equivalent (the Motorola Milestone) that caused CoPilot to crash. Updates and changes had to be made so that the app could work on the new device. And that was for two device that were supposed to be the same and run on the same OS. The Nexus One is both a different phone, and a new OS.

After a few unrelated stories on the topic my gut is now telling me to do a story on this... the fragmentation of the Android platform and the difficulties this represents for the penetration of the platform into the enterprise. Now time is my only enemy...