An executive at internet giant Google has told delegates at a recent conference that Apple's iPhone has a much smaller market than the phones running Google's software development platform Android.Addressing an audience at an Emerging Communications conference in California, Rich Miner, Google's group manager for mobile platforms, stated that there are "just certain apps you can't build on an iPhone", adding that applications cannot run in the background when users are switching to a new application.
Despite conceding that with the iPhone Apple had got many things "right first time", Mr Miner went on to say that Android-based mobile devices will go on to outsell them because the potential for developers to build new applications using Android is greater.
Unveiled in November last year, the Android operating system is an attempt to develop a complete, open and free mobile platform.
Mr Miner stated: "Once you have devices out there from Motorola, HTC, Samsung and so on, there's a much larger potential market on Android than for the iPhone."
In contrast, he continued, the iPhone has a single manufacturer and is targeted at "a particular demographic".
"It's great that people are finally building tools so all of these third-party applications can be built and get out there, [but] there are things I saw people doing with the first version of the Android software development kit that it seems like you can't do with the iPhone - at least at the moment," Mr Miner added.
