Android's momentum eats into Apple's bragging rights Being in fourth place in the world's hottest technology market turns out not to be a winning proposition. But is third much better? And might even second place become a less comfortable spot to be in? Those are the inevitable questions prompted by the news this week that BlackBerry is ready to throw in the towel. As with all giant markets, it is tempting to think there is room for several players, some of them thriving on small market shares with niche strategies. But the competitiveness of technology ecosystems depends on their relative, not absolute, scale. Some 80 per cent of handsets shipped in the second quarter ran on Android, according to the latest figures from IDC. Even if many of those are low-end devices and incompatibility between them continues to make life hard for developers, the Android ecosystem is starting to exert a powerful pull. It doesn't matter, for instance, that BlackBerry is still selling as many handsets as Apple did when it launched the App Store - a time when Apple was the focus of the entire mobile development world. Mindshare among consumers and developers is all. On that measure, BlackBerry lost a long time ago. Like the cartoon Road Runner's foe Wile E. Coyote going off the edge of a cliff, the Canadian company has been spinning its legs without visible means of support for some time. Its subscriber base peaked less than a year ago, but its competitiveness had eroded long before that. With BlackBerry ready to fold, do things get any better for those who are left? Microsoft may draw some comfort from seeing off a rival, but Windows Phone still has less than 4 per cent of the market. Much as mobile operators would like to see an alternative to Android and Apple's iOS, the success of a third mobile ecosystem is not ordained. The more intriguing question, though, surrounds the iPhone. Apple's market share has fallen to about 13 per cent. It has been at more or less this level before, in the down quarters before the launch of new iPhones. But in relative terms, Android has never looked stronger. On almost every measure that counts, the company that invented the touchscreen smartphone either already has been - or soon will be - consigned to the number two position. It happened in hardware sales first: having first overtaken Apple nearly two years ago, Samsung shipped more than twice as many handsets as its US rival in the most recent quarter, according to IDC. It is now happening in apps. As we reported two months ago, Apple is on the verge of giving up its lead in app downloads. The average Android customer may use fewer apps, but there are a lot more of them and that is starting to turn the heads of developers. The next significant bragging right that Apple is in danger of losing is its leading share of smartphone industry profits. Apple almost certainly still leads Samsung in this department. The profit margin on the iPhone comfortably exceeds its margin on other products. But unless the expected launch of a new, lower-priced iPhone can stop the rot, Apple will probably be overwhelmed in the profit stakes by the sheer volumes of its arch-rival, as growth shifts to more price-sensitive markets. There is one important measure on which Apple still has an edge: the money that app developers and content producers earn on its mobile platform. That still makes the iOS a powerful draw for developers and guarantees Apple the all-important premium experiences that have kept buyers coming back for more when upgrade time comes around. If the revamped iOS7 interface is a hit with users and Apple continues to create a richer and more profitable environment for developers, then the core propositions on which the iPhone empire was built will remain in place. But volume matters. And when it comes to the numbers, Android's momentum is now impossible to ignore. This has left Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, in a difficult position. If he can't convince iOS developers that he will build a bigger marketplace for them, their attention will continue to drift to Android. But the lower-priced iPhone needed to expand the iOS universe will dilute overall profit margins and may even cannibalise sales of the high-end devices. Logic suggests that Wall Street should get over its fixation on Apple's slipping profit margin. Grabbing a bigger share of the overall profits is what matters now. A business model in transition, though, is guaranteed to unnerve investors. With activist investor Carl Icahn also now breathing down his neck, Mr Cook's job is not about to get any easier.