Surely Android is a disruptor of wealth rather than a destroyer of it?
There are things Android does for free (or very cheaply) which ask serious questions of competing products but what about the efficiencies that are created because more people have access to functionality which enhances their lives and businesses and the new markets it creates?
Free turn by turn navigation software may destroy wealth for, say, Tom Tom and Garmin, but what about all the people who now have it but didn't before and who are now wasting less time as a result? Some (not necessarily all, but some) of that time will translate into additional wealth for them and those they deal with. Similar cases can be made for getting better information on the go (via e-mail and the web) and so on.
Not to mention the app developers who can now make money where no market previously existed, the handset manufacturers who are selling more expensive handsets, the networks who are selling data plans, the smartphone accessory manufacturers.
It would be hard to quantify what has been created against what has been destroyed, but I'd wager that it's far more accurate to describe what has happened as a disruption or a move than destruction.
There are things Android does for free (or very cheaply) which ask serious questions of competing products but what about the efficiencies that are created because more people have access to functionality which enhances their lives and businesses and the new markets it creates?
Free turn by turn navigation software may destroy wealth for, say, Tom Tom and Garmin, but what about all the people who now have it but didn't before and who are now wasting less time as a result? Some (not necessarily all, but some) of that time will translate into additional wealth for them and those they deal with. Similar cases can be made for getting better information on the go (via e-mail and the web) and so on.
Not to mention the app developers who can now make money where no market previously existed, the handset manufacturers who are selling more expensive handsets, the networks who are selling data plans, the smartphone accessory manufacturers.
It would be hard to quantify what has been created against what has been destroyed, but I'd wager that it's far more accurate to describe what has happened as a disruption or a move than destruction.