The diffusion process, competitive relationship, and equilibrium analysis of smartphone operating systems

ABSTRACT

This study started from the perspective of predicting science and technology competition, building on this to discuss the dynamic competition between Android and iOS by sales volume in each quarter. The Lotka–Volterra system of equations, one well-known competitive diffusion models, has been adopted to represent the competitive situations of the smartphone operating system market, with the Lyapunov function used to carry out equilibrium and stability analysis. The results showed that Android and iOS have a predator–prey relationship, in which iOS serves as the predator, and Android as a prey. The equilibrium and stability analysis show that both products are able to coexist in the market, and thus, each system has its own stable sales volume.

KEYWORDS:

• Competition
• equilibrium
• Lotka–Volterra
• Lyapunov
• smartphone

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Hsi Tse Wang received his BS degree in Applied Mathematics from National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, in 1993, and MS and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial and Information Management of National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, in 1995 and 2009, respectively. He was a senior engineer of new product development at a semiconductor company. He is an assistant Professor of Information Management, TransWorld University, Yunlin, Taiwan. His current research interests are technology management, intellectual property management, and supply chain management.

Ta Chung Wang received the BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from the National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, in 1995 and 2000, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University, Stanford, CA. in 2007. Since 2007, he is an assistant Professor of Institute of Civil Aviation, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. He teaches courses in multivariate analysis, electronics and engineering mathematics. His research interests include operations research in the aviation industry, solving large problems using parallel approaches, and nonlinear system analysis.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [grant number 102-2410-H-265-001]