Japanese technology manufacturer, Onkyo, has announced that it will
preload its Android-based TA117 Tablet computer with Yellowfin’s
Business Intelligence (BI) Android application.

Yellowfin, a BI software vendor and market leader in Mobile BI,
officially released its application for Google’s Android platform in
January this year. The native android application is 100 percent Web-
based and gives enterprises access to all their business data on the
go.

“Yellowfin’s native Android application gives users total device
independence,” said Yellowfin Product Architect, Peter Damen. “Users
can run and access all of Yellowfin’s world-class reporting and
analytics features from their android device, anywhere, anytime.”

Onkyo began aggressively expanding into the rapidly growing enterprise
tablet market with the release of its enterprise-focused TA series in
December 2010, which has received strong interest from the healthcare
and finance industries.

“We’re obviously delighted with Onkyo’s decision and the opportunity
to further expand our presence in the Japanese marketplace,” said
Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie. “Japan, as a leader in mobile phone usage
and technology, has significant growth potential regarding enterprise
mobile devices and applications. Importantly, the Android platform is
set to explode.”

The Android operating system (OS) has gained considerable ground on
Apple’s iPhone OS over the last 12 months, with growth expected to
continue throughout 2011.

Growth is predicted to be particularly strong in the Japanese
marketplace due to fierce rivalry amongst Japan’s three major mobile
phone carriers.

Softbank Mobile, Japan’s number three mobile carrier, holds the
exclusive rights to Apple’s iPhone platform for the Japanese market.

To combat the popularity of the iPhone, and regain presence within the
lucrative Japanese smartphone market, Japan’s two largest mobile
providers, NTT DoCoMo and au by KDDI, are aggressively pushing
Google’s Android platform.

And the push is working, as Softbank begins to lose its initial hold
on the Japanese smartphone market.

Japanese mobile phone traffic data released by Trend Research in the
last quarter of 2010 showed that the iPhone’s dominance was being
eroded. NTT DoCoMo received the most pageviews by operator, regardless
of device, with au narrowly leading Softbank.

Again, NTT DoCoMo led the number of pageviews by devices classified as
smartphones, with au and Softbank battling it out for second spot.
Both DoCoMo and au gained significant ground on Softbank in the
pageviews by device (smartphone) category towards the end of 2010,
coinciding with the release of au’s first Android phone and the
Samsung Galaxy on the Android OS by DoCoMo.

Android shipments to Japan have taken off over the past year, with
nearly 1.4 million units shipping from local as well as international
vendors, such as HTC, according to the latest research from technology
analyst firm Canalys.

More Japanese vendors have also announced plans to launch Android
devices in 2011, such as NEC Casio and Panasonic.

“It’s clear that the Android platform is mounting a serious challenge
in Japan, backed by the two largest telco’s in NTT DoCoMo and KDDI,”
said Rabie. “Yellowfin is well placed to capitalize on Japan’s shift
to the Android OS.”

Sales of Google Android phones have been climbing worldwide, with
Android surpassing Nokia’s Symbian platform as the world’s best-
selling smartphone platform in the last quarter of 2010, according to
Canalys’ latest smartphone sales figures. 32.9 million Android
handsets were sold in the last quarter of 2010, up from 20.3 million
in Q3 2010, beating previous leader Symbian, which sold 31 million
units. Canalys predicts that Android sales will continue to grow at
more than twice the rate of its major smartphone competitors
throughout 2011.

Market research firm ComScore confirmed this trend, reporting that the
Android overtook Apple in the US smartphone market for the first time
in November 2010, with 26 percent of the market, compared to Apple’s
25 percent.

IDC senior research analyst, Ramon Llamas, also attributes much of the
87.2 percent rise in year over-year worldwide smartphone shipments (Q4
2010 compared to Q4 2009), reported in the IDC’s latest Worldwide
Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker market research study, to the rising
popularity of the Android platform.

“Android continues to gain by leaps and bounds, helping to drive the
smartphone market,” said Llamas. “It has become the cornerstone of
multiple vendors’ smartphone strategies, and has quickly become a
challenger to market leader Symbian. Although Symbian has the backing
of market leader Nokia, Android has multiple vendors, including HTC,
LG Electronics, Motorola, Samsung and a growing list of companies
deploying Android on their devices.”

Yellowfin was first launched in Japan in 2007 and is distributed by
the Kyocera Corporation.