I've often described Android as the new Windows, and that's true on so many levels. But one of the more overlooked ways in which Android is just like Windows is in its various market defeats: Google just can't seem to make Android successful beyond its core market.

Like Windows on the PC, Android controls roughly 80 percent of its own core market, which is for smartphones. And that number doesn't look to be changing much over the next several years, if the prognostications from analysts at Gartner, IDC, and elsewhere are as correct as I believe them to be. Android is simply dominant in phones.