It looks like a day Android users have been waiting a long time for may finally be arriving at this year’s South By Southwest (SXSW) conference. Kevin Systrom, CEO of Instagram, is on the schedule to speak at the conference, which begins on Friday. It looks like there’s a chance he’ll announce the long-awaited launch of Instagram for Android.
Instagram is a hugely popular app for Apple’s iPhone. Chances are you’ve seen some of the photos it produces in your Facebook or Twitter feeds. The app lets users apply filters and borders to their photos. Sometimes the results are pretty amazing. Android users, though, have always been left out in the cold with Instagram. Though many Android users have expressed a desire to have he app on their devices, the app has remained iOS-exclusive since its launch. According to a recent report by GottaBeMobile, Android users’ wait may finally be over. They point out that Systrom’s keynote, scheduled for Sunday morning, March 11th, was originally titled “Your Phone’s Camera is Changing the World.” What’s significant there, they suggest, is that the title was “Your Phone’s Camer” and not “Your iPhone’s Camera.”
Of course, there’s no hard evidence that Systrom will announce Instagram for Android. Given the popularity of SXSW for product launches, though, Systrom’s talk would be a great platform for such an announcement. Instagram is massively popular on the iPhone, but the simple fact of the matter is that Android enjoys a significant lead over iOS in market share. So whether Instagram is coming to Android this weekend or not, don’t expect it to stay an iPhone-exclusive for much longer.