Android Phone Demand Up 250%, iPhone Down 445
CWmike writes "A 'monstrous' jump in demand for Android-equipped smartphones has turned the market upside down, according to a retail pollster. Of the people who told ChangeWave Research in a mid-December survey that they planned to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days, 21% said they expected to purchase an Android phone. That number represented a 250% increase over the 6% that pegged Android as their mobile OS of choice when ChangeWave last queried consumers' plans in September. 'That change rivals anything that we've seen in the last three years of the smartphone market,' said Paul Carton, ChangeWave's director of research, adding that the sudden surge in consumer interest in Android had 'roiled' the market. 'This is an indication that Android has finally caught consumer interest,' added Carton, who cited the recent advertising campaign for the Motorola Droid smartphone as the reason why interest in Android has skyrocketed. Android's leap translated into good news for Motorola and HTC, the most prominent makers of Google-powered handsets, with the former reaping most of the benefit. Motorola's share of smartphone purchases in the next 90 days shot up from 1% in September to 13% in December. Carton tagged the company's Droid as the reason. '[It's] the first increase for Motorola we've seen in three years,' Carton said." Here is the ChangeWave report.
Now 5 people use em! (Score:2, Funny)
On a more serious note: I love Google products, if only they'd market them better they'd be at the top with the iPhone easily.
Re:Now 5 people use em! (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll preface this by saying I haven't used a Droid, or other 2nd-gen Android Phone. I did use a G1 for a little while, and from my experience no amount of marketing would have put it up with the iPhone. The interface was clunky and inconsistent. In particular there were 2 separate email apps built-in, one for Gmail and one for everything else, and they behaved differently. Battery life was abysmal at best. While the G1 has some advantages over the iPhone, it was not a usable smart phone unless you were tethered to a power supply. It reminded me very much of the Sidekick (which was developed by many of the same people as Android, and I owned 3 different versions of the sidekick), which notoriously over-promised and under-delivered every step of the way.
The first few releases of Android followed similar patterns. When I bought my iPhone 3G it did (almost) everything they advertised, and there wasn't hype about the next version until 6 months later. My brand new iPhone was the best iPhone one could get. When I got my G1, I was disappointed that it didn't have all of the cool features I had already been reading about in Android press releases and articles. Android marketing seems more about the "next" version, which makes the actual product seem dated before its even for sale.
I hope the new versions of Android devices are better, but those experiences have left me skeptical. I'll give them a look when my iPhone contract is up (next summer), but I'm not falling for the hype this time. If the product for sale doesn't have the features I want, I won't get it. I can't buy it hoping that they'll eventually deliver. I've been burned by that too many times.
I've been really happy with my iPhone 3G. When I got it, I knew I was giving up important features that I had on Windows Mobile, like the ability to shoot crappy video and an open development platform, but the iPhone mostly worked as promised (with a notable exception of Push Notifications, which did not show up until a year or so later with the 3rd generation of the OS). With the limitations of the iPhone (one app at a time is the most troubling), I'm certainly going to shop around before my next purchase, rather than automatically buy next summer's iPhone, but it will take more than slick marketing for Android to win my business (but I am pulling for them!).
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
So, you're comparing a third-generation iPhone with a first generation Android phone?
Re:Now 5 people use em! (Score:4, Insightful)
So, you're comparing a third-generation iPhone with a first generation Android phone?
From an engineering perspective, that's a fair criticism, but not from a marketing one. When I go into the respective stores, I have a choice between a third gen and a first gen product.
Re:Now 5 people use em! (Score:5, Funny)
So, you're comparing a third-generation iPhone with a first generation Android phone?
What was he supposed to do? Borrow somebody's Delorean?
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Currently Android platform is a balkanized mess and it's going to get much worse as every Asian device manufacturer gets onboard (wait for CES to see the Android flood). But try writing an app for the platform. Which OS do you target? 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1, 2.soon? Which handset do you target? Should it have both capacitive and resistive soft buttons? How many handsets will use multi-touch? What kind of artwork should I use to display a crisp image? Do I start off with a WVGA resolution and scale it down for e
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So, basically not different than coding for the normal computer... Different display sizes, different hardware, different everything.
Also, it's not just the Android platform, it's the same for every programmable handset. Coding for Windows Mobile? Just the same. Coding for Symbian? Just the same. Coding Java midlets? Just the same.
Re:Now 5 people use em! (Score:4, Insightful)
Hell even for iPhone it's the same. Plenty of apps require a specific version of the iPhone OS. I've had to update the OS on my iPod Touch once to run an app, and the update completely hosed the thing. I was able to boot back to default settings and resync, but all access point settings and user preferences and such had to be reconfigured. Wasn't fun. I'm on 3.1.1 now (3.2 is out but I'm timid about the upgrade), but if I see anything that requires anything newer than that I'm just holding off.
In regards to the GP's "open doesn't pay the bills" statement though, I'm counting on the opposite. Whether it's going to be fun or easy to code for remains to be seen, but it's already obvious that the demand is there for Android phones, which will pretty much mean that there's going to be demand for Android apps. Which do you think is going to be a more lucrative market? The already over-saturated platform that's so easy to code for that a monkey can do it, or the slightly harder platform with fewer apps?
I wrote a few iPhone apps just to play around with the coding. Never published anything to the app store though. Android however, is a different story. I've got 4-5 apps already planned out.
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On a more serious note: I love Google products, if only they'd market them better they'd be at the top with the iPhone easily.
Me thinks someone has been under a rock for the past year. Are you in the US? I ask that seriously because Android is everywhere here. Pick a network, they have an Android phone. Even AT&T is supposedly getting one based on the Moto Cliq.
Re:At the top...of what? (Score:5, Interesting)
Do you realize that the iPhone only has 4% of the market? Even so, I think the presence of the Android is great, because maybe it will cause Steve J. and his flock of ass-ki...er, fans, to stand back and realize that the iPhone, while quite cool conceptually, suffers from some very lame design issues. Now all Google needs is a phone-less device that can subscribe to a carrier's broadband-only plan.
Sounds like real data to confirm the survey (Score:5, Informative)
The survey could mean lots of things without this bit of confirmation data. Sales are going in the same direction as the survey.
Re:Sounds like real data to confirm the survey (Score:5, Insightful)
I plan on writing a post after I write the subject (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Notice that this wasn't a report of 250% sales growth... it was a report of 250% increase in a poll asking "What cell phone do you PLAN to buy?"... not quite the same thing.
Also worth noting is the complete lack of any mention of the margin of error. And the report also doesn't really explain what is losing out to Android. The summary implies it's the iPhone, but TFA says that iPhone demand went from 32% to 28% - only a small fraction of the 15 points that Android picked up. From the original story [changewaveresearch.com] the numbers are:
iPhone from 32 (Sept 09) fell to 28 (Dec 09)
Android from 6 rose to 21
Blackberry from 17 stayed basically stable at 18
Windows Mobile dropped from 9 to 6
Palm OS/W
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Re:I plan on writing a post after I write the subj (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably, because that's what "demand" implies?
Maybe, but while opinion surveys can be interesting, they aren't very good indicators of actual behavior. If I asked 4,000 people whether they planned to buy a second Bible in the next 90 days -- for their children -- I bet a lot of people would answer yes. How many of them would actually go out and do it?
Part of "demand" in the economics sense is not just wanting something, but willingness to pay for something. It doesn't matter what people say; if nobody is actually buying a product, there's no demand.
It's also extremely important to understand the sampling method in a study like this (which is probably why so many of them neglect to discuss their methods). Where did the people surveyed come from? How was the sample selected? At random? How random? From the phone book? From a Web site? Were the participants self-selecting (i.e. you're only surveying people who were demonstrably interested to begin with)? Obtaining a representative statistical sample may not be a "science," as such, but it's darn close.
There are also such things as leading questions. What if the question on this survey wasn't phrased the way it's stated in the report? What if they just asked, "Who is your preferred smartphone operating system vendor: Apple, RIM, Symbian, Microsoft, or Google?" Apple fans would immediately say Apple; everybody else would say Google. The typical consumer doesn't realize that when you're asking them if they want a smartphone with a RIM OS, what you're really asking them is whether they want a BlackBerry. (And judging from my own, purely anecdotal survey -- looking around me when I'm waiting in line for something -- a lot of people do want one.)
Some people also answer "yes" to surveys because they're secretly hoping they will get something for free. Sometimes it's not so secret; what if everybody who participated in this survey got a $20 off coupon for any smartphone they wanted from Verizon. Which phone would they be thinking about while they did the survey?
They say "lies, damn lies, and statistics" because it's easy to make numbers say pretty much anything you want -- especially if you aren't sticking to sound statistical principles. In my experience, fly-by-night marketing firms seldom do. It doesn't pay the bills.
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Probably, because that's what "demand" implies?
Part of "demand" in the economics sense is not just wanting something, but willingness to pay for something. It doesn't matter what people say; if nobody is actually buying a product, there's no demand.
In addition to desire and willingness, ability to pay is also crucial in the economics sense.
Of course (Score:5, Interesting)
Googles market model is better. Multiple phone designs on any carrier that will have them. It's really that simple. The design of the OS is better than iPhones competitors. Though, I do think the application openness is going to bite them in butt over the long term. Allowing background applications from any provider looks good on paper, but in practice is going to create a bot network.
If Apple went with all carriers who wanted them and released a handful of branded designs, it's sales would soar.
Re:Of course (Score:4, Interesting)
Googles actual market model is to drive openness as that allows them easier access and prevents them from being locked out by proprietary control. The Android business strategy is about the disruption of proprietary controls be it Apple or M$. Oddly enough it is Apples iPhone success (break up of manufacturers proprietary operating systems or M$ dominance) that will drive Androids success, not really Google's, being open, once it is out there, it is out there.
Google is just endeavouring to shift the market to an position where it has had success competing.
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If Apple went with all carriers who wanted them and released a handful of branded designs, it's sales would soar.
Maybe, but that's no the core difference between Google's and Apple's strategies. Apple's model is similar to RIM and Palm where they want to be the producers and the vendors of hardware and software. On the other hand, Google's strategy is similar to Microsoft's where they provide software to any hardware manufacturer.
So, Apple still wants to be Apple; and Google wants to be the new Microsoft.
Alternative headline (Score:3, Insightful)
I think this finding is more related to that fact that the only half-decent smartphone is currently limited to iPhone on AT&T. (Sorry Blackberry/Palm/HTC---no lightsaber app means that you're less than half decent B-)
Re:Alternative headline (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-download-htc-light-saber-v1-0.html [freewarepocketpc.net]
http://forums.precentral.net/homebrew-apps/195472-dklightsaber-lightsaber-app.html [precentral.net]
These don't count? Never underestimate nerds and homebrew.
Lightsabers (Score:2, Funny)
Good finds!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You can console yourself that there are more flatulence apps of better quality for iPhone than Android.
Competition works (Score:5, Interesting)
Imagine that! Competition works! If regulators would only get that through their heads...with enough time, consumers will win in the end as a result of competition.
Maybe Apple will finally get it through their heads and open up the iPhone for real development; doubt it though...
Re:Competition works (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe Apple will finally get it through their heads and open up the iPhone for real development...
Oh gawd, when are people going to get it. Just because it's important to you does not mean it's important to 99.99% of the other people out there. Hell, I'm a geek and it isn't important to me. Most people don't give a rat's ass about the iPhone not being an open platform. Hell, a vast, significant majority of people don't even know what an open platform is...
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Actually, it's a Free as in Consumer and Business issue. People should be free to buy products that suit their needs without government interference and businesses should be free to implement a business model without government interference.
Apple has a piece of hardware and software that people want to buy, but people like you want to interfere.
I should be free to buy what I want.
Re:Competition works (Score:4, Informative)
That Apple is free to do what they want, and that you and your grandma love it, isn't an issue. But as a geek it should be important to you that you have options. I don't care if the options are closed sourced pay apps or not. Notice the OP here said "real development".
Except when markets fail (Score:4, Insightful)
Imagine that! Competition works!
I hear that's why the US has such fast internet and cheap, reliable telephony service, both with excellent customer service of course, especially compared to the EU and Japan.
</sarcasm>
Sorry if I'm pushing it here. It's just striking to hear about the abuse US ISP and telecomms customers (apparently) have to put up with, compared to what I experience in Denmark.
On the other hand, your government isn't doing much better than failing markets. For instance, take a listen to a recent EconTalk episode about market failures and government failures at http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/12/winston_on_mark.html [econtalk.org]
In summary: it's the lobbyists.
If I recall correctly, the guest, Winston, only looked at government failure in the US. Extrapolating from there to government failure in general might be a wee bit hasty.
The really provocative statement would be that right-wingers don't get that government intervention is the right solution in theory, what left-wingers don't get is that it rarely works in practice, and the elephant in the room nobody is doing anything about is that the lobbyists screw up The Right Thing, making it Not The Right Thing, and so nothing works (as well as it could).
Re:Except when markets fail (Score:4, Insightful)
Your examples are fallacious. Internet and telephone are heavily regulated in the U.S. worse yet, they are also monopolies (that's the exact opposite of a free market, where competition -- my original point -- exists). I lived in Europe too...for most of my life. Stuff is cheap there because landlines/telecom are often heavily subsidized by governments through high taxation.
I am not willing to pay $5 a month for a 100 meg line to the Internet and have 50% of my paycheck taken away. I will happily pay $100 a month for my fast connection...you pay for your own internet, wireless, etc.
Oh, and as far as "markets fail" - every market that failed in the US in the past 2 years or so was heavily subsidized and had marked government involvement. Throw in some examples if you have any, I am curious so see what un-regulated, un-subsidized private market failed?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
AFAIK all landlines/telcom the world over are heavily subsidized by governments including (AFAIK) the USofA --even if only in startup capital and/or right-of-ways. The only remaining question is whether you or a CEO is keeping/reaping the benefits of said subsidy?
Please tell me of this land where there is a 50% tax rate where 100% (hell, a measurable/relevant percentage!) of
Re:Except when markets fail (Score:4, Insightful)
Mobile telephony in the US: expensive, poor phone choices, consumer lock-in. Mostly an unregulated market. Pretty much the only major regulation imposed on mobile carriers here in the past decade was number portability, and that was a boon for consumers. Compare that to Europe: cheaper plans and can take your phone to any carrier. Not to mention much better coverage. That's what a smartly regulated market looks like.
On the other hand, poor regulation can lead to monopolies/duopolies, like the ones we enjoy for broadband net access in the US.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It must be nice for the Europeans to reap the benefits and investment that Americans put into emerging technologies...
Oh, you must mean like the first partly automatic car phone systems, oh wait, those were Swedish...
Perhaps you meant the first fully automatic analog cell phone network? But that was in Japan so that couldn't be it...
How about digital 2G cell phones then? No, unfortunately that would only be true if Finland was part of the US (GSM network in Finland 1991).
But at least you can be proud of how you're still at the forefront of basic science research. Oh, sorry, I forgot you guys focusing increasingly on "immed
You can't open iPhone without changing whole model (Score:4, Interesting)
Symbian, J2ME, Windows Mobile are "open" because they have a very paranoid security model which some hate. iPhone has nothing of that sort, there is no "Apple signed" scheme and Apple loves the "app store" like stuff including the policies. See the hell they gave to basic OS X input manager developers just because some idiot trolls released proof of concepts.
Apple has set up a monster themselves and there is no way to change it unless they implement "symbian signed" scheme. Things would be a lot easier if they didn't start a lawsuit fight with Nokia along with offensive arguments which are unheard in mobile scene until now.
Symbian signed makes more sense than J2ME sandbox because both deal with native apps which have real deep access to OS/hardware. I can't really picture Apple allowing 2-3 resident apps I use on Symbian right now, e.g. iON Battery timer... Something replicates battery level functionality with estimated time remaining. Imagine the horror if you submitted something like that to app store :) Or the idea of a IM application always on and shamelessly added to startup. Or the themes...
If you open the platform, people will ask for such things from developers and developers will sure ship them.
None of what you said is so (Score:4, Insightful)
Symbian, J2ME, Windows Mobile are "open" because they have a very paranoid security model which some hate.
And so, too, does the iPhone.
iPhone has nothing of that sort, there is no "Apple signed" scheme
Just how do you think app store apps run anyway? All apps coming from the app store are signed by the developer, using an Apple generated certificate. Just try running an unsigned app on a non-jailbroken phone. Springboard (the app launcher) will not run it.
All apps run in a sandbox (unless you jailbreak) and cannot get to the system. There's that "paranoid security model" you claim they do not have.
I can't really picture Apple allowing 2-3 resident apps
Well sure, because it eats into battery life. It's pretty ironic to take down the lifespan of your device by an hour just to have a battery measurement app wake up the processor every few seconds... I can understand why people want background apps but actually notifications are a decent compromise for users so they can have a somewhat predictable battery experience. For instance, there are already a number of IM apps that use notifications for this and are thus essentially "running all the time" as far as the user is concerned.
I just bought a Droid (Score:5, Interesting)
Newton's AAPL (Score:4, Interesting)
I personally own an iPhone, and I like it.. despite the drawbacks. But I'm considering an Android phone next for some of the above reasons myself. I will weigh the pros and cons carefully and decide at the time -- if Polled, right now I might say that I'd get an Android phone next, if just because the idea is more appealing to me. This could be partly why interest in the iPhone is *potentially* waning... people see there are alternatives out there.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Apple's price premium can easily be pointed to via their industrial design, which for Dell, HP, et. al. is mostly an afterthought. Combine this with OS X, Safari, iTunes, most of which is paid for by their hardware sales and an explanation for the premium is easily found. I even own a 2006 MacBook, and its easily paid for itself regardless of any premium.
That said, I got my first smartphone (if you can call it that) recently and went with the Nokia N900. Apple is good, but they can't cover -all- bases.
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iPhone has had stereo bluetooth since 3.0.
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It's interesting most of the reasons people have given you wrong.
I'm not surprised (Score:5, Interesting)
My Verizon contract was up, and my family needed new phones. We ended up with 4 Android phones, 3 HTC Eris's, and a Droid. Verizon sold a LOAD of them over the holiday season, mostly due to rebates and discounts. The 4 phones, normally over $600 even with a contract, ended up costing me $200.
The first reseller we went to (after they were very helpful during our selection process) had run out by the week before Christmas, and had to send us to a Verizon store. They had plenty, and they were going out the door fast.
250%??? (Score:2)
Let's not use hyperbole like "skyrocketed" without actual numbers shall we? Even skim read TFA, don't see the actual numbers there either.
Smells like astroturf. Smells a LOT like astroturf.
I've nothing against Android, but I've never ever seen anyone with a phone that uses it. Have, however, seen 100s with iphones.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Look more closely. I'm starting to see more Heros, myTouches, and DROIDs out there. The catch is that they don't stand out nor are they all the same shape like the iPhone is.
What I don't see much of are Windows Mobile devices. For as popular as WinMo fans make them out to be, they either don't stand out at all, are heavily masked by HTC and the like, or really aren't that common. Maybe a combination of those.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Windows Mobile post 6.0 has one feature I wish Android had. The ability to encrypt everything on a memory card. This way, should a device be stolen, it would erase itself by too many wrong password guesses, or erase itself if told to, and the items on the memory card would be useless to the thief.
This is very easy to do in Linux, either via a filesystem method (encfs), or just block loopback encryption.
I just wish this was implemented properly, so when an Android phone tells an Exchange server it supports
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I take it you didn't read the part about 6% of people polled wanting an Android smartphone to 21% of people polled wanting an Android smartphone.
6 * 3.5 = 21.
(remember, a 250% increase represents 3.5 times as much as the previous number)
Better Exchange Support = WinMob death (Score:2)
If Google can license the Microsoft ActiveSync and make it work as well as Apple's iPhone... then I will be on board 100%
And more GPL violations by manufactures (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:And more GPL violations by manufactures (Score:5, Interesting)
Umm, technically, if you buy the phone from Sprint or Verizon, they are the only sources legally bound to give you the source. HTC only needs to give the source to those they distribute to.
Obviously, if you buy an unlocked phone from a 3rd party, HTC would be required to provide the source.
Lies, damn lies, and... (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow, so demand for a phone that has sold tens of millions of units in the 2.5 years it's been out is leveling off, and demand for a newer phone that has sold far fewer units is growing? Stop the presses!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The iPhone 3Gs was just released in June.
Die Microsoft die. Long live Android. (Score:5, Insightful)
iPhone = AT&T, Android = Everything else (Score:4, Insightful)
On a related note..... (Score:3, Interesting)
In 2006, according to analysts 58% of iPod users were thinking about buying a Zune.
http://www.abiresearch.com/products/research_brief/Consumer_Electronics_Market_Update/101 [abiresearch.com]
Both will die in the long run (Score:3, Insightful)
Both systems will probably die in the long run as they will be replaced by normal operating system. The iPhone already officially runs on MacOSX, but because of stupid marketing decisions it's not open. The Android is marketed as a Linux device, but instead is just running a proprietary flavour of Linux which is barely compatible with anything. It doesn't even use X11!
So I predict that in the future, people who actually care about what their phones can do (which is a minority) will probably run some kind of stripped down normal OS. Early devices implementing this are the Maemo ones which is essentially a stripped down Debian. It's probably already possible to share repositories with Ubuntu ARM. (need to try that)
Re:Android sales since 2007 are up ERROR%! (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes... share growth is a useless metric for a new offering. Whats 350% of nothing? Still nothing. How about giving us the market share instead.
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Yes... share growth is a useless metric for a new offering. Whats 350% of nothing? Still nothing. How about giving us the market share instead.
I guess it's the ultimate embodiment of the "new is good" sentiment. The newer the better, and not-yet-released is so good it breaks your brain!
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The 250% increase is in "demand," not sales or market share. That is, how many people planning on buying a phone soon are planning on Android? This statistic is unrelated to market share, and is perfectly valid for both old and new offerings.
From the article, 21% were going for an Android phone, compared to 28% for the iPhone.
Re:Android sales since 2007 are up ERROR%! (Score:5, Insightful)
For a brand new product vs an iconic powerhouse, that is little short of amazing.
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Yes and no. The iPhone hasn't changed much since it's inception. It was huge when it was new. Now the improvements are incremental. Makes sense that a new phone with similar capabilities, a fresh face, new paint, and unknown possibilities will evoke keen interest. Time will tell of course. Until the actual sales numbers, rather than intent are in, this is worrisome, but hardly crushing news for Apple.
Re:Android sales since 2007 are up ERROR%! (Score:4, Interesting)
I would have answered YES to an android in December. Now, the answer would be NO. Not unless I can replace all the Google apps with something else.
What changed my mind? Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. [trolltalk.com].
This is the same guy who had Google blackball CNET after they published some of his personal info [cnn.com].
The guy's a hypocrite who simply can't be trusted any more. I don't need my phone spying on me for some guy who thinks his personal info is privileged, and yours and mine isn't.
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And do you know the actual context in which he made that statement?
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They did give the market share. 21% in the surveys, 6% now. Is even reading TFS not fashionable now?
Umm... (Score:2, Insightful)
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Like Mac in the desktop/laptop/netbook market? Or like Safari in browser market?
Mac hasn't entered the netbook market (yet).
In the other two, Mac is far ahead of Linux, which is relatively far ahead of BSD, which is relatively far ahead of Solaris, which... you get the picture.
Safari is ahead of Chrome^H^H^H Opera.
Re:Umm... (Score:4, Informative)
Not as of a few days ago. Chrome passed Safari in browser market share, according to digitaltrends.com.
Remember, that's a beta Google product vs Apple's flagship browser.
Safari isn't even the browser of choice for Mac users, for chrissake.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
>> Like Mac in the desktop/laptop/netbook market? Or like Safari in browser market? ...and with only a 15 year head start too.
>
> Mac hasn't entered the netbook market (yet).
> In the other two, Mac is far ahead of Linux
Not What We're Looking At (Score:3, Insightful)
The number that changed a lot was people who were planning to buy a new smartphone in the next 90 days. Of these, 21% said they prefer a phone running Android. (That's up from 6% in September.) 28% said they prefer an iPhone, down from 32% in September. Windows Mobile and Palm's percentages also shrank over the last 3 months.
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Also, most likely, the number of people who are planning to get a smartphone at all is now notably higher than few months ago. At least I would expect that, with majority of people still having "feature phones" and getting gradually taken on the bandwagon of "smartphones". There is a place for growth for all players.
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I'll bet the numbers reflect the "What it's not on the crappy AT&T network? sign me up!" more than what OS it's running.
Honestly, even non 3G service for just regular phone calls on AT&T lately has went from the normal crappy to utterly dismal even in good coverage places like Chicago.
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Of these, 21% said they prefer a phone running Android. (That's up from 6% in September.)
And the figures as you give them here are not at all misleading. However, in that context, it's much more useful to represent it as an increase of 15% of total market share. My guess is that it's just a case of 'sensationalism sells issues'.
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That is a fair statement to make... sort of... usually.
But when Apple releases a NEW iPhone, the numbers will change again, especially if the next iPhone contains even more power, reliability or some feature that people have been begging for. Android is not a threat to iPhone "yet" but there is a chance that it could be one. Apple's iGadgets are in a class of their own and always have been. My saying this might make me sound like an Apple supporter or fanboy. I'm not. I have no use for Apple. But I ha
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As I joked about elsewhere... it's easy to get a positive infinite percentage of growth when you're starting at zero, you just need one. Apple has the most to lose right now because they have the largest share. The only other player in the survey to move up was Palm, and that was a mere 1% on the chart. Everybody else lost when Google moved in, which is kind of unavoidable because their percentage had to come from somewhere.
Why wasn't the graph in hard numbers rather than percents?
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Apple will lose this fight because they made 3 big mistakes:
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Don't you mean mid-June? I was in the market for a new phone last spring and it was all vapor and smoke about what, if any, "new" iPhone was coming out on the market.
I ended up gaming the system a little -- my wife went freelance and needed a new phone, so I bought an iPhone for myself and just got her a number with no contract and threw the sim card in an old RAZR.
When the 3GS came out, I got that with her contract/discount and gave her the 3G iPhone I'd had for about two months.
I'm sure I'll be annoyed w
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The original iPhone was announced in January 2007 but didn't get released until June 2007. The iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS got announced/released in June/July time frame in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
So the trend is to refresh the iPhone every year mid-year.
I doubt any iPhone hardware update with be announced in January given this trend.
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Creative Zii runs also under Android AFAIK, as do some Archos devices.
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I often wondered what was so special about the iPhone. I have never got a satisfying answer.
The ability to see all of your voice mails without having to listen to them sequentially. You have a list, you can listen to any of them in any order. And you don't have to listen to them at all and still be able to delete them. - you can't do that with other services. That is why Apple is exclusive to ATT because the other carriers refused to do the necessary things to their systems to allow for that.
Some folks think that's worth the extra cost. Then there are the "it's a cool gadget" crowd who buy anythin
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I sleep 6-8 hours a day and rarely use my iPhone while doing so. Like many clock radio these days, I got mine with an iPod/iPhone dock that charges it and/or plays music from it and it's sitting by my bed. It's really not that hard considering the utility it provides.
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Insane...where is the time for such attention?
When you're asleep?
Though I agree that battery life could be much better, if people are indeed running into such problems so easily. My BlackBerry can go, during light usage (such as the just-past holiday!) for up to a week and a half on a single charge.
Re:I am not surprised (Score:5, Interesting)
Did you actually own a iPhone? (Score:3, Informative)
Android has apps iPhone doesn't like built in voice navigation in google maps, google voice, google goggles, and tethering
You can buy a number of apps for voice navigation on the iPhone (or download Waze which is free), most of which work without a data connection (google maps is nice until you start traveling outside cities much, Waze does require data though). You can manage Google Voice using the web app on the iPhone, and the iPhone is not lacking for AR apps now.
As for tethering, it's not Apple invol
Re:I am not surprised (Score:5, Insightful)
A perfect example of how feeling trumps logic is your assertion that charging daily takes a lot of time and attention. In fact it only takes 30 seconds of attention in the evening to plug your phone in, it is not something that should logically seem like a problem, and yet somehow it has created this loathing inside of you. That doesn't make any sense at all, and yet it is real (note: this doesn't apply if you actually use your phone so much that you have to charge it three times a day, but that isn't a problem for typical users, the type you were referring to).
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The technical term is "a logo".
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You are ignorant if you can't find lots of reasons why the iPhone is better than lots of phones. It doesn't have to the best phone out there, just better than phones most people currently have.
Have you heard of the app store, genius? There is nothing like it before. It was tricky in the past to get some app on phones, even for me. You have to get the right jar file, use Activesync, put it in the right place, then discover it doesn't support your screen res.
That is just one aspect. Are you really that fuckin
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My turn, to complain....
I hate the fact that there is no stop button in the browser... you accidentally click a link and your going there, whether you like it or not. I spend more time going back to the front page of Slashdot than reading it on the Iphone.
Re:I am not surprised (Score:5, Insightful)
Some of the answers are obvious; I'm not sure what's unsatisfying about them. It works well. It's not complicated to set up. It's functional as an iPod, which lots of people already owned. The web browser renders pages normally, the way a desktop computer would. It's mail application connects to mail servers normally, the way a desktop application would. "Visual voicemail" works the way voicemail should work-- no more "if you would like to listen to this message, please press 1". Apple proved that a touchscreen can work on a phone if it's executed properly. If you own a Mac and use iTunes already, then the phone will integrate extraordinarily well with your system in a convenient way. The iPhone had 8GB of storage built in for audio and video when most phones came with something more like 32 megs of internal storage. Apple managed to get a large set of developers to produce applications for their phone. The interface is simple and elegant, pretty, and responsive.
Android's success doesn't surprise me either. In a lot of ways, I think it's a validation of Apple's approach, and it proves that Apple's success wasn't simply based on hype and trendiness. The Android phones that are now enjoying success actually resemble the iPhone much more than any of the pre-iPhone smartphones. Look at the iPhone and the Motorola Q, and ask yourself which smartphone the Droid has more in common with. Apple was successful because they made a well designed product. Now Motorola is enjoying success because they've made a well designed product.
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I easily get two days out of a full charge, 3 if I push it.
Mind you, I don't use a lot of talk time.. I can see someone who talks on it for a couple hours a day easily draining in one day.
Re:I am not surprised (Score:4, Insightful)
I often wondered what was so special about the iPhone. I have never got a satisfying answer.
If you're saying the iPhone isn't appealing to you, great. Fine. Whatever. Have some free mod points from people who agree with you.
If you're saying you don't understand people-- if you're saying you honestly try to put yourself in other folks' shoes, try to empathize with them, try to see why they love what they love, but you just can't-- well, congratulations, you're a geek. You've come to the right place.
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I don't want to have to remember to bring a charger when I visit the in-laws for the weekend or travel for a meeting. Unless I'm going somewhere for >4 days I can leave the charger at home.
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Well, *my* phone obeys the laws of thermodynamics. Have fun storing your smartphone in a cryogenic dewar, or whatever you have to do to get 3 weeks' battery life out of it.
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My Palm Treo 650 would last for four days no problem, same with my Samsung slider, the A520, I forget which phone I had before that but it easily lasted four days as well. If you're talking on it all day then of course it wouldn't last that long. But several short calls through-out the day or texting a lot would easily make that mark. My MotoQ had a high density battery and it would go for four days easy and that's with checking email through ActiveSync.
Battery life has taken a huge hit with the newer phon
Re:I am not surprised (Score:5, Informative)
My iPhone 3G lasts about 4 days if used smartly and sparingly. That is, Edge for voice, data through Wifi, only a few short calls per day, no bluetooth, no music/video/games. Pretty much the same functionality you got from your Palm Treo :)
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The deal with catching the wave of any technology is to be at your best as the wave starts to happen, to already be where the action is as it happens, not to look at it from the beach once it's already happening (read: nearly over) and wish you'd had grabbed your board and gave it a go.
Sorry guy, or guy's friend, you have to put in your hours before the market knows that what you're doi
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Yes, but most people wont. Most people don't even know what that sentence means. That is what we care about, not the technical elite, but the average loser.
Re:iPhone maxed out (Score:5, Insightful)
When the market for the iPhone is saturated, then of course it's market share will drop when some new do-dad comes out.
Except the market for the iPhone is not really saturated. It's the market for the iPhone on AT&T's network that's saturated. I bet nearly everyone reading this post knows at least one person who drools over the iPhone but would sooner take a hot poker in the eye than switch to AT&T to get it.
When Apple opens up the iPhone to other carriers in the US, iPhone adoption will skyrocket due to that pent-up demand. And they are definitely going to open it up to other carriers as soon as the latest exclusivity agreement expires-- because AT&T has dragged them down long enough, and because other carriers will give Apple what they want, now that they have seen the success it brought to AT&T despite their sub-par network.
~Philly
Re:I get the feeling Google sold their soul.. (Score:4, Informative)
You do know that 2.0 is in the AOSP (Android Open Source Program) so the code is freely available to anyone, there are community ROMs that run 2.0 on my HTC Dream albeit very badly. The problem is that other manufacturers are planning to deploy it on their new hardware lines not their old ones. Motorola just released earlier then Samsung or HTC (who just announced their 2010 line up).