Android Hits 73% of Global Smartphone Market 601
eldavojohn writes "Gartner's released a report on worldwide numbers of 2012 3Q phone sales and the staggering results posted from Android have caused people like IW's Eric Zeman to call for sanity. Keep in mind these are worldwide numbers, which might be less surprising when you realize that the biggest growth market of them all is China, which is more than 90% Android. It's time to face the facts and realize that Android now owns 73% of the worldwide smartphone market. While developers bicker over which platform is best for development and earnings, the people of the world may be making the choice based on just how inexpensive an Android smartphone can be. This same time last year, Gartner reported Android at 52.5% of market share and it now sits at 72.4% market share with over 122 million units sold worldwide."
iPhone vs Android flamewar (Score:5, Funny)
iPhone vs Android flamewar in 3, 2, ...
How cool is it though... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's pretty damn cool.
I mean, that the mainstream avg person sees linux as the OS for nerdy, contrarian, anti-establishment type peoples (ie, Linux) and it now become itself mainstream in that it basically runs the cell phone world (yes i know linux servers have runt he net for years...but thats not mainstream)
And then it gets even cooler when you consider that iOS, still with the same familiar looks Apple has long been known for, is derived from Unix (via OSX).
Flamewar? Bah. Just a bit of sibling rivalry as they curb stomp Windows into oblivion in the largest/quickest growing platform market.
Re:How cool is it though... (Score:5, Insightful)
...which tells us that GUI usability is all that matters. OK, together with app availability, but whenever the latter is in balance for two competitors, GUI usability stands out as the only thing that matters.
Desktop Linux should learn from Android. What Android got right:
- Nice app names, mostly.
- Excellent, easy to use GUI.
- No Command line shit required to do stuff.
- Great fonts
- Easy customization.
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You're just thinking Androids success is down to
Re:How cool is it though... (Score:5, Informative)
- Excellent, easy to use GUI.
- No Command line shit required to do stuff.
- Easy customization.
Actually, you got your assumptions wrong. Android has GREAT command line support. You can do pretty much anything, including send SMS and initiate phone calls using the command line. It is one of the things I love about it: I can do whatever the hell I want.
Also, regarding customization, that is only true in theory. Phone manufacturers (I'm looking at you, Motorola) go out of their way to stop people from customizing. So, unless you are hacking the hell out of your phone, customization is very limited.
The fact there are so many different GUIs out there, with any manufacturer using a different one - or even multiple ones - also doesn't fit your model.
The reason Android is taking such a huge chunk of global market is mostly commercial. It is easy for manufacturers to use, and relatively cheap. There are great apps out there, and it is well supported by developing houses. It has a very usable interface (GUI). It is not exactly easy but, as far as smartphones go, nothing is really easy - we are just so used to it we don't even notice.
Lets face it, Android was in the right place at the right time, and (most specially) with the right mentality. iOS is apple only, and you are SOL if you are someone else. Windows mobile was a piece of crap, the phone would lock down all the time, and you had to go anything through Microsoft. Either you had to do your own development (like Nokia did), or you were out of the market. Along come Google with Android. In the beginning, not such a great solution, but a much better option.
Me ? I'm just happy for it. I own 2 Android phone, my wife has one, my daughter another ... Heck, even my father has one.
Re:iPhone vs Android flamewar (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, no, Apple's market share rose too. The real loser was nokia again.
Uhh, phones != profit... (Score:4, Insightful)
The # of phones shipped is very impressive. We are now in a smart-phone market where there is just iOS and Android: everyone else is in the noise.
But the # of phones is orthoginal to which a developer would want to target. How many purchases per phone are made on Android vs iOS? Whats the competition? How easy is the development model? How homogenious is the installed base?
All these question are the ones the developers are actually asking, and market share really doesn't come into play very much.
Re:Uhh, phones != profit... (Score:5, Insightful)
Eventually the market will be overwhelmed (if not already) by the number of Android phones. At some point the developers will stop and realize there's a whole lot of people in the other ecosystem.
Now hopefully they actually write an app that uses Android properly instead of some stupid iOS port - I've seen so many that are hard to use on Android because of this.
The big thing is that Android is going on cheaper phones - we just got a plain phone here at work with a keyboard for texting, it came with Android and it was a whopping $150 to buy outright. It's no wonder the shipments/sales have taken off.
Not everyone needs a $600 smartphone, and it's an oversight on Apple's part.
Re:Uhh, phones != profit... (Score:5, Insightful)
All TVs = android, all DSLR cams = android (Score:3)
Soon every TV will have android in it.
And if the camera makers got of their ass, android would be great in a DSLR, now if they just gave every DSLR bt/gps/wifi/3g, then it would rock. Come on makers, put in that $20 soc in there.
Re:Uhh, phones != profit... (Score:5, Funny)
Not everyone needs a $600 smartphone, and it's an oversight on Apple's part.
Not an oversight. They chose to give up on that 47%. They will never buy Apple stuff anyway.
Re:Uhh, phones != profit... (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem is artificially confining yourself to (what could wind up being) only 5-10% of the marketplace doesn't seem to be wise for the long run. Look at Apple's history.
They'll have to come out with a new iPhone every three months to keep their profits up.
Re:Uhh, phones != profit... (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple cannot compete among the cheapest phones. They can't make one, and the sales won't bring enough profit to even bother. Apple traditionally focuses on the high margin, luxury market. Their 25% of smartphone market give them 10x more profit than the other 75% brings to HTC and Samsung (who sell barely above cost.)
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Uhh, phones != profit... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Uhh, phones != profit... (Score:4, Insightful)
They are not anywhere near 3 times overvalued.
First, they have $120bn in the bank, which they absolutely control. So you can knock that off their valuation.
Secondly, they are on an annual run rate of approximately 50bn in profits right now. They are adding 50bn to their bank every year. And sales are increasing, of all of their products except for the iPod range (which is completely understandable).
They are also one of the, if not _the_ best run large company in the world. They have a management team that demands responsibility, unlike for example, Microsoft. Their whole team is pulling in the same direction. That $120bn not only gives them the ability to take risks other companies just can't think of taking, if gives them the ability to launch products in a way that most other companies can only dream of. The speed from product announcement to widespread availability is unmatched, and maybe unmatchable.
Apple might be slightly overvalued, but no where near 3 times overvalued. Certainly not when their 3 main products are still growth products.
Don't confuse political math with business math (Score:4, Interesting)
Not everyone needs a $600 smartphone, and it's an oversight on Apple's part.
Not an oversight. They chose to give up on that 47%. They will never buy Apple stuff anyway.
Don't confuse policy/politics with business. In politics, you need to get 50% of your "market" or you lose. Plus you only get to play every 2/3/4/5 years (depending on your "market").
Not so in business, even targeting a solid 15-20% of the market that's high-margin is often considered a solid plan. e.g.: BMW they clearly don't compete with Toyota or GM for marketshare, yet have a thriving, highly profitable business and a stellar brand. Same with Apple in desktop computing.
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Not an oversight. They chose to give up on that 47%. They will never buy Apple stuff anyway.
... and that's exactly the thinking that lost Apple the PC market back in the day. You'd think "once bitten, twice shy" ... but no, not with Apple. Massive profit margins can work fine when you're leading at the forefront of technology; they don't work so well when you've got nothing to offer over your competitors. (And they work especially badly when your competitors are ahead of you -- i.e. the 7" tablet space).
Note that I'm not saying Apple is doing badly now ... but you can't just be thinking of now,
Doesn't matter how many people there are (Score:3)
At some point the developers will stop and realize there's a whole lot of people in the other ecosystem.
We already know there are more people that have Android devices.
How many buy apps though? How many even have Android devices where it is practical to have apps?
I am technically one of the "Android Users". I have a cheap Android phone I bought for international use when I was there for an extended period (which ended up being a debacle because it turns out devices are actually usually carrier locked TO A
Re:Uhh, phones != profit... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would you care?
Do you care if the company that makes your other things profits?
I am at odds with these companies, I am trying to get the best price for the best goods. They are trying to get the most money.
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Why would you care?
Do you care if the company that makes your other things profits?
I am at odds with these companies, I am trying to get the best price for the best goods. They are trying to get the most money.
Maybe because you want the company, and the android ecosystem as a whole, to thrive?
If you are short sighted enough to not care if the product is sustainable for the company that makes it then you'll end up with things like the abandoned HP tablet, sold off below cost and left to wilt on the vine because they were not a moneymaking proposition. If you want more than just the thing right in front of you right this second, you have to look beyond your own selfishness for a few seconds.
Re:Uhh, phones != profit... (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe because you want the company, and the android ecosystem as a whole, to thrive?
LOOKS LIKE IT'S A THRIVIN'!
What part of 90% of China (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Uhh, phones != profit... (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe because you want the company, and the android ecosystem as a whole, to thrive?
Actually, since there is more than one Android phone maker, I don't care that much about wether one of them thrives, as long as the ecosystem Android does.
So far all of my smartphones have been made by HTC.
Now, HTC doesn't look very healthy right now.
Still, I care about using an Android phone more than about that phone being made by HTC, so while I hope HTC recovers, it wouldn't hurt me that much if they don't.
That's one of the advantages of an ecosystem vs. a monoculture.
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Do you care if the company that makes your other things profits?
Yes. Profitable companies are more likely to be around with things like warranties, spare parts, and software upgrades.
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The Moto Droid did not have a locked bootloader. You are a liar. Flashing an SBF is easy. Or you are mistaken and have an X or 2 or 3 or 4.
Never buy a phone with a locked boot loader.
But... (Score:5, Funny)
But BB10 is going to change everything!
Meh -- (Score:5, Funny)
Re:But... (Score:5, Funny)
But BB10 is going to change everything!
You spelled "Windows 8 Mobile" wrong.
Re:But... (Score:5, Funny)
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It should. It's an excellent platform, well ahead of the rest.
Given that BlackBerry apps earn the most money [gigaom.com], it's not a tough decision for developers to make. As we all know, Android development sucks. Developers are already jumping on BB10 at an impressive pace. The app gap will close.
The market is going to look very different this time next year.
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Given that BlackBerry apps earn the most money [gigaom.com], it's not a tough decision for developers to make.
But how about when RIM stops paying people to develop for BB10 [blackberry.com]? Will it still be worth doing? And will that link still go to a 404 page?
I had anticipated this a long time ago (Score:2, Interesting)
I am aware of the markets right now on the Apple app store
Re:I had anticipated this a long time ago (Score:4, Interesting)
...introduced artificial slowing down of the phone to make you upgrade...
Have a source for that one? It's news to me and I'll hold off on upgrading to iOS 6 on my iPhone 4 if that is indeed the case.
Re:I had anticipated this a long time ago (Score:4, Insightful)
I've got iOS6 on my 4S, and haven't noticed any slowdown.
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Re:I had anticipated this a long time ago (Score:5, Funny)
Thread.sleep()
Reminds me of one of my favorite stories: The Speed-up Loop [thedailywtf.com].
Re:I had anticipated this a long time ago (Score:4, Informative)
my first mobile product will be for Android and I'll do iOS second.
We do both platforms but tailor the development and release cycle to the region. Releases or updates pertaining to the international market always get the Android version first. If it's mainly a US based application, we do the iOS platform first. Reason being, we want a large user base latching onto new releases and updates so we can get more accurate bug reports/fixes. There always tends to be a large amount of useless "static" in the feedback forms however the Android feedback generally tends to be more useful to the developers.
Re:I had anticipated this a long time ago (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been writing mobile apps for about three years now and a lot depends on your target market. If you are creating a paid apps and a small shop then you want to go iOS first. The first two apps I did had a free version with ads and a paid version with no ads and additional features (basically version 2.0). I had more downloads on Android of the free version by about 2.5 to 1 vs iOS. But iOS made up 90% of my paid revenue. While Android provided 70% of the ad revenue at first it suddenly leveled off and began to decline. I ignored it until one app got a bad review saying the software had malware and then found 3 more knock off apps all of which were spelled similar to mine and of suspect origin. Now these were niche apps with a few thousand paid downloads each on iOS. I originally built the apps to serve some need I was looking for and thought it might be worth $.99 to others. They were enough that it was a profitable hobby/moonlighting gig. Nothing that sold a million copies or anything like that.
Ironically I did release a couple of those apps for Amazon Kindle Fire, which is technically android, and made more money from the Kindle this year than I ever did generic android on the Google Marketplace. The app I'm working on today I'm going to release for iOS and the Kindle. I'm probably going to ignore Google Marketplace for now for my moonlighting apps.
And that's a problem I've found with Android and the same problem I had with linux about 10 - 15 years ago as in there are many different "flavors" of android. I use that term a little more loosely than with linux, but there are minor inconstancies from the different manufactures mostly having to do with hardware vs. the location of library files that made linux such a PITA back then. I know there will be fan boys screaming, "But if you design your app right it will run on anything." at which point I figure these people have never dealt with clients who are marketing departments. On the paid app development side of the house we offer this thing called Quality Assurance as part of the contract. I know people can laugh about it as much as they want to, but it's there and some clients are looking for pixel perfect (don't worry we charge them for it). First year we tried to keep up with android and lost our shirt buying hardware for testing. Now it's "Will work on stock android for latest nexus phone & tablet".
That's generally why when my shop charges for development it's $X for all iOS devices, $X * ($X*.15) for Kindle, and $X+($X*.75) for android, and then we charge anywhere from $1000 - $3500 per additional android device for QA.
But the biggest annoyance I had with android on the personal projects was the fact of having to maintain different build branches for different Android versions vs 1 build branch for iOS no matter what iDevice(s) the end product would be shipping for. That's started to change now, but at one time if you "supported Android" that meant making sure it worked on 1.5, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, and 3.0 as all were in the wild. I know that's far less today as Android's release schedule has grown a little more sane than the every six months with a new release that was going on a couple years ago.
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Now anything gets through. The 'rigid criteria' are almost non-existent. It is basically a malware scan and make sure you aren't using private APIs.
I urge you don't
Selective Statistics (Score:4, Insightful)
3Q 2012 would have been when iOS was at it's lowest due to people waiting for the iPhone 5. You'll likely seem there temporarily be a large change in the numbers Q4, with them settling down to something in between Q1.
This happens once a year every year. The alternative would be believing that Apple suddenly lost half their share in one year, which also doesn't seem likely.
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No, the reality is that growth in non-first world markets of android devices is huge. They lost this share not by losing customers but that the total smartphone market is growing far faster than apple device sales.
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No, the reality is that growth in non-first world markets of android devices is huge. They lost this share not by losing customers but that the total smartphone market is growing far faster than apple device sales.
Ok, but even TFA agrees with me.
"With the launch of iPhone 5, Gartner analysts expect iOS share will grow strongly in the fourth quarter of 2012 because users held on to their replacements in many markets ahead of the iPhone 5 wider roll out."
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It will grow strongly, but they will not be able to gain back a majority or anything near it.
I don't think apple cares anyway. They want to be seen as a premium brand, and that means not selling the most units.
Re:Selective Statistics (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple didn't lose half their share. The market's absolute size increased, with Android being the main player in that growth, thus Apple's part of the pie shrank even if in absolute numbers it didn't.
Also, if I'm not mistaken those are market share statistics and not sales statistics. Market share won't be quite as affected by the pre-upgrade slump, because an important proportion of iPhone 5 buyers are iPhone owners.
free stuffs (Score:5, Interesting)
Not surprising that free software is so popular. Especially when it's the greedy manufacturers doing the shopping ;)
Not only is the software free, but the maintenance and upgrades are being handled for them too. Unless you have a big company pushing you to install their OS on it (MS) this is probably going to be your best choice.
Looking back at the considerable difficulty that MS has getting Windows to run smoothly on a wide variety of hardware, it's impressive to see just how well Android manages to support such a large variety of kit. Kudos to them for that.
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Exactly. Look how long it has taken the Linux crowd to release something that will work well with all those video cards and wifi cards. Writing an OS for a PC is tough stuff. For a phone I suspect it's much easier. But having said that the power of these mobile OS's continues to amaze me. Android is orders of magnitude better now than just a few years ago.
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Android is orders of magnitude better now than just a few years ago.
The nice thing about Android is that I can expect every new release to be better than the last, unlike Ubuntu and Windows.
The bad thing about Android is that there are so many things they can still improve.
remember PC/Apple? (Score:5, Insightful)
As a developer, usage matters to me (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=9&qpcustomb=1 [netmarketshare.com]
Fact is most Android phones are the low-price, low-margin variety that are used almost exclusively for texting.
Re:As a developer, usage matters to me (Score:4, Interesting)
Interesting numbers. Statcounter [statcounter.com], however, seems to disagree with them considerably, showing Android leading by a significant margin. Not sure what to make of that exactly, but it's pretty clear that "Fact is most Android phones are the low-price, low-margin variety that are used almost exclusively for texting" probably isn't completely true.
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Statcounter doesn't correct for unique visitors (which is makes no difference in the context of this debate), but draws from a data pool approximately 3 orders of magnitude larger than
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Even if the stats you show are true, you can clearly see where it is heading. Give it 6 months and you will have to find another source which puts Apple on top. The thermonuclear war isn't going so well and if they don't pull something really fresh out of their pants Apple will lose this battle, fact is it might already be too late.
iOS First (Score:5, Interesting)
The fragmentation of the Android platform is ridiculous. Not only do you have to worry about processors, screen ratio, resolution and anything else hardware related... you also have to worry about fragmentation of the operating system. Some people might have gingerbread and haven't upgraded to ice cream sandwich yet. And perhaps their phone can't handle the newest version. On top of that users may not have enough technical knowledge to fix it.
This results in consumers blaming your product. It doesn't work on their phone, this app sucks, the company sucks, etc.
However, releasing on iOS... you only have to worry about a couple of configurations of phone (you can even stipulate that your app only works on 3GS or 4 and above or whatever) and a few different screen ratios/resolutions. It's even okay to force the user to upgrade to the latest version of iOS. Which is simple to do.
This results in people (hopefully) enjoying your app and getting your company and products a fan base. Then when you port it to Android... if the app doesn't work on their phone and they do a search they'll find good reviews, testimonials, etc and blame their phone instead of the developer.
Just wait. Next year will be the year of... (Score:5, Funny)
...Windows on the smartphone.
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'coz the Steve Jobs effect is not over (yet). ...
But time will tell
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Yep, I'm betting in 5 years Android will be more like 90% of the market. Something about Apple, Jobs, PR, and it's image of late make me suspect so.
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Already 90% in the biggest growth market, China. Now even Paul Thurrot is calling Android "The new Windows"
It's even mimicking having the old versions refuse to die, and relatively recent releases not supported! I work at a company who does software development for mobile phones and we release software targeting Android 2.2 (think Windows XP and/or IE6) simply because the vast fragmentation present (like Windows/IE).
Re:APPLE STILL MAKES 90% OF SMARTPHONE CASH !! (Score:5, Insightful)
I think that speaks more to how overpriced Apple products are. How do you think that they have $100 billion in cash?
Not really. I think it speaks to the nature of the market Apple sells into. The iPhone is similarly priced to phones like the Galaxy SIII and other top tier Android handsets, but the 73% of global marketshare is certainly not all phones of the SIII's calibre - there are going to be a lot of much cheaper phones in there (Samsung itself sells a cheaper baby brother version of the S-class).
Apple makes the bulk of the cash because it focuses on a small slice of the market, with a highly tuned product (ie, with few options) and in certain markets (such as the US) accounts for 40% or more of the market with that small line.
They have $100 billion in cash because they've been sitting on it it for some time not paying dividends (although they do now), and having multiple highly profitable product lines since the launch of the original iMac.
The fact remains, that the iPhone costs almost the same as a top Android handset. It costs *a lot* more than the average Android handset price though... but so does the SIII.
Re:APPLE STILL MAKES 90% OF SMARTPHONE CASH !! (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact remains, that the iPhone costs almost the same as a top Android handset. It costs *a lot* more than the average Android handset price though... but so does the SIII.
Well, like any market with high end offerings and low end offerings, the high end is making up for the thin margins at the low end. If Generic Android Handset Free with 2 Year Contract wasn't sold at cost to the cell providers, there would be no need to inflate the price on the high end to cover development.
Apple doesn't really make a low end anything. Even the iPod Shuffle and Mac Mini are not positioned as competition against commodity mp3 players and cheap PCs.
Re:APPLE STILL MAKES 90% OF SMARTPHONE CASH !! (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, a 64GB iP5 is about twice as expensive as a 64GB GS3, thanks the SD cards' lower price. There's a wide gap at 32GB too.
Re:APPLE STILL MAKES 90% OF SMARTPHONE CASH !! (Score:5, Interesting)
You have just said that Apple and the S3 are of a similar price and that Apple make a lot more money. It seems to me that would suggest that Apple are giving you much less for the same price.
I think that is true.
Re:APPLE STILL MAKES 90% OF SMARTPHONE CASH !! (Score:5, Insightful)
Well of course you are right in nearly everything you have said :)
However, I would vigorously dispute your last sentence. I have an iPhone sitting here right next to my S3. Putting them side by side, there are only two things that strike me as being "pros" for the iPhone. 1) It looks nice. 2) It syncs better with Itunes on a Mac. Other than that, I really struggle to think of anything that is not considerably better on the S3. I have 3 Macs, I have two iPads and all the iPhones except 5 so Im not exactly an Apple hater but this S3 has rather opened my eyes to what the rest of the world has been doing while Ive been playing with my iPhone all these years,
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> whining about Apple's dividends
Why don't you let me know when Google starts paying a dividend, ok fuckwit.
Whining? What?
Point out where I was whining about dividends one way or the other. Quote the exact text, not just your interpretation of what you think I mean. That's not how quoting works.
Also, you should probably log in.
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Congratulations on your math+logic fail. Last I saw, Apple makes about 3/4 of the smartphone profits, Samsung makes most of the rest, HTC makes like 1%, and the rest lose money. BUT THESE ARE PERCENTAGES, and all but one of their competitors are not making ANY profit AT ALL. Apple could be making fifty cents per phone and still get 3/4 of the profits against these losers.
Not price - "one size fits all" is Apple's problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not price - "one size fits all" is Apple's prob (Score:5, Interesting)
The Android market is split in 2: the flagship market and the budget market. There is very limited choice on the flagship market. The budget market comes however in all shapes, form, price point, but brand support is unpredictable. You can get a phone that will be supported for years, and another that will be forgotten after a few months.
The high end market in which Apple compete was mostly unoriginal and expensive. I said "was" because Google just crashed the party with the Nexus 4, a high end phone from a reputable brand at very competitive price. That will be interesting to see how Apple, but also HTC, Sony, Samsung, LG will manage to justify a 100% premium. Worst case scenario, they will just align the price. Personally I hope they will innovate. Since the original iPhone in 2007, there hasn't been much innovation (larger, faster, thinner, widget on the lock screen, ... are improvements, very important that you could not live without and some that required great engineering innovation, but since the original iPhone nothing has created the same wow factor )
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It is also their strength. Apple have always preferred a tight product line up and fewer sales at high margins. That is their business model. It was nearly by accident that the iPod and iPhone got so massively popular.
They still sell fuckloads of phones and make exceptional profits.
Chinese love to have the latest stuff. (Score:4, Interesting)
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And AC's buy overpriced crap!
I wish all companies would take Levi's model. No trying on, no fucking around, just get the 510s I want and get the hell out.
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More like show off the wedding tackle. How anyone can stand such tight pants I will never understand.
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This is true. Android/Windowz/BB/whoever are losers who don't know you need to pay a good chunk of change for a telephone. I'm proud that my rugged industrial case has a giant hole in the back just so the Apple logo shows through. It allows people to see that I'm awesome without having to waste my time talking to these idiots. Apple needs to litigate their competitors(copiers) out of the market. Apple invented the smartphone, it's their pie. Stop eating out of it.
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I paid $25 for mine. It makes phone calls and sends and receives texts. I'm still trying to figure out what else would be worth paying hundreds of dollars more for a bigger phone with a shorter battery life.
Oh, I guess I could post Facebook status updates from the bus. Yeah.
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You could also post shitty Slashdot comments from the bus.
That's got to be worth something...
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You could also post shitty Slashdot comments from the bus.
That is a tempting argument.
It's a portable computer+GPS that also makes calls (Score:5, Interesting)
Play music: 70%
Play video games while in the bus, train etc: 10%
Record videos of my little daughter to share with relatives: 5%
Google chat and SMS: 5%
Read personal mail at work: 5%
Phone calls are somewhere in the remaining 5%
Oh, and while on holidays it's invaluable to have a GPS navigation device that allows you to click right through to the website of the hotel you found on the overlaid map and yes, call them to reserve a room for the night.
And the GPS + satellite photo maps have saved me from getting badly lost in a forest at least once, and kept me from being late while taking a picturesque route to a rendez-vous another time. Maps-on-demand that include your location are a god-given when you're traveling, hiking, etc.
Try any that with a brick phone.
Re:Android users are poor and can't afford apps. (Score:5, Informative)
"I'm still trying to figure out what else would be worth paying hundreds of dollars more for a bigger phone with a shorter battery life."
Navigation, POI (business search), and live traffic information is worth vastly more than $100 by itself.
Listening to your entire music collection and/or live streaming like Pandora and PRI/NPR/BBC World.
Watching youtube videos, or entire DVDs if you are so inclined (works out well on long flights).
Reading and replying to your personal and work email wherever and whenever you feel like it.
Having both your personal appointments and reminders, and your work appointments pulled from Exchange automatically.
Using a good RSS reader, allowing you to read the articles from a number of website you frequent (including /.) all in a slick interface, at a moment's notice, without needing to turn on/off a computer.
Replying to idiots on /. at work...
Having all your ebooks wherever you are, and a great screen to read them on.
Having a great SSH client wherver you are, so you can login to your Linux boxes and do... absoloutely anything and everything...
Scientific calculator with you at all times.
All the games you can stand... From strategy games to word games, to emulators allowing you to play any game for older consoles (Genesis, N64, etc).
Re:Android users are poor and can't afford apps. (Score:4, Insightful)
Android users are poor and can't afford apps. Hence, they also can't afford a nice smart phone and go for the cheapest Android POS they can get.
Why would a developer target that segment?
WalMart shoppers are poor and can not afford expensive stuff. Yet, somehow, WalMart made a shitload of money. Sell to the masses and eat with the classes. (I think Henry Ford was one of the first to use this widely.)
Re:Android users are poor and can't afford apps. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Android users are poor and can't afford apps. (Score:5, Funny)
Walmart profits on necessity spending. How many cell phone apps fall into that category?
Google Maps for the new iPhone comes to mind.
Re:Android users are poor and can't afford apps. (Score:4, Informative)
So Walmart has stopped selling movies? video games? toys? cosmetics? junk food? electronics? photo services?
Sure Walmart makes a lot money selling clothing & food, but they also make a tidy profit on non-necessities.
Re: (Score:2)
So buy a Nexus device and Flash whatever OS you want onto it. This is as close as you can get. Qualcomm will kill any dreams you have of fully-open.
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Just get an android and compile your os with exactly what you want...
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"According to an IDC press release issued just last week, Samsung sold 2,391,000 tablet computers worldwide in Q2 2012, up 117.6% from the same quarter last year. According to Samsung’s court filing, it sold a total of 37,000 tablets in the U.S. last quarter, down 86% year over year."
You do realise that America is not actually the whole world, right?
Re:Q3 vs. worldwide in use? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:So what about developers? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Wow. That sort of attitude will just result in you (and the U.S.) becoming a bit player in the
Re:Suck it! (Score:5, Insightful)
I would if most of those were at a current OS version. Hell even 4.0... but 90% are still at nothing higher than 2.3.5 and that is utter crap.
I love my Nexus, but I feel really bad for peopel that bought a phone from a crap maker that will not push out updates in a timely manner.
Re:Suck it! (Score:5, Informative)
but 90% are still at nothing higher than 2.3.5
Actually, Gingerbread and below are down to about 70% [android.com]. Not good (JB is only on an utterly pitiful number of devices), but improving slowly.
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Re:Suck it! (Score:4, Interesting)
You need to actually use a galaxy S3 before calling Samsung a copy cat. The machine they give you is so far ahead of the iPhone its unbelievable! I have had all of the iPhones except the 5 and I can tell you that the actual functionality of the S3 is at least six years ahead. The only thing the iPhone does better than Android on the S3 is sync with iTunes on a Mac. Fortunately I donneed to sync with iTunes any more. Im starting to wish Id bought an Android tablet now even though I still like my iPad.
I do think the iPhone looks nice though,
Re:Suck it! (Score:5, Interesting)
It is a measure of how far ahead it is. I would have said ten years but that would have been silly :)
Regardless of the actual time scales involved, IOS has not really moved since it came out (nearly six years ago by the way). On IOS I have eagerly seen the introduction of cut and paste, folders, the notification bar that doesnt really do much, the ability to swap application by double pressing the home button and wading through all the apps that never closed, and tiny little changes that made minor though sometimes pleasing differences to the way it worked. Then Apple invested all their IOS resources into Siri which is almost useless outside the US (unlike both Googles and Samsungs offerings) and, of course, maps (which they already had). Jumping from IOS to Android on the S3 was like going through a hundred of Apples major updates in one go and I still keep finding little touches that surprise me that Apple hadnt thought of them first, let alone at all.
I have lots of Apple products and I like them in the main, I wont upgrade my iPad to IOS 6.0 as it has nothing I want and takes away something I do but I doubt I will ever go back to one of their phones.
By the way, having a low UID on Slashdot is easy. You just have to be a bit of an old twit.
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The iPhone is nearly six years old which would seem to be a little older than you. Something can feel ten years older than something else even if it was produced at the same time.
Not difficult concepts really as I am sure you will find out one day.
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Latest quarter was $8.67 share vs. $7.05 a year ago. This quarter they've been supply constrained on many products. I can see the concern since margins are very high but so far the earnings looks good.
Android users are the Republicans in this metaphor (Score:3, Insightful)
All those rationalizations and excuses, sounds quite a bit like Republicans on the last election.
It sure seems like Android users are the ones inflating figures when in real life developers still make far more money off iOS development. Keep pushing out those polls, er, stats claiming you are "winning".
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)