Slashdot Mirror
Gentlemen Prefer Androids, Ladies iOS
Ponca City writes "PC World reports that women are more likely to buy an iPhone for their next smartphone purchase, while men prefer Android devices. According to data collected in October 2010, 31 percent of women wanted to buy an Apple iOS device next, followed by 22.8 percent interested in a Google Android device while among men preferences were reversed with 32.6 percent of men interested in an Android purchase and 28.6 desired an iOS phone. 'So where is the extra appeal of Android to men coming from?' asks Tracey E. Schelmetic. 'More male-targeted commercials that emphasize cool gadgetry versus usability? More techno-macho phone brand names like "Droid"? Extra advertising on the Spike channel by phone makers using the Android platform?'"
That Verizon's splashy "Android devices are death-robots from the future who can tear you to shreds with a single shot from their massive feature lists" campaign might have had something to do with that. And then you get into the fact that Apple has been producing devices with off-the-charts WAF for ages now...
So where is the extra appeal of Android to men coming from?
Uh, its right there in the name - android as in greek for man.
If they wanted chicks to buy them they should have called then gynoids.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
android is for porn remember????
Because the Android isn't about ME.
Think of the naming conventions used
"i"Phone, about the individual (although one could easily argue it is a controlled environment brought on by monopolistic practices)
Droid, autonomous device that empowers the user through its open architecture.
Of course I could be one sided, as (DISCLAIMER) I have a Droid.
Males tend to be more tech-savvy.
Oh, before you mod me flamebait, correlation != causation.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
31 vs 32.6 falls within the unspecified margin of error for that "survey".
Q: What's the hardest part about using an iPhone?
A: Coming out to your parents
I've never found Apple products terribly visually appealing, a little too "pretty" in a feminine way. I prefer harder edge more badass looking gadgets, and I guess that's just what TFA is on about - alot of the Android handsets are coming from manufacturers who produce more masculine designs generally.
Because well, you know, I like to look badass...
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Real men don't use phones!!
Leaving the gender distinction alone, more people want an iPhone next than want an Android. Yet right now, Android is selling more than iPhone. The reason for that that distinction is obvious. Price. Some people settle for second best.
The 'Droid platform doesn't accuse you of being a moron that can't judge useful content for yourself, unlike the JoBS.
There's a vast gulf between the ability to do something, and the desire to spend a lot of time doing it ;-)
My wife isn't interested in playing with configuration settings, tweaking this, adjusting that and so on. A simpler UI, that does what she wants it to do, and no more, is what she's looking for.
But the summary does:
More male-targeted commercials emphasize cool gadgetry versus usability?".
Clearly, males are total saps for falling for the Droids cool gadgets and widgets that provide little in the way of useful features...oh wait.
If our elected representatives no longer represent us, do we still live in a Democracy?
I don't see how you need much more common sense to be able to operate a Droid in comparison to an iPhone. They're nearly identical.
I think part of the draw for Android is that you can tweak and customize it more. And I don't just mean installing a custom OS. Also just customizing it with widgets and other stuff. Even just the stock "customizations" of manufacturers, like SenseUI and all those others. Android is pretty powerful and flexible there. And I suspect men are on average slightly more likely to tinker with their phones than women.
So why do men prefer Androids while women prefer iPhones? Do women have more money to waste?
Aren't you bitter. Of course people act the way that gets them the most favorable response. For women that is provoking the man's desire to protect them, for men it's meeting the woman's desire to feel protected.
Very much simplified of course, but it seems that's an important underlying principle in mating behavior - it's much more about instinct than logic. 80/20 rule applies, obviously.
Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
So many jokes and satire... so little space.
Real men just shout loud enough that whoever they want to reach, can hear them.
And they don't get lost, so they don't need no stinking GPS either.
My guess is, that it is for the same reasons Macs suit women, gays, and/or artists.
Sorry if it is a cliché, statistically bound, by the way.
And those man who are not that insecure that they need to announce their manhood by their choice of "masculine" gadgets...
Well after 24 years of using PC's I went out and bought the i7 iMac 27'' and regret not doing it sooner.. I run Windows7 Ubuntu and Mac OSX all at the same time on the same machine without any troubles what so ever a full steam using parallels..
Why have I busted my balls duffing around with shit when It just works outa the box over in the gay camp lol
Years ago cigarette companies conducted a survey of doctors and brands they preferred. They advertised the brand they preferred as doctor recommended. I was not so much that doctors necessarily preferred any of the brands, but if one does a survey and sorts the results, one will have top and a bottom, though it may have no statistical or physical meaning.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
"Gentlemen Prefer Androids"
Ha, I see someone has been watching Bladerunner lately!
Men would rather give up some security for freedom, and women tend to prefer the opposite. I won't get an iPhone because I don't like the idea of not having access to certain apps because Jobs doesn't want politically oriented apps, or because women are in bikinis, or because the app might offend some people. The 'Baby Shaker' app was a good example of this - I want the freedom to download whatever I want with this device.
But my wife loves her iPhone, and she's just fine with having a device that's locked down to some degree if it means not having malicious application
Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
Nope, I'm not bitter. It was a satirical piece based on what you describe in your post.
What about males who aren't gentlemen and females who aren't ladies?
(you insensitive clod)
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I bought an android for this reason. They just seem more masculine. iPhones seem a bit...."soft" to me. And it doesnt help that 4 of our giggliest admin girls have them. The Galaxy S is my phone. The Galaxy S is corporateness personified.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
Would you use a cell phone OS made by an advertising company? I only have a lowly call-and-text phone, but if I were buying a smartphone I'd avoid Android like the plague. I don't care how open their app development is; I want to know they're not mining my text messages and emails....
That makes no sense; for basic stuff android is just as easy as an iPhone to "set up". No PC or stupid iTunes required either. It's funny how we have three android phones in the house (my original Droid, and my wife and daughter both have an HTC Aria - a nice small phone that goes in the pocket much better than an iPhone) and none of us had any trouble "setting it up".
You fail to mention age and perceived tech savvy of the couple.
If you actually pivot the data, though, you see that while Android preferers are vastly on the male side, iOS preferers are split pretty much 50/50. In other words, it's not that "women prefer iOS" so much as it's that Android only seems to appeal to males while iOS is balanced closer to what would be expected from a random sample.
E pluribus unum
women are more likely to buy an iPhone for their next smartphone purchase, while men prefer Android devices
Gee, where does that leave me?
I've been disappointed with both the Apple and Droid phones. I can't honestly say I am looking forward to either for my next smartphone purchase — I've really been thinking about going back to an old fashioned just-a-phone, and using a NanoNote or whatever of its kind might become available.
What I really want is a programmable opensource palmtop that also has phone functionality. A jailbroken phone is a poor substitute for an opensource palmtop. I've never felt right since the HP 100lx went out of production.
Maybe next year.
Real men just shout loud enough that whoever they want to reach, can hear them.
No, that's the wannabes. Real men whisper, and Things Happen.
Anyhow, I think that there probably is a correlation between aesthetics and gender, and that enough women buy an iPhone because it to them is prettier to skew the numbers.
I've read the bible, right near the front it says that Eve ate from the apple.
The Android phones are huge, they barely fit in a typical male hand. To most women, they seem that much larger.
Maybe naming it the "iPad" wasn't so dumb after all....
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
1- Is there any super porn app for Android that I don't know? 2- An important British study reveals that while men like to shower with face turned to shower, most of the women prefer to turn the back (I'm serious, can't remember where I saw it). 3- Women aim for the more expensive aways. 4- Women don't care about tech, they care about "glamour", Apple = tech glamour. 5- You might be asking: "So what about the gays?" I answer that for you: They care more about hardware, that hardware function you know... the camera I mean. 6- After this study, no matter what, more and more man will buy android for a matter of macho pride. 7- Another important study conduct for years concluded that men do have more sense of humor than women.
I like android because of its ease of use but ios look also good. What is the main difference between them really I dont know. I just know that android is open source.
The only gender data is the survey, and that's about what people want. Not what they end up buying. So financial considerations are irrelevant.
It's only when we consider the figures that are not split by gender that we can compare with what's actually bought. And that's when price comes in.
That's because with an android, you don't feel compelled to wave it about like a fashion accessory.
It is because Android is the better product, which is clear to any reasonable person. iPhone just looks cute.
Men are inherently more reasonable than women, so there you go.
On the whole, guys like to get down and dirty with innards, more so than a lot of women who just want the technology to work and be easy to use. Now obviously this is a generalization, but still true in a GENERAL way. The main problem with this article is this - the idea of actual differences between Android and iOS, and the differences between men and women, determining which demographic prefers which mobile platform, NEVER ENTERS INTO THE WRITER'S MIND. She seems to think it's all marketing, when many of us as Slashdotters know that actual features and real-world facts, are often what determine what technology choice we make. It's truly telling, in that she must make her choices based only on the marketing she's fed, and not the actual features or technology, because she assumes the same is true for everyone else.
I'd rather have my iGirlyPhone then a Mandroid.
I loved Symbian on my N95, I hated it on the N97, I am now back in love with Symbian^3 on the N8. I am willing to say this is the best cell phone I have ever had bar none. I have an N900, but don't consider it a cell phone. The N900 is a linux tablet with a phone app.
Back to cell phones. The US press seems to forget Symbian exists, is rock solid stable, ans is very clean and fast. Symbian was fast on a 60 mhz processor, and literally screams on the N8. For once I would like to see a review written by some one that is used to Symbian instead of an iPhone user complaining how it is different than his beloved Apple product, or some such similar from and Android Fanboi.
Nokia has made some very bad management decisions in the last few years, but their engineer elves have been busy. The N8 really is the best cell phone, both hardware and software that Nokia has ever produced and deserves a close look.
I am glad I didn't listen to "Symbian is dead" and bought an N8.
I love it.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
Clearly a 2% preference for iOS means it represents the entire female gender! /s
Source: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/us-smartphone-battle-heats-up/
http://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/08/11/1735253/Stats-Show-iPhone-Owners-Get-More-Sex "iPhone users have more sexual partners than BlackBerry or Android owners." And females use iOS more...
Well according to , iPhone users have more sex. Doesn't say if it's straight sex, but it's a pretty significant difference.
What about those devices and OS?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
mid thirties and just average users -- average meaning they have actual normal lives and would never ever be inclined to look at slashdot.
Its not the years, its the mileage
Exactly.
To repeat what TFA said, 31% of women want an iPhone and 22.8% want an Android. In order to determine if this difference is statistically significant (alpha = 0.05, beta = 0.2) they'd have needed to ask 508 women.
Did they really? Who knows. There's no confidence interval. Maybe they asked everybody.
Trying to get anything to work? That is absolutely absurd. While the Android OS is not quite as intuitive as the iOS, I'd hardly say a user's inability to navigate menus and choose settings could be classified as "not working." I am also in tech support, and am often helping people with both iPhones and Androids, and I've never seen anything that even remotely resembles what you're describing. In supporting Androids, it's almost always a case of "I don't know where/what ABC setting is/does" or simply "I don't know how to do XYZ." 99% of the time, it's the user, not the device.
about all the men carrying iphones around...
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
Masturbating to a video of Steve Jobs on your iPhone doesn't count.
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
That's nice, but that's not really what this article is about. It is about the gender difference.
The reason for that that distinction is obvious. Price. Some people settle for second best.
Rarely. They settle for the best for their particular definition of best. That can include economic factors. To them the Android is best because it does everything they need at the price they're willing to pay.
Personally I wouldn't take an iPhone if you gave it to me.
-- Alastair
Any logical argument is only as good as the assumptions which went into it. I'm not saying that logic and quantitative analysis are useless, but they are never perfect or complete. A reasonable person must take emotions when making decisions. And if you are a human being, your emotions influence your decisions, so if you don't realize that you are in denial (which is highly illogical). You are every bit as guilty of making snap judgements as any woman if you don't realize that.
As a side note, I've never seen an iPhone user change their mind about their purchase. Ever. I don't believe that everyone I know who has an iPhone (inculding myself, and my entire immediate family) is an overly emotional nutcase.
I wonder what would happen if you ask the questions and include the cost of the device somehow. Wait you don't have to ask the question then, just see the sales stats.
Most guys I know bought the iphone for the game selection which is undoubtedly superior. It's called freedom to choose from better games. Freedom is relative to what you value. There is no loss of freedom if you needs are met 100%. The freedom that matters is being able to choose from a variety of devices.
I installed Ubuntu and OS/X on my existing Windows7 PC without any troubles whatsoever, and saved myself about $1,500.00 in the process :)
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
So basically we like fucking with shit. Gotcha! ;)
The magical number is: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
$1,500.00 thats almost half the price of em in the UK FACK!!!
You might be on to something there. Men hate being told what to do, or that they can't do something because it's dangerous.
For women, however, it's a familiar concept.
When I commute every morning, I'm always surprised at how much men have iPhones and ladies have Blackberries. This may very well be a local thing (I live in Paris, France), but from my own casual observations, this is a firm trend here.
In my humble opinion, it's because iPhones are very expensive even tied to an operator contract, while BBs have been marketed aggressively at quite low prices. It seems men are more likely to shell out money on nice toys, women are more responsible with the family budget.
Now, I shouldn't make any generality out of it, but I think this study isn't to be taken as absolute truth either.
John Wayne would never buy a fucking apple.
I'm glad that there are one or two people around here who can actually look at statistics with a bit of sense.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
I like my Android phone. But one thing the iOS does really well is languages. It even does Chinese input. That's pretty impressive. My phone only does Spanish, French, and English.
Oh, great. More labels.
How does your boyfriend/husband feel about that?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Have you actually used an Android phone? My 'setup' was: 1) Turn on phone, 2) Enter WiFi password, 3) Login to Google account, 4) Start browsing market.
And you can skip step 3.
Let me get this straight. the implied facts from the second article's author are:
1. women prefer usability while men prefer (and this part is implied) toylike 'gadgetry.'
2. women prefer feminine things because they are 'stylish' while men prefer masculine things because (Again, implied with the reference to spykeTV) they're insecure about themselves.
3. men watch drivel on spyke exclusively while women much prefer more 'intellectual entertainment' (such as.. oprah? and those dance shows?).
Yuck. The hating on masculinity needs to stop. if the bias was flipped, slashdot would be loaded with 'omg sexist!!' from all the bleeding heart capt-save-a-hoes here.
Ah well done ! You have made my morning :)
True as it might be it certainly put a smile on my face
And old news.
Gentlemen prefer Ladies, Androids prefer iOS
There, that looks much better.
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
iPhones are for girlie men ;)
(Warning for Mac using Grammar elites: Run on sentence)
Since when is it "elite" to insist on proper use of the language? Well, I'm anti-Mac and agree with your sentiment, so your warning doesn't apply and I can pick apart your grammar: 1st, that's not actually a run-on sentence. Your dependent clauses are properly subordinated with prepositions, although your use of "but" is questionable. 2nd, your use of "whom" is both incorrect and highly pretentious. If you're going to go on about "elites" with "an air of smugness about them" you shouldn't try to assume the same air of smugness by using archaic words like "whom", particularly where such words grammatically don't belong.
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
Summary in cartoon. Here.
w00t
For some, the difference in price is worth it, especially if one isn't tech-savvy and wants customer service that can speak their native language and be able to interact with someone without being on hold for 3-4 hours. If someone depends on their computer for their income, the difference may be worth it.
If someone is quite tech savvy and can build a PC with ease, then the added Apple cost for solid service may not be something they would use.
This is assuming just the Mac hardware and generic PC hardware being covered.
My experience has been that all the fanbois are... well.. bois.
My daughter brought a Galaxy S to school in September and now several of her girlfriends have them. The reason? You can customize the home page, use live backgrounds and widgets. It's more customizable -- has more possibilities for BLING -- and girls like that.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Read it all the way to the end. The data I mentioned from the survey is in there. It's not irrelevant just because the article author chose his main focus elsewhere.
'So where is the extra appeal of Android to men coming from?' Oh, sure - so the *default* reasonable mode that the author assumes to be the norm is to prefer the iPhone, as women do. And now author wonders what might have possessed those silly males to prefer Android? Is it the commercials or what?
Not a word about the opposite? What might make iPhone more attractive to women? Is it the effeminate Mac spokesperson in commercials? Is it the round Dove-soap-bar like form?
I don't know, but what I do know is that article has a loaded theme and suggests a way one must use to think about this issue. I think I know who pays their salary :)
If she get's an iPhone she knows she can be on her own. It's not a fucking PC, it doesn't need a fucking support department. Android might need a factory reset and restore every once in a while. iPhone doesn't.
Yes, it is a PC. Not a Windows PC based on the IBM PC, but it is a Personal Computer. It just usually doesn't have a keyboard. Although, sometimes it does. Expect to see the lower end Macs to get phased out, as the iPad with keyboard attachment gains traction.
Java is good for security. It takes a lot more for a Dalvik VM app to get out of the sandbox and start executing native ARM machine code, then find a way to get out of the per user access granted it. This is why almost all rooting exploits happen through ADB where native executables can be run.
With a JIT compiler in Android 2.2, Java's performance loss is little to none, and to boot, security is gained because of the sandboxing. One can see the end result of this -- there are no pure Android apk files that can root the device, while iPhones were jailbreakable by just visiting a website.
Is Android's way better than the iPhone? This can be argued endlessly. The reason why the 600MHz iPhone is smoother than Android devices is usually due to the fact that Android lets the apps background however they want to, while iOS kills them unless they are using a specific function or API (like playing music.)
The good news is that while Apple's phones advance in lock step each year in the early summer, Android devices improve constantly. It wasn't that long ago when 300-500 MHz was the standard. Now 1-1.5 GHz devices are common with a solid amount of RAM and internal storage. Supposedly it will get better when devices start going multi-core (multi-coring will definitely improve responsiveness at the minimum), and sporting GPUs.
So, in the way of architecture, Android does a good balance between performance and security.
Oh really? Why can I name at least two friends who's iPhone's stopped working until they had a clean OS restored? On one of the phones the WI-FI broke, and the other the voice calls entirely stopped working.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Nuff said.
Android does Chinese input, look for the Google Pinyin IME in the market. I agree thought that the iPhone does it better. The Google Pinyin keyboard is nowhere as good as the default keyboard when it comes to non-Chinese input, and it's a bit cumbersome switching between installed keyboards.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
The question is which group is larger and more meaningful:
1. The guys who reject items designed for women because the design necessarily sacrifices things that appeal to men, making other items more attractive to men.
2. The guys who just happen to like a product designed for women over all the available near-equivalent products designed for men.
I mean you are technically correct with your addition, but let's be honest.. most likely you pointed out that minor group to imply that the OP himself is insecure about his masculinity. I don't get why people do that. It's very immature.
It's not a fucking PC
That's exactly what a smartphone is: a tiny computer that can fit in your pocket. Apple just happens to make one that is shiny and fairly idiot-proof, but is ultimately little more than a toy version and incredibly difficult for the user to repair if it does break down. Android devices are a little more involved and difficult to jump into, but a lot more powerful and resilient in the long run.
Which sounds an awful lot like the Apple-vs-some-other-big-software-company situation, doesn't it?
If she get's an iPhone she knows she can be on her own. It's not a fucking PC, it doesn't need a fucking support department. Android might need a factory reset and restore every once in a while. iPhone doesn't.
If you like iPhones that's your perorgative, but if you honestly believe the marketing slogan "it just works", you're brain dead.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
That's the true reason.
When people talk about "the best", they mean the best, regardless of price.
Maybe so, but that's still a very subjective definition, encompassing a lot of variables. Different people weight those differently.
The best money can buy doesn't necessarily mean the most expensive. Marketeers know the value of an inflated price is entirely in the eye of the holder; ie, for some items one increases demand by increasing the price. Buying decisions are rarely completely rational.
-- Alastair
I see your opinion and raise you a nose in the air.
My phone only does Spanish, French, and English.
After the 2.1 update, my phone automatically switched to Dutch. Bloody annoying. I mean, I am Dutch, but I prefer to have my computers in English, and my Milestone counts as computer to me.
Well played, sir.
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
It could be worse. What if you'd been living in Poland, or Greece..
No. The iPad+keyboard, and the MacBook aren't serving the same market, and aren't occupying the same price bracket. One does not replace the other.
See:
http://www.macworld.com/article/156153/2010/12/macofthefuturegruber.html
Apparently you didn't read your own link. While the guy is an obvious fanboy, and spends most of the short article making excuses for Apple not supporting their products for the long haul, even he says that MacOS is likely to disappear. He thinks it is 10 years off, but that doesn't change the fact that he describes the fate of OSX as "all good things must come to an end".
You are half right that the iPad+keyboard and the MacBook are not serving the same market. The same as a eeePC and an Alienware M17x are not serving the same market. That doesn't mean they are not both PCs.
The iPad is obviously designed for light computing. The addition of a keyboard is obviously a move to add to the amount of weight the iPad can carry. Whether you want it to be, or whether Apple want's it to be, the iPad is and will be for a growing number of people, a replacement for a PC.
Of course, Apple would be stupid to not want that. On the Mac, anyone can develop and sell software without giving Apple a cut of the action beyond the purchase of the computer. On the iPad, each and every sale means money in Apples pocket. It is an obvious move that I am really surprised MS didn't do with the Xbox.
Don't expect the big macs to go away. They will just be sold as workstations. Probably with the kind of price increase one would expect of a 'Workstation'. It is the lower end Macs that will dry up. The Mac will become the Dev kit for iPads. Apple is in the process of shifting from the PC pricing model to the console pricing model.
It being class action lawsuit just means there are multiple affected parties, it doesn't mean a lot of people were involved. Certainly not enough that in the couple dozen people I know with the device you could find one that sued.
Also, this lawsuit is from 2008, and involved the 3G (2 generations ago) so it would not be relevant to a present day purchasing decision.
Also, you are an idiot.
The reason for that that distinction is obvious. Price. Some people settle for second best.
Hehe, how does your Bugatti Veyron drive then? Sometimes there's a concept of 'overpriced' too, and since the difference between a HTC Desire and a iPhone 4 is nearly 50% more (just over £400 vs just over £600), I know what I decided.
The whole debate over android/iphone is really pointless. just look at http://onlyfor.mobi/ and you'll see what I mean :)
"Why'd you buy that?" - "IT'S JUST BETTER - SHUT UP!"
seems to be pretty analogs to "Apple's being sued because they're screwing over customers" - "You are an idiot".
"You are an idiot" and other name calling responses are what illogical people resort to when they have no response to an argument they're presented with.
I didn't say "it just works", numb nuts.
Another sophisticated Apple fanboi. Think different
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I believe this is called a rhetorical question:
'So where is the extra appeal of Android to men coming from?' asks Tracey E. Schelmetic.
The farmville addicts that I closely know, all of whom are women, claim "everyone knows the iPhone farmville app is great". Maybe the android app is technically identical, but that doesn't matter if "everyone" does not know it.
On the other hand, all guys know that apple censors their app store, so if you want mobile 3G pr0n apps you need an Android. You'd think that "feature" alone would drive corporate support to iPhone, but no, stuck with icky blackberries that no one wants other than the corporate IT guy whom got sports tickets for signing a contract..
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
I'm a 50yro woman and I have an iPhone. My 3rd one as a matter of fact.
1st one was a 1st gen that my son gave me.
I promptly jailbroke and unlocked it for use on a non-AT&T system, on my on, without help from anyone.
My BFF dropped it and broke the screen so I bought another just like it on ebay.
I also jailbroke and unlocked that one and installed *anything* I wanted on it.
About 6 months ago I bought a one month old 3gs on ebay and retired the previous iPhone to use as a remote control for my home theater.
The new one, I jailbroke and unlocked it as well, just like the others before it.
For now, I am sitting with 3.1.3 on it, I'm doing my homework before I bump it up to 4.2.x. 3.1.3 is working fine for me and I'm in no big rush, I have other things to do that are much more important.
I love my iPhone. It's easy to use and easy to hack. I can put anything I want on it, do anything I want with it, use it in any way I wish. :-)
And I totally love my winterboard Tinkerbell theme.. My friends are all jealous..
The droid stuff? I don't trust it, I don't trust google. But then again, I don't trust Apple much either.
Apple makes some great products but their garden wall policies are draconian.
To the person who controls what his wife uses, how about you let her decide what she wants and then help her learn to take control of it so you don't have to "support her". How about you empower her with knowledge and give her freedom to make her own decisions and purchases?
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I had an iPhone 3G up until just recently. I mostly used it for work email/calendar to an Exchange server, Facebook, LinkedIn and some occasional browsing. The 4 update made it unusable and, while recent ones broguht it back to life a bit, I was a bit over it.
I replaced it with a BB Torch and it is a revelation - great keyboard, great screen, great build quality, very fast, great FB/LinkedIn apps, great built-in RSS app, better Exchange inter-operability (invite attendees to appointments and see their availability, deal with recurring appointments properly, etc), better battery life and an alright mobile browser.
I never thought much of the berries in the past prefering geeky toys like the WM HTC phones back in the day. I have hit the age though where I want a simple workhorse device to get me the emails and updates I want and let me reply quickly where needed then put it away. This does that well for me. Don't count RIM out...
Apple's only ever made products for women.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
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Of course I read it. 10 years is a very long time in technology. In 10 years time, OSX Macs will have been on the market as longer than Classic MacOS ones were. I suggest that's what's behind that comment.
But the point is that what happens in 10 years time isn't the reaction to the iPad+keyboard.
The MacBook didn't disappear just because there was a Macbook Pro. Yet those two products have far more overlap than Macbook and iPad+Keyboard.
Anyhow, none of this does anything to support your notion that the smartphone is a PC. It's not, it's an embedded device. And it's rather sad that you are prepared to put up with the kind of maintenance issues expected of a PC on your phone, just because of that mistaken classification.
Developers and OS engineers certainly don't think of smartphones as PCs. e.g.
- On a PC it's mostly the users responsibility to save data. Users are expected to save their files. If they don't and the power fails they lose data. Timed autosave is a clumsy workaround for this problem. Smartphones are expected to cope with loss of power at any moment, and not to lose data other than perhaps the form currently being entered.
- Phones have small amounts of memory compared to a PC, and no virtual memory. Which means running out of memory at any time is expected behaviour and must be dealt with gracefully.
- Phones have far more serious and complex security requirements. Cell data is charged by the gigabyte; SMSs, phone calls and premium phone calls cost. Phones are usually always on, always carried, and know your location. Malicious software on a PC will typically have your PC operating as a part of botnet. On a phone it could create a life crippling debt, or monitor your every move.
"It's not a PC" are words close to your heart when you're a phone OS engineer.
I suspect that even if this is in jest, this is the reason a large number of /. folk are single.
Your partners are not your users. At least not unless you role play.
Language *input* though, I think the droid has it (at least some droids - I haven't seen it on all handsets), with the ability to trace words that you're typing on the keyboard, and have the phone interpret what letters you touched in what order to form likely words.
It was an excellent way to write text messages, and I wish iOS had it.
FUD. My Nexus is loaded up with apps and isn't sluggish at all.
Information wants to be beer.
After taking a moment to review my girlfriends shoe collection, I'm convinced this is another instance of women choosing form over function.
Easy.
Like it or not, as human animals, men are more controlling and women are more submissive. Andriod gives you more control over the device and iPhone tells you how it's going to be with little configuration.
Even in human sexuality, respective to men and womens' anatomy, man experience joy in their masculinity in the act of romantic dominance (penetration) while women experience their femininity in the act of romantic surrender (being penetrated). Ask women if they like being spanked and having their hair pulled in intercourse. (Understanding that while using generalities, obviously there are always exceptions to the rule.)
How about a hard question?
"Where do you want to eat tonight?" "I don't know. You pick."
OMG!!!!!! I know someone with an Android phone and it stopped working! And then I knew someone with another Android phone and IT STOPPED WORKING TOO!
Give me a break.
Or more specifically, the Motorola Droid commercials. It's like they were written and targeted towards 14 year olds. They heavy-handed robotic imagery that isn't interesting. The "edgy" flickering logos. The robotic arms. "Becoming one with your phone." It totally turns me off because it seems so... dated.
All I know is I'm in love with the new T-Mobile Spokesmodel and I'm buying whatever she tells me to.
Proverbs 21:19
"techno-macho phone brand names like "Droid""
Seriously? Hands up who didn't hear "droid" and immediately flash an image of R2D2 and C3P0 - a cuddly teddy-robot and an effete ponce. "Macho" is not word that leaps to mind.
When people talk about "the best", they mean the best, regardless of price.
There are also people who use that line of reasoning to justify buying $2000 gold plated digital audio cables and $500 reverberation minimizing wooden knobs for their stereo equipment.
By what criteria are you judging something to be 'the best' in this instance of iOS versus Droid phones?
I only ask because I have searched your comments and did not see this. Admittedly, some of your comments were modded below my browsing level so I had to go into your profile to read them as well, but still may have missed something.
"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
You gave absolutely no evidence that the phone wasn't a PC. In fact you proved it is in fact a PC, albeit a low-powered one. You have a filesystem and files, a certain amount of memory that the OS manages. Security concerns (which are probably just as complex and serious as writing for a PC, enterprise software, a mainframe, etc.),. PC's and Phones both can be always on. People have already come up with botnet type things for smart phones or just trying to get your information. You could get a life crippling debt and be monitored more so on a PC than a phone because most people who do banking online will do it via their laptop or desktop computer, not their phone, unless the Bank has created an App for it.
Essentially it comes down to the fact that a smartphone is a personal computer. You have an operating system, software that can be installed and uninstalled, you can do just about everything on your smartphone that you can do on a traditional desktop or laptop computer (word processing, games, web browsing, music, movies, editing) and the desktop and laptop computer can make phone calls and text messages just as well as a smartphone if you get the software to do it (or using things like google voice).
A desktop, a laptop, a netbook, a smartphone, they are all PC's. They all provide for you an interface through which you do computing. An embedded device usually has a singular purpose (microwave, firmware in a set-top box, etc.). A smartphone is for multipurpose computing and it's made for a person to carry around and use themselves anytime, thus a Personal Computer or PC. Just because it's not an IBM-PC clone, doesn't mean it's not a PC.
That's what we call in the trade an embedded device, not a PC.
The definition of an embedded device would disagree with you:
An embedded system is a computer system designed to perform one or a few dedicated functions often with real-time computing constraints.
As opposed to:
By contrast, a general-purpose computer, such as a personal computer (PC), is designed to be flexible and meet a wide range of end-user needs.
Which one sounds more like a smartphone? Embedded Device
Seriously? If an iPhone is easier to use, it's because it steers away from tough stuff like syncing with exchange, widgets and multitasking. If you use only the features an iPhone has, an android is just as easy.
Neither phone needs a support department, though. But some people would rather hand over the responsibility of setting up mail, syncing calendars, installing apps, etc. That's fine. But I doubt the iPhone is able to do those things without some sort of user interaction...
PS: Also, you are obviously just plain wrong that an iPhone would never need a factory reset.
PPS: When the battery needs changing, can she also be on her own?
IAIFARSIJDPOOTV - I Am In Fact A Reality Star; I Just Don't Play One On TV
Personally I love Android. I came into the phone scene without a bias did a MOUNTAIN of research and then went Android, with a vengeance. I bought a bunch of phones and launched a MVOIP company.
Why Android? because of gray markets, because of less control on the part of the developer and the potential to go open source.
I'm ashamed of the wider phone buying public, I don't care what phone you buy but you should have a VOIP option, first to save you money I.E. time, I.E. sex. Second because the government with their recent rulings (in Canada) that deep packet inspection should be mandatory are saying we don't have the right to private conversation.
For me that's the point where society stops being a way to protect our rights and becomes a hurdle to freedom, and the government is too scared to countenance the debate... it is being slowly decided by protective laws against specific instances of crime.
I'm usually quite left wing, I support government involvement in as much as it curtails corporate collusion. However when regulations are being proposed, simply to make the barriers for entry into a business insurmountable, I think it's time to draw the line.
I don't think individual communications should be constantly monitored; even if it means the elimination of child pornography, atomic boyscouts, and sociopathic megalomania.
At the moment the iPhone really only has Skype and Fring, both tied into government monitoring and quite expensive. Skype recently removed support from other services (Nimbuzz for example) while pretending to open an API.
If we're to have any hope of continued anonymous and private communication in the coming years it's important people embrace SIP telephony on their phones. It'll save you money and when 802.11n gains acceptance you'll never pay a phone bill again.
Please give some thought to deep packet inspection and regulation of communication companies that don't provide government intrusion. This issue is being decided in the next five years, and it will never be aired in public.
Please save money by getting a VOIP system that can support end to end encryption and open standards.
Or, they want an iPhone until they start shopping and more than price might make them change their mind. Maybe the feature list.
I do think you are mostly right, though, except I wouldn't call it "second best", but "second choice" :-)
IAIFARSIJDPOOTV - I Am In Fact A Reality Star; I Just Don't Play One On TV
Simplicity, every conversation you can avoid with a girl is a conversation in the right direction.
Change your name to Tom or Rob, change your age to approximate theirs, simplify your job description, pretend you got a B.A., you will get laid more.
Of course those relationships will be shallow but so will any relationship between extroverted sillies who meet in a bar.
On the other hand I feel that girls I meet with iPhones are simply poor consumers. Not a colossal turn off but a turn off none the less.
He had to put in his email and password?????
Wow, I can see why he traded it in. What a hazzle.
Me, I'm pretty tech-savy, got a linux geek I know to help me, and in the end we managed to find both my email address AND my password, and from then on everything synced, including calendar and contacts. Then we spent another day putting in my FB password, that was a real job, I tell you.
How did her Apple get around this exactly, what clever, innovative function made the iPhone so much easier to set up?
IAIFARSIJDPOOTV - I Am In Fact A Reality Star; I Just Don't Play One On TV
quite simply everyone i talk to that tells me they are getting an iphone, i recommend an android device (depending on their carrier)
They all laugh at me and go get their iphone and within no lie 2 weeks, 90% of them are telling me they wish they listened to me.
for the record I have the droid 2, the blackberry storm was my previous model.(do not recommend a storm or any blackberry until the new BbOs is out)
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Give you a break? When someone makes the ridiculous claim that iPhones never have problems that need restores to fix then all it takes is a single example to prove them wrong. I provided two, QED.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Men like doing what they want. Women like being told what to do.
In the beginning, there was null.
ALL of you are ridiculous. You're arguing against a stupid iPhone claim which logic would say is wrong, even without evidence (and I *OWN* an iPhone) with an even dumber argument that is entirely anecdotally based. It's like dance of the dumbasses here.
I'd say the reason for that is "choice of carriers." A lot of people are happy with Verizon, Sprint/Nextel, T-Mobile, etc. The iPhone simply isn't enough to get them to switch carriers - especially to the much-maligned AT&T. For those that might prefer the iPhone, the combination of a nice Android device and their preferred carrier is the superior option.
Granted, price probably comes into play in carrier preference (ie T-Mobile), but quality of service and other factors are often as, if not more, important (ie Verizon).
Because iPhone is inherently against freedom. We should ALL be against Steve Jobs' megalomania! Not iPhone, himPhone! Who is with me?!
There is no -1 Disagree.
So I'm a dumbass for pointing out that a ridiculous statement is ridiculous. And here you are pointing it out, so what does that make you? I would say, but I'm not supposed to feed the trolls.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Yes, by my calculations only -5% of the Slashdot community can do this.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
I will not sacrifice technology "feature set", and capability just for looks. I certainly will not allow some business or CEO dictate to me how my device should be used.
So what you are telling us is that you prefer "feature" phones rather than a smart phone. Smart phones usually do not come with every feature under the sun. Rather, features can be added with optional free or paid third party software. As long as the vendor supplied an API to access the various base hardware features of the phone, third party devs can find all sorts of innovative uses for that hardware.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Simple. I'm being meta, you're not. YOU'RE feeding the trolls as you responded to such a ridiculous statement with a ridiculous statement of your own. If that doesn't qualify, I don't know what does. And this is where I step off, as I've now explained it to you twice.
However, the iPad and the generic PC laptop are at the same price-point. Apple doesn't sell a laptop below $1000, but the average laptop sold in the USA in 2009 cost $550 -- and that's excluding Netbooks.
For people who know what they want, PCs and iPads are not the same thing. For those that don't, beyond "computing device with 'the Internet' and 'apps", the generic PC laptop competes for the same cash as the iPad.
-Dave Haynie
"MacBook" vs. "MacBook Pro" are two arbitrary marketing designations for exactly the same kind of thing. "iPad" vs. "MacBook" refer to two completely different kinds of personal computing devices. And these days, Apple's been favoring the former kind -- the one they control, the one that generates revenue for them from 3rd party software.
It would not be a huge shock to find, over time, Apple would rather sell you an iPad than a Mac. That doesn't mean the Mac goes away, but it may be replaced by the iPad at the lower end of things.
In fact, in a sense it already has been -- Apple doesn't want to sell a Mac that's price-competitive with the lower end of the PC market. They could, but that would kill their huge profit margins. Being a different kind of thing, an iPad (or any ARM-based tablet) costs less to make than a low-end x86 PC... so they get their accustomed high margins in a lower price market.
-Dave Haynie
Yup. In fact, if you go back to the late 1970s and early 1980s, there were all sorts of "personal computers": Apple ][, Commodore PET, VIC-20 and 64, Atari 400 and 800, various TRS-80 models, etc. The term was coined to distinguish a "personal" computer from former "home" computers -- which had often been any computer at your home, any way you could get it. Usually in some kind of kit form. Not for those shy about hardware hacking.
Back in the early 1990s, of course, the Macintosh, the Commodore Amiga, and the Atari ST were personal computers that were not "IBM Personal Computer Clone", and no one was confused about the "personal computer" term. Apple had some years by themselves, on the PowerPC chip, when they kept on being non-PC personal computers. The Macintosh did eventually become just another PC. But that by no means limits the extent of "personal computer".
Certainly all smart phones quality as personal computers. They are not JUST personal computers, they're also generalized communications devices. But they're considerably more powerful personaly computers than most PC or non-PC personal computers for the 1990s.
-Dave Haynie
In the trade, an embedded system is a system with a fixed function that's microcontroller/microcomputer powered. Like a dumb phone, a microwave oven, most modern cars, etc. An embedded system is designed to do a certain set of functions when its shipped, and those functions rarely change. Sure, in modern times you can update firmware: DVD/BD players, MP3 players, digital cameras, etc. Sometimes you can even get hacks (Canon DSLR firmware, for example), but in general, it's a fixed set of functions.
PCs, PDAs, Smart Phones, Game Consoles, etc. are all flavors of application platforms... very different than embedded systems. These devices are fitted with all kinds of extra resources designed to expand functionality with new applications. There's really nothing magical about a "PC" that makes it something fundamentally different than a smart phone in the way its used. There is something fundamentally different about your microwave oven or digital camera.
-Dave Haynie
lol that's brilliant good for you
The thing is I am "tech saavy" I just want an easy life so I can get my work done without some stupid crap getting in the way.
Yes; but it's soooo shinny
By the criteria that more people want one as their next phone.
I did mention it.
On this particular topic yes. Plenty of Android fan boys with mod points.
Then I can only conclude that you don't have a clue about the topic, and are uninterested in learning more. Engineers in the mobile phone industry never consider a smartphone to be a PC. It's embedded systems design. And I gave you some of the reasons why.
The question of whether non IBM-PC compatible computers are PCs is debatable. There's no right or wrong answer - there's people that will argue both sides - it's been used in both ways.
But that has nothing to do with the question of smartphones, which are certainly not PCs, but embedded devices.
Real time computing constraints. Such as a GSM stack for example.
On the same page:
"Telecommunications systems employ numerous embedded systems from telephone switches for the network to mobile phones at the end-user.... Consumer electronics include personal digital assistants (PDAs), mp3 players, mobile phones, videogame consoles... As the complexity of embedded systems grows, higher level tools and operating systems are migrating into machinery where it makes sense. For example, cellphones, personal digital assistants and other consumer computers often need significant software that is purchased or provided by a person other than the manufacturer of the electronics. In these systems, an open programming environment such as Linux, NetBSD, OSGi or Embedded Java is required so that the third-party software provider can sell to a large market."
Yes, we're still on the embedded systems page. QED.
Exactly my point. If it's worth having Macbook and Macbook Pro as seperate product lines, then it makes no sense to suggest that the MacBook would disappear because of the iPad.
You're over thinking the motivation in an effort to insert your own prejudices. For the reason Apple is preferring the iOS devices you only have to realise that many more people buy iOS devices than Macs, and iOS sales are growing much faster than Mac sales. That's where they make the overwhelming amount of their profits - on selling the devices. Not the slice of app sales.
With all due respect, I think things have changed quite a bit over the years so that the lines have blurred a bit between your definition of embedded systems and computers.
Consoles, PDA's and Smartphones are not in the same category as PCs. While PCs have user upgradable operating systems as well as memory, devices like smartphones, PDA's and consoles usually have firmware updates to patch not only the bootstrap rom code but also the operating system of the device. They also cannot have their memory upgraded.
While you can install new software on these devices, they still have hardware constraints for memory and and CPU usage which must be taken into consideration when developing for them. You don't have to worry about these things with PCs because you have access to so much more memory and even virtual memory.
Just because these devices now have more power and resources than PCs from the 80's and 90's, it does not mean that they are not embedded devices with fixed hardware constraints.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Ah, one of the Apple Fanbois went and rated this down as "flamebait".
How predictable.
Maurice W. Hilarius Voice: (778) 347-9907
Every one of your examples also describes personal computers. An embedded device is a device that has a predetermined set of software installed at manufacture, and is intended to run that same set of software for it's life. A personal computer is a device that is designed for an individual user and is intended to have it's functionality changed by adding new software.
I also have an n900. I find its response to be respectable for the kind of phone it is. Yes there are faster phones out there now, but what a difference a year makes. Its quite impressive how much has changed, though not that much has improved. I think the best thing about my n900 is that I can configure it however I want. Hell, I can even run it without a SIM card or a cell phone plan (it would still be quite good at making skype calls). The N900 is certainly not for everyone, or even most users. I am constantly frustrated about the kinds of apps the phone lacks, but at the same time, on the hardware side I can use the device how i see fit. I will hold on to the N900 since it works without a SIM even after I change phones. I think using it as a "micronetbook" is rather appealing and I want to be able to play with Meego when that finally becomes more usable.
Christmas is coming up. Let's wait until January for sale figures to be released before getting too comfortable with the idea that Android is selling more than the iPhone, to say nothing of including iPod Touch sales.
Women may be more willing to spend extra money to get something they think is going to cause them less headaches. Men may be more willing to risk reliability in order to have more tech to play with.
Interesting. (And your post deserves to be modded up as such.)
I don't notice much difference between iPhone and Android, but as you say, I'm pretty tech-savvy compared to the average user. I admit I can see a few minor differences that might make a lot if difference to some people. The Android Market just isn't terribly friendly, in my experience. Not that iPhone's App Store makes it easy to find stuff, but maybe it's just enough of a difference to matter. More importantly, though: when you install a new app, it shows up on your home screen immediately. Not on Android; there, the home screens clearly provide shortcuts to the much larger range of apps in the app folder. And that extra step might make others wonder where their new app went.
Email? I have trouble believing that iPhone email is really easier. I certainly never liked it. But in general, I see what you mean. Android is really easy for people who know how computers work. The iPhone is easy even for people who don't.
I mean you are technically correct with your addition, but let's be honest.. most likely you pointed out that minor group to imply that the OP himself is insecure about his masculinity. I don't get why people do that. It's very immature.
I think you're reading too much into my comment.
IMHO you *can* design a product to appeal on a higher level than that. Some smart, elegant simplicity can be appeal to both men and women. It's actually easier to design something to look either bad-ass (large, black and red) or cute (rounded, pink, flowers), but basically you're appealing then to only half of your potential customers.
And yes, many men are insecure. This is not a minor group. It's easy to exploit that and many products do it.
I surely didn't mean to single out the OP, especially since it was *him* to say that "Macs suit women, gays, and/or artists"...
Notice how it refers to "mobile phones" in general and not smartphones specifically. Most non-smartphone mobile phones would qualify as an embedded device due to the design and lack of customizability. For example:
Embedded systems are designed to do some specific task, rather than be a general-purpose computer for multiple tasks.
Smartphones are designed to be a general-purpose computer whereas non-smartphone mobile phones are designed for only the specific task of handling the communications stack and sometimes (this is where the line is blurred) allow it to run embedded java for some Carrier applications.
From the smartphone page:
A smartphone can be considered as a Personal Pocket Computer (PPC) with mobile phone functions, because these devices are mainly computers, although much smaller than a desktop computer (DC). Additionally a PPC (Personal Pocket Computer) is more personal than a DC (desktop computer).
If you're willing to budge that much, then I think we can agree on the PPC term. However, a PPC is simply a very small PC (not quite an embedded device). When writing an application for a smartphone, you consider it a PC with very low memory and cpu capacity (comparatively) you don't consider it as writing an application for an embedded device.
Also, considering the pure specs that a lot of smartphones have, they are more powerful than many PCs of the early 90's. An embedded device will have very very low system specs in order to use as little power as it needs to perform it's specific task.
Notice too how I included in the quoted text PDAs and games consoles. If PDAs and games consoles are embedded systems as well as phones, there's absolutely no justification for suggesting that smartphones are not. A smartphone is after all a combined PDA and phone.
No, you really don't. Writing apps for a smartphone is completely different from writing apps for a PC. I covered that in a post elsewhere in this topic.
Its not a matter of power.
what are you if you're using both kinds of OSs?