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Android vs. iPhone — Who Wins In 2011?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the a-good-reuben-sandwich dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes in Fortune Magazine that Apple and Google have two very different strategies in the competition shaping up in 2011 between Android and iPhone. According to the conventional wisdom as espoused by Don Dodge, a Developer Advocate at Google, both Apple and Google will win because they are playing different games. Android will win the market share battle, but Apple will generate bigger profits. 'Apple goes for the high end of the market where they can charge high prices and enjoy great profit margins. Apple has been successful with this strategy multiple times, and will do it again with iPhone,' writes Dodge adding that Google's strategy with Android is to generate revenue streams from mobile search and advertising. Another Google employee, Tim Bray, sees things differently and says he won't be surprised if Apple ships a cheap iPhone and if this time next year, dirt-cheap iPhones were competing against Androids that push the user-experience lever farther than Apple. 'There's nothing fundamental in Android that would get in the way of a industrial-design and user-experience rock-star team, whether at Google or one of the handset makers, testing the hypothesis that these things are central to Apple's success.'"

10 of 424 comments (clear)

  1. I meant to comment earlier by Rurik · · Score: 5, Funny

    I meant to comment earlier, but my iPhone alarm didn't go off.

    1. Re:I meant to comment earlier by The+End+Of+Days · · Score: 5, Funny

      I tried to text you to warn you that might happen, but my Android routed the SMS to your mother instead.

    2. Re:I meant to comment earlier by Lev13than · · Score: 5, Funny

      I just use my Blackberry as an alarm clock. Every night before going to bed I simply remove & replace the battery - I wake up to the sound of the finished reboot, alert and refreshed after about eight hours of sleep.

      --
      When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
    3. Re:I meant to comment earlier by bennomatic · · Score: 4, Funny

      I use my Windows Phone 7 phone, and it "just works".

      --
      The CB App. What's your 20?
  2. Re:Not just them... by LucidBeast · · Score: 3, Funny

    Symbian rocks!

  3. Re:Fatherly Advice by The+End+Of+Days · · Score: 4, Funny

    Not to cast aspersions on your wife, but logically speaking, until she's dead you haven't disproven anything.

  4. Re:Fatherly Advice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    You haven't seen "Paladin Gangbang" 1 through 7, have you?

  5. Re:Everyone wins. by sosume · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's not so difficult.

    - Do you like to install iTunes on your pc? Get an iPhone.
    - Do you want to see Ads? Get Android.

    - Do you want to make sure everything always works on your phone (until the next version is available)? Get an iPhone.
    - Do you want the latest and fastest cutting-edge hardware, be it with a lot of bugs? Get Android.

    - Do you like Steve Jobs or hate Flash? Get an iPhone.
    - Do you hate Steve Jobs or like Flash? Get Android.

  6. Re:Fatherly Advice by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't know, let me ask my lady for her opinion.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  7. Re:Everyone wins. by UnknowingFool · · Score: 3, Funny

    I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.