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Android Hits 73% of Global Smartphone Market
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."
Suck on that Apple shills...
iPhone vs Android flamewar in 3, 2, ...
If I was a greedy Jew, I would steal land and water from Palestinians, then methodically exterminate them for retaliating.
But, then... I'm not a greedy Jew.
Like a soup kitchen bragging about how good it is by how many come through its doors !!
So just eat, eat, eat it !! Why don't you eat it !!
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.
Test your net with Netalyzr
how much of that 20% jump was due to the samsung galaxy s3?
I don't think developers bicker over this... They just choose to develop for the platform where they can make the most money.
Typically, iOS. (Don't cry, please.)
But BB10 is going to change everything!
next you'll have a story telling us more people wear levis than givenchy.
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?
As a developer, my first mobile product will be for Android and I'll do iOS second. My next upgrade will be from iOS to Android as I see lots of other following suit. Apple has been very accurate in shooting themselves in the foot recently with the iOS6 changes (like the new app store and the introduced artificial slowing down of the phone to make you upgrade) and a couple of minor gaffes like the maps, and at the same time charging premium for it.
I am aware of the markets right now on the Apple app store and the Google Play one, but since the latest app store changes to Apple it seems to be harder for new developers to be known and Apple is at the same time rigid with their criteria for app releases, while it seems it is easier to launch and release for Android. It seems Google Play has momentum now and I hope more game developers will make the move over to Android.
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.
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.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
It's still a shitty, completely overrated platform controlled by an advertising company.
Which is not to say I think any of the alternatives are better: iOS is like a straight jacket, WM8 is a mess, BlackBerry forgot to show up to the party at all. They're all poorly conceived conduits for advertising, data mining, and the near constant, ubiquitous harping about APPS APPS APPS APPS APPS APPS like my only reason for living is to justify some DeVry grad develop's reason for living.
Fuck "smart" phones. Give me a fully-functional, fully-OPEN, miniature computer in the format of a phone, not tied to FUCKING Google, Apple, Microsoft, or any other multinational company of liars.
Whilst I don't doubt that Android is 'winning' in market share terms I'm very sceptical about analyst numbers.
Good example of how unreliable they are here
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/08/10/apple-sold-5-7-million-tablets-in-the-u-s-last-quarter-court-documents-show-samsung-sold-37000/
"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."
There's more to it than this implies but basically analyst numbers should not be trusted
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.
Wow. What a lame attempt to try to get people away from developing for Android. Basically they're trying to say that Android is big because it's cheap and that means that the only apps that go are free apps or cheap apps. There's no proof of this myth anywhere. IOS users are no more likely to buy an app than an Android user. Nice FUD though.
This is idiocy. The article is talking about Q3 sales numbers, not "in use" not "deployed" not anything other than Q3.
Why are people extrapolating that to installed/user base numbers?
This is a total re-play of the IBM/Apple race for PC market. Google is the IBM in this scenario. Next logical prediction would be Apple is going into crisis in a few years and looks for a new Steve Jobs to come up with something new entirely for which another competitor will play the IBM card.
Android comes in so many different varieties. I need a slideout keyboard - no problem, lots of choices. iPhone? Forget about it - one size is supposed to fit all. Need a stylus? Nope. Need a bigger screen? Nope. Smaller screen? Nope. Multiple physical keys? Nope. Add a Micro SD card? Nope. NFC? Nope. FM radio chip? Nope. No choice = smaller sales.
Your "year of the Linux on the desktop" you've all been waiting for!
(Except that it ISN'T on PC desktops, but, rather instead, of your smartphone "desktop")
So be happy in that much & yes - Congratulations!
* Quite an achievement, blowing out Apple...
(Yes - Even I have to say that much in your favor!)
APK
P.S.=> Coming from the guy whose initials ARE what makes your stuff run... lol (application package file)...
... apk
iOS apps make me more than my Android apps. One primary reason is iOS users actually use their devices far more than Android users.
http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=9&qpcustomb=1
Fact is most Android phones are the low-price, low-margin variety that are used almost exclusively for texting.
This is the year of Linux. Just not on the desktop.
How long would you continue manufacturing a product, if there were no profit in it?
If you are willing to work for free, of course, I would be happy to employ you for long hours.
wait till the Lumia 1120 gets released in 2017 - THAT will be the game-changer.
As a developer, I have to say that I develop for iOS first. There are many reasons for this (I actually like Android better for personal use).
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.
Not true, if you look at this worldwide.
In about 2000's Indian phone market was about 80% Nokia 5510. Everyone had a charger for it and everyone knew the menu shortcuts. There were competing models with approximately same functionality, but no one bothered.
According to this report, Android now has 50% marketshare and Symbian a distant second at 17%. China is the same story, 90% Android.
The reason is very likely price, not variety of choice. Android phones cost 1/3 that of iPhone. The 5510 cost about $100 then, Android phones cost about $150 now.
2012 was the year of Desktop Linux!
...Windows on the smartphone.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Now that Android is having this kind of marketshare, especially in the East, where they are laisse-faire about installing software of suspect provenance. Now what is the malware scenario in smart phones? Android much worse than its competitors on the security front?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
And for years the Ford Taurus was the best selling car. And the F150 series the biggest selling vehicle on the planet. What are these numbers supposed to say? Especially when the vast majority of those phones are still running 2.something and can't even run things target for the newer.
My friends in China are not "hipsters" who want the most popular item, nor are they "cheap". They want cool new functionality - the latest cutting edge stuff. Not going to find it on any other platform except Android right now.
Say what you will, but so long as Apple collects 90+ % of the profits for cellphones, the dominance of Droid means nothing.
It's how Microsoft can claim market dominance of Windows - they charge you lots, while many Linux and BSD boxen get very very small fee
Even if you buy a $200 droid phone, if the profit from it to the maker is just a couple of dollars, while Apple gets tens and hundreds of dollars from each phone, eventually they will eat Droid's shorts.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
and 73% of worldwide does not spell "THRIVE" to you?
You make absolutely no sense and your points are ridiculous.
Given how many "manufacturers" of smartphones I saw at CES this year. They're almost all the same. They look like they came from the same factory with different trims. The one major difference was the MIPS based ones. Generally, the phones were very cheap, in lots of 500s they were about $135. I would pick up a couple of them for traveling since they were generally GSM unlocked.
Some of the "Google's Android TV" you could get at $45/unit for lots of 100s.
Let's say I'm going to spend the next 6 months build an app. Where do I put my energy? As the article says, most of the growth is in China. That's awesome for the Chinese people, awesome for the open source ecosystem, awesome for Google, and awesome for the handset manufacturers who are making those devices. For app producers, however, it's irrelevant if that marketshare doesn't reflect sales. Even if iOS becomes niche (which I think is likely), it seems to be the best place to put make investment.
I do think the development story is improving with Google Play and Amazon/BN's proprietary stores, but I believe that most devices making up the bulk of the Android market share are low end devices without those marketplaces. (Play is *not* part of the operating system) The more I think about it, I think iOS vs. Android matters less than Apple AppStore installs/instances vs. Google Play vs. (other app stores)
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
There's quite a lot of Apple fanboy denial in this thread. All those rationalizations and excuses, sounds quite a bit like Republicans on the last election.
Don't you worry, your walled garden of pure ideology will win the day, eventually, you just gotta have faith.
Did the author ever post about how Windows having ~95% of the desktop market share is bad? If not, I will ignore his writings.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
So it's the "Year of Linux on the Dock"?
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 )
Which means neither really has been challenged as well. The problem you stated is also Android's problem. I heard a lot of people complain that they want tablets/smart phones, but aren't liking Android. They are just priced out or hardware specced out of the Apple devices.
Symbiam and RIM software is on the way out for different reasons. Never heard of Bada. Looking at it real quick, maybe I've seen it and just thought it was a modified version of Android? I'm curious about how Microsoft's numbers will look in a year. Since WP8 is not even fully rolled out yet, and there are already back orders for those phones. I'm surprised they sold that many more phones when until a week or two ago the only Microsoft Phones being sold were known to be obsolete for months once this time of the year hit. A different OS could come out as well.
Android is far enough ahead, though, it will likely remain the market share king for some time.
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 COUNTRY in the EU instead of being able to use any SIM).
But the Android device I have, is not something I would ever buy apps for. The screen is too small, the touch screen too annoying. I'd use maps on it and that's about it.
How many other Android devices are around that people will use as feature-enhanced dumb phones? That's not something that ever gets talked about. And yet judging by the substantial revenue lead iOS development still holds over Android, that has to be a substantial portion of devices.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Eliminate all Chinese phones: where does Android stand then.
Here's my point: if iOS were easily pirated, 90% of China's smartphones would be iOS, not Android. China doesn't care about open source, "walled gardens" (think about the irony), or which corporation is evil. After all, what's more popular in China on the desktop: Windows or Linux? Windows is on every PC, only it's pirated. I promise that were it possible, it would be no different with iOS.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
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.
Did all the commenters below and raters really miss that this was a Romney flame in disguise?
As a developer, my first mobile product will be for Android and I'll do iOS second.
Why you would want to make less money is beyond me, but I thank you for reducing competition in the app store.
like the new app store and the introduced artificial slowing down of the phone to make you upgrade
iOS 6 runs great on my 3GS, better than iOS5 did.
The new app store is only a problem for those who cannot market. If you were only ever relying on searches finding your app you were pretty well screwed anyway.
Apple is at the same time rigid with their criteria for app releases, while it seems it is easier to launch and release for Android.
That is the one area Android has advantage in, quicker releases. But I'm not sure that's a user benefit as much as it is a developer benefit.
It seems Google Play has momentum now
Nope, Amazon app store has momentum (on Android)
I hope more game developers will make the move over to AndroidI hope more game developers will make the move over to Android
I thought pretty much all of them already were, since most are using frameworks like Unity that are cross platform.
Unless they didn't want the support costs and piracy problems...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"Android comes in so many different varieties. I need a slideout keyboard - no problem, lots of choices."
Exactly, if you want a phone with a horribly out of date OS, Android has you covered!
The fact that you can find NEW phones running Gingerbread or earlier is a complete joke.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
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".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
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.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
Consumers can be suckers, they can easily be fooled to pay much more in order to get what they want or think they need or is hip, in fashion, status symbol, etc.. I do it all the time.
But they are not completely idiots and they hate evil empires. And that's what Apple is becoming. All those lawsuits and control Apple is trying to have over its devices is coming back to bite them.
I was one of the first to buy the iPhone 3 and then the iPhone 4. And although I was in time for upgrade skipped 5, and will go for nexus 4 instead. Same in the laptop front, I won't be spending any dollars for Apple products any time soon.
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.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Price is just another choice offered by Android.
Even if on paper the phone is zero profit, the profit was made since samsung also make the nand/ram chips, cpu + lcd and bits , 75% of the hardware.
Apple HAS to purchase its parts from Samsung and LG.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
The usages of my Samsung Note 2 are:
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.
Looks like 2012 was the year of Linux on the phone then.
Is Linux on my Android phone? The terminal emulator app seems to think so:
u0_a39@android:/ $ uname -a
Linux localhost 3.0.31-cyanogenmod-g7556d0b #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Nov 13 06:45:01 PST 2012 armv7l GNU/Linux
- it does not mean what you think it does.
Last I saw, iPhone was on something like 275 carriers worldwide, and Android was on almost 700. Anyone have carrier-based data? Of course if Android is on hundreds more carriers then they will sell more, especially on carriers where iPhone is not an option. Why do you think t-mobile tries so hard to pull in iPhone users? Because when they finally get to sell it, it will outperform the Android models?
Dude, the hardware is getting better, and pretty soon, the bottom lowest piece of crap, will have 1024 or 1280 screens, will have min 1ghz dual core, will have at least 4gig flash. All for $50.
Todays $50 phones beat the $300 phones of 2010.
But I do agree LG make too many phones, just make 3-4 great ones, not 50, http://www.gsmarena.com/lg-phones-20.php
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
But wait! I thought the iPhone was the most popular phone on the market? You mean to tell me Apple skews their market stats by only having one model of phone? When did they start doing that? oh wait... iPod... iBook... iMac... damn, I sense a trend...
If it was that simple, Nokia should have been the undisputed ruler of the mobile market since my impression is they put out a dozen models in markets others put out two. Apple might be a little over the top in the other direction but it's easier for developers to only support a few models and customers know each model is popular enough every application will usually work well, both ways have their pros and cons. Of all the choices you don't get with Apple the most obvious is a cheap model. My local price comparison lists 171 cell phone models with a price, sorted from low to high the first Apple model is the iPhone 4 (8 GB) on 128th while the iPhone 5 is 166th, 169th and 171st - the most expensive phone you can buy. Ferrari only produces four models too, but I doubt that's why their market share is low...
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
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.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
I loved my iPhone 4 when I first got it. Running ios4 IIRC, I then saw problems with ios5 (battery) which they fixed. With ios6, I have the battery life issues back and now a crappy maps app. You'd think apple would have learned something about quality control.... guess not. After not allowing users to downgrade being the final insult, I have decided that my next phone will be android based. Screw apple and their stupid war with google - it's supposed to be about making the best phone, not who can win the most in court, jackass! The only thing that galls me, is that I'm going to have to pay AGAIN to download TomTom. You'd think the company would extend a credit for an existing paid customer to switch platforms.
need a slideout keyboard
Not really.
Need a stylus
There are literally hundreds of stylus available for the iPhones. The Bamboo stylus is the best, btw.
bigger screen?...Smaller screen?
Just more trouble for developers.
Micro SD card?
Useless for 95% of users. Adds weight, bulk, and cost.
NFC
When it makes sense to add it to the iPhone, Apple will. Right now it's just a toy. I've never seen a place where I can use one in my town...
FM radio
Are you serious right now? I haven't listen to the radio in over 10 years...
Want to talk about some real issues? How about the fact that Android does't support low latency audio... it has been an open issue since 2009: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3434
iPhone had low latency audio from day one.
Win a signed Stephen Carpenter ESP Guitar from the Deftones: http://def-tag.com/?r=0008781
Does it like your girlfriend/wife/boyfriend/husband/pet goat? Nope. Will it kill your boss for you? Nope. Does it like long, moonlit walks along the beach? Nope. Like episodes IV, V, & VI? Nope. If it happens to be getting a beer from the fridge, will it get you one? Nope. Just nope nope nope nope nope. Nope.
Nope.
If you buy an android phone and you want to have the latest version of Android you might have to continually buy a new handset. That is going to skew the marketshare numbers considerably as most Android handsets have little or no resale value whereas iPhones have a relatively high resale value.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
I wonder if anyone at APPLE is finally wondering "hmm if only we played nice with others and worked with the opensource community like Google and others do with android?" I mean look at Android and the vast progress it's made in only a few short years. It's absolutely amazing. If Apple had allowed everyone access to the source code as Google does (sans prop blobs/drivers...etc) I wonder if things would have been different? I like apple bashing but osx is built on a fantastic foundation.
It's just such a shame that they have the whole "this is my ball don't touch, you look at my ball we'll sue you" type of mentality. If apple were to lighten the hell up and let people contribute (I mean both ways... apple has to give back as well! > ) apple could, probably pretty easily completely annihilate windows. They just would need to use their marketing genius (they are good at that, at least) to push for more open standards as well as more devs to use things like OpenGL.
It would sure as hell help various linux distros, bsd distros and the like but having apps and games that actually can run on osX would be a huge boon to Apple as well. Tell them they could open themselves up to the huge gaming population and they would see profits skyrocket even more. Especially now while MS is floundering away with that thing they call windows 8.
I keep hearing people talk about wanting (or worse, "needing") a stylus. Handheld devices have had styli for decades now. They sucked then and they suck now: slow you down, easy to lose, etc. Phone keyboards? The same: phones have had them for decades. They sucked then and they suck now. That's why the iPhone was such a big hit: no stylus, no keyboard. Bigger screen? Something of an acquired taste for those who spend a lot of time away from a laptop/tablet/home.
I just don't see those things adding a lot of sales. Mostly, it's that Android phones are cheaper: Google gives the OS away so that it can spy more effectively on you -- Google makes all of its money from selling information about you, not making products -- and what manufacturer and carrier don't like free and don't want to mess with the user experience? Apple has bravely fought the carriers, who screwed up cellphone interfaces for decades, but Google doesn't really care about that issue, since it doesn't actually market to end users.
So it boils down to price (cheap) and carrier control and I'd say that affects world-wide sales a LOT more than people who want to step back two decades to physical keyboards or styli.
Um, I hate to ask, but why do you care? If people are buying them then it seems that they don't mind.
Android has become for mobile devices what Windows is for desktops and laptops.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
Yeah you apple faggots are way better.
Absolutely - if I wanted to spend a ton of money on a phone, I could buy the Tag Heuer Racer Prestige Gold Android phone for 6,500 euros: http://racer.tagheuer.com/reserve/#Prestige_Gold_and_Carbon
...what - like the 8GB iPhone 4 that AT&T is selling for less than a dollar? http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/apple/iphone/4-8gb-black.html?WT.srch=1&cagpspn=pla#fbid=Ws5HZMfg-KR
between the iOS ecosystem and device quality and the Android feature set.
In particular, the Galaxy Note series is haunting my dreams. I was a pen user (Newton 2x00, mostly) for many years, but Apple long ago decided that that wasn't the way. In general I've been happy with Apple, but on this they've left me cold.
The Galaxy Note looks great, has the right features, and a reasonable price. But the device quality isn't quite the same and I'm really happy with the iOS ecosystem (and wasn't with Android at least as recently as 2011).
Frustrating. But I could see myself switching at some point if I continue to ogle the Galaxy Note, my big fear being that I'd switch back eventually to have the iOS world of apps back.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Android users will, one day, have a rude awakening, when they finally come to realize what a mess the Android ecosystem is, when they learn that no one will cater to their upgrading needs, as Google aggressively marches on, with goose steps, to push its OS versions to new high-end devices, leaving them behind. Real case scenarios (just visit the forums): erase your google Market (actually, Play) app and you'll find out the gates of hell are open, when users find out their phones are nothing but electronic trash. Already my banking app "doesn't work on your (my) version of Android." Fuck you. My tablet is not old. I can't upgrade the fucking thing without going all Cyanogen-insane. I've got no time for that Linux-on-phones playtime. Neither should you.
Compare this to Apple: they will sell you a high-end device. They will make sure you use it for a long time. Because of this essential focus on *quality*, it has a legion of fans. They have better products. They care for their customers. They're unique in that way and, because of that, paradoxically, they have users who will eagerly upgrade their devices. And you *know* what devices you are programming for. And the Apple public is not a bunch of freeloaders/cheapskates who barely know what a smart phone is for (no, it's not for texting only).
If Android is going to rule the Third-world of smartphones, should *you* care? Most of the places where it's succeeding probably don't have good broadband connection for cell phones, anyways so Android is nothing but a shiny toy for the burgeoning "middle-class" of Asia, Latin-America, etc. Whoopee! Think of the marketing clusterfuck that feeds on Lady Gaga-like phenomenons + globish. You get the picture...
Android is the Microsoft Windows of smartphones: it is on cheap devices - hence, everywhere - and it's ruthlessly (mis)managed by Google, with no regards to customer satisfaction, aggressively breaking stuff up.
It's another Google failure, just like their lame Google Docs (a case in which the tech press cut them soooo much slack - can you really integrate data with that thing? Can you suck the whole internet into a spreadsheet? If not, why not?). The only thing Google does good is search engine. Please let's not claim they have a handle on the smartphone business just because they're selling like hot cakes. Like I said, compare it to Microsoft...Same non-sequitur.
Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts
Biggest software ecosystem will win.
I wouldn't be so quick to proclaim that as you are stating Apple wins.
There are more iOS developers, more resources for iOS developers, and much deeper resources for iOS developers than exists for Android.
I would never say any one will "win" however, the eventual end game will be a mixture of devices in healthier proportion than we have seen in the PC market (until recently).
it's awfully tough to compete with "free"
Android is not free, device makers pay Microsoft for the privilege. So for device makers WP8 has the same cost... and now Microsoft leaning heavily.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The fact that you can find NEW phones running Gingerbread or earlier is a complete joke.
Have I missed something? Do those devices not work? Can nobody use them to phone, SMS, email, GPS or take pictures? Are there no cheap/free games to run on these cheap devices?
Of course not. Just as a huge amount of computer users have not got PCs with the latest processors huge amounts of memory and HDD and 28" monitors, a large market sector will quite happily spend less and be happy with "lesser" devices.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
Apple changed the mobile phone market. It took four years for the other phone makers to really catch up with Apple. It is only now that the Android offerings (particularly the Nexus 4 and SIII) have overtaken the iPhone 5, and even this is a cause of much debate and blood feuds. Nokia didn't survive the transition and has one last shot with its Windows Phone 8 stuff.
Apple will be the next Nokia in a few years.
This isn't a fact.
In fact it's a bald faced lie.
This hasn't been true for several years.
From Kogan Australia
Iphone 4S 16 GB = A$599
Iphone 5 16 GB = A$779
Galaxy S 3 16 GB = A$449
From Expansys US.
= US$679
Iphone 5 16GB = US$1039
Galaxy S 3 16GB = US$549
So as you can clearly see, you're talking out of your arse.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
That figure of 73 percent is _only_ for the third quarter. It is not a worldwide overall figure.
> iPhone vs Android flamewar in 3, 2, ...
On the contrary! I wish Apple a lot of success, even though I'm a Linux user and their phones are not for me.
Apple closes their line of products and this creates problems for those who will be subject to lock-in; but they still do it the old fashioned way, with flowers and gallantries -- while M$ became an abomination, invading standards organizations to make sure their dinosaur-like versions stomped the leaner, freer one.
Apple, for a long time, had CUPS available for Linux, had a somewhat good relation regarding webkit... I can say a lot of good examples about Apple, although surely one can find problems in their closed approach if one so wants.
But we now witness the rising of a new paradigm, a new "desktop" of sorts, which is being born from a small mobile seed but shall take all the land where older organisms like the PC or the notebook ruled (though I think the notebook may survive somehow).
Now it's the perfect chance to take that old horse which got a lot of diseases and cannot carry anything anymore to the back of the stable and put it out of its misery. Let M$ do what it knows best: hardware.
In the future, maybe we think of 2009 -- which saw Android 1.x -- as the year of the Linux "desktop" (though I've been using it since 2000, at least).
That was extremely funny - nice work
If Steve Jobs didn't put it on my phone, I probably didn't need it anyways.
BTW there is a flash storage solution for iPhone/iPads, it's called an Airstash. My husband has one and uses it constantly to load large media files to and from his iPad.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
"Limited" is like half a dozen top cellphone models or more. Apple has one top cellphone model. Innovation is relative. For people used to a RAZR the iPhone was innovative. For people used to Windows CE devices not really.
Who cares about low latency audio? It isn't an issue for regular users and most of us aren't composers. In contrast all the other options you derided actually have mass market appeal.
1) Your finger is larger than a stylus tip so you lose input precision. 2) The higher end Android phones cost the same or more than an iPhone yet they sell remarkably well. The Samsung Galaxy S III is one example. 3) Apple makes money on the device AND on ads (iAd), selling you content on iTunes, etc. It's like having an Amazon device at many times the price. Have fun getting price gauged.
"For people used to Windows CE devices not really."
thank you, good to know I'm not the only one who still remembers. wince was not awesome, but it had 3rd party apps and a small but capable community of devs releasing good software, copy/paste, multitasking, a sort of (kinda) usable web browser, a very usable push email client, and a whole host of other things that added up to an.. acceptable compromise I guess is the way to describe it. It worked, it did a lot of stuff that was previously much harder to do mobile, and feature for feature it far outclassed the original iPhone (except the browser). Later generations of the iphone took things farther, but I very clearly remember reading with great interest and then playing with an iphone and deciding "meh, thats neat but my win mobile device is much more useful".
-Lod
And I thought those old Motorola Aura phones were expensive.
different priced devices is also variety of choice .
there's no 100$ iphone so if you need a phone for that price you're not going to get an iphone.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Blucds
You realise that the chart you linked to *removes the top 5% of sales* (where the majority of the money is) in order to distort the statistics? It's meaningless puffery, and I'm afraid the BB platform has changed far too late to attract any developers.
I tried really hard to find a reason to want a Lumia 920 but it's a tank - 185 grams. A non-smart phone would never be purchased at that weight (except the old days when all phones were tanks) and I don't see why a consumer should stoop to that now. Nokia couldn't even make the best Windows phone, that's the hTC 8X imo - significantly lighter with decent specs, but I would never use a Windows phone. I always wished Linux was more popular than Windows on the desktop, and now that it is on the phone, I certainly embrace that. iOS is till the best phone OS imo, but my android is better in some areas and I'm certainly happy with it.
MS has made embedded XP that run nicely under 256M ram, and 150M disk. An ARM version of this baby would run well on lots of devices. Throw in a directX based GUI Launcher aka Metro and there you have it. WinMobile8.
There is nothing that cant be done in XP, that can in Win8RT .
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
and all the wealthy people (not your friends maybe) had ibooks etc.
It's the same in China as anywhere else. If you want true definitive quality you buy Apple. I don't use apple and still I know that. I'm a more casual person in clothing as it is in electronics street ready. But I don't deny that Apple are the only true premium smart phone provider, like Levis jeans, they are the original and great quality. There are other great jeans companies but noting like Levis - it's the same.
Another reason I don't buy Apple is I don't like branding. The same guys that go around with huge 'Tommy Hilfiger' font on their jumpers sport and Apple logo, no disrespect to people who actually buy Apple for quality - iOS is by far the best still imo. That's the real value added you get with Apple - iOS. Just like no disrespect to people who like Tommy Hilfiger quality (with less tacky smaller font).
I live in Korea and have a Samsung R style, which is a slightly lower end SII. Only has 5mo camera. It's smaller and more easy to hold with one hand than the SIII and has insane battery life as it draws less power with a dual core snap dragon S4, smaller screen, and still has a 2000 mAmp battery. It only stands out to those people who you care about noticing it - people clever enough to see a quality phone that's not the best but isn't even trying to be. You can't even get it outside Korea. For anyone interested - it looks like a slightly narrower galaxy sII but also slightly longer, 4.3' qHD
The only branding I like to see on clothes is an extra layer of stitching.
iOs is a better operating system than Android with Touchwiz and Nature.
That's one of the things you pay for with iPhone - a Unix based OS with a hybrid kernel, and modern sleek interface with a retina quality display. I have a Samsung too but you're needing to be put in your place. You need >300 ppi to call your device retina quality. Some LG devices have this but it still doesn't compare to retina and Samsung don't have it (not true retina) You can read the technical details about that. You can't really get proper retina grade with amoled but that's another story. There's just not enough illumination - saturation - yeah but not illumination. It doesn't quite work out with amoled partly because of the nature of the diodes, and that they emit they're own light.
I wouldn't trade my Galaxy R Style for any phone except the iPhone 5 maybe but I still wouldn't, especially not the overweight monstrosities that are the Note II and the Lumia 920.
There are no available for GSM/UMTS/LTE (US ones may be) for Europe.
Sony Erisson XPERIA pro was sold out 4 weeks ago. There are no new android phones with slide keyboard.
Seems like stating the obvious, but i feel this statistic is being misinterpreted...
Hypothetically; you can have a number of people with say... iPhones, who buy a new one on average every 4 years. Then have a same number of people with say... Android phones, who buy a new one on average every year (50/50 users). Now those buying cycles would make Android have a 3/4 (75%) market share in yearly sales, but only a 1/2 the market share of users.
An extreme example perhaps but it illustrates my point, also it loops back into sales because the product that gets bought every 4 years is obviously going to be more expensive, the shortcut for comparison on a yearly basis there would be to look at the gross profit of those devices regardless of units sold. Now if you consider the fact that iPhones have been around quite a bit longer than Android phones, and the recent availability of substantially cheaper Android phones, one could speculate that this is an untapped market, not a market entirely in competition with iPhones. It's difficult to precisely measure the market share of users but given the history of iPhone sales id give a guess that's it's not far of 50/50.
I'm on no ones side here, i just don't like people misinterpreting statistics. Lets keep things real, for the record i have an Android phone... i like both platforms but am not wealthy enough to justify the price of an iPhone for what i use it for.
Android is winning by the same single reson Windows won. Because it's open.
Of course, we have different standards for "open" nowadays. But claiming any other reason is delusional.
Rethinking email
Summary: I don't want choices, so choices are bad, no-one should have choices, no-one should want anything except what Apple offers anyhow.
Apple fanbois in anti-choice mode are just plain sad.
How would you know? You're an iOS developer... Amazon's store is crap.
No, I am a mobile developer. I know Java quite well from years of use and COULD develop for Android any time I liked. So I keep a constant eye on the other mobile platforms to see when it might be time to support something else.
As such I also know about sales and currently Amazon is having, by far, the best luck with Android tablet sales. It doesn't matter how crappy the Amazon store might be (and I don't know why you think that) because it's simply the store that most Android tablet owners will see by default.
I work with mobile development shops that develop for all platforms and currently it is MANDATORY to support the Amazon app store for applications.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This is the Linux Desktop, plain and simple!!
As ever the stats dont tell the full story. This is only 2012 3rdQ sales. It doesn't take into account the number of already installed and working phones. OK
Is there an open software initiative to replace all default spy-for-google Android components with something that respects privacy? Is that even a viable goal -- or has Google too artfully poisoned the well?
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