Bell and Telus share spectrum/towers for their HSPA network however. And often their plans are the same. They have some sort of unholy alliance where the customer is loosing. Of course they wouldn't be allowed to merge so it's as far as they can go.
Any cheap 1080p display is fine for coding. You don't need good color accuracy, high contrast or low response time for coding. If you need more pixels just get two of them.
Afterall, smartphones had been around for years before the iPhone and didn't experience such explosive growth until the iPhone.
Apple entered the smartphone market because it was about to explose. The market did not explose because of them. It's certainly not Apple's entry to the market that made Nokia get 69% year on year growth and RIM 112% that year.
Beside, you could also say that the smartphone market didn't experience such explosive growth until the first Blackberry, Android, Windows mobile or Symbian smart phone and that would also be true. Apple isn't the exception here.
I will give significant credit to Apple for expanding the smartphone market
The smartphone market would have expanded with or without Apple. Apple just happen to have launched a smart phone at the right time. They could have launched one 5 years prior and it would have sucked just like anything available that year.
Before the iPhone a smart phone meant a phone on which you could install apps without asking for permission to the manufacturer. Touch screen smart phones existed before the iPhone. Apple's innovation is its restriction.
The iPad 3 also supports the 1700 MHz (AWS) LTE band, or it wouldn't work in Canada (700 MHz wasn't auctionned yet).
Changing supported bands isn't hard. Many manufacturers such as Samsung and HTC ships different products for differents countries and the only difference is the supported bands.
By bringing important stuff first: Wifi hotspot, multitasking, notification bar, free and high quality turn by turn GPS navigation to name a few that I use almost daily.
Oh, and in the smartphone world, being able to install side-load an application can almost be seen as "innovative". Shame.
Fragmentation is a word we're using now for when application developers have extensive QA issues around multiple, not quite compatible software platforms on a single hardware platform. It's appropriate here, and for the other examples you give too.
So, it would be nice if Apple killed iOS and switched to Android. One less OS to support, less fragmentation. Who cares about choice anyway?
Android does outsell the iPhone 2:1 worldwide, the link you posted seems to confirm that, actually it's even more like 5:2 (IDC, Gartner). eComScore and Neilsen gives number about the US only. Of course 3.2-3.5" are very popular sizes in the feature phone market. They are also very popular in the market of smartphones with qwerty keyboards (most blackberries). But I don't think we can compare to that. Blackberries are just as large as big Android phones (in volume), it's just that they trade screen estate for a keyboard. Windows Phones are almost as large as Android phones. They are over 4" too on average. But anyway its market share is close to 0.
That really leaves only Symbian and Bada, on the cheap side of smartphones, with displays that compares to the iPhone. That's not negligible, but we can still say that based on sales, people prefer larger smartphones. The iPhone is the only smartphone that is both small and expensive. Just like in the car market, those on budget must often choose a smaller car than what they would otherwise have preferred.
What makes the best selling device on the planet irrelevant?
It is irrelevant. Imagine Apple has 25% of the smartphone market with the iPhone and that the other 75% is split among hundred of devices between 4.5" and 4.5001". The iPhone is still the most popular device yet 3.5" devices only capture 1/4th of the market while 4.5" ones captures 75%.
"The large smartphone market is larger than the 3.5" smartphone market, all phones combined."
Based on what evidence?
Well, Android has about double the market share of iPhones worldwide if you count current sales. Yes there are a few small (ie 3.2"-3.5") Android phones but the bulk is over 4". I think it's a pretty safe assumption.
I had an Android phone, and now I have an iPhone - but if the rumored 7.85" iPad comes out, I'm seriously thinking about carrying that and a small dumb phone instead.
You could do just that right now buy buying a Nexus 7.
The S2 released before the Note. The S3 released before the Note 2. The Lumia 900 received much more marketing than the Titan 2.
Personnally I'd say that people buy iPhones despite the fact that they have small screens. If Apple gave the choice between a 3.5" and a 4.5" iPhone, the 4.5" one would sell more (as long as that they have the same speed, battery life and pixel density).
"The trend for bigger and bigger screens is clear, but is it what consumers want? Is it what you want?"
Yes. I can't stand small phones on which it's hard to type. Even a large phone such as the Galaxy S3 has a smaller footprint than an average wallet so carring it in a pocket isn't an issue.
They could make a 3" iPhone with the same number of pixels. It would have higher PPI. But would it be an improvement? Not at all. Some people prefer larger displays. It's the same thing for the iPad. An hypothetical 8" iPad isn't better just because it would have higher PPI.
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Did you really feel you had to defend yourself?
Bell and Telus share spectrum/towers for their HSPA network however. And often their plans are the same. They have some sort of unholy alliance where the customer is loosing. Of course they wouldn't be allowed to merge so it's as far as they can go.
Skype out must be the most expensive VoIP provider out there. Plus it is non-standard, proprietary and closed source.
If not, how can you let her on AOL?
Samsung might not have "retina" (tm) but Apple doesn't even have "HD".
Any cheap 1080p display is fine for coding. You don't need good color accuracy, high contrast or low response time for coding. If you need more pixels just get two of them.
This isn't a democracy - it's a Constitutional Republic with democratically elected Representation. Worlds of difference.
A "Constitutional Republic with democratically elected Representation" is a form of democracy. It just isn't a direct democracy.
A democratic republic is a pure democracy, as pure as all other forms of democracy. It is only not a direct democracy.
Afterall, smartphones had been around for years before the iPhone and didn't experience such explosive growth until the iPhone.
Apple entered the smartphone market because it was about to explose. The market did not explose because of them. It's certainly not Apple's entry to the market that made Nokia get 69% year on year growth and RIM 112% that year.
Beside, you could also say that the smartphone market didn't experience such explosive growth until the first Blackberry, Android, Windows mobile or Symbian smart phone and that would also be true. Apple isn't the exception here.
I will give significant credit to Apple for expanding the smartphone market
The smartphone market would have expanded with or without Apple. Apple just happen to have launched a smart phone at the right time. They could have launched one 5 years prior and it would have sucked just like anything available that year.
Before the iPhone a smart phone meant a phone on which you could install apps without asking for permission to the manufacturer.
Touch screen smart phones existed before the iPhone. Apple's innovation is its restriction.
The iPad 3 also supports the 1700 MHz (AWS) LTE band, or it wouldn't work in Canada (700 MHz wasn't auctionned yet).
Changing supported bands isn't hard. Many manufacturers such as Samsung and HTC ships different products for differents countries and the only difference is the supported bands.
On what frequency band is it deployed?
the American variants use different chipsets, and different radios, are compatible with LTE-700MHz, and are basically different phones).
You forget LTE 1700 (AWS). And in the case of sprint, isn't it LTE 1900?
In what ways is Android innovative?
By bringing important stuff first:
Wifi hotspot, multitasking, notification bar, free and high quality turn by turn GPS navigation to name a few that I use almost daily.
Oh, and in the smartphone world, being able to install side-load an application can almost be seen as "innovative". Shame.
The old way: go to the Finder, find the file you want, and open it. The new way: go to the app and open the document from within the app.
The "new" way sounds like Windows 3.0
Fragmentation is a word we're using now for when application developers have extensive QA issues around multiple, not quite compatible software platforms on a single hardware platform. It's appropriate here, and for the other examples you give too.
So, it would be nice if Apple killed iOS and switched to Android. One less OS to support, less fragmentation.
Who cares about choice anyway?
Android does outsell the iPhone 2:1 worldwide, the link you posted seems to confirm that, actually it's even more like 5:2 (IDC, Gartner). eComScore and Neilsen gives number about the US only.
Of course 3.2-3.5" are very popular sizes in the feature phone market. They are also very popular in the market of smartphones with qwerty keyboards (most blackberries). But I don't think we can compare to that. Blackberries are just as large as big Android phones (in volume), it's just that they trade screen estate for a keyboard.
Windows Phones are almost as large as Android phones. They are over 4" too on average. But anyway its market share is close to 0.
That really leaves only Symbian and Bada, on the cheap side of smartphones, with displays that compares to the iPhone. That's not negligible, but we can still say that based on sales, people prefer larger smartphones. The iPhone is the only smartphone that is both small and expensive. Just like in the car market, those on budget must often choose a smaller car than what they would otherwise have preferred.
"Completely irrelevant."
What makes the best selling device on the planet irrelevant?
It is irrelevant. Imagine Apple has 25% of the smartphone market with the iPhone and that the other 75% is split among hundred of devices between 4.5" and 4.5001". The iPhone is still the most popular device yet 3.5" devices only capture 1/4th of the market while 4.5" ones captures 75%.
"The large smartphone market is larger than the 3.5" smartphone market, all phones combined."
Based on what evidence?
Well, Android has about double the market share of iPhones worldwide if you count current sales. Yes there are a few small (ie 3.2"-3.5") Android phones but the bulk is over 4". I think it's a pretty safe assumption.
I had an Android phone, and now I have an iPhone - but if the rumored 7.85" iPad comes out, I'm seriously thinking about carrying that and a small dumb phone instead.
You could do just that right now buy buying a Nexus 7.
Judging by sales? No. The 3.7" iPhone is outselling every device on the planet.
Completely irrelevant.
The large smartphone market is larger than the 3.5" smartphone market, all phones combined.
The iPhone is 3.5", BTW
There are many other possible explanations.
The S2 released before the Note.
The S3 released before the Note 2.
The Lumia 900 received much more marketing than the Titan 2.
Personnally I'd say that people buy iPhones despite the fact that they have small screens. If Apple gave the choice between a 3.5" and a 4.5" iPhone, the 4.5" one would sell more (as long as that they have the same speed, battery life and pixel density).
Android phones are those with the highest resolution. Both in number of pixels and pixel density.
And the Xperia Ray isn't one of them.
"The trend for bigger and bigger screens is clear, but is it what consumers want? Is it what you want?"
Yes. I can't stand small phones on which it's hard to type. Even a large phone such as the Galaxy S3 has a smaller footprint than an average wallet so carring it in a pocket isn't an issue.
They could make a 3" iPhone with the same number of pixels. It would have higher PPI. But would it be an improvement? Not at all. Some people prefer larger displays. It's the same thing for the iPad. An hypothetical 8" iPad isn't better just because it would have higher PPI.