Perhap also they were mislead by the media hype into thinking - as some readers here genuinely do - that the Iphone is what the majority of users have. Given the reality is that the Iphone has perhaps 1-2% market share, then when their sales are accordingly 50+ times lower than expected, with their products being far outsold by non-Iphone products, you can see them grasping at "piracy" for an explanation.
Past few days? Stories about Iphone Iphone Iphone, as if that was the only phone in existence (and a brief mention of the Android, to make the Iphone look good in comparison), seems pretty much the norm here on Appledot. I mean, if you wanted stories that realistically reflected the mobile market, you'd go to a more general tech site instead of an Apple news site. Oh wait.
Talking of which, I'm saddened to see yet another media outlet pushing the myth that the only Internet phones in existence are the Iphone and the Blackberry (although I suppose we should be grateful they at least acknowledge the existence of the Blackberry, and don't pretend that the Iphone is the only phone in existence). Together they only make up a few per cent of the total figure. If they wanted to just pick on one set of phones, they should have chosen Nokias at 40% of the market.
"Quite a lot of iPhones have been sold, 42 million in total" - woo! Or maybe quoted the figure of 2 billion Java Internet phones.
Fair enough if this was the Daily Mail or something, but I expect better from a tech site like CNET. With a major blooper like this, the data is useless. It also seems pointless bothering about them anyway, since they make up about 0.0026% of the total! And then we have embarrassments like saying not owning an Iphone is "the modern-day equivalent of not having a head" - yes, I guess 98% of the Internet phone owning population don't have a head. Just because some Apple fans see it as a fashion statement, doesn't mean anyone else cares.
Oh, I'm sorry. Tell you what, everytime there's a YRO story, from now on the editors promise to consult you, clone53421 (1310749), personally, to see if it's a worthy story. Because obviously the "you" is singular, and means you, clone53421 (1310749), and not anyone else.
(Really though, grow up - do you think a story isn't newsworthy just because it doesn't affect you personally? Many YRO stories don't affect me personally - including this one, in fact - but I still might be interested in them anyway. Some of us aren't so selfish that we only think about what affects us all the time.)
I do love the irony of someone on Slashdot talking about other people not having a life. I can just imagine them, foaming at the mouth as they bash the keyboard - hypocritically complaining about other people complaining, and ridiculing people for spending time on an online environment - whilst sitting in their dimly lit mother's basement, spending all their hours online on Slashdot.
People do not honor the EULA, jailbreak their iPhones into iBricks and then cry out loud apple bricked their jailbroken devices.
Honor the EULA? Why should someone honor an EUL? [*] And yes, if Apple brick the phone that the customer bought, I'd say they should be liable for a replacement, at least.
But sure, the correct answer is to not use Apple.
[*] If you disagree, you can honor the EULA to pay me $100. You agree to it by clicking "Reply To This".
Even my 5 year old bog standard non-smart phone can do tethering and running apps from anywhere without Motorola approval. I don't consider it anything special - hell, I didn't even know that using a phone as a modem had a special name - it Just Works. But then with the Iphone, if the most advanced feature it has really is "3G" (as per the name), what do you expect.
it does everything it claims to do in the contract and EULAs you agreed to. Right? Or am I missing something, here?
Yeah, exactly. I don't expect to have to wade through contracts and EULAs just to use a phone I own. I expect it to Just Work.
Phones have been hard wired to contracts for years now, the iPhone is only unique in that its popular so people actually care that only one service provider can support it.
This seems doubtful - phones have been on contracts, including only one service provider, and things change because the Iphone comes along with 1-2% market share? I don't thinks so.
The only thing that's changed is that the Iphone stories get publicity. For all we know, this kind of thing has happened with the major players like Nokia, Samsung, etc, but we'd never hear about it here.
but the majority of the population will continue to flock to the iPhone.
*snort* I'm sorry, it worries me just how touch with reality people here are. I thought this was suppose to be a place where people were up to date on tech news?
Android may be less popular than the Iphone, but that's not saying much, when the Iphone only has about 1-2% of the market. No phone company has a _majority_, but Nokia are the biggest, at around 40%. Those are the facts. Now onto the debate:
It's true that most phones are far more locked down than computers (although the Iphone takes this to a whole new level, by mandating what applications people are allowed to run). I think that's a bad thing. I don't see any evidence that people want this, because there simply hasn't been the choice, and Android is a new contender, that's seen little advertising.
But if we are going by market figures, then they show that most people don't want phones as locked down as the Iphone (and if we're going by market figures, they show that most people want Windows, and few people want Macs - still okay with equating market share with what the people really want?)
Another fallacy is that you are ignoring netbooks. It could be that the sort of people who want a mobile device more like a computer aren't buying any of the phones (which don't offer what they want), and are simply going for netbooks.
And finally, yes, it's trivially true that most people aren't interested in a mobile computer, but that's simply because most people prefer to talk and text people, rather than using computers all the time - and these are the people buying dirt cheap standard phones, not fancy Iphones, anyway.
I mean, it's ridiculous. I guess this is taking advantage of the hype bandwagon where anything "On The Iphone" gets instant media coverage. God knows why the licence-funded BBC is giving free advertising though, especially to a phone that's a minority player. I rarely see such stories about Nokia, who dominate the market.
Who cares about 100,000 "apps" if they're involve paying money for trivial things that on any other platform would be available for free.
I don't understand why Slashdot stories act as if the only choices in the market are the Iphone and Android, when these are both minority players in the market. It's a false dichotomy. If I was a developer, I'd look at say Nokia (with about 40% of the market), or any of the other major players. Even Blackberry has more of a market share than the Iphone, last time I looked. Don't get me wrong, Android looks interesting (as an open platform - unlike the Iphone).
Of course I'll probably get modded down because these facts don't fit in with an Apple fan's worldview, but that doesn't change what's true - the reality of the mobile market is not decided simply by who has mod points today.
Indeed, who cares about 1% of the market when you could just target the market of 2 billion Java-enabled smartphones?
And I find Apple's incompatibility frustrating. The good thing about the phone market is they support a common standard - but if Apple get their way, it'll be a return to the bad old days of the 80s, where there were millions of platforms, all incompatible with each other - a nightmare for developers and users.
Yeah, it's good to know that if such plans were proposed in the US, you would descend into civil war to prevent it.
I mean, that's what happened when the DMCA was proposed wasn't it? Thank heavens for the right to bear arms, it's so great that the DMCA was dropped, and that Mickey Mouse is now finally in the public domain.
Yes, obviously no stupid laws are ever passed in the US. Everyone knows that the US Government lives in fear of the citizens, and they don't dare pass any stupid laws.
I'm not sure what the Xbox story has to do with any of this. The Open Rights Group campaign on broader issues than just what the Government does, and things like allowing modding (which might be done for reasons other than piracy - e.g., running non-approved software such as Linux) or DRM seem perfectly valid causes for the ORG.
I'm not sure that the BBC's poor straw man coverage of their side of the argument is the fault of the ORG - that's the fault of the BBC being biased.
If not, I would expect parliament to be highly suspect of the introduction of something designed to give the Secretary of State such power... when it's introduced by the Secretary of State.
Ha! I wish.
Various MPs might - if the changes are even debated - express suspicion, but that means nothing when the majority Government can vote the new bill in. The only real hope to bring in amendments to bills is in the House of Lords.
In terms of parties that actually make a Government, the UK has been swinging between two parties for god knows how long, so yes, we have the same problem - perhaps not as extreme as the US, but it's still present. Thanks to the backwards FPTP system, the Lib Dems can't influence anything the Government wants, because the Government have a majority in Parliament. They can only have an influence when there's a split even within the Government.
Do you think that the iPhone would be the hottest selling phone
I don't think that the Iphone is the hottest selling phone, because it isn't the hottest selling phone. The hottest sellers are Nokias, followed by Samsung IIRC, then a whole load of other companies, than RIM with their Blackberries, then Apple with their Iphones.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhap also they were mislead by the media hype into thinking - as some readers here genuinely do - that the Iphone is what the majority of users have. Given the reality is that the Iphone has perhaps 1-2% market share, then when their sales are accordingly 50+ times lower than expected, with their products being far outsold by non-Iphone products, you can see them grasping at "piracy" for an explanation.
Past few days? Stories about Iphone Iphone Iphone, as if that was the only phone in existence (and a brief mention of the Android, to make the Iphone look good in comparison), seems pretty much the norm here on Appledot. I mean, if you wanted stories that realistically reflected the mobile market, you'd go to a more general tech site instead of an Apple news site. Oh wait.
iPhones and Blackberries
Talking of which, I'm saddened to see yet another media outlet pushing the myth that the only Internet phones in existence are the Iphone and the Blackberry (although I suppose we should be grateful they at least acknowledge the existence of the Blackberry, and don't pretend that the Iphone is the only phone in existence). Together they only make up a few per cent of the total figure. If they wanted to just pick on one set of phones, they should have chosen Nokias at 40% of the market.
"Quite a lot of iPhones have been sold, 42 million in total" - woo! Or maybe quoted the figure of 2 billion Java Internet phones.
Fair enough if this was the Daily Mail or something, but I expect better from a tech site like CNET. With a major blooper like this, the data is useless. It also seems pointless bothering about them anyway, since they make up about 0.0026% of the total! And then we have embarrassments like saying not owning an Iphone is "the modern-day equivalent of not having a head" - yes, I guess 98% of the Internet phone owning population don't have a head. Just because some Apple fans see it as a fashion statement, doesn't mean anyone else cares.
Oh, I'm sorry. Tell you what, everytime there's a YRO story, from now on the editors promise to consult you, clone53421 (1310749), personally, to see if it's a worthy story. Because obviously the "you" is singular, and means you, clone53421 (1310749), and not anyone else.
(Really though, grow up - do you think a story isn't newsworthy just because it doesn't affect you personally? Many YRO stories don't affect me personally - including this one, in fact - but I still might be interested in them anyway. Some of us aren't so selfish that we only think about what affects us all the time.)
I don't use Second Life, but let's get a sense of perspective: how many people in general have heard of Slashdot?
It's depressing how insular this place can be sometimes, and how much contempt there is for people who simply use something different.
Says the person posting on Slashdot.
I do love the irony of someone on Slashdot talking about other people not having a life. I can just imagine them, foaming at the mouth as they bash the keyboard - hypocritically complaining about other people complaining, and ridiculing people for spending time on an online environment - whilst sitting in their dimly lit mother's basement, spending all their hours online on Slashdot.
People do not honor the EULA, jailbreak their iPhones into iBricks and then cry out loud apple bricked their jailbroken devices.
Honor the EULA? Why should someone honor an EUL? [*] And yes, if Apple brick the phone that the customer bought, I'd say they should be liable for a replacement, at least.
But sure, the correct answer is to not use Apple.
[*] If you disagree, you can honor the EULA to pay me $100. You agree to it by clicking "Reply To This".
Even my 5 year old bog standard non-smart phone can do tethering and running apps from anywhere without Motorola approval. I don't consider it anything special - hell, I didn't even know that using a phone as a modem had a special name - it Just Works. But then with the Iphone, if the most advanced feature it has really is "3G" (as per the name), what do you expect.
it does everything it claims to do in the contract and EULAs you agreed to. Right? Or am I missing something, here?
Yeah, exactly. I don't expect to have to wade through contracts and EULAs just to use a phone I own. I expect it to Just Work.
Phones have been hard wired to contracts for years now, the iPhone is only unique in that its popular so people actually care that only one service provider can support it.
This seems doubtful - phones have been on contracts, including only one service provider, and things change because the Iphone comes along with 1-2% market share? I don't thinks so.
The only thing that's changed is that the Iphone stories get publicity. For all we know, this kind of thing has happened with the major players like Nokia, Samsung, etc, but we'd never hear about it here.
the iPhone is extremely popular among kids, students, and college types.
Do you have a source for this? (As opposed to "A lot of my friends have one".)
but the majority of the population will continue to flock to the iPhone.
*snort* I'm sorry, it worries me just how touch with reality people here are. I thought this was suppose to be a place where people were up to date on tech news?
Android may be less popular than the Iphone, but that's not saying much, when the Iphone only has about 1-2% of the market. No phone company has a _majority_, but Nokia are the biggest, at around 40%. Those are the facts. Now onto the debate:
It's true that most phones are far more locked down than computers (although the Iphone takes this to a whole new level, by mandating what applications people are allowed to run). I think that's a bad thing. I don't see any evidence that people want this, because there simply hasn't been the choice, and Android is a new contender, that's seen little advertising.
But if we are going by market figures, then they show that most people don't want phones as locked down as the Iphone (and if we're going by market figures, they show that most people want Windows, and few people want Macs - still okay with equating market share with what the people really want?)
Another fallacy is that you are ignoring netbooks. It could be that the sort of people who want a mobile device more like a computer aren't buying any of the phones (which don't offer what they want), and are simply going for netbooks.
And finally, yes, it's trivially true that most people aren't interested in a mobile computer, but that's simply because most people prefer to talk and text people, rather than using computers all the time - and these are the people buying dirt cheap standard phones, not fancy Iphones, anyway.
Indeed - a classic example was this is someone who made a program that does nothing more than display an animated icon. And got nationwide advertising in the media ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8152338.stm , http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jul/14/iphone-purity-pledge-apple ).
I mean, it's ridiculous. I guess this is taking advantage of the hype bandwagon where anything "On The Iphone" gets instant media coverage. God knows why the licence-funded BBC is giving free advertising though, especially to a phone that's a minority player. I rarely see such stories about Nokia, who dominate the market.
Who cares about 100,000 "apps" if they're involve paying money for trivial things that on any other platform would be available for free.
I don't understand why Slashdot stories act as if the only choices in the market are the Iphone and Android, when these are both minority players in the market. It's a false dichotomy. If I was a developer, I'd look at say Nokia (with about 40% of the market), or any of the other major players. Even Blackberry has more of a market share than the Iphone, last time I looked. Don't get me wrong, Android looks interesting (as an open platform - unlike the Iphone).
Of course I'll probably get modded down because these facts don't fit in with an Apple fan's worldview, but that doesn't change what's true - the reality of the mobile market is not decided simply by who has mod points today.
Indeed, who cares about 1% of the market when you could just target the market of 2 billion Java-enabled smartphones?
And I find Apple's incompatibility frustrating. The good thing about the phone market is they support a common standard - but if Apple get their way, it'll be a return to the bad old days of the 80s, where there were millions of platforms, all incompatible with each other - a nightmare for developers and users.
Yeah, it's good to know that if such plans were proposed in the US, you would descend into civil war to prevent it.
I mean, that's what happened when the DMCA was proposed wasn't it? Thank heavens for the right to bear arms, it's so great that the DMCA was dropped, and that Mickey Mouse is now finally in the public domain.
Yes, obviously no stupid laws are ever passed in the US. Everyone knows that the US Government lives in fear of the citizens, and they don't dare pass any stupid laws.
I'm not sure what the Xbox story has to do with any of this. The Open Rights Group campaign on broader issues than just what the Government does, and things like allowing modding (which might be done for reasons other than piracy - e.g., running non-approved software such as Linux) or DRM seem perfectly valid causes for the ORG.
I'm not sure that the BBC's poor straw man coverage of their side of the argument is the fault of the ORG - that's the fault of the BBC being biased.
Yeah, I'm gonna say this is a non-story.
Well, let's look at the bill itself that was published today: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldbills/001/10001.13-19.html#j164
Yeah, I'm gonna say BoingBoing were right.
Also see http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2009/11/the_digital_economy_bill.html , http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39893271,00.htm .
It's not just the UK though, sadly...
If not, I would expect parliament to be highly suspect of the introduction of something designed to give the Secretary of State such power ... when it's introduced by the Secretary of State.
Ha! I wish.
Various MPs might - if the changes are even debated - express suspicion, but that means nothing when the majority Government can vote the new bill in. The only real hope to bring in amendments to bills is in the House of Lords.
By your logic, "they" in the US don't care either, about all the nonsense that gets posted here?
Or, last time I looked, perhaps laws were passed by Governments, and not Slashdot readers?
In terms of parties that actually make a Government, the UK has been swinging between two parties for god knows how long, so yes, we have the same problem - perhaps not as extreme as the US, but it's still present. Thanks to the backwards FPTP system, the Lib Dems can't influence anything the Government wants, because the Government have a majority in Parliament. They can only have an influence when there's a split even within the Government.
Do you think that the iPhone would be the hottest selling phone
I don't think that the Iphone is the hottest selling phone, because it isn't the hottest selling phone. The hottest sellers are Nokias, followed by Samsung IIRC, then a whole load of other companies, than RIM with their Blackberries, then Apple with their Iphones.
I guess that must be the 99% who don't use an Iphone anyway. Oh wait, to be fair, it's now as low as 97.5%.