Android is just as much Linux as Debian, Ubuntu and Redhat. Its just another distribution. Its just the only one that happens to be popular, and as such... guess what... just like Windows its becoming a malware target. and just like Windows you don't have to 'hack' the OS, just the user.
I understand the argument...and have even made it myself "in context" except this attack won't work on "Debian, Ubuntu and Redhat"...and no its nothing like windows:).
Android outsells Apple 6:1 in the "I use a smartphone like a featurephone and don't know what apps are, oh and this phone is only $79 on prepaid" area.
Absolutely not. In China for example the Average price of a smartphone is $250. Lets look at the best selling phones are on Amazon China http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=www.amazon.cn. The top phone is Lenovo with a dual core processor, 2000mAh, Android 4.0, 2nd Phone is and 3rd Phone are both Huawei is both dual and quad cores with larger screens than your beloved iPhone:) (and includes a dual sim interestingly ), The third Phone comes with 2GB of RAM!!....I hate to say it but these phones seem to have better specifications (and arguably software) than your beloved Apple iPhone, its not surprising really as Apple overcharge their customers so much.
If I wanted a hobby phone I could kick around I would get an Android. I want a phone that works and apps without ads. I went Apple after finding out the not-so-stellar truth about Android.
LOL the irony of your post is one of the reason the iPhone is so unsuccessful is its price, and please don't pretend that Apple do not make money from Advertising, they famously made siri useless with advertising. The sad fact is your post is not only off topic but irrelevant...Android outsells Apple 6:1 and sells 1.5million a day...its doing something right, and what Apple is doing wrong, and nothing you or I is going to change that. Personally I would love Apple to create a competitive product.
But but but I thought the zealots assured us the Linux was immune to exploits? Or did they LIE????
This is about Android...and Ya its pretty secure:) Linux is pretty good too. I'm not sure calling people zealots(maybe you don't know what one is) because they have chosen platforms with better balance of security/flexibility than your own (clearly your upset), makes your own secure. In fact its a really strange comment to make at all, about either OS, as what is true about both is they put an inordinate amount of effort into ensuring their platforms are secure. That is why both have incredibly good track records.
I thought the opposite. The first think someone is going to do when they see a two stores on their phone...is look up why? It even has a different name, they would have been better hiding it behind a simple RSS feed or torch app
I know your trying to defend Apples "lets gouge our customers policy" by limiting customer choice (and competition) to Apple on its (not your) phone...but to do do so I think you need to understand that on Android you have to actually go into the settings and *enable* his voluntary, and have to agree to a warning screen...Apple users are do desperate to have this functionality they "Jailbreak" Apples phone, even though Apple have attacked their customers for doing so.
...all these crowd sourced projects. What you make them look like when you do this is a product hawked by billie mays hays...in fact its worse. Its vaporware. If they don't have a R&D budget and products on hand, don't refer to them as a 'solution'.
I'ts moving off topic to discuss crowd funding, but lets be honest. Small hardware projects fit crowd funding like a glove, The cost accounting (patent problems aside) are built into the strategy, and you instantly get real feedback on whether there is a market for your project, better than any expensive research could do, with [potential] customers getting involved early with the product to help shape it. Its better than banks/venture capitalists who take cut, of your borrowing...and potential future business.
Directly related to your comment. It is perfectly acceptable to propose *any* crowd sourced product as a potential 'solution', as long as you are aware of the risks inherent in this.
You're right. The words "cheap" and "Chinese" are sort of red flags that maybe you won't find such nice USB headers and will have power distribution problems or noise on the audio ports or heat issues or bad liquid capacitors or any variety of cheap hardware problems.
This topic is about good value Android/GNU products not Apple products.
Not really sure what your point is. In the context of this thread. Microsoft shares have been flat for years...and are down right now. Facebook raised a stack of cash from selling shares, overpriced at launch, nice! that is exactly what a company wants...its shares are up right now. I don't think they paint the picture you want them too. Personally I want facebook to do something interesting with the money its raised.
Facebook is still small time imo. The fact they have to resort to pushing some pretty shit ads (gambling, betting, etc) just to get their money says they're not getting it because it appears they're just pushing any ad to anyone. There is no intelligence behind it otherwise they'd realise I'd never click on an ad for gambling. The only thing they have is a large audience and some claim they have a lock-in since people have put their lives into their system but the same thing could have been said about MySpace. Microsoft is losing some relevance but at least they still have products that people need and won't be as happy to replace.
...ask Google who threatens them more Microsoft or Facebook.
Microsoft Mission Statement (http://www.microsoft.com/about/en/us/default.aspx) - "At Microsoft our mission and values are to help people and businesses realise their full potential." their values are more interesting "As a company, and as individuals, we value integrity, honesty, openness, personal excellence, constructive self-criticism, continual self-improvement, and mutual respect. We are committed to our customers and partners and have a passion for technology. We take on big challenges, and pride ourselves on seeing them through. We hold ourselves accountable to our customers, shareholders, partners, and employees by honoring our commitments, providing results, and striving for the highest quality."...they haven't looked at those for a while.
Apples Mission Statement (http://investor.apple.com/faq.cfm?FaqSetID=6) - "Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad." - Seriously Apple!! that is less of a mission statement and more of a list of products.
Apple can't compete on quality? That might be stupidest thing I've read all year.
And yet if you walk into a phone, none of the best phones have a fruit on the back. Seriously when was the last time anyone used the words "Jesus phone" or "iphone killer"...and that is kind of the point. hell the only words I ever hear associated with Apple are "litigation" and "patents". The reality is Apple need to get back in the game...bullshit only covers the cracks.
The others are near the ceiling of their markets. Google has failed to make money with anything other than search ads. Microsoft probably has a long life ahead of it, like IBM, serving the needs of business. Apple has a price maintenance problem - their huge markups may not survive the flood of lower-priced devices. Facebook is in a bind; their user base has peaked, and shoving more ads at users didn't work out for Myspace.
I agree Apples pursuit of profit over marketshare has been seriously short sighted, yet there is nothing stopping them expanding their product range; entering new markets [social;money]; licensing their OS to third parties..Oh and AppleTV [whatever you think of that]. Google are already starting to make real money from their Store, sat at 710Million devices and growing at 1.5Million a day, and yes they will continue to expand their ads into the mobile space, but the two pieces of news that I find interesting is googles interest in becoming the new credit card, and it challenging Microsoft at its core offering an Office equivalent at $50 a year (a massive cost saving over Microsoft). Amazon is just well taking over shopping, but its tablets kick-started the 7" tablet revolution...and I suspect a Amazon [Google stripped] phone will do the same...did I mention the cloud. The only real question mark is over Facebook...and your right advertising is only part of the package. I hoped they would buy blackberry or something exciting, because they have so much potential. The reality is most of those rumours [and they are not comprehensive] are interchangeable simply because they are so much in each others space. [notice I don't mention IBM, or computing eyewear...or self driving cars for that matter.]
You do not really need patent free format. Just a guarantee that your stuff will be migrated,
...because I'm not happy replacing a Monopoly with a cartel! I really like your post, I was more focused on offline paid content [books; movies; Apps] forgetting that if anything there is as much content [yours and commercial] in the cloud, but I suspect caring Governments should be protecting "the people from themselves" as people do not seem to understand how much of their ownership over their lives they have given to these mega-corps.
Mircrosoft are simply the OS/Office Monopoly company that is a tax on every machine, you simply pay it as a business and get on with your life. Now compare and contrast with movers and shakers Amazon; Apple; Google; Facebook [the pack of four. Microsoft used to be a company that ate competitors for breakfast...now they are everyone bitch. People here often make reference to Ballmer throwing chairs..the sad reality is there is little wrong with throwing a chair we all lose our temper, what is wrong is after he threw the chair he then said "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill Google."...and then failed to deliver!
Facebook is in a fast decline and has been since before they went public. Microsoft is continuing to be fairly constant.
Facebook is not in fast decline...its nearest competitor Google+ is still a ways of it threatening Facebook. Other than Facebook buying an Ad company. I have been astonished they have done *nothing*. As for Microsoft being constant, Google is getting serious about threatening their core product Office recently, while Microsoft failed in both search and mobile costing them Billions, and its new products Surface and Windows 8 have been disappointing they still print cash, but its for their undesirable utility products.
Recently as part of Googles defence against Microsofts smear campaign against "Shopping search monopoly" Amzason where given as an example of where 40% of shoppers go first.
The reality of the new world order, is the "pack of four" do have massive overlap in business, but that is just the way it should be. Its good old fashioned competition. Everyone has a store; Everyone had apps; Everyone owns an advertising company, Everyone has hardware [Ok Facebook only rumoured since forever, and Amazon new rumoured around a phone].
Personally I think the consumer needs to protected with cross platform; patent free formats, and the ability to move between devices as easily [and I mean Apps too] as possible to protect consumers from being locked into any one ecosystem.
While everyone is more interested in the rivalry of Google, Apple and Microsoft, Amazon has steadily charted up year after year building a base that is more resilient than that of any other.
Nobody is interested in Microsoft. The "pack of four" includes *Facebook* over Microsoft.
Blah Blah Blah Its the same dull argument Apple chases profits over market-share...and I agree I just think its stupid. Personally I always liked the fact that Apple ripped of its customers with its massive mark-ups, and shareholders *LOVED* it too, and in a market where they had first mover advantage it has given Apple the largest market cap of any company.
All of a sudden its got awfully difficult to justify in light of innovation, arguably better hardware, and software at a fraction of the cost, those obscene mark-ups even when they have been hidden contracts from carriers, all of a sudden in three months Apple have lost 30% of its value. So while you can boast of your favourite mega corporation overcharging its customers, those days are over; get over it.
BTW the reason why Android is outselling Apple is because its "better value"
Sad reality that people are shifting the blame as usual in Linux. Linux developers killed Linux, not Microsoft.
Sorry to pop your little bubble you live in, but netbooks never really took off. Nokia was already going down the drain and stupidly tried to create meego, pull your heads out of the sand.
Isn't it sad the only ones who are going to save Linux are corporations like Steam by bringing DRM gaming to it and corporations like Google who are making an actual Linux desktop. The open source community has failed in that aspect. Google corporation will make desktop Linux work not the open communitry, mark my words. Please don't give me the "well Linux runs on billions of devices", well I am glad your stapler and toaster can run Linux. Is it not sad that people are looking forward to Android applications running on Linux and not Linux applications running on Linux.
Thank you for your post. Just to put it into to some kind of perspective. Linux is set to take over as lead *computing* OS in 2013 from Microsoft. In fact the success on mobile shows how Linux is capable of competing successfully [and winning] on an equal footing...and no they are not staplers [rolls eyes] they are the hot new computing devices in a growth market tablets/smartphones you may have heard of them. As for Nokia going down the drain its only fair to say that after Nokia chose Microsoft Windows Phone, Nokia has moved from Number 1 manufacturer of smartphones to tenth!?...and symbian smartshones still outsell windows smartphones.
You seem a little confused about corporate involvement in Linux. Linux has ALWAYS been about corporate involvement...in fact that is when it works best. According to the Linux foundation 75% of work is done by paid developers, and the top ten companies are Red Hat, Intel, Novell, IBM, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Nokia, Samsung, Oracle and Google [April this year] Microsoft appear at 17th place:) http://go.linuxfoundation.org/who-writes-linux-2012
Half a billion people have iPhones now. And another half-billion Android phones. It takes under an hour with one of these before you say "Man, this rocks but you know what would be totally killer? If it was bigger."
I absolutely agree with you but just to correct your figures Android is predicted to hit 710 Million at year end...iOS 260 Million. Just Saying.:)
if people had to buy new i-devices every year or two, Apple investors would be happy as clams and packing more money in.
Planned obsolescence is stupid...ask anyone from Detroit. The fact that Apples customers will re-buy from Apple again [They do seem to update often and seem pretty faithful] is not certain. In fact the reality is buying a device six times as much as the competition with no resale value, is a difficult sell. The Irony of your post shown Apples failure and why Apple shareholders are so very unhappy wiping 30% of the value of Apple in three months. Apple is only showing incremental improvements to its products. Innovation is simply elsewhere:)
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Android is just as much Linux as Debian, Ubuntu and Redhat. Its just another distribution. Its just the only one that happens to be popular, and as such ... guess what ... just like Windows its becoming a malware target. and just like Windows you don't have to 'hack' the OS, just the user.
I understand the argument...and have even made it myself "in context" except this attack won't work on "Debian, Ubuntu and Redhat"...and no its nothing like windows :).
Android outsells Apple 6:1 in the "I use a smartphone like a featurephone and don't know what apps are, oh and this phone is only $79 on prepaid" area.
Absolutely not. In China for example the Average price of a smartphone is $250. Lets look at the best selling phones are on Amazon China http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=www.amazon.cn. The top phone is Lenovo with a dual core processor, 2000mAh, Android 4.0, 2nd Phone is and 3rd Phone are both Huawei is both dual and quad cores with larger screens than your beloved iPhone :) (and includes a dual sim interestingly ), The third Phone comes with 2GB of RAM!! ....I hate to say it but these phones seem to have better specifications (and arguably software) than your beloved Apple iPhone, its not surprising really as Apple overcharge their customers so much.
The iPhone is unsuccessful? Apple has 53.3% of the smartphone market:
LOL in the US...worldwide it had dropped from 23% to 14.9%. This is original report for your figures http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/News/Apple-achieves-its-highest-ever-Smartphone-share-in-US they are on in a pdf but include figures like in Brazil Apple dropping from 3.2% to 1.6% while Android moves from 28.9% to 60.7% of the market.
If I wanted a hobby phone I could kick around I would get an Android. I want a phone that works and apps without ads. I went Apple after finding out the not-so-stellar truth about Android.
LOL the irony of your post is one of the reason the iPhone is so unsuccessful is its price, and please don't pretend that Apple do not make money from Advertising, they famously made siri useless with advertising. The sad fact is your post is not only off topic but irrelevant...Android outsells Apple 6:1 and sells 1.5million a day...its doing something right, and what Apple is doing wrong, and nothing you or I is going to change that. Personally I would love Apple to create a competitive product.
But but but I thought the zealots assured us the Linux was immune to exploits? Or did they LIE????
This is about Android...and Ya its pretty secure :) Linux is pretty good too. I'm not sure calling people zealots(maybe you don't know what one is) because they have chosen platforms with better balance of security/flexibility than your own (clearly your upset), makes your own secure. In fact its a really strange comment to make at all, about either OS, as what is true about both is they put an inordinate amount of effort into ensuring their platforms are secure. That is why both have incredibly good track records.
nice disguise
I thought the opposite. The first think someone is going to do when they see a two stores on their phone...is look up why? It even has a different name, they would have been better hiding it behind a simple RSS feed or torch app
I know your trying to defend Apples "lets gouge our customers policy" by limiting customer choice (and competition) to Apple on its (not your) phone...but to do do so I think you need to understand that on Android you have to actually go into the settings and *enable* his voluntary, and have to agree to a warning screen...Apple users are do desperate to have this functionality they "Jailbreak" Apples phone, even though Apple have attacked their customers for doing so.
...all these crowd sourced projects. What you make them look like when you do this is a product hawked by billie mays hays...in fact its worse. Its vaporware. If they don't have a R&D budget and products on hand, don't refer to them as a 'solution'.
I'ts moving off topic to discuss crowd funding, but lets be honest. Small hardware projects fit crowd funding like a glove, The cost accounting (patent problems aside) are built into the strategy, and you instantly get real feedback on whether there is a market for your project, better than any expensive research could do, with [potential] customers getting involved early with the product to help shape it. Its better than banks/venture capitalists who take cut, of your borrowing...and potential future business.
Directly related to your comment. It is perfectly acceptable to propose *any* crowd sourced product as a potential 'solution', as long as you are aware of the risks inherent in this.
You're right. The words "cheap" and "Chinese" are sort of red flags that maybe you won't find such nice USB headers and will have power distribution problems or noise on the audio ports or heat issues or bad liquid capacitors or any variety of cheap hardware problems.
This topic is about good value Android/GNU products not Apple products.
http://www.google.com/finance?q=FB
Not really sure what your point is. In the context of this thread. Microsoft shares have been flat for years...and are down right now. Facebook raised a stack of cash from selling shares, overpriced at launch, nice! that is exactly what a company wants...its shares are up right now. I don't think they paint the picture you want them too. Personally I want facebook to do something interesting with the money its raised.
Facebook is still small time imo. The fact they have to resort to pushing some pretty shit ads (gambling, betting, etc) just to get their money says they're not getting it because it appears they're just pushing any ad to anyone. There is no intelligence behind it otherwise they'd realise I'd never click on an ad for gambling. The only thing they have is a large audience and some claim they have a lock-in since people have put their lives into their system but the same thing could have been said about MySpace. Microsoft is losing some relevance but at least they still have products that people need and won't be as happy to replace.
...ask Google who threatens them more Microsoft or Facebook.
Microsoft Mission Statement (http://www.microsoft.com/about/en/us/default.aspx) - "At Microsoft our mission and values are to help people and businesses realise their full potential." their values are more interesting "As a company, and as individuals, we value integrity, honesty, openness, personal excellence, constructive self-criticism, continual self-improvement, and mutual respect. We are committed to our customers and partners and have a passion for technology. We take on big challenges, and pride ourselves on seeing them through. We hold ourselves accountable to our customers, shareholders, partners, and employees by honoring our commitments, providing results, and striving for the highest quality."...they haven't looked at those for a while.
Apples Mission Statement (http://investor.apple.com/faq.cfm?FaqSetID=6) - "Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad." - Seriously Apple!! that is less of a mission statement and more of a list of products.
Apple can't compete on quality?
That might be stupidest thing I've read all year.
And yet if you walk into a phone, none of the best phones have a fruit on the back. Seriously when was the last time anyone used the words "Jesus phone" or "iphone killer"...and that is kind of the point. hell the only words I ever hear associated with Apple are "litigation" and "patents". The reality is Apple need to get back in the game...bullshit only covers the cracks.
The others are near the ceiling of their markets.
Google has failed to make money with anything other than search ads. Microsoft probably has a long life ahead of it, like IBM, serving the needs of business. Apple has a price maintenance problem - their huge markups may not survive the flood of lower-priced devices. Facebook is in a bind; their user base has peaked, and shoving more ads at users didn't work out for Myspace.
I agree Apples pursuit of profit over marketshare has been seriously short sighted, yet there is nothing stopping them expanding their product range; entering new markets [social;money]; licensing their OS to third parties..Oh and AppleTV [whatever you think of that]. Google are already starting to make real money from their Store, sat at 710Million devices and growing at 1.5Million a day, and yes they will continue to expand their ads into the mobile space, but the two pieces of news that I find interesting is googles interest in becoming the new credit card, and it challenging Microsoft at its core offering an Office equivalent at $50 a year (a massive cost saving over Microsoft). Amazon is just well taking over shopping, but its tablets kick-started the 7" tablet revolution...and I suspect a Amazon [Google stripped] phone will do the same...did I mention the cloud. The only real question mark is over Facebook...and your right advertising is only part of the package. I hoped they would buy blackberry or something exciting, because they have so much potential. The reality is most of those rumours [and they are not comprehensive] are interchangeable simply because they are so much in each others space. [notice I don't mention IBM, or computing eyewear...or self driving cars for that matter.]
You do not really need patent free format. Just a guarantee that your stuff will be migrated,
...because I'm not happy replacing a Monopoly with a cartel! I really like your post, I was more focused on offline paid content [books; movies; Apps] forgetting that if anything there is as much content [yours and commercial] in the cloud, but I suspect caring Governments should be protecting "the people from themselves" as people do not seem to understand how much of their ownership over their lives they have given to these mega-corps.
That makes no sense.
Mircrosoft are simply the OS/Office Monopoly company that is a tax on every machine, you simply pay it as a business and get on with your life. Now compare and contrast with movers and shakers Amazon; Apple; Google; Facebook [the pack of four. Microsoft used to be a company that ate competitors for breakfast...now they are everyone bitch. People here often make reference to Ballmer throwing chairs..the sad reality is there is little wrong with throwing a chair we all lose our temper, what is wrong is after he threw the chair he then said "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill Google."...and then failed to deliver!
Facebook is in a fast decline and has been since before they went public. Microsoft is continuing to be fairly constant.
Facebook is not in fast decline...its nearest competitor Google+ is still a ways of it threatening Facebook. Other than Facebook buying an Ad company. I have been astonished they have done *nothing*. As for Microsoft being constant, Google is getting serious about threatening their core product Office recently, while Microsoft failed in both search and mobile costing them Billions, and its new products Surface and Windows 8 have been disappointing they still print cash, but its for their undesirable utility products.
Speak for yourself. My business runs on Microsoft stuff. I couldn't give two shits about Facebook, Google, or Amazon.
The fact that your company runs what is seen as utility product, is the reason why Microsoft is considered irrelevant.
Recently as part of Googles defence against Microsofts smear campaign against "Shopping search monopoly" Amzason where given as an example of where 40% of shoppers go first.
The reality of the new world order, is the "pack of four" do have massive overlap in business, but that is just the way it should be. Its good old fashioned competition. Everyone has a store; Everyone had apps; Everyone owns an advertising company, Everyone has hardware [Ok Facebook only rumoured since forever, and Amazon new rumoured around a phone].
Personally I think the consumer needs to protected with cross platform; patent free formats, and the ability to move between devices as easily [and I mean Apps too] as possible to protect consumers from being locked into any one ecosystem.
While everyone is more interested in the rivalry of Google, Apple and Microsoft, Amazon has steadily charted up year after year building a base that is more resilient than that of any other.
Nobody is interested in Microsoft. The "pack of four" includes *Facebook* over Microsoft.
Blah Blah Blah Its the same dull argument Apple chases profits over market-share...and I agree I just think its stupid. Personally I always liked the fact that Apple ripped of its customers with its massive mark-ups, and shareholders *LOVED* it too, and in a market where they had first mover advantage it has given Apple the largest market cap of any company.
All of a sudden its got awfully difficult to justify in light of innovation, arguably better hardware, and software at a fraction of the cost, those obscene mark-ups even when they have been hidden contracts from carriers, all of a sudden in three months Apple have lost 30% of its value. So while you can boast of your favourite mega corporation overcharging its customers, those days are over; get over it.
BTW the reason why Android is outselling Apple is because its "better value"
Sad reality that people are shifting the blame as usual in Linux. Linux developers killed Linux, not Microsoft.
Sorry to pop your little bubble you live in, but netbooks never really took off. Nokia was already going down the drain and stupidly tried to create meego, pull your heads out of the sand.
Isn't it sad the only ones who are going to save Linux are corporations like Steam by bringing DRM gaming to it and corporations like Google who are making an actual Linux desktop. The open source community has failed in that aspect. Google corporation will make desktop Linux work not the open communitry, mark my words.
Please don't give me the "well Linux runs on billions of devices", well I am glad your stapler and toaster can run Linux. Is it not sad that people are looking forward to Android applications running on Linux and not Linux applications running on Linux.
Thank you for your post. Just to put it into to some kind of perspective. Linux is set to take over as lead *computing* OS in 2013 from Microsoft. In fact the success on mobile shows how Linux is capable of competing successfully [and winning] on an equal footing...and no they are not staplers [rolls eyes] they are the hot new computing devices in a growth market tablets/smartphones you may have heard of them. As for Nokia going down the drain its only fair to say that after Nokia chose Microsoft Windows Phone, Nokia has moved from Number 1 manufacturer of smartphones to tenth!?...and symbian smartshones still outsell windows smartphones.
You seem a little confused about corporate involvement in Linux. Linux has ALWAYS been about corporate involvement...in fact that is when it works best. According to the Linux foundation 75% of work is done by paid developers, and the top ten companies are Red Hat, Intel, Novell, IBM, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Nokia, Samsung, Oracle and Google [April this year] Microsoft appear at 17th place :) http://go.linuxfoundation.org/who-writes-linux-2012
Half a billion people have iPhones now. And another half-billion Android phones. It takes under an hour with one of these before you say "Man, this rocks but you know what would be totally killer? If it was bigger."
I absolutely agree with you but just to correct your figures Android is predicted to hit 710 Million at year end...iOS 260 Million. Just Saying. :)
if people had to buy new i-devices every year or two, Apple investors would be happy as clams and packing more money in.
Planned obsolescence is stupid...ask anyone from Detroit. The fact that Apples customers will re-buy from Apple again [They do seem to update often and seem pretty faithful] is not certain. In fact the reality is buying a device six times as much as the competition with no resale value, is a difficult sell. The Irony of your post shown Apples failure and why Apple shareholders are so very unhappy wiping 30% of the value of Apple in three months. Apple is only showing incremental improvements to its products. Innovation is simply elsewhere :)