With later arrival of new iPhone, HTC may challenge Apple as top US smartphone maker - Page 3

The Evo3D is a very impressive device.
That being said, I feel like that table distributes checks randomly?
And why the heck is swype input something people should look at? I'm all for options, but that is the most overrated keyboard known to man.

That is the worst spec sheet ever.

For starters, it shows the battery size, not the duration for which various tasks can last with that HW, drivers and OS. Next it marks against the iPhone for not having an 8Mp camera, which it oddly makes as a category, instead of comparing sensor size or quality of photos. I could go on with the other foolish comparisons but I'll be nice and stop there.

PS: Those devices have enough positive points that people don't have to make up silly reasons why they are better than the iPhone.

Some of these seem to be rather subjective, such as the screen size, haptic feedback, Swype, and HDMI output (what a useless "feature.") The battery metric is misleading. It implies that those phones have a longer battery life, but they do not. A removable battery is only a feature for those who can't figure out how to make the power button work when the operating system freezes.

This is why Android-based products will always fall short of iOS. The entire Android community has this unnatural obsession with technical specifications. They spend more time trying to figure out how to cram more overpowered hardware into a phone than they do thinking about improving the user experience.

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Yes, though given that they all have essentially the same OS it's understandable - after all they can't compete with each other on any other terms, so they have to offer 3D photography and other bells and whistles to stand out from each other.

Well, you can call screen size, haptic feedback, Swype "subjective" advantages, but then isn't your "user experience" subjective? How do you measure user experience? What is it for you? Have you ever owned the EVO phone to compare the user experience?

Well I have owned both, iPhone and EVO. To me EVO wins in user experience hand down. I have owned iPhone for 2 years, but after playing with EVO for few minutes I was sold on it exactly because of better user experience. And this better user experience produced exactly by "feature and specs".

1. Significantly larger screen means for me a better user experience. Surprise!
2. Faster processor, more RAM and 10mbs 4G data means for me better user experience. Surprise!

These two are the biggest factors for me. The rest are important for user experience but to a lesser extend:

3. Haptic feedback makes phone use more interactive and fun, which means better user experience.
4. Many Swype users consider this input method more natural for touch screen, contributing to better user experience.
5. Removable battery is not "for those who can't figure out how to make the power button work", but for those who wants to have 2-3 spare batteries on the road, or get extended battery, contributing to better user experience. Actually EVO does have a bit longer talk time vs. iPhone while offering faster processor, larger screen, 4G data and haptic feedback (all of these use more power), so the battery metric is not misleading, the metric simply says how much power a phone can access.
6. More featured camera and HDMI also contribute to fun and better user experience...

List can go on, but for sure I agree, that for someone who doesn't have access to all these features, they are "useless".

Yes, but where's your GarageBand, iMovies, Pages etc. So include swype - a software keyboard in beta apparently - and not iMovies. Clear bias.

The big screen is true, but I will come to that in another post.

The nature of these tables is to put in the decide the winner first, then put in the bits the winner has, that the (pre-decided loser) doesn't have.


You poisoned the well a bit by referring to talk time being the same - what about real battery time when all the data is being used. With Android's background tasks able to get at the 4G they will eat up battery like no tomorrow, which explains why a removable battery is so important. its not important for me to have a battery for my iPhone because, despite extended use, it ends the day at about 20%

The entire report is speculative


The iPhone and iPhone 3Gs outsells all Android phones on AT&T, and the iPhone 4 does on Verizon. If HTC is going to beat Apple - which was 25% of all smartphones last q - then it has be more than 60% of all Android's sold. Unlikely.

As for large screens - certainly thats a winner for some Android phones. Apple has too few models to compete with the very highest end Androids for all models, more important it has cheaper models later this year to get into the clusterflip which will happen on Nokia's transition.

Next year, bigger screens for the iPhone 5.

Swype is text input method, and comes standard with Android 2.3 OS. Text input is most fundamental functionality for any mobile device (unlike video/sound editing). Also iPhone has no alternative to Swype, while Android has alternatives to GarageBand, iMovies, Pages apps etc so no "clear bias" here.


That was not my experience with my iPhone battery - it was draining very fast. In any case, we can only speculate about various power usage patterns, but I think we can agree on this:
1. Based on battery specs EVO user has significantly more power at its disposal vs. iPhone user. EVO user can then decide how to use all that power by turning certain services on/off.
2. EVO user has more flexibility to access much more power by utilizing extended battery (I uae sometimes my 3500 mAh battery) or by carrying multiple batteries. The extra EVO batteries start at only $2.94 each on eBay including shipping!

If one product outsells another, it does not always mean it's a better product: Mac vs. Windows is an example.

Apple pioneered an amazing multi-touch mobile device a few years ago and riding a this wave well, but for how long? Apple is too slow and lazy to keep up with competition. What consumer gonna get with this year iPhone "refresh"? Still half the size RAM, no larger screen version, no AMOLED LCD and no 4G?

1) Where are the independent reports which show that this obscure Keyboard is any better than anything else on the market.
2) What alternatives are on the Android market to the apps I mentioned.



The need for batteries in point 2) derails point 1). Bascially all people need is a power supply to keep a phone going, and that available in work, trains, planes, coffee houses, and so on.

The only issue with non-replacable batteries is when the battery gets old.

Slow and lazy - jeez- they've been working their asses.

. We have no idea what the RAM size is going to be, the rest are personal preferences - the 4G phone would be useless outside about 2% of the US.

Apple probably have given up the very high end market in the US for now, whats much more important is getting the lower end. 4G will come when it matters a damn.

Fixed. Understand now?


Same design, dual-band Wi-Fi, better battery, dual-protocol chip for one model on any carrier, maybe an 8MP camera (idiotic, but hey)...


What does this even mean? What does this have to do with anything?


Because it isn't needed.


You do know what an AMOLED is, right? Apparently not. And you also apparently don't know how bad they are at everything at which the iPhone's screen currently excels.


As I've stated, it's currently worthless, a battery sucker, and next to unavailable anywhere on any carrier on the planet.

C'mon, AMOLED isn't so bad - in fact the latest AMOLED panels are the first choice for new handsets - the biggest problem with them isn't technical, it's supply. If Apple thought that they could get a sufficient supply to cover their needs for iPhone 5 they'd probably go with it - but that's not on the cards.

HTC have had to switch AMOLED for LCD in a number of models, in fact it's something of a bait & switch. Kinda like samsung's 'slimmer than ipad' tablet that is no longer slimmer than the ipad

eWeek: "I found my typing speed improved 10 to 20 percent, with improved accuracy"
Ars technica: “After spending two weeks with the Swype software, I never want to go back to using a regular touchscreen keyboard. It is a shockingly effective input system that tangibly increases typing speed and accuracy.
Gizmodo "...Swype. It is, without a doubt, the best way to enter text onto this phone" ... "Swype has been my favorite way to type on an Android phone"
Associated Press "Swype alone is almost a good enough reason to get a Galaxy S phone. "
The Street "Apple did wonders with the touchscreen, but Swype makes it more useful for those among us who like to type".

Regardless what "the independent reports" say, an Android user can decide whether the Swype is a better method. iPhone user does not have that choice.



iMovie alternatives: VidTrim, Clesh, JC Video studio Pro
GarageBand: ReLoop Music Sequencer, Musical Lite, RockOut, Hit It!, HS Tempo
Pages: do I even have to mention Android office productivity and word processing apps? DocumentstoGo, QuickOffice... Many... some even can sync with Google Docs.


Nope. You can't get power in plane economy class, and none on the bus. Coffee house? Good luck looking for outlet. How about picnic, biking or hiking? Or sitting all day on a meeting?

4g coverage is already available in all large US cities. Smart phone users concentrated in large cities and metro areas, which is far beyond 2% of the US smart phone users. I live in Chicago: I have excellent 4G coverage reaching 10mbs. Where do you live?

Everyhing iPhone lacks is worthless, isn't needed, idiotic and next to unavailable anywhere on any carrier on the planet.

That's in NO WAY 4G. You've fallen for AT&T's crap. You're lost.

Why'd you remove the map? Realize that AT&T is pandering 3G as 4G?


Show me one country with an LTE network and I'll take it all back. Not hotspots in cities. A network.

Vatican City This also explains the need for a white iPhone, the Pope obviously can't use the black one.

Yes, that was an old map. Does this look to you like "hotspots in cities" or 4g network between cities and even between states?

T-Mobile 4g in LA:


Verizon HTC Thunderbolt on 4G LTE in Atlanta:


AT&T's HSPA+ in Atlanta:


Sprint EVO 4g in NY back in 2010:


These speeds Android users enjoyed since 2010. iPhone users have to wait until summer 2012? Or even later?

4G is the dots. The red is 3G. My point stands.

Enjoy moving to one of areas of these LTE cities that does actually have coverage. And enjoy your 2GB data plan on LTE, too. For the other three hundred million people who don't want to have to move to get coverage, we'll just wait for the network to exist where we live and get by with our embarrassingly outdated, long-battery-life iPhone 4 and iPhone 5.

The dots represent largest US metro areas with 1/3 of US population as of end of 2010. By the end of 2011 the coverage will be even higher.

And I have no limit on my data plan: I just pay flat $10 extra for the unlimited 4G plan.

But when Steve puts out specs for a new iPhone its a-okay.

Tell me, what differentiates one iPhone from another? 3G vs 3Gs vs 4? Exactly, specs. They all run the same iOS versions but have slightly different performances. If the specs were not so important, nobody would be upgrading from one phone to another. People wont simply change their phones based on aesthetics alone, too.

Double standard.

Only to the extent that it's necessary for the newest software features to run smoothly and efficiently (read: for the latest software to provide the same user experience we've grown to expect from the previous generation.) Go find me an iPhone forum where users are drooling and clamoring for a dual core CPU the way the fandroids have been for months.

If iOS 4 ran fine on the 3GS's processor, and there was no battery life gain by moving to the more efficient A4 in the iPhone 4, then I guarantee you most iPhone 3GS owners wouldn't have upgraded. But the fact of the matter is the iPhone 4 is built to run iOS4 better than the 3GS, and the hardware changes made the phone more reliable, extended the battery, and increased talk time (it is a phone after all). THAT is why people upgraded.

You're also blurring the issue on upgrades. Not everyone upgrades because they have an erection for the new hardware like Android users do. Check the fansites if you want to challenge me on this. Fandroids repeatedly break contracts or pay full retail for the newest phone because it's got a couple megahertz faster processor, more ram, or a screen .1 inches bigger than the previous one.

There's no double standard here. iPhone owners care about the OS and the user experience it provides, not the hardware. That's absolutely not the case with android.

You missed the bit about us caring about how gosh-darned pretty the hardware is! Apple users are far more into the design of the object than most folk.

4g coverage is already available in all large US cities. Smart phone users concentrated in large cities and metro areas, which is far beyond 2% of the US smart phone users. I live in Chicago: I have excellent 4G coverage reaching 10mbs.

No, I don't give a frick about the "end of whenever". You want an LTE iPhone now? Then you talk about LTE networks NOW.

I also don't care about population. That's not what 'network' means. Right now we only have hotspots. Leave those hotspots, even to go to the suburbs, and you'll lose it. Not a network at all.


Enjoy. That'll end the second an actual network exists.

And LOL at "$10 extra".

3G actually doesn't run the same iOS versions, it won't run iOS-5. The 3GS and the 4 both will though, which is of course better than HTC can promise you.

They have declared that the HTC Desire will not get support for Gingerbread - head over to The Register if you want to see hundreds of fandroids beating their breasts and declaring future devotion to samsung.

That kind of defines the difference in attitude - HTC has many different phones with different hardware, all available at once - and doesn't bother to provide more than cursory software support. Apple maintains a small number of hardware platforms and keeps software support for them for as long as is possible.

Also there is a fundamental difference between talking about performance versus spec. iPhone users don't look at the mAh of their batteries, they look at the battery life. They don't look at how many GHz their processor is, they look at how responsive apps are. I have no idea how much non-Flash RAM my iphone has, it's not relevant to me so long as the performance feels good.

One of the nicest things about the iPhone OS is that you can count on software updates for the same amount of time for every device.

1st iPhone (iPod touch): iPhone OS 1, 2, and 3.
iPhone 3G (2nd gen iPod touch): iPhone OS 2, 3, and iOS 4.
iPhone 3GS (3rd gen iPod touch): iPhone OS 3, iOS 4 and iOS 5.
iPhone 4 (4th gen iPod touch): iOS 4, 5, and 6.
iPad: iPhone OS 3, iOS 4, and iOS 5.
iPad 2: iOS 4, 5, and 6.

And in the future, this should still hold.

iPhone 5 (5th gen iPod touch): iOS 5, 6, and 7.
iPad 3: iOS 5, 6, and 7.

No Froyo, no Honeycomb, no Ice Cream Sandwich. No buying a new device that can't run an OS released two months later.

Your device's generation number plus two equals your future software updates. Simple!