Gartner: Apple's iOS lost smartphone share to Android in Q3 2011 - Page 2

LOL... your right. I just thought the App works for both tablets and smartphones.

So there are more 'shipped' Android handsets than 'sold' iPhones. Why does this matter?

People can buy whatever phone they like. It isn't going to stop the iPhone existing. Apple are not going to stop making iPhones because they only sell a few million per month!!

How many Android handsets are in the supply chain (wholesalers, warehouses, shop stock, ...)? With so many different makes / models. it must be quite a few!

Phil

No, they all run the same version of the OS and in almost the same screen resolution (4 and 4S are double res). I don't think we has sufficient ecosystem fragmentation to qualify as a plethora yet. :roll eyes:

[edit] Also, none of them have any carrier-specific crapware preinstalled, a real downside!

That probably has more to do with the iOS installed base being 20% larger. Market share =/= installed base always.

That may have less to do with marketshare (Apple's installed base is larger after all...) and more to do with Apple's App Store policies. Mind you, once Android surpasses the iOS installed base, (not an unreal possibility), there is a risk that iOS could become the second choice platform. But that's a long ways away. Android still has huge challenges in making money for developers: paid apps are not available everywhere, phone internals lack memory to support huge apps, limited ways to pay for apps, etc.

I will say this though. The whole "Android users are cheap and only want free apps" line is nonsense. The reason Android apps don't make money have more to do with issues that I've listed. Once they are sorted out, I expect Android developers will be paid as well as iOS devs.

The extra 50% would further drive R&D, bonuses, dividends, etc. I was a Mac loyalist/customer from 94 to 07 spending more to get the best. It made the purchasing decision easier until one day (I think around the time the iOS/itunes walls went up) it seemed I could do better by going with the best alternative product. I don't go for the low end, but spend about the same money up front and prefer the Android user experience, the choices and the relative freedom in purchasing apps and media. Still, there are many people I recommend iOS devices to. iOS is easy, like AOL, it's wonderful really.

When ios is around 5 - 10% market share (MacOS in the 90s) and earning record profit per unit, they'll still be earning record profits. That's who they are.

the consumer?

These comparisons are so effing stupid. The biggest reason is that all the Android OEMS are mutually exclusive. Android is just a ubiquitous OS, that is free with restrictions, that piggybacks on hardware. Apple is the only outfit that carries iso and it is hard wired to iPhone, period and no exceptions.
The uninformed will take this crap and run with it. Only we in the know, know the real deal.
And in closing. Apple can buy each of thier top competitors with that 81 billion they have in the bank. Lol!

The point is that this is NOTHING like Mac vs PC. Try getting an "Android" app for your 7" Samsung tablet and then getting it onto your Kindle Fire. It ain't gonna be easy, and even if you manage to shoehorn it in there and cajole it to function, it probably won't be robust.

Windows was a proprietary and non-fragmented OS that ran (almost) exactly the same across the entire selection of hardware vendors that supported it. At least that was the goal. By contrast, Android doesn't look the same, feel the same, or run the same binaries from one vendor to the next. The vendors pull the source code and immediately branch it into something that differentiates their products - thereby breaking the platform paradigm. Sure, you can get different versions of "Angry Birds" for any one of those devices, but when you change to a different device, you are most likely going to need to buy it again. It won't just easily port via a USB transfer. This isolates the Android vendors from one another in almost the same fashion that they are isolated from Apple's iOS products. Adding their "market shares" together just because their kernels are the same DOES NOT MAKE SENSE, and it is NOT the same as Mac vs PC.


I bet if someone came out with a toaster tomorrow that was running an Android OS underneath, the media would start adding it to the overall Android market share too. Of course, I'm being tongue-in-cheek there, but just barely...

Thompson

Considering a blog dedicated to the Mobile world...

...A blog to give the reader hints on how to exploit the features of the Mobile OS and to review Mobile Applications...

...maybe call it: Mobile Tips & Apps...


Thoughts?

Maybe there's isn't anything wrong with the Netflix app for the iPad?! Therefore it doesn't need to be updated! It's a market share issue but in a negative sense.

With so many versions of Android OS coming out at such quick intervals, it's hard for any app developer to keep up.

And, yet, Apple continues to capture the lion's share of industry profits (a growing percentage, btw). So if we accept that you know what you're talking about (a questionable assumption, of course), then Apple has done even better since they're crippled by having a lower market share than Android and STILL capture the lion's share of the profits.

In fact, your statement is incorrect. The popularity of a product does not, in and of itself, make a product more or less profitable. Clearly, there is some advantage to having high volumes to reduce manufacturing costs, but there are many offsetting factors which function to reduce profits on a more popular item (such as greater price cutting from distributors in order to try to gain more share).

I had considered the same. There's no dearth of tips, shortcuts and advice available for articles, but not sure if the effort could be adequately monetized, thus worth the time and aggravation. I discussed this with a friend and admin of a very successful and profitable forum a few months back. He had the same concern, not convinced that it was a worthwhile endeavor, at least at the time.

You'll get more page views if you call it: Mobile Tits & Asses...

(Sorry, couldn't resist. You just set that one up).

Well, why would this blog exist? Aren't there hundreds like it already, one of them being AppleInsider?

You're making the error in logic. The article clearly states "share", but you state "lost total users".

Could we please not dumb down English? The plural to a word is "s". Not "z". We must fight to keep our grammar proper. Not have it diluted and dumbed down by illiterates, and annoying cultural "trends". After all, is what we want to be handing down to our posterity???

Pictures. Devices. Screens.

This year alone, SE released 10 Xperia phones. Samsung has +20 smartphones on sale today. The 3 iPhones Apple sells, 5 if you will count price points are still small.


http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/11/...kes-the-money/

Of course Netflix released Android first - it's easier and not controlled. You don't have to meet the obligatory standards on the iOS apps platform thus you can throw something together and rush it out the door while you have to be more deliberate with the iOS version.

Yep second class citizens. NOT.

The Mac market has to be big enough to at least sustain itself. And that's an absolute number.
So market share isn't that important. And the Mac is now steadily increasing its share.
And that's because of the quality of Apples products.
In the long run Apples smart phone market share could very well swing back, but it isn't needed.

J.

The number that matters is revenue. It's as simple as that.

That's all you need to know.

How can you compare Android devices to iPhones?

Thats like saying compare all Mercedes sold vs all cars that had 4 cylinder engines by every company in existence. While an iPhone is pretty much an iPhone, there are drastic differences in Android devices. Its possible to get 2 different devices that are not even alike in function.

I've been pulled over by the grammar police! Want to see my license and registration?

I see you're not familiar with the usual suspectz, being new to AppleInsider forums. Welcome. You will soon understand. Watch and learn.

Agree, see below, under DA's quote.


Yeah, from smarter people who like to explore the world beyond their noses.


I would think it would have to be Apple specific, with the occasional other-platform story to keep your readers feeling lucky they don't belong to that other world, the way AI functions, basically.

And if there's still to be an Android in the future, you could fork the site to include it. But expecting the two camps to hang out together? Don't know about that.

It occurs to me that if we didn't have Android for contrast, we'd have to invent it. I wonder if that ever occurred to Steve. If there was only the iPhone, imagine the kvetching we would have to put up with about "the walled garden," etc.

Thanks, Eric.

Edit: How soon we forget. There was the infamous Steve J./Ryan T. email exchange: If you want porn, get an Android . . .

Thanks for the welcome. Nice reply.

Not sure who the usual suspectz are. I'm not picking on you, I'm just sad to see how our language is being taken down to the lowest common demoninator. Instead of trying to educucated the illiterate, we are going the other way, embracing the dumbness, and incorporating it into our culture. The da house, instead of the correct "in THE house".

We are raising future generations who have little to no proper grammar and spelling skills.....

I know this is a non-sequitor......

You have something against moviez?

AndyAndy Does His Thing

Soooo creepy... so verrrry creepy.

I would agree marketshare is important to an extent and Apple can't hope to match the sales volume of cheaper Android devices that are $160 or less unsubsidised:

http://www.amazon.com/Unlocked-Samsu...388747&sr=1-19

Over 50% marketshare in smartphones is huge vs Apple's 15%. I didn't expect it to shift so much so suddenly but I should have, considering Apple is one manufacturer vs well over 10 manufacturers shipping with Android.

I'm glad it's Google and not Microsoft dominating and it's good to see Microsoft dropping from 2.7% to 1.5% but Android is going to wipe out Symbian altogether now that Nokia is in with Microsoft so they might top 70% marketshare in 2012.

I don't think it will quite have the same effect as the desktop share though simply because it's down to numbers and also the developer side where Android suffers from poor support:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/27/cha...fragmentation/

Even at 15%, there's still about 150 million iPhones out there, which is a lot of users. Years back when the Mac was ignored, you'd be talking about 1 million Macs per quarter. With 5% or so now worldwide, OS X still gets pretty decent support.

Netflix did not release an Android app first, there has been an iOS app for Netflix from the beginning. They simply released a new Android app before updating the old iOS app.

Why would you even say something like that, it shows you have no idea what apps exist on the Apple platform.

had to have it ready for kindle fire. can't lag with amazon prime pushing into the territory.

true. i had to wait 'forever' to get netflix on android tablet.
most apps i see announced for android tablet have already been released for ipad (like adobe touch announced today for android)
my bad. just saw that only one app is on ios. but with adobe not having it on ipad first is probably just a stab at apple for Flash....

there is some interesting things going on: android 4 code released, 4 out on devices next month (if not later this month) and the ASUS Transformer Prime: thinner than ipad2 and lighter and supposedly 12 hour battery life (18 if you use the dock/keyboard). i think it will do well. phone wise i am not so sure the Galaxy Nexus will be all that.
So i hope that Apple has some real treats in store next year and isn't just resting on that stack of money lol.

Quad core Tegra 3 chip, IIRC. It looks sweet. I like the idea of the keyboard dock. The machine has more horsepower than some other stuff being sold as a laptop these days.

One reservation I have is that it ships with honeycomb. Supposedly it will be updated to ICS in December, but you never can be sure.

Hy,

It indeed true that the profits of apple represent a much large share.
this is because apple sells the products with a hugh margin..

in other words ...they kind of sold me a cheap device at a high price ...i am not so happy with that :-(

hmm, makes me think if i need to continue ...eg on my pc I use legalsound and thats a lot cheaper than itunes.

well , its just a commment

i am fighting the urge to get one....the only thing i truly am not liking is the keyboard. it is cramped (unless the new one has revamped keyboard, i have a first gen). can't decide between ipad2 or 3 + apple wireless keyboard.

Buy some Apple stock. Your mindset will do a COMPLETE 180.

I just don't care about this.

So why comment on it?

Because some of us hang on his every word; I can't sleep at night without knowing his opinion

Sensationalist aritcles........

Is this really a 'loss' in market share ,or just an increase on Android's part? What I meat is that, there are still people on RAZRS so if they upgraded from feature phone to Android phone is it a completel loss? Rather, if we see a rather important decrease in iPhone sales and the increase in Android sales consistantly, then yes I would say so.