Android growth prior to iPhone 5 launch further established market dominance - Page 5

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Edited by MacRulez - 3/15/13 at 10:02am

Those figures I listed were worldwide.

RIM worldwide is only 5% in smartphones and they don't even rank in the top 5 in ALL phones.

So is RIM doomed? Maybe not. Are they paying their bills? They are laying off people... which could indicate some problems.

You can't discredit profit though... profit is what actually makes companies run. You can't pay your rent by showing your landlord a market share graph

But if RIM isn't doomed... then Apple sure as hell isn't either.


What's to worry about?

Apple had 1% of the smart phone market... and was profitable.
Apple had 5% of the smart phone market... and was profitable.
Apple had 10% of the smart phone market... and was profitable.
Apple has 14% of the smart phone market... and is profitable.

Sorry to keep mentioning profits... but that's what makes the world go around. There's even a song about it

It apparently doesn't matter what the other guys are doing... as Apple has this uncanny ability to make money despite intense competition.

Apple may not sell the most units... but the ones they do sell earn them serious income.

That's a problem in any business though.

If you want to sell a physical product... the holy grail is Wal-Mart. But you're still competing with eyeballs among tens of thousand of other products on the shelves.

Marketing comes into play. However, most small dev teams don't have money to spend on advertising.

Your best bet is to send your app to people who review apps... or get them mentioned on some blogs or whatever.

I've seen this so often... an amazing app that no one has ever heard of. Who's fault is that?

The developer's jobs doesn't end once they've uploaded it to iTunes.

The old rules still apply whether you sell apps or physical goods.... you can't sit there and wait for your customers to come to you.

Let me briefly address this.

"*Android users establish no ties to Android"
This is a strange claim because the Android ~ecosystem~ does exist. Mainly through Google cloud services but there are a lot of apps that one does become fond of, and there are things like Swype typing that become absolutely indispensable.

"*They generally find using Android and the hardware it runs on a frustrating experience, for various reasons"
No doubt any hardware before Android 4 is frustrating and virtually unusable. That's why I am highlighting marquee phones like Droid DNA, S2, S3, OneX, OneXL, OneX+ and even the humble Xperia S. Plus what's coming out in 2013 with Android 4.1 or above is going to be pretty slick. Don't just take my word for it, check out what happens next year.

"* They switch to Apple because they just want their phones to work without fuss and confusion"
I have no doubt some of this happens, but I am saying that my personal experience is that people go the other way as well because of a desire of something more "exciting". Even with Android 4.x there is some perseverance needed initially but that's why the younger generation, enthusiasts and "IT" people are considering Android more and more. In my situation I have an iPhone 5 and iPad 3 to fallback on but I found that after a few weeks, I could do everything I needed on an Android smartphone and an Android tablet. Google cloud services are also actually more reliable than iCloud ~ for example, the iCloud website is pretty but somewhat cumbersome to use.

I'll be clear. I don't care about profits. I own no stock. I care that my investment in Apple - which is in iTunes, apps, the ecosystem - pays off and the platform continues to get the best apps first from all devs, as it has been doing.

And as I said, declines in market share trend to declines in profit over time.

Apple's shipment market share has been declining for the last year or two yet their profit share remains the same or continues to rise.

The PC market is not the same as the smart phone market. Apparently many Android users buy phones just to make calls hence all the usage stats favoring Apple.

Apple is setting records every quarter because the smart market is a expanding.

 

I suppose I needn't have bothered saying that I didn't care about profit share ( which is in fact declining, Profit isn't but profit share is).

What annoys me is that some of them still severely restrict options even off contract.

You should be in good shape then. Despite having a fraction of the market share of Android... developers tend to favor iOS. They even like Passbook according to an article I just read today.

I don't think Apple will ever be in a situation like Palm was... where they were forced to sell themselves because people stopped buying their stuff.

Again... Apple might not have as much market share... but iOS devices and platform are insanely popular in their own right.

 

How about: My contract is up. I bought a new phone. I have to pay the carrier an ACTIVATION FEE to use it. Wait, that's not the good part yet.

 

Now my kid wants to use the old phone as a WiFi-only iPod, but before she can do that I have to pay the carrier $50 to unlock it! I have to PAY them for the privilege of using my own property!

That is really bad. I understand restrictions when they have money invested in it. I find them to be ridiculous at other times. I mean your contract on that device is up right? At that point it should be a fully owned device.

Two words. Jail. Break. Sorted. Also, consider Android phones in the future because this is less likely to happen because you can make modifications to the phones easier to avoid such dodgy stuff from naughty carriers.

That's interesting. Do you believe there is any "risk" to Apple at this stage? Or is it all just "Fandroid" hype?

Most Android users turn off the Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS because doing so actually results in an appreciable increase in their device's battery life. Android's power management is, in fact, that bad.

 

But but but… then that means the usage numbers are right! But no! Android users get on the Interent in-app!

That could start changing with the availability of 3rd party apps like Bluestacks. It gives Mac and Windows users access to (apparently) all Android apps.  Compatibility and access to three platforms by simply developing an Android app first sounds like it could gain developer's attention.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/27/bluestacks-app-player-for-mac-launches-beta-now-you-can-run-over-750000-android-apps-on-mac/

The only problem I see is that Android apps are designed for touch... while your Mac and (most) Windows PCs don't have touchscreens.

Interesting concept... but I'm still confused about the execution...

My point was... iOS will still be a compelling platform even if iOS doesn't have the most market share.

Hell... right now Android phones have 75% market share while the iPhone has 15%. And yet developers are still developing apps for the iPhone by the bucketload.

We were talking about Apple's declining market share against Android... yet iPhone app development is still strong.

LOL... Android users do know how to do this thing called... Turning the switch to "ON" when they want to connect. They aren't Apple users, you know...

Very good idea. But doesn't work for me on my Mac, I can't add a Google Play Account. I really like Android Central Forums and XDA Forums apps which are based on Tapatalk, it makes foruming an order of magnitude easier compared to overblown, totally bloated websites like *cough* certain ones we know...
Edited by sr2012 - 12/29/12 at 3:41am