By paragraph
(1) As a user of Apple products rather than an Apple shareholder, I couldn't care less whether Apple, Google, Samsung or whoever is making more money. I care about the quality of the products I use, not whose pockets are being filled. (Though I resent the Ad-intrusive means inherent to Google's business model.)
(2) Utter nonsense. Android succeeds in terms of marketshare because it competes in every sector. From the high end, where top Samsung models are selling reasonably well against the iPhone, to the bargain basement - and everything in between.
(3) What's a 'take over'? Android could well 'take over' the smartphone market to the same extent and, gallingly, in exactly the same manner as Windows did. Sure they never eradicated Macs from the face of the earth, and it still a thriving platform. But things got worse for Mac Users as the Mac's marketshare shrank. Major developers who'd written great software for the Mac first, began to give more priority to PC versions - understandably. At the moment developers, for well rehearsed reasons, prefer iOS - it's a huge factor in making it a superior platform. But if marketshare trends continue, they will switch attention to Android first.
Apple needs a less expensive smartphone. They showed in the development of the iPod range (which retained market dominance), that they could compete at lower price points than top end - without their products feeling cheap - indeed some of their best designed iPods were in their mid-range nano/mini models.
(4) To value people by the products they use, or in many cases using the only devices they can afford, shows incredibly shallow judgment.
Some of the clearest, least "religious" thinking in any of the posts in the thread.
I'd add that Apple's "purist" take on usage ergonomics and Retinazation blinded them to the fact that people (at least Americans, among others) like bigger screens, period - which is why Samsung's been able to penetrate at the higher end as well. Leaving Apple "Hoist on their own Reality Distortion Field" as it were..... ...courtesy of the "one true aesthetic" now carried forward by Sir Jonny....
Most people spend more time taking in and sharing content than they do controlling their phones "with one thumb" - which is hard to do on an iPhone 5 anyway - and wouldn't give a rat's ass in practice if the ppi had dropped to 280 or 260 to have a flashier view of your pics and vids, etc. And the keyboard use I see the most of - messaging - is generally done with both hands anyway.
The fact that millions of iPad owners are choosing their "low res" Minis over their retinized Full Size iPads - even when they own both - shows that the eye adapts to accepting the resolution in front of it whatever they can notice in side by side comparisons.
And sticking to one model per year as well... ...a habit they've already profitably broken on the iPad, but still seem stuck on with phones in a world of people of all sizes and ways of using them... ...and now hundreds of other choices, even if only a few truly competitive ones... ..it hasn't made sense to me for two years and still doesn't.
I think the "$0" on contract iPhone 4 fills in the low end for Apple (unless non-contract models gain traction in some big countries like this one), but even though the screen size horse is already out of the barn, they still need to pull their thumb out of their precious butts and introduce two screen sizes next year to allow customer choice. If they can, that is: They kind of backed themselves into a corner with their 16:9 pure Retina, still one-handed mantra on the 5 though, as that aspect ratio might not scale well to SIII sizes. So they prol'ly won't.
More's the pity. Gonna cost 'em. I like big screens, and if that makes me not "discerning enough" for Apple, well, we'll see what's out there by next fall. Lots of factors to weigh.
Or a three or four horse race. MS has resources and time, e.g., and people who see Win Phones tend to like 'em. And it's always taken MS 3 iterations to get anything finally right (or rightish).
Also as Win 8 becomes more familiar in general, the similarities will play toward Win Phone's advantage - in the phone space if not the PC. As a 30 year user of Finders and Explorers and menus and windowing and such, I'm not always happy in the walled garden of iOS by any means.
An iPhone, a Leatherman and thou... ...life is complete.
An iPhone, a Leatherman and thou... ...life is complete.
