I don't know which report you are reading, but it obviously WASN'T the Chitika Insight report. Here let me quote the pertinent portion for you:
And to be perfectly accurate they are extrapolating hits to number of phones being used - logical but not necessarily accurate. It could be that fewer Android users are hitting their network. We would have to know more about their network to be able to judge the accuracy of their reported statistics - which we don't.
So the report is about the Verizon share of the US Android user base, nothing else. We all know that "smartphone" unit purchases continue to grow the market segment - that is not in dispute here, especially out of the "feature phone" segment. Neither Chitika, DED nor I stated or implied that Verizon experienced anything other than a shift in share of the US Android market percentage. You can't reliably read anything else into that without calculating against real numbers reported by Verizon or the rest of the market.
The questions posed were simply speculative - "what would have caused Verizon's share of the US Android market to decline, while Verizon's share of the US iPhone market increased?". Given the timing and events during that time period it is logical to speculate that Verizon shifted some of their US Android share to US iPhone share. The article didn't speculate on overall market growth - which we all know to be a given - Android has been used successfully by the carriers to draw former feature phone purchasers into the more lucrative smartphone purchase and get them on the more expensive voice/data plans.
Perhaps my previous points weren't concise enough to be clear.
Motorola droid: Contracts JUST coming up last month, and only for early adopters
Droid X: No contracts up
Droid Incredible: No contracts up
samsung Facinate: No contracts up.
With the exception of early adopters of the OG Droid, ALL of those customers (unless they paid retail for a device) will still have their android devices. The fact that Chikita doesn't see that shows they don't understand anything about the US cellphone market, at least when it comes to why people buy phones.
DED is trying to imply that Android users are switching to the iphone. It is IMPOSSIBLE for him to write an article where he doesn't spin it against the company that isn't apple.
So Verizon's share of Android sales dropped. 'Dramatically'? Yeah right. If that's the case, then AT&T's share of Android sales 'dramatically' increased. After all, it did more than double.
The only thing that matters is how much each OS is growing/proliferating as a whole. It's moronic to compare marketshares on individual carriers.
Like I said in another comment... I know dozens of folks in their 40's and 50's who have used Blackberries for years.
Now they use iPhones and Android phones.
It's not that difficult to learn...
Going from a flip-phone to an Android or iPhone would be huge... going from Android to iOS or vice-versa wouldn't be difficult.
I think the opposite is true. Flip phones are so different from touchscreen smartphones that you basically start from scratch. However, once you learn a smartphone OS, they probably sets your expectations for how they all work, so switching from Android to iOS (or vice versa) can be jarring.
Logically that makes sense, but I'm talking real world. My clients, who i help with these questions every day, won't even consider another transition. It's not because they like their Android - the conversations are funny, they always go the same way -
Me: Why'd you decide to with the Android phone?
Client: Oh I got this because my contract was up and Verizon didn't have iPhone, and I didn't want to give up Verizon.
Me: How's it working?
Client: It's kind of OK, I'm getting used to the keyboard, and the battery life isn't so hot
Me: Oh... that's too bad, now that they finally have the iPhone and you're stuck with that... You could always look into selling it and using the proceeds to cover the iPhone cost.
Client: Yeah... it's OK, I'm getting better with it, and I don't want to have to learn something new this quick...
etc
My example was real world too. They switched once... they could switch again. From flip-phone, to Blackberry, to Android. iPhone is next.
Do you think these people are gonna stick with Android for the rest of their lives? Especially if they don't like Android?
People go through changes all the time. DOS, Windows 3.1, Win95, WinXP, Win7...
This makes sense. There are a lot of people like myself who more or less have to use Verizon because of poor AT&T coverage in their area. In my case 1/3 of my sales territory has no 3G coverage by AT&T and is nearly 100% covered by Verizon. If the iPhone had been available when I bought my Droid I would have got the iPhone. However, because I was more or less forced to get the Droid, I realized that it will do a lot of things very well that the iPhone either does not do well or can't do period.
The worst thing that happened to Android was Verizon forcing the handset manufactures to lock the boot loader down on the phones. This had a big backlash among the Android developer community which is very large on the Android platform. Android might be the only platform where a hacked ( or rooted ) device is faster, less battery hungry and smoother than the OEM versions. The worst part of Androind is Google's tendencay to release software that is not fully cooked. When they released FROYO it broke 8 thing that were working fine in the phone before the so called upgrade ( In fact two of them are still not fixed over a year later ). On the other hand the developer ROMS fixed all issues in two weeks.
I know for a fact many Android users said "Well if I have to have a locked down phone I might as well get the Apple because it is less buggy" . I am paraphrasing of course, but personal know five co-workers who switched over this one issue. I would love to get an iPhone, but it still lacks about two features that I need as part of my work and I have not found a app or work around for either issue.....
The Verizon iPhone has certainly taken a bite out of Android.....
Percentages of the same number are "percentage points," so AT&T gained about 5% points and Verizon lost about 10% points. That means Verizon lost, proportional to the amount of Android phones out there in the US, twice as much share as AT&T gained. The rest of the ground Verizon gave up went to "other" carriers because Tmobile and Sprint remained static.
However, Verizon didn't "go down" 10%. Dropping from 51 to 41 is a loss of nearly 20%. Similarly, AT&T shifted from about 3-8 percent, which means its share more than doubled, but AT&T's share was tiny to start with, and Verizon's was more than half to start with.
It's a huge deal for Verizon to drop its ratio of all Android phones sold in the US that much, that quickly. You can personally attack DED all you want, but the conclusion drawn wasn't artfully construed by DED, it was REPORTED BY THE AD NETWORK! Read the last paragraph.
It's also a conclusion that is obvious to anyone who is not emotionally distressed by the reality that Verizon shifted from pushing Android in 2010 to promoting iPhone 4.
All you did was repeat the crap in the article.
Verizon lost twice as many Android sales as AT&T gained. That's all this means. If, for example, Verizon sold 100,000 fewer phones, it means AT&T sold 50,000 more.
You can't say the 100,000 loss is "huge" and the 50,000 gain is minor. They're just not that different, when one is 10 percentage points and one is 5 percentage points.
You registered just to "correct" posts about the article? Are you DED's shill or alter ego?
Comments
I don't know which report you are reading, but it obviously WASN'T the Chitika Insight report. Here let me quote the pertinent portion for you:
And to be perfectly accurate they are extrapolating hits to number of phones being used - logical but not necessarily accurate. It could be that fewer Android users are hitting their network. We would have to know more about their network to be able to judge the accuracy of their reported statistics - which we don't.
So the report is about the Verizon share of the US Android user base, nothing else. We all know that "smartphone" unit purchases continue to grow the market segment - that is not in dispute here, especially out of the "feature phone" segment. Neither Chitika, DED nor I stated or implied that Verizon experienced anything other than a shift in share of the US Android market percentage. You can't reliably read anything else into that without calculating against real numbers reported by Verizon or the rest of the market.
The questions posed were simply speculative - "what would have caused Verizon's share of the US Android market to decline, while Verizon's share of the US iPhone market increased?". Given the timing and events during that time period it is logical to speculate that Verizon shifted some of their US Android share to US iPhone share. The article didn't speculate on overall market growth - which we all know to be a given - Android has been used successfully by the carriers to draw former feature phone purchasers into the more lucrative smartphone purchase and get them on the more expensive voice/data plans.
Perhaps my previous points weren't concise enough to be clear.
Motorola droid: Contracts JUST coming up last month, and only for early adopters
Droid X: No contracts up
Droid Incredible: No contracts up
samsung Facinate: No contracts up.
With the exception of early adopters of the OG Droid, ALL of those customers (unless they paid retail for a device) will still have their android devices. The fact that Chikita doesn't see that shows they don't understand anything about the US cellphone market, at least when it comes to why people buy phones.
DED is trying to imply that Android users are switching to the iphone. It is IMPOSSIBLE for him to write an article where he doesn't spin it against the company that isn't apple.
So Verizon's share of Android sales dropped. 'Dramatically'? Yeah right. If that's the case, then AT&T's share of Android sales 'dramatically' increased. After all, it did more than double.
The only thing that matters is how much each OS is growing/proliferating as a whole. It's moronic to compare marketshares on individual carriers.
Like I said in another comment... I know dozens of folks in their 40's and 50's who have used Blackberries for years.
Now they use iPhones and Android phones.
It's not that difficult to learn...
Going from a flip-phone to an Android or iPhone would be huge... going from Android to iOS or vice-versa wouldn't be difficult.
I think the opposite is true. Flip phones are so different from touchscreen smartphones that you basically start from scratch. However, once you learn a smartphone OS, they probably sets your expectations for how they all work, so switching from Android to iOS (or vice versa) can be jarring.
Logically that makes sense, but I'm talking real world. My clients, who i help with these questions every day, won't even consider another transition. It's not because they like their Android - the conversations are funny, they always go the same way -
Me: Why'd you decide to with the Android phone?
Client: Oh I got this because my contract was up and Verizon didn't have iPhone, and I didn't want to give up Verizon.
Me: How's it working?
Client: It's kind of OK, I'm getting used to the keyboard, and the battery life isn't so hot
Me: Oh... that's too bad, now that they finally have the iPhone and you're stuck with that... You could always look into selling it and using the proceeds to cover the iPhone cost.
Client: Yeah... it's OK, I'm getting better with it, and I don't want to have to learn something new this quick...
etc
My example was real world too. They switched once... they could switch again. From flip-phone, to Blackberry, to Android. iPhone is next.
Do you think these people are gonna stick with Android for the rest of their lives? Especially if they don't like Android?
People go through changes all the time. DOS, Windows 3.1, Win95, WinXP, Win7...
This is bullshit masquerading as journalism.
You win ... because if there is anyone who is an expert on bullshit .... it'd be you ..... (judging by a brief look at your posts)
The worst thing that happened to Android was Verizon forcing the handset manufactures to lock the boot loader down on the phones. This had a big backlash among the Android developer community which is very large on the Android platform. Android might be the only platform where a hacked ( or rooted ) device is faster, less battery hungry and smoother than the OEM versions. The worst part of Androind is Google's tendencay to release software that is not fully cooked. When they released FROYO it broke 8 thing that were working fine in the phone before the so called upgrade ( In fact two of them are still not fixed over a year later ). On the other hand the developer ROMS fixed all issues in two weeks.
I know for a fact many Android users said "Well if I have to have a locked down phone I might as well get the Apple because it is less buggy" . I am paraphrasing of course, but personal know five co-workers who switched over this one issue. I would love to get an iPhone, but it still lacks about two features that I need as part of my work and I have not found a app or work around for either issue.....
The Verizon iPhone has certainly taken a bite out of Android.....
My example was real world too. They switched once... they could switch again. From flip-phone, to Blackberry, to Android. iPhone is next.
Do you think these people are gonna stick with Android for the rest of their lives? Especially if they don't like Android?
People go through changes all the time. DOS, Windows 3.1, Win95, WinXP, Win7...
Thank you for proving my point.
Where's a new platform in that list?
Some remedial math about percentages
Percentages of the same number are "percentage points," so AT&T gained about 5% points and Verizon lost about 10% points. That means Verizon lost, proportional to the amount of Android phones out there in the US, twice as much share as AT&T gained. The rest of the ground Verizon gave up went to "other" carriers because Tmobile and Sprint remained static.
However, Verizon didn't "go down" 10%. Dropping from 51 to 41 is a loss of nearly 20%. Similarly, AT&T shifted from about 3-8 percent, which means its share more than doubled, but AT&T's share was tiny to start with, and Verizon's was more than half to start with.
It's a huge deal for Verizon to drop its ratio of all Android phones sold in the US that much, that quickly. You can personally attack DED all you want, but the conclusion drawn wasn't artfully construed by DED, it was REPORTED BY THE AD NETWORK! Read the last paragraph.
It's also a conclusion that is obvious to anyone who is not emotionally distressed by the reality that Verizon shifted from pushing Android in 2010 to promoting iPhone 4.
All you did was repeat the crap in the article.
Verizon lost twice as many Android sales as AT&T gained. That's all this means. If, for example, Verizon sold 100,000 fewer phones, it means AT&T sold 50,000 more.
You can't say the 100,000 loss is "huge" and the 50,000 gain is minor. They're just not that different, when one is 10 percentage points and one is 5 percentage points.
You registered just to "correct" posts about the article? Are you DED's shill or alter ego?