Android growth prior to iPhone 5 launch further established market dominance

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  • Reply 81 of 185

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by christopher126 View Post


    Agreed. Rather like Lincoln has ended up making "airport" cars and GM, Ford and Chrysler (for a time) were basically making cars for the rental car companies.


     


    My daughter is a an MD and when I go to her parties where all her friends are MD's, they all have iPhones and iPads and Macs.


     


    I've said it here before, ~70% of the American economy is driven by the consumer. But 50% of the economy is driven by the top 10% of Americans. The top 10% is Apple's target. It just so happens some of those top 10% also run the Fortune 500 companies where 90%+ have incorporated or are testing iPhones and iPads!


     


    On a side note, China is 1.3 billion people, but half their population is still in poverty, (perhaps, not for long!)


     


    I never see these two important facts in any articles about anything. Especially the first one.



    good point on the China poverty thing.  Android will undoubtedly succeed there because it is a no profit product.  With 1.3 billion people there are also quite a few rich people.  And guess what....they all want iPhones.

  • Reply 82 of 185

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post


    Hey AppleInsider, can you please post an article everytime a fucking analyst spouts some  useless horse-shit prediction?


     


    Oh wait, nevermind, you're already on top of that.



    LOL....glad to see we have some funny guys on this site. 

  • Reply 83 of 185
    bigpicsbigpics Posts: 1,397member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by kevt View Post


    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.  


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ash471 View Post


    ......This will continue to be a two-horse race.  Apple will sell devices that people want and Google will continue to service devices that cell phone companies want to give away.  


     


    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. 

  • Reply 84 of 185

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Alfiejr View Post


    Google is winning the "race," all right - the Race To The Bottom. no doubt 75% of the world's phones - they will all be "smartphones" soon - could wind up some flavor - many forked - of Android. these will be mostly the cheap "free + contract" phones - which is simply all that 2/3 of the world can afford. so only 1/12 of the world will actually prefer Android - 8.5%. if Apple holds just 20% of that future global market - a lot more than that - at premium prices it will be the world's biggest and most profitable company. that isn't exactly "losing."


     


    all the others - RIM, MS, and ? - will be lucky to not get totally squeezed out and hang on to the other 5% combined. very good chance RIM won't survive (someone else will buy its carcass/OS), and Windows Phone becomes MS' permanent "hobby."


     


    i'm amazed anyone pays these "analysts" to come up with such stupid drivel.



    LOL....race to the bottom. Nice

  • Reply 85 of 185
    The real story here is that Apple will likely begin 6 month release cycles instead of one year.

    That's really the only advantage the many android manufacturers have. Once the iPhone has gotten 6 months old, they release something with newer tech, knowing that apple won't release for another 6 months.

    6 month cycles fixes that.
  • Reply 86 of 185




     


     


     


    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. 



     


    Regarding MS....I suppose it is possible that MS could succeed, but not likely.  Microsoft is what it is today because of corporate IT.  MS was a lucky bastard that was at the right place at the right time with a shitty product.  That shitty product (windows) needed an IT department to make it work and then that same IT department needed a shitty product to justify the existence of an entire team of IT people.  


     


    The problem for MS is that the consumer has no need for an IT department nor do they want one.  In consumer world, MS has no distribution channels and no way to force people to buy their products.  They can't get the tecoms to push their product because Google gives them a suitable alternative for free.  MS can't charge for a product that is already available for free.  Its a huge problem and MS is going to slowly go down the drain over the next 20 years.  However, for the near term, they will be printing money from their legacy business.  Nice cash flow = good stock price.

  • Reply 87 of 185
    kdarling wrote: »
    Using Apple's financial reports to figure out percentages, it works out to be about $200 in pure profit on a $650 phone.  Which is still a lot.  And it really goes up if the user gets a model with more storage at Apple's massive Flash markup.

    Dayum! There is $450 worth of parts, manufacturing and other stuff in every 16GB iPhone?

    That's kinda crazy!
  • Reply 88 of 185

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by winstein2010 View Post



    Use Lightning adapter as an model, Apple could do the unthinkable: License iOS to OEM's


     


    Say goodbye to everything that makes iOS worth having. 

  • Reply 89 of 185


    Android poised to "take over the smartphone market," analyst says 


     


    Not buying this prediction.

  • Reply 90 of 185


    Originally Posted by 9secondko View Post

    The real story here is that Apple will likely begin 6 month release cycles instead of one year. That's really the only advantage the many android manufacturers have.


     


    Not really, given that people consider their Android devices to have far less worth after only one year of use. By the time your two year contract is up, it's completely worthless. 


     


    Not so with an iPhone. 


     


    Apple saying "our stuff isn't worth much" by doubling update rates is the last thing they need to do.

  • Reply 91 of 185


    I'll wait until there actually *is* a problem until I'll start wondering about Apple's strategy. I've got no reason yet. Because they usually know better than everyone else. And you don't necessarily see that immediately until you see the results months later. 


     


    This is Apple. Not HP. Not HTC. Not Dell. And *certainly not* Nokia. Apple approaches consumer tech from an entirely different place. 

  • Reply 92 of 185
    There have been numerous studies done by several different companies tracking different metrics from actual internet usage to advertising impressions and even to shopping on Black Friday. They all come up with similar numbers that show 2:1 for iPhones over Android phones and almost 9:1 for iPads over Android tablets.


    The fact that the study you linked can't even break out iPads from iPhones shows how reliable their analytics software is. Modern analytics software can easily identify the device, OS version and even manufacturer. I use the basic version of Google Analytics on my website and even it can separate iPhones from iPads or tell me how many Samsung Galaxy or LG Optimus visitors I've had to my site.

    I'm surprised you didn't try and pull the "Android users can change their user agent so they don't show up as mobile" crap that so many Android users still try to peddle as an excuse for the traffic disparity between iOS and Android.


    Hardly shifting. The people that count (developers and advertisers) use these same numbers to decide where they should spend their money. That's why iOS also has a 2:1 advantage over Android in terms of developer support. Nobody wants to waste time coding for a device that the user never even uses as it's intended. It's also why App quality is superior on iOS and why iOS usually gets the first version of something new.

    And where did you get that "history of claims" from? I don't recall anyone making those claims. Or are you going to take the opinions of a few fanboys with extreme views and try to apply them to the rest of us?

    First, developers don't choose a platform based on web usage. They choose it based on their likely profit, which currently biases their efforts toward Apple.

    As far as the claims from the past go, maybe you haven't been here long enough. I've been reading this site for over a decade and posting for a couple years. There have been countless threads where the overwhelming view of the members of this site were the views I listed before. Every time Android broke through one of the “never will happen" barriers, a new metric was created to judge the success of Android. Your new metric is the least sensible I've seen.
  • Reply 93 of 185
    ^ Funny, cuz whenever a study shows something Android users don't like (for example, Internet usage stats) they always try to come up with metric to minimize it (like my aforementioned "user agent" claim). Or when benchmarks show Apple devices destroying Android devices in GPU performance and suddenly GPU performance isn't important. Or the fact the App Store has far more Apps than Google Play and suddenly "quantity doesn't matter, quality does".

    I don't have enough time to go over all the Android apologist excuses I've heard, and I haven't even been here that long.
  • Reply 94 of 185
    First, developers don't choose a platform based on web usage. They choose it based on their likely profit, which currently biases their efforts toward Apple.
    Sorry, but most Apps are free, and not for profit. Of all the iOS developers I know and work with most of them develop Apps to give a presence to a company or website. These days having an App is considered as important as having a website was 15 years ago. Anyone looking at the numbers will realize they have a larger potential audience if they develop for iOS.

    This is why my local butcher (to use an example), has an App in the App Store, but currently has no plans to bother with an Android version. I'll be using his App to order another turkey this year and get it brined to my liking.
  • Reply 95 of 185
    ^ Funny, cuz whenever a study shows something Android users don't like (for example, Internet usage stats) they always try to come up with metric to minimize it (like my aforementioned "user agent" claim). Or when benchmarks show Apple devices destroying Android devices in GPU performance and suddenly GPU performance isn't important. Or the fact the App Store has far more Apps than Google Play and suddenly "quantity doesn't matter, quality does".
    I don't have enough time to go over all the Android apologist excuses I've heard, and I haven't even been here that long.

    You will see the same thing on both Sides. Three months ago when the iPhone 5 was reported to be the fastest smartphone it was all that was talked about. Now that the Nexus 4 and Optimus G are "faster" (benchmarks) specs are not important. When the iPhone 5 was shown to be the most wanted device that was all that was important. Truth is the fan boys will always say a category they are not winning in is not important and one they are is the most important. Simple fanboy logic "the only thing important is what we are winning in."
  • Reply 96 of 185
    gwmacgwmac Posts: 1,810member


    Eventually Apple will figure out that many of their lost sales are due to people wanting a far larger screen than the iPhone offers. Many people actually complained when it went from 3.5" to 4"' because some thought it was too big and others thought it was still far too small. I don't think think they made either camp very happy. I never see Apple making an iPhone as large as the Note II, but I can see them finally having two lines of iPhones. The smaller one could be in the 3.5 to 3.7" range and a larger version of around 4.5" to possibly as large as 4.8". Ask nearly anyone with an Android phone that wasn't a free or cheap one, but one that cost $199 or more like the iPhone why they went with it instead of an iPhone and invariably the first reason they cite is they like the large screen and felt the iPhone's display is just too small. 


     


    If Apple decided to make two lines with a small and large screen I think they would gain a lot of markets share back. One handed use is far less important than it used to be with Siri and even Google's voice recognition for web searches. Let the flames begin but I think it will happen by 2014 with the iPhone 6. The 2013 version will probably just be a 5S type of upgrade focusing mostly on internal improvements and iOS features. 

  • Reply 97 of 185

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post





    Sorry, but most Apps are free, and not for profit. Of all the iOS developers I know and work with most of them develop Apps to give a presence to a company or website. These days having an App is considered as important as having a website was 15 years ago. Anyone looking at the numbers will realize they have a larger potential audience if they develop for iOS.

    This is why my local butcher (to use an example), has an App in the App Store, but currently has no plans to bother with an Android version. I'll be using his App to order another turkey this year and get it brined to my liking.


    You think you're disagreeing with me, but you're actually agreeing.  I said developers choose a platform based on likely profit.  Profit comes from a whole host of sources and is not limited to profit generated directly from sales of an app.  By placing a free app on the app store, a company gains exposure and generates revenue from sales of its products, sales of ad space, subscription fees, or a number of other sources depending on what type of company created the app.  Revenues no matter the source lead to profit (after deducting costs, of course).  Apps on iOS still bring more profit than apps on Android, so developers and the corporations that hire them are still focusing on Apple's platform before Google's.

  • Reply 98 of 185

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ash471 View Post


    Wow....Apple is a scrappy underdog? We all get what you are saying, but a hundred years from now someone looking back at this will be scratching their heads asking how someone could possibly describe the second largest company in the world (by market cap) as the "scrappy underdog".  



     


    Oh, so now Fandroids agree that profit share matters more than market share? Because, I'm pretty sure having a teensy sliver of the market (compared to Windows and Android) makes you the underdog no matter what your market cap is.

  • Reply 99 of 185

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post



    ^ Funny, cuz whenever a study shows something Android users don't like (for example, Internet usage stats) they always try to come up with metric to minimize it (like my aforementioned "user agent" claim). Or when benchmarks show Apple devices destroying Android devices in GPU performance and suddenly GPU performance isn't important. Or the fact the App Store has far more Apps than Google Play and suddenly "quantity doesn't matter, quality does".

    I don't have enough time to go over all the Android apologist excuses I've heard, and I haven't even been here that long.


    I'm not making excuses, and I'm not an Android apologist.  I have a balanced and rational viewpoint.  You, on the other hand, are an Apple apologist.  If according to you, Android apologists create metrics to downplay unfavorable statistics and boost favorable ones, then by that definition you are biased toward Apple because you have done that.  Your bias is keeping you from looking at the circumstances rationally.

  • Reply 100 of 185
    v5vv5v Posts: 1,357member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Retrogusto View Post



    [...] some of those people will get iPhones when they realize how bad the cheaper devices are.


     


    And some former iPhone users are getting Samsungs because they're not that bad. Where I work the iPhone is still the dominant device, but a few people have switched. I haven't spoken to any of them about it at length yet, but their reasons for switching included things like preferring the bigger screen, liking how Android lets you customize things like "shortcuts" on the home screen that iOS doesn't, and the contract they wanted was not offered with the iPhone.


     


    My daughter has a Galaxy and it's a perfectly good smartphone. The screen looks fine, and the battery life is comparable to my iPhone 4.

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