Nah, the report was an incomplete analysis with poorly defined scope. I'm sure they intended on performing a legitmate analysis. But they missed the mark.
The AI article about the report, on the other hand, was flamebait.
The *only* valid comparisons are the two mentioned. That's why these sales figures of "smartphones" (an essentially made-up category who's definition changes from analyst to analyst), are completely irrelevant even if you ignore the obvious issues over sales reporting, channel stuffing etc.
The iPhone is a phone that runs an OS.
Comparing it's sales to all the other phones that run Android ignores the fact that you are comparing one phone's sales figures to the sales figures of dozens and dozens of phones which is unfair by definition. It's like comparing the sales of the Ford F150 to the sales of all Honda's.
If you want to compare Android to iOS on the other hand, you have to include all the devices that run iOS (platform to platform), otherwise it's similarly unfair by definition. It's not like there aren't Android tablets now and Android music players as well.
To compare "how Android is doing" versus iOS you have to include all devices. To compare "how the iPhone is doing" versus an Android phone, you have to compare phone to phone. iOS wins in each category of course.
Judging by the rate of growth, iOS devices will swamp Android devices sooner rather than later, but everyone is so focussed on these bogus sales figures they won't notice it for a while.
RIM is likely to collapse almost completely after they finally get the Playbook out the door for instance. All the signs are there. What happens to the market when those users all have to pick between Android and iOS? Certainly the majority of them will pick iOS if recent consumer surveys are accurate. Same with Nokia when it finally goes down. iOS will pick up the lion's share of users with each collapse IMO.
Refering to the part I highlighted above, I think you could compare all iOS phones to all Android phones, which is what the report does. However:
1) You have to be clear that is what you are comparing. The original report is a little vague, but seems to indicate that is what they are comparing. All iOS phones to all Android points. The AI article obscures that even further making it uncertain if the numbers include all iOS devices. And the CNN reporting of this report (http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/07/tech...roid/index.htm) is even worse when it implies the numbers include all iOS devices when they say, "In November, Android overtook Apple's iOS, which runs on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad." But the analysis in the report only includes iPhone iOS devices.
2) If you are going to compare all iOS phones to all Andoird phones, then I would ask...WHY? What point are you trying to make? Who is the audience for the analysis? Is it meaningful to anyone other than as an academic statistical exercise? You can't put it in context of hardware sales, because you are lumping together Android hardware from multiple vendors. It's not about OS marketshare because you are ignorning a sizeable number of non-phone mobile devices. It can't be about user experience or preference because each Andfoid device is different.
It's a fine statistical analysis (other than poorly defined scope). But what's the point of it?
There is some good hardware out there, but in those cases the OS is still just a knockoff of iOS. When articles like this come out they are comparing hard numbers, not the best of Android compared to the best of Apple as you or I might do in an evaluation for a purchasing decision. With raw numbers you factor in all of the really cheap crap that runs some flavor of Android. Eventually there will be billions of poor quality Android devices in China alone. Why? Because they will be cheap, not because they are better or even marginally acceptable. There will probably even be counterfeit iPhones running Android I would imagine.
I really try not to worry about or think about what the rest of the world might be doing or buying. I like the fact that Androd offers options. I use what suits my needs and Apple doesn't always suit my needs. I use an iPad because I think its the best Tablet. I use an Evo because I like the larger screen and I like Android 2.2. I use a MBP because its the best notebook for me and I use a Velocity Micro desktop because I am also a gamer.
I don't want Apple, Google or anyone for that matter to take over any market and lets be honest that isn't going to happen anyways. People talk about another product being a "killer" and to date no one has been able to kill anything or kill any company.
On forums like this companies get bashed if they are seen copying Apple and then if they don't and take their own path they are bashed. People need to pick a side and stick with it.
All you fanboys are totally missing the boat. Apple doesn't strive to be the biggest, they strive to build their brand as a fantasy luxury. If they cared about numbers, they would have made an iPhone for every US carrier from Day 1. Instead they thrive and somehow get off on being 'exclusive'...supply and demand people. Several available US carriers, 1 iPhone carrier (until recently, of course). It's a double edge sword and Apple is willing to drive their profitability through consumer fantasy. You fanboys are laughable.
Full disclosure: I love Apple, I'd never own anything other than an iPhone, and Andriod completely sucks.
Microsoft's platform share of the U.S. market dipped 1.7 percent to 8 percent.
I am surprised by this, I thought there would be at least a small bump with the WM7 devices...
As far as Android goes, it is the thrifty mans iPhone, I would bet that the vast majority of the devices bought were under contract for sub 100 or under a bogo offer. Not saying there is anything wrong with that, but its what google is trying to do, capture the market to make its money off advertising, the more android devices they have out there, the more they can drive advertising revenue because they own the monopoly on their platform.
Wether the report is accurate may not be that relevant.
Android in all of it's phone and carrier-specific iterations will be the most used OS, if not now than eventually. So what?
Just because it's loaded on a cheap piece of plastic crap (and some good ones) doesn't make it better than any OS, just like the mass of old dumbphone OS's of yesteryear. Disposable, often non-upgradeable and very forgettable.
That said, what amazes me is that Androids growth comes mostly at the expense of RIM. Whatever people may think of Blackberries, at least it is founded on a secure platform that is now being dumped for the most insecure and abusable OS of them all.
Chinese hackers must be laughing all the way to the bank...
All you fanboys are totally missing the boat. Apple doesn't strive to be the biggest, they strive to build their brand as a fantasy luxury. If they cared about numbers, they would have made an iPhone for every US carrier from Day 1. Instead they thrive and somehow get off on being 'exclusive'...supply and demand people. Several available US carriers, 1 iPhone carrier (until recently, of course). It's a double edge sword and Apple is willing to drive their profitability through consumer fantasy. You fanboys are laughable.
Full disclosure: I love Apple, I'd never own anything other than an iPhone, and Andriod completely sucks.
Tell that to Steve Jobs who never misses a chance to point out where Apple are the largest Market, iPads, iTunes, iPods, app downloads, app payments and credit card details.
He also mentions cheapness, and the cost of other people's Tablets. Just recently.
1. Regarding the cannibalization of RIM by Android, they don't really give any total numbers so RIM may (or may not) be holding steady and the Android growth is coming from new subscribers. The data in the article does not indicate an answer here.
2. If all iOS devices were included in mobile OS numbers, would we need to include WebOS numbers later when HP starts shipping it on all their computers? That would be kind of screwy I guess!
Tell that to Steve Jobs who never misses a chance to point out where Apple are the largest Market, iPads, iTunes, iPods, app downloads, app payments and credit card details.
He also mentions cheapness, and the cost of other people's Tablets. Just recently.
Yeah. Like he's making any money off iPads, iTunes, iPods, app downloads, and app payments.
All you fanboys are totally missing the boat. Apple doesn't strive to be the biggest, they strive to build their brand as a fantasy luxury. If they cared about numbers, they would have made an iPhone for every US carrier from Day 1. Instead they thrive and somehow get off on being 'exclusive'...supply and demand people. Several available US carriers, 1 iPhone carrier (until recently, of course). It's a double edge sword and Apple is willing to drive their profitability through consumer fantasy. You fanboys are laughable.
Full disclosure: I love Apple, I'd never own anything other than an iPhone, and Andriod completely sucks.
Apple wanted to make the iPhone available to every carrier, but only AT&T would agree to Apple's terms.
People can trot out market share figures saying that Android is clobbering iOS. The fact remains that Apple still owns the top spot in profits and profit share. Market share is not going to pay for R&D on a new product or pay taxes to the government. Profits will, though.
I really try not to worry about or think about what the rest of the world might be doing or buying. I like the fact that Androd offers options. I use what suits my needs and Apple doesn't always suit my needs. I use an iPad because I think its the best Tablet. I use an Evo because I like the larger screen and I like Android 2.2. I use a MBP because its the best notebook for me and I use a Velocity Micro desktop because I am also a gamer.
I don't want Apple, Google or anyone for that matter to take over any market and lets be honest that isn't going to happen anyways. People talk about another product being a "killer" and to date no one has been able to kill anything or kill any company.
On forums like this companies get bashed if they are seen copying Apple and then if they don't and take their own path they are bashed. People need to pick a side and stick with it.
Apple's never claimed to be a 'killer' anything. Nor has the media portrayed any major Apple product in that fashion. They somehow just seem to go about their business.....
The thing that rankles most people about Apple is the company follows its own muse.
If it's just smartphone sales (and that's what the chart says), then it cannot by definition be a measurement of the size of the "platform." Even if it was, it's meaningless without including churn and obsolescence, which aren't included.
This is just another recent, dodgy, channel-oriented, inside-industry sales report masquerading as "platform numbers."
Ha, what you expect from market research guys? they didn't take your class I guess, prof. Or they tried in their life NOT to take any class that involved logic, or math.
I don't mean to question these statistics (though people really should), but I know many who use iPhones and Blackberries, but I don't know a single person who uses an Android phone. Who are these people?
The front page of AppleInsider is swarming with Android ads and not a single iOS ad. No wonder the statistics are what they are. Verizon iPhone ads are non existent but Verizon/Google ads are everywhere. I live in the midwest and I haven't seen a single iOS ad (iPhone or iPad) for weeks from either Apple, at&t, or Verizon.
Market share is not going to pay for R&D on a new product or pay taxes to the government. Profits will, though.
Exactly.
If I had a T-shirt company and I started giving away my T-shirts for free... my T-shirts would be everywhere. You could say I was dominating the T-shirt market... but I'd be in trouble when it was time for me to pay my bills
It was genius for an advertising company like Google to make a "free" phone OS for hardware manufacturers to use. Brilliant... as a matter of fact. Google makes money from every Android phone... while the manufacturers are in strict competition with each other.
Everyone goes on and on about how big "Android" is getting... and that's great for Google and only Google.
Ask HTC if they are thrilled when a Motorola Droid gets sold... even though they all play on "Team Android"
I imagine it goes something like this:
HTC Executive #1: "My cousin just bought an Android phone"
Android will grow and grow. Just wait when China floods the market with very cheap ones then it's game over for number, much like PC and Mac. Do I care? No, as long as there is more apps on iOS platform and the app is better.
Comments
In other words, this report is mere flamebait?
Nah, the report was an incomplete analysis with poorly defined scope. I'm sure they intended on performing a legitmate analysis. But they missed the mark.
The AI article about the report, on the other hand, was flamebait.
This is just crazy talk.
The *only* valid comparisons are the two mentioned. That's why these sales figures of "smartphones" (an essentially made-up category who's definition changes from analyst to analyst), are completely irrelevant even if you ignore the obvious issues over sales reporting, channel stuffing etc.
The iPhone is a phone that runs an OS.
Comparing it's sales to all the other phones that run Android ignores the fact that you are comparing one phone's sales figures to the sales figures of dozens and dozens of phones which is unfair by definition. It's like comparing the sales of the Ford F150 to the sales of all Honda's.
If you want to compare Android to iOS on the other hand, you have to include all the devices that run iOS (platform to platform), otherwise it's similarly unfair by definition. It's not like there aren't Android tablets now and Android music players as well.
To compare "how Android is doing" versus iOS you have to include all devices. To compare "how the iPhone is doing" versus an Android phone, you have to compare phone to phone. iOS wins in each category of course.
Judging by the rate of growth, iOS devices will swamp Android devices sooner rather than later, but everyone is so focussed on these bogus sales figures they won't notice it for a while.
RIM is likely to collapse almost completely after they finally get the Playbook out the door for instance. All the signs are there. What happens to the market when those users all have to pick between Android and iOS? Certainly the majority of them will pick iOS if recent consumer surveys are accurate. Same with Nokia when it finally goes down. iOS will pick up the lion's share of users with each collapse IMO.
Refering to the part I highlighted above, I think you could compare all iOS phones to all Android phones, which is what the report does. However:
1) You have to be clear that is what you are comparing. The original report is a little vague, but seems to indicate that is what they are comparing. All iOS phones to all Android points. The AI article obscures that even further making it uncertain if the numbers include all iOS devices. And the CNN reporting of this report (http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/07/tech...roid/index.htm) is even worse when it implies the numbers include all iOS devices when they say, "In November, Android overtook Apple's iOS, which runs on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad." But the analysis in the report only includes iPhone iOS devices.
2) If you are going to compare all iOS phones to all Andoird phones, then I would ask...WHY? What point are you trying to make? Who is the audience for the analysis? Is it meaningful to anyone other than as an academic statistical exercise? You can't put it in context of hardware sales, because you are lumping together Android hardware from multiple vendors. It's not about OS marketshare because you are ignorning a sizeable number of non-phone mobile devices. It can't be about user experience or preference because each Andfoid device is different.
It's a fine statistical analysis (other than poorly defined scope). But what's the point of it?
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os...-201002-201102
Apple has a sizable advantage. And worldwide the gap is even larger
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os...-201002-201102
There is some good hardware out there, but in those cases the OS is still just a knockoff of iOS. When articles like this come out they are comparing hard numbers, not the best of Android compared to the best of Apple as you or I might do in an evaluation for a purchasing decision. With raw numbers you factor in all of the really cheap crap that runs some flavor of Android. Eventually there will be billions of poor quality Android devices in China alone. Why? Because they will be cheap, not because they are better or even marginally acceptable. There will probably even be counterfeit iPhones running Android I would imagine.
I really try not to worry about or think about what the rest of the world might be doing or buying. I like the fact that Androd offers options. I use what suits my needs and Apple doesn't always suit my needs. I use an iPad because I think its the best Tablet. I use an Evo because I like the larger screen and I like Android 2.2. I use a MBP because its the best notebook for me and I use a Velocity Micro desktop because I am also a gamer.
I don't want Apple, Google or anyone for that matter to take over any market and lets be honest that isn't going to happen anyways. People talk about another product being a "killer" and to date no one has been able to kill anything or kill any company.
On forums like this companies get bashed if they are seen copying Apple and then if they don't and take their own path they are bashed. People need to pick a side and stick with it.
Full disclosure: I love Apple, I'd never own anything other than an iPhone, and Andriod completely sucks.
Microsoft's platform share of the U.S. market dipped 1.7 percent to 8 percent.
I am surprised by this, I thought there would be at least a small bump with the WM7 devices...
As far as Android goes, it is the thrifty mans iPhone, I would bet that the vast majority of the devices bought were under contract for sub 100 or under a bogo offer. Not saying there is anything wrong with that, but its what google is trying to do, capture the market to make its money off advertising, the more android devices they have out there, the more they can drive advertising revenue because they own the monopoly on their platform.
It will be interesting to see how this pans out.
Android in all of it's phone and carrier-specific iterations will be the most used OS, if not now than eventually. So what?
Just because it's loaded on a cheap piece of plastic crap (and some good ones) doesn't make it better than any OS, just like the mass of old dumbphone OS's of yesteryear. Disposable, often non-upgradeable and very forgettable.
That said, what amazes me is that Androids growth comes mostly at the expense of RIM. Whatever people may think of Blackberries, at least it is founded on a secure platform that is now being dumped for the most insecure and abusable OS of them all.
Chinese hackers must be laughing all the way to the bank...
All you fanboys are totally missing the boat. Apple doesn't strive to be the biggest, they strive to build their brand as a fantasy luxury. If they cared about numbers, they would have made an iPhone for every US carrier from Day 1. Instead they thrive and somehow get off on being 'exclusive'...supply and demand people. Several available US carriers, 1 iPhone carrier (until recently, of course). It's a double edge sword and Apple is willing to drive their profitability through consumer fantasy. You fanboys are laughable.
Full disclosure: I love Apple, I'd never own anything other than an iPhone, and Andriod completely sucks.
Tell that to Steve Jobs who never misses a chance to point out where Apple are the largest Market, iPads, iTunes, iPods, app downloads, app payments and credit card details.
He also mentions cheapness, and the cost of other people's Tablets. Just recently.
2. If all iOS devices were included in mobile OS numbers, would we need to include WebOS numbers later when HP starts shipping it on all their computers? That would be kind of screwy I guess!
I am surprised by this, I thought there would be at least a small bump with the WM7 devices...
The bump was their sales slide being only 1.7 percent.
I'd almost feel sorry for MS, if they weren't MS...
Tell that to Steve Jobs who never misses a chance to point out where Apple are the largest Market, iPads, iTunes, iPods, app downloads, app payments and credit card details.
He also mentions cheapness, and the cost of other people's Tablets. Just recently.
Yeah. Like he's making any money off iPads, iTunes, iPods, app downloads, and app payments.
No,
All you fanboys are totally missing the boat. Apple doesn't strive to be the biggest, they strive to build their brand as a fantasy luxury. If they cared about numbers, they would have made an iPhone for every US carrier from Day 1. Instead they thrive and somehow get off on being 'exclusive'...supply and demand people. Several available US carriers, 1 iPhone carrier (until recently, of course). It's a double edge sword and Apple is willing to drive their profitability through consumer fantasy. You fanboys are laughable.
Full disclosure: I love Apple, I'd never own anything other than an iPhone, and Andriod completely sucks.
Apple wanted to make the iPhone available to every carrier, but only AT&T would agree to Apple's terms.
People can trot out market share figures saying that Android is clobbering iOS. The fact remains that Apple still owns the top spot in profits and profit share. Market share is not going to pay for R&D on a new product or pay taxes to the government. Profits will, though.
I really try not to worry about or think about what the rest of the world might be doing or buying. I like the fact that Androd offers options. I use what suits my needs and Apple doesn't always suit my needs. I use an iPad because I think its the best Tablet. I use an Evo because I like the larger screen and I like Android 2.2. I use a MBP because its the best notebook for me and I use a Velocity Micro desktop because I am also a gamer.
I don't want Apple, Google or anyone for that matter to take over any market and lets be honest that isn't going to happen anyways. People talk about another product being a "killer" and to date no one has been able to kill anything or kill any company.
On forums like this companies get bashed if they are seen copying Apple and then if they don't and take their own path they are bashed. People need to pick a side and stick with it.
Apple's never claimed to be a 'killer' anything. Nor has the media portrayed any major Apple product in that fashion. They somehow just seem to go about their business.....
The thing that rankles most people about Apple is the company follows its own muse.
Wrong!
If it's just smartphone sales (and that's what the chart says), then it cannot by definition be a measurement of the size of the "platform." Even if it was, it's meaningless without including churn and obsolescence, which aren't included.
This is just another recent, dodgy, channel-oriented, inside-industry sales report masquerading as "platform numbers."
Ha, what you expect from market research guys? they didn't take your class I guess, prof. Or they tried in their life NOT to take any class that involved logic, or math.
Market share is not going to pay for R&D on a new product or pay taxes to the government. Profits will, though.
Exactly.
If I had a T-shirt company and I started giving away my T-shirts for free... my T-shirts would be everywhere. You could say I was dominating the T-shirt market... but I'd be in trouble when it was time for me to pay my bills
It was genius for an advertising company like Google to make a "free" phone OS for hardware manufacturers to use. Brilliant... as a matter of fact. Google makes money from every Android phone... while the manufacturers are in strict competition with each other.
Everyone goes on and on about how big "Android" is getting... and that's great for Google and only Google.
Ask HTC if they are thrilled when a Motorola Droid gets sold... even though they all play on "Team Android"
I imagine it goes something like this:
HTC Executive #1: "My cousin just bought an Android phone"
HTC Executive #2: "Awesome!"
HTC Executive #1: "It wasn't one of ours..."
HTC Executive #2: "Crap..."