Android's iPod touch competitor

[Josh0806]

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-20012429-49.html

Apple better release a real competitor to this device.
The Samsung YP-MB2 has a camera, FM radio, SD slot and 4 inch screen. Hopefully apple can top this is their new update.

[Compile 'em all]

Yawn. Yet another "iPod Killer". They have been trying to kill they iPod since 2001.

Apple products were never about the "what" but the "how". Listing a bunch of features that the iPod touch doesn't have doesn't mean anything. In fact, most Apple products to date have less features than any similar product from another manufacturer.

[liamkp]

Originally Posted by Josh0806

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-20012429-49.html

Apple better release a real competitor to this device.
The Samsung YP-MB2 has a camera, FM radio, SD slot and 4 inch screen. Hopefully apple can top this is their new update.

Kind of old.

They usually do have better features anyway.

[MindsEye]

This is Good news it means we more than likely to see the touch updated with the features we expect e.g. camera. Thats providing of course these devices can be credible threat to apples market share.

[iMac0765]

There have been numerous devices to be an "iPhone Killer" or the "iPod Killer".

Remember the Palm Pre. The supposed "iPhone Killer"? Hah! Palm got bought by HP!

Sony Walkman, Sandisk Sansa's are all "iPod Killers" but have they ever been more popular than the iPod? No.

Take this article as a speck of dust.

[cubist]

There are several Android tablets coming out soon, which are iPad-killer-wannabies. Will these take market share away from iPad?

I don't think there is any cause for worry on the Android front. Yet.

Android smartphones are selling well these days, mainly due to carriers not being able to sell iPhones. But, surveys show that people who get these phones usually do NOT get another Android phone later. Why not?

First, Android apps, on the average, are not as good as iPhone apps. There are problems in the API with supporting a variety of peripherals, screen resolutions, and so on.

Second, Android phones are generally NOT updatable to new versions of Android. If you get an Android 2.1 phone, that's the version you'll always be running, with very few exceptions.

Like Linux, new versions of Android come out frequently. From the developer standpoint, this adds up to a fairly fragmented marketplace - what minimum version do I support? Do I have to detect the version, and code workarounds?

The key problem is, imo, that the Android space is chaos, with phone manufacturers adding their own front-ends, their own apps, custom peripherals and so on, to differentiate their products. This is self-destructive and market-fragmenting. Either the market will mature, with a single clear leader (e.g. Ubuntu in the Linux space), or it will continue to be a complete mess, with a happy minority of tweakers and a majority of very unhappy users.

Google has apparently abdicated rulership of the Android space, so for the near term, I don't think Android devices will compete effectively with the iPhone or iPad.

HP's purchase of Palm may make their coming tablet an interesting platform, but we'll have to see how aggressively they market it.

[curlefry]

Originally Posted by Compile 'em all

Yawn. Yet another "iPod Killer". They have been trying to kill they iPod since 2001.

Apple products were never about the "what" but the "how". Listing a bunch of features that the iPod touch doesn't have doesn't mean anything. In fact, most Apple products to date have less features than any similar product from another manufacturer.

"iPod Killer" reminds me of "WoW Killer." It's just not going to happen...haha. Anyone remember how AION was supposed to be the WoW killer? All the hype in the world since almost 2 years prior to release. When it finally released: *fart noise with toungue*.

[4DThinker]

Android phones outsold iPhones for the first quarter this year, so even though it's taken the competition 3 years to come out with an iPhone killer, they eventually did. Something with every feature and more to compete with the iPod Touch is a simple inevitability. Samsung can do the hardware, so they may be the ones. If not them, then someone else will put android 2.2 (or better) in a 3.5" (or bigger) touchscreen device and get retailers to park them on the same row the iPod Ts are displayed.

All it will take is time.

[Derkatwork]

I must say, at first glance, it looks impressive. I sure hope that the new touch packs two cameras and a slew of other goodies.

[OGDaniel]

No matter how great these competing devices get, it doesn't matter to me. My friend yesterday showed me the EVO 4G, and it's incredible. Huge screen, great processor, 8 MP camera with LED flash, front camera, all that RAM, but it doesn't matter. The interface is so clunky, unfamiliar, and just poorly designed. Plus the App Store, iTunes, and MobileMe on all my iThings.

[FearNo1]

Hate to burst your bubble but he 4G sprint phones are better than iphone...

Originally Posted by iMac0765

There have been numerous devices to be an "iPhone Killer" or the "iPod Killer".

Remember the Palm Pre. The supposed "iPhone Killer"? Hah! Palm got bought by HP!

Sony Walkman, Sandisk Sansa's are all "iPod Killers" but have they ever been more popular than the iPod? No.

Take this article as a speck of dust.

[OGDaniel]

Originally Posted by FearNo1

Hate to burst your bubble but he 4G sprint phones are better than iphone...

Everyone has a right to their opinion friend, and my opinion is that your opinion is wrong. The software on the phone, just sucks. And MobileMe makes a huge difference to me.

[ct95]

The competition that matters is the competition for market share and for hearts and minds. Features, specs and user experience do factor in to the competition, but there are quantitative measures for the level of competitive threat to Apple.

Competition is good. It forces Apple to step up its game. My feeling is Apple has held back on iPod touch features because of the lack of competition. Android has arrived in the smart phone space. Hopefully, it will soon arrive in tablets and portable media devices.

The choice between iOS and Android probably comes down to whether one wants a tightly controlled user experience where everything works or the freedom to do what you want with the device even if things may not work ideally all the time. I can see the appeal in both frankly.

[rwilliams]

I'd buy it. Now that I have an iPhone, I have no more need for my iPod Touch, but an Android portable music player would be nice to have, just to become familiar with the platform.

[ftaok]

Originally Posted by 4DThinker

Android phones outsold iPhones for the first quarter this year, so even though it's taken the competition 3 years to come out with an iPhone killer, they eventually did.

That's only in the US. Worldwide, Android still trails the iPhone (they both trail RIM).

If you add in all iOS devices, then Apple is way ahead of Android in the US still.

All in all, it's not relevant. Apple is the only producer of iOS devices. Android devices are carved up by a boatload of manufacturers that are competing against Apple and each other. Apple still sells more smartphones than any individual Android purveyors ... I think.

[phobic99]

Originally Posted by ftaok

That's only in the US. Worldwide, Android still trails the iPhone (they both trail RIM).

If you add in all iOS devices, then Apple is way ahead of Android in the US still.

All in all, it's not relevant. Apple is the only producer of iOS devices. Android devices are carved up by a boatload of manufacturers that are competing against Apple and each other. Apple still sells more smartphones than any individual Android purveyors ... I think.

It's only a matter of time I'd say before Android & RIM are neck and neck worldwide. RIMs latest announcement, the TORCH, seems to be garnering lackluster fanfare and it doesn't help that they are being accused of letting governments tap into their networks for whatever reason.

Apple isn't going anywhere, they're just going to have to get more competitive. Nothing wrong with that from a consumer point of view I'd say.

[Tmacfan4321]

Originally Posted by cubist

I don't think there is any cause for worry on the Android front. Yet.

Android has taken the crown from BBOS as the top selling phone OS in North America.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/04/n...n-smartphones/

First, Android apps, on the average, are not as good as iPhone apps. There are problems in the API with supporting a variety of peripherals, screen resolutions, and so on.

I haven't had any of the problems that you speak of. Google does a very good job with the SDK that it puts out for its developers. Resolution scaling is standard and most of the developers figure out how to deal with all the different hardware configurations pretty quickly.

Second, Android phones are generally NOT updatable to new versions of Android. If you get an Android 2.1 phone, that's the version you'll always be running, with very few exceptions.

This is flat out wrong. More and more phones are getting Froyo updates by the day.

Like Linux, new versions of Android come out frequently. From the developer standpoint, this adds up to a fairly fragmented marketplace - what minimum version do I support? Do I have to detect the version, and code workarounds?

Normally, you build an app based upon hardware specs, not versions of Android. The phones with higher specs started shipping after 2.0, so you code for Eclair as a base. The two dominant processors on Android phones are the TI OMAP processors and the Qualcomm Snapdragon.

The key problem is, imo, that the Android space is chaos, with phone manufacturers adding their own front-ends, their own apps, custom peripherals and so on, to differentiate their products. This is self-destructive and market-fragmenting. Either the market will mature, with a single clear leader (e.g. Ubuntu in the Linux space), or it will continue to be a complete mess, with a happy minority of tweakers and a majority of very unhappy users.

Many users are perfectly happy with their phones. While fragmentation may be a problem, it doesn't inhibit the user experience on many of the devices. HTC's Sense UI is probably the best example of a skin that adds to the OS. Motorola is going in the wrong direction with MotoBlur. Ultimately, with Gingerbread (3.0 update), Google will try to build a superior UI to all of the skins and basically eliminate fragmentation by exerting some sort of power over the manufacturers. I hope that it happens, because all of these different added on UIs aren't as good as stock Android.

I am a fan of the stock Google UI (AOSP) over anything else. I am one of the happy tweakers in the Android community. I run CyanogenMod 6 (Froyo/2.2) with AOSP on my HTC Incredible.

Google has apparently abdicated rulership of the Android space, so for the near term, I don't think Android devices will compete effectively with the iPhone or iPad.

Google needs to exert some sort of force over the manufacturers and make them stop putting UIs on their phones. Otherwise, I will be forced to buy the Nexus Two, or whatever they put out next for 3.0.

[ViViDboarder]

Originally Posted by cubist

Android smartphones are selling well these days, mainly due to carriers not being able to sell iPhones. But, surveys show that people who get these phones usually do NOT get another Android phone later. Why not?

You got a source for those surveys? I don't know anyone who has gotten any Android phone and replaced it with a non Android phone.

Originally Posted by cubist

First, Android apps, on the average, are not as good as iPhone apps. There are problems in the API with supporting a variety of peripherals, screen resolutions, and so on.

It really depends on what you mean by good... I find the apps written for Android (apart from the ones Google or other large companies make) to be very to the point. They don't look flashy and some don't even have clean UIs or anything. So in that respect I'll agree with you. But saying not as good in general, I'd have to disagree. The large number of APIs allow developers to do much, much more with their applications and I have apps on my EVO that definitely aren't possible with the iPhone APIs. Biggest example is Google Voice.

With the trade off I'd say that both stores have just as good apps. However if you're looking for games... the App Store far exceeds the Android Market at the moment.

Originally Posted by cubist

Second, Android phones are generally NOT updatable to new versions of Android. If you get an Android 2.1 phone, that's the version you'll always be running, with very few exceptions.

I can't think of a single Android phone that never got an update. In fact, I'd challenge you to tell me one. Android 2.2 was just rolled out to the Droid and EVO 4G very recently.

Droid: Shipped 2.0, updated to 2.1, updated to 2.2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Droid

Hero: Shipped 1.5, updated to 2.1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Hero


Nexus One: Shipped 2.1, updated to 2.2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_one

And for any phones that have out lived their lifespans there are developers that have released updated ROMs that can be installed anyway.

Originally Posted by cubist

Like Linux, new versions of Android come out frequently. From the developer standpoint, this adds up to a fairly fragmented marketplace - what minimum version do I support? Do I have to detect the version, and code workarounds?

Are you a developer? This isn't that big of an issue. The same "problem" exists on the iPhone. Developers tend to support the minimum version that has the necessary APIs. Also, applications written for HTC phones definitely still work on Stock Android phones. Just like most Ubuntu applications will run in Fedora.

Originally Posted by cubist

The key problem is, imo, that the Android space is chaos, with phone manufacturers adding their own front-ends, their own apps, custom peripherals and so on, to differentiate their products. This is self-destructive and market-fragmenting. Either the market will mature, with a single clear leader (e.g. Ubuntu in the Linux space), or it will continue to be a complete mess, with a happy minority of tweakers and a majority of very unhappy users.

Ubuntu is far from a single clear leader. It's just the most popular for consumers. HTC's frontend is basically the Ubuntu of Android. It's built up with social networking and all kinds of nice and fancy things embedded. It's pretty nice. That said, the "standard" is just stock Android.

Also, there is not a majority of unhappy users... That's just a flat-out lie.

Originally Posted by cubist

Google has apparently abdicated rulership of the Android space, so for the near term, I don't think Android devices will compete effectively with the iPhone or iPad.

iPad and iPod. No. iPhone... They already have.

Since this thread is about an "iPod killer" I'll comment on that.

There is no way. No Android device is going to "kill" the iPod. Apple does music well. They do music VERY well. Integration with iTunes and a sleek and intuitive player are key for success and Apple has both down pat. Not to mention they are so embedded in the market that iPod is the new word for MP3 Player.

[ViViDboarder]

Originally Posted by Tmacfan4321

Ultimately, with Gingerbread (3.0 update), Google will try to build a superior UI to all of the skins and basically eliminate fragmentation by exerting some sort of power over the manufacturers. I hope that it happens, because all of these different added on UIs aren't as good as stock Android.

I am a fan of the stock Google UI (AOSP) over anything else. I am one of the happy tweakers in the Android community. I run CyanogenMod 6 (Froyo/2.2) with AOSP on my HTC Incredible.

Google needs to exert some sort of force over the manufacturers and make them stop putting UIs on their phones. Otherwise, I will be forced to buy the Nexus Two, or whatever they put out next for 3.0.

I really don't think that this is going to happen. Android is Open Source and it's built so that it can be modified by handset makers. I really don't want that to stop because some great features and ideas come from things these manufacturers come up with.

I have an EVO and I was hesitant at first to drop Sense UI for CyanogenMod 6 as well. My previous Stock Android experiences on my parents Samsung Moments were not very good. 2.2 is fantastic!

I believe in dissuading manufactures from creating alternate UIs by just making the stock one so good that it's not worth it. As for forcing... I think that'd be against the philosophy.

[ftaok]

Originally Posted by ViViDboarder

I really don't think that this is going to happen. Android is Open Source and it's built so that it can be modified by handset makers. I really don't want that to stop because some great features and ideas come from things these manufacturers come up with.

I have an EVO and I was hesitant at first to drop Sense UI for CyanogenMod 6 as well. My previous Stock Android experiences on my parents Samsung Moments were not very good. 2.2 is fantastic!

I believe in dissuading manufactures from creating alternate UIs by just making the stock one so good that it's not worth it. As for forcing... I think that'd be against the philosophy.

The handset manufacturers will never let go of their custom UIs because it's the only thing that they have to differentiate themselves from the competition. If everyone was forced to use the stock Android UI, what would be the difference between a Moto phone and an HTC phone? They would just compete on specs ... at which point, the manufacturers would be even more dependent on the carriers.