Verizon iPhone Surge Yields First Slip in Android U.S. Sales Share in Two Years

[Eric374]

seriously? so does Apple, where's your outrage?
how much is OSX again? maybe it would just be easier if you listed all the Apple software that is priced around $1.10

How much is Windows Ultimate??? $320. How much is OSX? $129 for the boxed set that includes Snow Leopard, iLife and iWork. Which is the better deal? OSX hands down, because I can still run that on my 5 year old machine. Can't say that for Windows.

On the Android side, how many Android phones that are selling now as new are running the latest version of Android?

 

[Dbrown]

Well if it's a platform war, Android is getting seriously spanked by iOS. The iOS platform is holding its own in smartphones and still growing in market share and in dedicated media players, portable media players, and tablets, it isn't even a contest. The iPad, Apple TV, iPod Touch and all the rest of the products on the iOS platform are seriously spanking the crap out of the Android alternatives.

That's one of the reasons why the big developers concentrate more on the iOS platform than Android.

Now did that register or are you just in denial?

The only people who lump in tablets and PMPs into the platform are apple lovers who are in denial. Everyone else separates them by device. Smartphones are compared to smartphones. Tablets to tablets, etc.

 

[DeathChill]

The only people who lump in tablets and PMPs into the platform are apple lovers who are in denial. Everyone else separates them by device. Smartphones are compared to smartphones. Tablets to tablets, etc.

But that's what the iOS platform is: an OS that runs on tablets, PMP's and phones.

The people who care about the platform are developers, which are kind of important to everyone who uses the platform.

 

[Dbrown]

But that's what the iOS platform is: an OS that runs on tablets, PMP's and phones.

The people who care about the platform are developers, which are kind of important to everyone who uses the platform.

Great. But that doesnt mean that tablets and PMPs should be lumped with smartphones when you're comparing smartphone OS.

 

[DeathChill]

Great. But that doesnt mean that tablets and PMPs should be lumped with smartphones when you're comparing smartphone OS.

But there is no such thing as a 'smartphone OS' for iOS. The OS runs across three devices (four if you include AppleTV). Just like there's no laptop OS for Windows or Mac OS X.

 

[neko girl]

But there is no such thing as a 'smartphone OS' for iOS. The OS runs across three devices (four if you include AppleTV). Just like there's no laptop OS for Windows or Mac OS X.

Of course there is. iOS runs on two currently available Apple smartphone models: 3GS and 4. The iOS that runs on these phones is sufficiently different in feature sets from the iOS that runs on Tablets, media consumption devices, and Apple TVs:
-Larger resolution on tablets
-Communications handled separately - No phone app or visual voicemail on Tablet or iPod Touch
-No installable apps on Apple TV

I think you already understand the differences. You just would like to lump everything together so that it seems that Apple still has dominant marketshare.

Pretty disingenuous use of statistics, if you ask me..

 

[DeathChill]

Of course there is. iOS runs on two currently available Apple smartphone models: 3GS and 4. The iOS that runs on these phones is sufficiently different in feature sets from the iOS that runs on Tablets, media consumption devices, and Apple TVs:
-Larger resolution on tablets
-Communications handled separately - No phone app or visual voicemail on Tablet or iPod Touch
-No installable apps on Apple TV

I think you already understand the differences. You just would like to lump everything together so that it seems that Apple still has dominant marketshare.

Pretty disingenuous use of statistics, if you ask me..

You are honestly trying to act as if slight hardware and software features and differences make it a completely different platform, regardless of whether or not it has an effect on applications? Seriously? That's like saying Android devices from different manufacturers can't be lumped together because of different resolutions or skins.

EDIT: Also, I was only mentioning that AppleTV technically runs iOS, not that it should be officially be counted.

The only thing disingenuous is to try and compare an entire platform against a single device in a platform and call it fair.

 

[bpaluzzi]

Of course there is. iOS runs on two currently available Apple smartphone models: 3GS and 4. The iOS that runs on these phones is sufficiently different in feature sets from the iOS that runs on Tablets, media consumption devices, and Apple TVs:
-Larger resolution on tablets
-Communications handled separately - No phone app or visual voicemail on Tablet or iPod Touch
-No installable apps on Apple TV

AppleTV isn't being counted. If it had apps, it would be. For now, while it's running iOS "under the hood", Apple and analysts aren't actually mentioning that or using it in counts.

And the differences between iPad / iPod / iPhone are orders of magnitude less than the differences between the ultra-high and ultra-low ends of what is being counted as Android "phones".

This whole "smartphone OS" is something dreamed up in the last few weeks by Android apologists, after the numbers showed that Apple has the most popular OS and the most popular piece(s) of hardware in the mobile industry.

 

[ChazUK]

And the differences between iPad / iPod / iPhone are orders of magnitude less than the differences between the ultra-high and ultra-low ends of what is being counted as Android "phones".

You do realize that there are a set of minimum requirements that an Android phone must adhere to to be granted access to Android Market?

I don't know how long you have been into Smartphones but smartphone marketshare has always been calculated this way, even in the old days of Symbian and Windows Mobile which also ran on non smart phone PDA's.PDA's were excluded from smart phone market share despite running the same OS.

"Smartphone OS" market share has been around before Android and iOS even existed as a platform and isnt some tool to belittle Apple's perceived performance in any way. Its just a metric in a sea of metrics that count things to different cirteria.

 

[bpaluzzi]

You do realize that there are a set of minimum requirements that an Android phone must adhere to to be granted access to Android Market?

Yup, and that's irrelevant to the discussion. Phones that aren't granted access to that market are still counted as Android devices.

I don't know how long you have been into Smartphones but smartphone marketshare has always been calculated this way, even in the old days of Symbian and Windows Mobile which also ran on non smart phone PDA's.PDA's were excluded from smart phone market share despite running the same OS.

"Smartphone OS" market share has been around before Android and iOS even existed as a platform and isnt some tool to belittle Apple's perceived performance in any way. Its just a metric in a sea of metrics that count things to different cirteria.

"Smartphone OS" is a totally meaningless metric. It's as useful as "laptop OS" versus "desktop OS". Yes, you can report on it, but it begs the question "why?". And the answer is (9 times out of 10) "to make us look good, even though we're losing the battle that really counts".

 

[ChazUK]

Yup, and that's irrelevant to the discussion. Phones that aren't granted access to that market are still counted as Android devices.



"Smartphone OS" is a totally meaningless metric. It's as useful as "laptop OS" versus "desktop OS". Yes, you can report on it, but it begs the question "why?". And the answer is (9 times out of 10) "to make us look good, even though we're losing the battle that really counts".

I'll agree with you that phones that don't include Android Market are included in total figures but the big players in Android are the likes of HTC, Motorola, LG, Samsung e.t.c who all include access to Android Market, not to mention Google's 350,000 activations a day that all have access google services and in turn include the Market.

If people can't wake up to the fact that with regards to smartphone os market share, this is the way it's always been then that is their issue. Of course total iOS penetration can be counted in a different metric and there is nothing that anyone who wants to bash Apple can say to the massive success they've had. iOS is an unrivalled juggernaut as it stands today.

Where did you pluck your "This whole "smartphone OS" is something dreamed up in the last few weeks by Android apologists" Conspiracy from anyway? You must have had some basis to make that judgememt?

 

[bpaluzzi]

Where did you pluck your "This whole "smartphone OS" is something dreamed up in the last few weeks by Android apologists" Conspiracy from anyway? You must have had some basis to make that judgememt?

No, you're right -- this is something totally subjective (seriously, not being snarky here [for once ;-)] )

I've just noticed that in every report I've read that has an "android slant", the phrase "smartphone OS" has been used. Whereas before, it seemed to be just "mobile OS".

I'm the first to admit that I may be reading a bit into it here. Does look suspiciously like a conspiracy theory from the outside, I imagine.

However, that doesn't change my opinion that the figure that really DOES matter is mobile platform OS share, not smartphone share.

 

[dethmaShine]

Anyone?

 

[ChazUK]

No, you're right -- this is something totally subjective (seriously, not being snarky here [for once ;-)] )

I've just noticed that in every report I've read that has an "android slant", the phrase "smartphone OS" has been used. Whereas before, it seemed to be just "mobile OS".

I'm the first to admit that I may be reading a bit into it here. Does look suspiciously like a conspiracy theory from the outside, I imagine.

However, that doesn't change my opinion that the figure that really DOES matter is mobile platform OS share, not smartphone share.

No worries, i enjoy the discussions!

Developers should shun every single report of Androids smartphone marketshare as the only thing they should worry about is total os instal base, anything else shouldn't matter to them!

(The smart phone os market share figure is used by a lot of pro Android sites as chest thumping material I will say)