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I've used Blackberries, iPhones, and Android phones during the last four and a half years. In my subjective opinion, the iPhone is the best platform for my personal and professional needs. I went from iPhone to Android a little less than a year and a half ago, and I switched back to the iPhone two months ago.

My initial fondness for Android wore off quickly after the Droid X I was using began to reboot randomly during calls or just while the phone was in standby. If my experience with the Droid X says anything about Android as a whole, fragmentation is a HUGE problem for the platform and it was very, very frustrating to endure. I would wait for Android OS updates which had been available months earlier for other handsets that were released at the same time or before the Droid X was.

My first experience having to wipe the phone (as a possible solution to the rebooting problem per VZW) wasn't a positive one. Unlike the polish I was used to with iOS (where text messages and call history are backed up with everything else in iTunes), I discovered that I had lost every last one of my text messages and my entire call history because I didn't download a third-party app from the Android Market to back those things up. C'mon, it's 2011 and the capability to back up SMS's and call history isn't built into the OS?!?

The last straw was a few months ago after my second "wipe the phone and reload everything" adventure. For a few weeks following the wipe and reload, the phone worked well; but soon after, the phone began to reboot on its own a few times a week. I know it's great for many folks, but my experience with Android left a sour taste in my mouth that I won't soon forget.
 
Really, looking at the chart in the OP, I see 2009 - 24%, 2010 - 21%, 2011 - 29%...

Maybe you need to look at more than 1 year's "growth" when the prior year had a "decline" ?

Again, percentage charts are not indicative of overall market growth. They just tell you the story in a static way. Number of units sold would tell a much more worthwhile tale.

Ok, I won't argue that. Apple has--again--doubled the number of phones sold this year over what they sold last year. Sure, '09-'10 saw a 3% overall drop but '10-'11 saw 8% overall growth, more than making up for the prior year's relative (but not actual) losses.

We both know that the market itself is still growing; Apple's iPhone broke open the market and almost all the growth in the past 5 years has been due to iPhone and the Android phones. I knew fairly early on that the pricing structure around the Android phones would drive high sales; but I also know that quality will eventually balance quantity and when the two level out, the ratio will probably remain about 2:1 Android over iOS.

What neither of us can know right now is what, if anything, the Windows phones will do to the market. Personally, I see WP's potential, but it's having to fight an abysmal reputation. I think Microsoft came out with too little-too late. I think Windows tablets are going to fight that same battle. We'll simply have to wait and see.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.1; en-gb; Galaxy Nexus Build/ITL41F) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

I dont know why people are trying to bash Apple's numbers. The Android share is split between at least Samsung, HTC, Motorola, LG (and more).

The figures look great for Google but not as good for the OEMs as Apple has 100% control in its stake of the U.S (and worldwide) Market.

Very true.

But this is the reality of licensing to OEMs. Anyway, In order to proliferate their ad-based business they're going to spread Android around to as many OEMs and possible.

----------

No no. They've meet the necessary requirement for innovation (more sales, as you like to say), while iOS can barely keep up.

Your opinion, not mine.
 
Interesting to see all the hand me down iphones still in use. At then end of the day, I still prefer to use a rooted 4G android and can't wait for the 4G Nexus!!
 
Not surpised

I'm not surprised that RIM has fallen so far. My wife has a BB and that thing is a piece of crap. My iPhone can do so much more and so much easier.
 
I think that a large percentage of consumers who are buying their first smart phone aren't tech savvy enough to compare the operating systems. They pick their carrier, phone brand, and phone model based on price, hardware, and advertising, and accept whatever operating system the phone comes with.
 
I can only say to people here that of the three people I work with who had iPhones (other people had other brands) All of those three people have since upgraded to Android phones.
No-one I know has changed from a high end Android phone to an iPhone.

They were all happy to get away from iTunes. In fact one guy is looking to buy a Samsung tablet. I did ask about getting and iPad, but he told me he did not want to have to be locked into iTunes again (as he was with his phone a year ago) and didn't want to back down that road.
Now he's experienced being able to do as he wants with his phone, he wants the same freedom from his tablet.

I do wonder, if a percentage of people will do this?
 
I'm not surprised that RIM has fallen so far. My wife has a BB and that thing is a piece of crap. My iPhone can do so much more and so much easier.
Depends what context you are talking about. If the BB your wife has has a qwerty keyboard, how on earth does it trump the touchscreen typing?

My experience with the Bold 9700 was pretty satisfactory. Great step up from any bog standard candy phone and does communication just as well as the iPhone. Being a tech-person, I had to give in to the iPhone 4 when it released as I had no use of the Blackberry's more plus points (BB-Messenger etc). If I had to swap my iPhone, I'd have RIM over Android anyday.

As KnightWRX said, the graph shows a very narrow view of the realistic picture. Even though RIM may have had a reduced "share", their year-on-year sales based on units could still be the same.

I really fear for any Windows Mobile recovery. Again, I've barely seen many WM7 adverts around since launch and Nokia's attempt seems pretty weak so far at selling their WM7 devices. They seem pretty sleak as I had a play with one in Westfields at one of their advert stands but the OS is very strange. Whether I'd like to use it day-in day-out.... who knows. Especially when I'm quite deep into Apple's ecosystem.
 
The chart may be about smartphones, but some of the discussions are about iOS vs Android.

That's because people want to persuade others that only their choices are good. Don't even know what they get out of that.

Call me excited if Apple would pay me for liking their stuff, otherwise it works, so who cares?

To me both platforms are obviously viable with both having good an bad parts that need improving.

Small minded for wanting for one to destroy the other. Only if they challenge each other will we get better products, system software etc.

That's the correct way to look at it.

Sad to see how once dominating companies (Motorola/Nokia/RIM) had no foresight or clue what would hit them when.
 
Lol... So much arguing...:eek:

It's definitely Android vs iOS, each one dominating its own market. The rest will eventually fade away forever.

Both will coexist, there's enough world for both of them.
Just like Pepsi vs Coca Cola, Burger King vs McDonald's, Kmart vs Walmart.

The only way for one of them to dominate would be for the other one to make a huge mistake that would cause people to change their mobileOS preference.
 
Uh ? Are you making stuff up ?

The iPhone has currently 3 models on the market, 2 of which are priced under 100$, one which is free (much better than BOGO). And the iPhone 4S starts at 199$ (159$ in Canada actually).

And again, the best selling Android models aren't the cheap ones. The Samsung Galaxy S II managed to sell 5 million units in 85 days when it launched, and it didn't launch as a BOGO deal on carriers.

Yes, Apple is selling an iPhone 3GS (two generations out of date) and the iPhone 4(one generation out of date) as the "free" and "low priced" iPhones. Otherwise, the iPhone 4S is the single premium device.

Terrific supply chain management with long production cycles and maintenance of high margins.

Wanna guess what happens to the N. American market when the iPhone 5 shows up? I'll take a stab at it:

Lots of Android users that "required" LTE and 4G will become switchers as their respective contracts expire, while few iPhone users will make the switch to Android. It will be liking clubbing baby seals...

All about the dynamic ecosystem that Apple has in place.

We'll see who's right at this time next year...
 
I can only say to people here that of the three people I work with who had iPhones (other people had other brands) All of those three people have since upgraded to Android phones.
No-one I know has changed from a high end Android phone to an iPhone.

They were all happy to get away from iTunes. In fact one guy is looking to buy a Samsung tablet. I did ask about getting and iPad, but he told me he did not want to have to be locked into iTunes again (as he was with his phone a year ago) and didn't want to back down that road.
Now he's experienced being able to do as he wants with his phone, he wants the same freedom from his tablet.

I do wonder, if a percentage of people will do this?
Again, if these people aren't very tech savvy, there's loads of misconceptions, misunderstandings and user-errors which cause the frustrations. On the counter, I've converted 3 members of my family to Mac/iPhone's because PCs and other mobiles were too complicated to use.

How difficult is it import your own content into iTunes? You don't even need iTunes to run iOS devices anymore with iOS. Also, the freedom to use a phone/tablet on an open-sourced unit is the same a closed-sourced unit. They just operate differently. :D
 
It's not. In fact, it can't be, since vertical business models and horizontal business models are completely different, especially in practice.

That's irrelevant. You agreed that "sales are necessary" for innovation. iphones can't even satisfy your necessary requirement.

You need to stop contradicting yourself.
 
Not the BOGO free crap again :rolleyes: iPhone is being offered free, Android also, but then again, there are models of Android that sell for as much as top end iPhones. And frankly, those models are some of the best selling devices (Samsung Galaxy S II being a prime example).

.

I think you'll find that the 4S ***** on the Samsung Galaxy sII in all benchmarks... let alone the actual usability.
 
Fundamentally Flawed Report

This article isn't worth discussion. The report is fundamentally flawed.

"According to The NPD Group, a leading market research company, Android’s operating system (OS) share of smartphone sales grew to command more than half of the U.S. smartphone market (53 percent) from January through October 2011, as Apple’s iOS share grew to reach 29 percent of the market, and RIM’s OS share declined to 11 percent."

Android doesn't have a share a smartphone sales. Google doesn't sell Android.

This is akin to stating that Rolls-Royce has 30% market share in commercial airliners although Rolls-Royce only manufactures jet engines.
 
Again, if these people aren't very tech savvy, there's loads of misconceptions, misunderstandings and user-errors which cause the frustrations. On the counter, I've converted 3 members of my family to Mac/iPhone's because PCs and other mobiles were too complicated to use.

How difficult is it import your own content into iTunes? You don't even need iTunes to run iOS devices anymore with iOS. Also, the freedom to use a phone/tablet on an open-sourced unit is the same a closed-sourced unit. They just operate differently. :D

Forget simplicity, I was more inclined towards a device that would work every time I would turn it on. Same reason why I switched to Mac after about 17 years of dealing with Windows.

I chose the iPad over the other tablets for being a solid performer. Everything just simply works. If I feel trapped by it, I will Jailbreak it (so far, no need for that).

And I had already learned my lesson when I decided to buy the greatest Windows phone ever at that time (Touch Pro 2) over the iPhone. I'm still regretting it, dealing with that P.O.S. phone that already got replaced by T-Mo about 5 times. I'll get an iPhone as soon as I'm convinced that AT&T is not going to suck all my money with their 'friendly' data plans.
 
Lol... So much arguing...:eek:

It's definitely Android vs iOS, each one dominating its own market. The rest will eventually fade away forever.

Forever is a long time...

I'd be hesitant to count Nokia and Windows Phone out of the equation. From what I've read, seen, and heard you could make the case that Windows Phone's latest iteration is could arguably be called the "best" mobile OS out there. True, it doesn't have a huge App market, but Microsoft certainly has the money, the patience (see XBox), and the motivation to start winning marketshare from somebody.

Smartphones generally get replaced every eighteen months (far more frequently than desktop or even laptop computers.) That's something of a double-edged sword - as RIM has found out.

I'm betting the US smartphone will look very different two years from now. Thats a pretty safe bet. Predicting which company will have gained the most, and which have lost the most, is where things get complicated.
 
Yes, Apple is selling an iPhone 3GS (two generations out of date) and the iPhone 4(one generation out of date) as the "free" and "low priced" iPhones. Otherwise, the iPhone 4S is the single premium device.

Terrific supply chain management with long production cycles and maintenance of high margins.

Wanna guess what happens to the N. American market when the iPhone 5 shows up? I'll take a stab at it:

Lots of Android users that "required" LTE and 4G will become switchers as their respective contracts expire, while few iPhone users will make the switch to Android. It will be liking clubbing baby seals...

All about the dynamic ecosystem that Apple has in place.

We'll see who's right at this time next year...

I know more than one iPhone user who switched to Android (all so happy telling me about all the greatest things it does, etc.) and then back to iPhone while recognizing they made a mistake.
That won't stop people switching over, as people are curious by nature and want to try what they don't have, even if they regret it later.
 
Another pointless argument about quantity vs quality. Its not shocking that Android taking lion share of the market. You got ONE iPhone with ONE iOS and you got ONE android with....

Aava Mobile
Acer beTouch E110
Acer beTouch E130
Acer beTouch E400
Acer Liquid A1
Acer Liquid E
Acer Liquid E Ferrari
Acer Liquid Stream
Alcatel OT-980
Altek Leo
Apanda A60
BoostMobile i1
Chinavision The Robot Superphone CVNC-M80
Commtiva Z71
Compulab Exceda
Dell Aero
Dell Benzine
Dell Blaze
Dell Flash
Dell OPhone Mini 3i
Dell Smoke
Dell Thunder
Dopod A6288
Era G1
Facebook ?
Fly-ying Cool F910
Foxda FC8901
Fujitsu ?
Garmin A10
Garmin Garminfone
Geeks’Phone One
General Mobile Brava
General Mobile Cosmos
General Mobile Cosmos 2
General Mobile DSTL1 Imaginary

General Mobile Touch Stone
Gigabyte G1305
Gigabyte GSmart
Gigabyte GSmart Codfish
Gigabyte S1305
Google Ion
Google Nexus One
Haier H7
Haier Tapas
Highscreen PP5420
Highscreen Zeus
Hisense HS-E90
HKC Imobile v413
HKC Pearl
HTC Aria (Formerly HTC Liberty)
HTC Bahamas
HTC Bee
HTC Blitz
HTC Desire (Formerly HTC Bravo)

HTC Desire 2
HTC Desire HD (Formerly HTC Ace)
HTC Desire Z
HTC Dream
HTC Droid Eris
HTC Droid Incredible
HTC Droid Incredible HD
HTC Emerald
HTC EVO 4G (Formerly HTC Supersonic)
HTC Fiesta
HTC Glacier
HTC Halo
HTC Hero

HTC Hero 2
HTC HSPA+ Android
HTC Huangshan
HTC Lancaster
HTC Legend
HTC Lexicon
HTC Liberty
HTC Magic
HTC Memphis

HTC Merge
HTC Paradise
HTC Predator
HTC Salsa
HTC Sapphire
HTC Schubert
HTC Scorpion
HTC Speedy
HTC Tattoo (Formerly HTC Click)
HTC Tianyi
HTC Vanguard
HTC Vision
HTC Wildfire
Huawei Ideos U8150

HTC Merge
HTC Paradise
HTC Predator
HTC Salsa
HTC Sapphire
HTC Schubert
HTC Scorpion
HTC Speedy
HTC Tattoo (Formerly HTC Click)
HTC Tianyi
HTC Vanguard
HTC Vision
HTC Wildfire
Huawei Ideos U8150
Huawei CHT8000
Huawei Movistar IVY
Huawei RBM2 Der Allrounder
Huawei U8100
Huawei U8110
Huawei U8220
Huawei U8226
Huawei U8230
Huawei U8300
Huawei U8800
i-mobile 8500

Innocomm Skate
Innocomm Shark
INQ^1
INQ Chat 3G
INQ Mini 3G
Koolu Freerunner
Kyocera ZIO M6000
Lenovo LePhone
Lenovo OPhone
LG Ally
LG Andro-1
LG enV Touch 2
LG GT540 Optimus
LG GT540 Swift
LG GW620 Eve
LG GW620 Linkme
LG GW880 Amundsen
LG GW880 Etna
LG InTouch Max
LG KH5200
LG KU9500 Optimus Z
LG Loop
LG LU2300 Eclipse
LG Optimus Chic
LG Optimus One with Google
LG Optimus Q
LG Optimus Z
LG Prada 3
LG SU950

LG Vortex
Lumigon E1
Lumigon S1
Lumigon T1
Meizu M9
Motorola Backflip MB501 (Formerly Motorola Motus)
Motorola Charm MB502 (Formerly Motorola Basil)
Motorola Citus WX445
Motorola CLIQ MB200 (Formerly Motorola Morrison)
Motorola CLIQ XT MB300 (Formerly Motorola Zeppelin)
Motorola Defy
Motorola Devour A555 (Formerly Motorola Calgary)
Motorola DEXT
Motorola Droid A855 (Formerly Motorola Sholes)
Motorola Droid 2 MB810 (Formerly Motorola Shadow)

Motorola Droid 2 R2-D2 Edition
Motorola Droid 2 World Edition A956
Motorola Droid Pro A957
Motorola Droid X
Motorola Flipout MB511 (Formerly Motorola Ruth)
Motorola Heron
Motorola i1 (Formerly Motorola Opus)
Motorola Jordan
Motorola LaJolla
Motorola Milestone XT720
Motorola Milestone 2
Motorola Ming A1680
Motorola Ming MT810
Motorola Ming XT806
Motorola Mirage
Motorola MOTO Milestone XT701
Motorola MOTO MT710
Motorola MOTO XT800
Motorola Motoglam
Motorola Motoqrty

Motorola Motoroi
Motorola Quench
Motorola Sage (Formerly known as the Asena and Gallardo)
Motorola XT610
NTT DoCoMo ?
Openmoko GTA02
Oppo ?
Orange Boston
Orange Project JAL
Orange San Franciso
Orange Tactile Internet
Pantech IWA600S Sirius
Pantech Sirius Sky
Philips V808
Philips V900
Qigi i6
Russian Technologies ?
Samsung Acclaim
Samsung Apollo
Samsung Beam i8520
Samsung Behold
Samsung Behold II
Samsung Bigfoot
Samsung Captivate
Samsung Continum I400
Samsung Corby
Samsung Epic 4G
Samsung Fascinate SGH-I500
Samsung Galaxy

Samsung Galaxy 3 i5801
Samsung Galaxy 5 i5503
Samsung Galaxy A
Samsung Galaxy Apollo i5800
Samsung Galaxy Beam i8520 (Formerly Samsung Halo)
Samsung Galaxy i5510
Samsung Galaxy Lite
Samsung Galaxy Mini
Samsung Galaxy Naos
Samsung Galaxy Portal
Samsung Galaxy Q
Samsung Galaxy S
Samsung Galaxy S2 I9200
Samsung Galaxy S Pro
Samsung Galaxy Teos
Samsung Galaxy U
Samsung Gem
Samsung Houdini
Samsung i899
Samsung i5500
Samsung i5700
Samsung i6500
Samsung i7500

Samsung InstincQ m900
Samsung Intercept
Samsung M100S
Samsung Moment
Samsung Saturn
Samsung Spica
Samsung Vibrant
Sanyo ZIO by Kyocera
Saygus VPhone V1
SciPhone N12
SciPhone N16
SciPhone N17
SciPhone N19
SciPhone N21
Sharp IS01
Sharp LYNX SH-10B
Sharp Tapas
Sony Ericsson Infinity
Sony Ericsson PSP ?
Sony Ericsson Robyn
Sony Ericsson Sunny
Sony Ericsson Susan
Sony Ericsson Xperia X8
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro
Sony Ericsson Yendo
Sunno S880
T-Mobile G1
T-Mobile G1 Blaze
T-Mobile G2
T-Mobile G2 Touch
T-Mobile myTouch 2
T-Mobile myTouch 3G
T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide
T-Mobile myTouch HD
T-Mobile Pulse
T-Mobile Pulse Mini
T-Mobile Sidekick
Tianyu Tapas
Tiger G3
TWM T1
Ulysse Nardin Chairman
Vibo A688
Vodaphone 845
Yuhua Tel X2
ZTE Black
ZTE Racer
ZTE Smooth

Maybe copy and paste and some of the phones are not available on US market. Also sorry for waste of macrumors page but you got the picture...
 
I can only say to people here that of the three people I work with who had iPhones (other people had other brands) All of those three people have since upgraded to Android phones.
No-one I know has changed from a high end Android phone to an iPhone.

They were all happy to get away from iTunes. In fact one guy is looking to buy a Samsung tablet. I did ask about getting and iPad, but he told me he did not want to have to be locked into iTunes again (as he was with his phone a year ago) and didn't want to back down that road.
Now he's experienced being able to do as he wants with his phone, he wants the same freedom from his tablet.

I do wonder, if a percentage of people will do this?

That's a big issue with me. In fact one of the main reasons I would not get a Windows Phone 7 or an MP3 player like the Zune was because I would have been forced to install software for it. I rather be able to drag and drop into the memory, have everything organized in there the way I want it.
 
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