Apple and Android Gain Smartphone Marketshare at Expense of RIM and Microsoft

[firewood]

Apple competes in the low-end smartphone market as well.

In the U.S., a iPhone 3GS is double to triple the cost of a low-end smartphone. The mandatory cellular data plan over 2 years of phone use adds up to that. Some consumers are smart enough to figure that out and ignore the fake $0 or $1 3GS price tag. Then they just buy pay-as-you-go cards for an android, and do all their facebork time near free wifi.

 

[KnightWRX]

Oh So now I have to be tolerant of different cultures?

Yes. We're tolerant of you after all.

 

[Dmunjal]

You haven't been listening.

The category "smartphone" isn't meaningful anymore.

There are lots of people who are not interested in Android, iPhone, Windows phone, any kind of smart phone. These people just want to buy a cheap phone to make phone calls, and that's it. They aren't going to buy an iPhone or a Galaxy Nexus, because either of them is ten times too expensive if all you want is making phone calls.

But many of these people are now buying the cheapest Android phones. They buy them because the phone shop will push them, and they are cheap enough to use as a phone just for phone calls. Not as cheap as a dumb phone, but cheap enough that people don't care. And they look nicer. Given the choice of paying £60 for a phone that looks nice, makes phone calls, and does thousands of things that I don't care one bit about, and £20 for a phone that doesn't look nice, makes phone calls, and does dozens of things that I don't care about, I might as well buy the £60 phone.

And _that_ is what pushes Android market share up. Millions of people who buy a cheap Android phone, and who don't care about Android one bit.

And let's face it, any who says "let's face it" in their argument is just making a claim without any evidence or proof and hopes that the other side doesn't notice it.

I see a lot of people with iPhones who just use it for making calls, listening to music, and texting and don't even install any apps. Smartphones are cool so everyone gets one but not everyone needs one.

 

[JAT]

You're right. If someone feels they are better than others because of the phone they use, it's beyond embarrassment.

Nice strawman argument, and I'm really glad some other people agree with you, too. Voting system obviously works to prove who can think. Anything else you'd like to accuse people of saying when they didn't?

 

[lukarak]

First of all there isn't anything high end about the 3GS anymore. It's a low to midrange phone at this point. They give them away for free. There is nothing upper mid to high range about that. The iPhone 4 is $99 now. I guess you could call that midrange.

Just because it's an iPhone doesn't mean it's a high end phone. I can find plenty of Android phones that are just as "high end" as an iPhone. I'd put my Droid RAZR up against any iPhone if we want to talk about high end phones.

I list the specs, and you say that 'just because it's an iphone....'

If the 3GS, with its Cortex A8 CPU is a low end phone, what are all of the android phones with Arm11 cores? I clearly listed two representatives of both camps, and iphone 3GS is faster than both of them. And it has a better display. So it belongs above them in the hierarchy, how much it costs doesn't matter.

Once you start going into the Cortex A8 territory, you are already above the midrange phones, some sort of upper midrange. When you hit above 800 Mhz, it's clearly high end, with dual cores and A9 comprising the highest end of that range.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Nice strawman argument, and I'm really glad some other people agree with you, too. Voting system obviously works to prove who can think. Anything else you'd like to accuse people of saying when they didn't?

I would imagine that people who up voted my post agreed with me. Obviously they can think for themselves which really shouldn't be a problem, should it?

 

[gnasher729]

OS marketshare 2016 (by company, desktop & mobile combined, all versions):

MSFT: 65%
GOOG: 20%
APPL: 15%

Please. APPL is an oil company that went out of business several years ago. You are trying to talk about AAPL.

 

[JAT]

I would imagine that people who up voted my post agreed with me. Obviously they can think for themselves which really shouldn't be a problem, should it?

Obviously not since your post was incorrect. And inflammatory. And only posted in order to be inflammatory. Which is against the rules, known as trolling.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Obviously not since your post was incorrect. And inflammatory. And only posted in order to be inflammatory. Which is against the rules, known as trolling.

It was NOT trolling at all. Just because you didn't like it doesn't mean it's trolling. There are posts in this thread that prove exactly what I said. And now your defending it. Fine, that's your opinion which I respect.

 

[bassfingers]

hm, if you divide googles marketshare by the number of devices offered, and then you divide Apples by devices offered

uh oh, the average iPhone has >20x the marketshare as the average android. Ouch.

 

[Amarth]

Please. APPL is an oil company that went out of business several years ago. You are trying to talk about AAPL.

I stand corrected. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[BigChiefSmokem]

Blame Ballmer and his arrogance for WP7's results (or lack thereof) today.

Microsoft had their chance to grab hold of the universal-licensing scheme that Google employs today with impunity, but when Ballmer and the world was shown in 2007 what was to come he just laughed it off, thought it was all a big joke:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U

The result? More lousy WinMo iterations for the next three years.

Never mind being way too late in what is probably the most volatile market to have emerged over the last 10 years, WP7 is the very definition of waste and redundancy. MS has tried to position themselves somewhat away from the universal licensing model (which Android has already locked them out of) and toward the controlled, vertical model, but only halfway. Problem is, there is no unseating Apple from that position unless you can pull off another June 2007: namely, revolutionizing the segment entirely. MS hasn't even come close to doing that with WP7. It's a poor "me-too" effort somewhere on the level of the Zune/Zune HD.

There is absolutely no point for a company like MS, with THAT management, to try to beat Apple at the very game they have perfected utterly. Apple owns all the Platinum mindshare out there today, and does vertical integration like no one else.

Ballmer has painted MS into a corner, and will just pull Nokia in tow for the painful ride downward.

Further, with the amazing results Apple is experiencing in the tablet segment (being the de facto standard to beat) MS' late and rather questionable tablet efforts are also in doubt.

I registered to ask you one question.... what exactly is your agenda?

 

[Dbrown]

I list the specs, and you say that 'just because it's an iphone....'

If the 3GS, with its Cortex A8 CPU is a low end phone, what are all of the android phones with Arm11 cores? I clearly listed two representatives of both camps, and iphone 3GS is faster than both of them. And it has a better display. So it belongs above them in the hierarchy, how much it costs doesn't matter.

Once you start going into the Cortex A8 territory, you are already above the midrange phones, some sort of upper midrange. When you hit above 800 Mhz, it's clearly high end, with dual cores and A9 comprising the highest end of that range.

Give it up dude. He said low to midrange. iphone 3gs is exactly that. It has a 600mhz CPU, low res screen and 256mb RAM.

Mid range would be last years android phones which have 1ghz CPU, 512MB RAM and 800x480 screen.

 

[smoledman]

So the take on this is:

* Apple continues to skyrocket into uncharted territories of success known only to conquerors like Alexander the Great

* Android is flooding the market with cheap crap

* BBOS, Symbia are dying

* WinMo is dead

* WinPhone7 & Meego are stillborn

 

[Oletros]

So the take on this is:

* Apple continues to skyrocket into uncharted territories of success known only to conquerors like Alexander the Great

* Android is flooding the market with cheap crap

* BBOS, Symbia are dying

* WinMo is dead

* WinPhone7 & Meego are stillborn

Sometimes I'm convinced that some of those posts are written by Apple haters that are trolling

 

[linux2mac]

Blame Ballmer and his arrogance for WP7's results (or lack thereof) today.

Microsoft had their chance to grab hold of the universal-licensing scheme that Google employs today with impunity, but when Ballmer and the world was shown in 2007 what was to come he just laughed it off, thought it was all a big joke:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U

The result? More lousy WinMo iterations for the next three years.

Never mind being way too late in what is probably the most volatile market to have emerged over the last 10 years, WP7 is the very definition of waste and redundancy. MS has tried to position themselves somewhat away from the universal licensing model (which Android has already locked them out of) and toward the controlled, vertical model, but only halfway. Problem is, there is no unseating Apple from that position unless you can pull off another June 2007: namely, revolutionizing the segment entirely. MS hasn't even come close to doing that with WP7. It's a poor "me-too" effort somewhere on the level of the Zune/Zune HD.

There is absolutely no point for a company like MS, with THAT management, to try to beat Apple at the very game they have perfected utterly. Apple owns all the Platinum mindshare out there today, and does vertical integration like no one else.

Ballmer has painted MS into a corner, and will just pull Nokia in tow for the painful ride downward.

Further, with the amazing results Apple is experiencing in the tablet segment (being the de facto standard to beat) MS' late and rather questionable tablet efforts are also in doubt.

I thought Ballmer was "coming full guns?"

Ballmer on Tablets: We're Coming Full Guns
http://mashable.com/2010/07/30/ballmer-tablets-2/

Then again, you really can't believe anything he says:

"There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance." (Steve Ballmer - 2007)

Apple wins global smartphone crown (July 2011)

Apple competition is still flummoxed. Too effin hilarious!

 

[smoledman]

Sometimes I'm convinced that some of those posts are written by Apple haters that are trolling

What did I write that isn't fact?

 

[dgree03]

What did I write that isn't fact?

Your first and second statement in that post was utterly ridiculous.

Altho Apple will continue to sell phones by the boat loads, they aren't doing anything special.

Android releases low end phones, but they also release very high end phones also. "Cheap Crap" is a gross generalization

 

[smoledman]

Your first and second statement in that post was utterly ridiculous.

Altho Apple will continue to sell phones by the boat loads, they aren't doing anything special.

Android releases low end phones, but they also release very high end phones also. "Cheap Crap" is a gross generalization

Apple isn't doing anything special? Going from ZERO in 2007 to "King of Smartphones" by 2011? Selling 200K iPhones per day every day?

 

[dgree03]

Apple isn't doing anything special? Going from ZERO in 2007 to "King of Smartphones" by 2011? Selling 200K iPhones per day every day?

No they are not, They are doing thinks "Differently" than other mobile OS producers and hardware vendors. They sell phones, Android produces and OS for other Hardware vendors to make phones, Windows 7 does the same with more restrictions, etc.

Apple isn't the "King of Smartphones" they are merely another successful player in a market that is gaining traction over the "dumb phone" era. If you really wanted to go there, Nokia ships FAR more "smartphones" than apple.

 

[smoledman]

No they are not, They are doing thinks "Differently" than other mobile OS producers and hardware vendors. They sell phones, Android produces and OS for other Hardware vendors to make phones, Windows 7 does the same with more restrictions, etc.

Apple isn't the "King of Smartphones" they are merely another successful player in a market that is gaining traction over the "dumb phone" era. If you really wanted to go there, Nokia ships FAR more "smartphones" than apple.

Apple is objectively the "King of smartphones" for several reasons:

* they make 70% of mobile industry profits from just the iPhone compared to hundreds of competing models

* the iPhone 4S will sell far more then any other model of smartphone in only a partial quarter!

* 500K apps for iPhone alone compared to 300K for Android

 

[faroZ06]

I know it. They should've invested in Google. They made a car that can drive itself recently.

...which got hit by a guy who ran a red light. Probably while texting on his iPhone or something.

An Apple-powered car technology system would be the best just because it would work with Apple stuff well, but Google would also be good since Google tends to keep their software high-quality. Microsoft-powered....horrible.

 

[lukarak]

Give it up dude. He said low to midrange. iphone 3gs is exactly that. It has a 600mhz CPU, low res screen and 256mb RAM.

Mid range would be last years android phones which have 1ghz CPU, 512MB RAM and 800x480 screen.

I won't give it up, because it is not a low to midrange phone.

MHz isn't important on its own, you have to look at the architecture. And 3GS has the Arm Cortex A8 architecture, while many phones still use the previous one. And even there there's a division. There are 320x240 pix models, using Arm 11. That's the low end. After them come the 480x320 ones using Arm 11 cores, with maybe 256 mb of ram, some of them with 512, thats lower midrange, and then iphone 3GS with the same resolution, but bigger screen, an Arm Cortex A8 CPU, with a better GPU, with 8 GB of internal storage comes along. That's somewhere in the middle to upper midrange.

The entry into high end is somewhere around 1GHz cortex A8, 512 mb and a power VR 540, Adreno 205 or something similar. And on the top of that range you have dual cores, both A8 and A9 architectures, 768 or 1 GB or ram, 543 or mali 400 GPU's and so on.

 

[Dbrown]

The entry into high end is somewhere around 1GHz cortex A8, 512 mb and a power VR 540, Adreno 205 or something similar. And on the top of that range you have dual cores, both A8 and A9 architectures, 768 or 1 GB or ram, 543 or mali 400 GPU's and so on.

No, the entry into high end is dual core, period. Anything less than dual core is not high end, its midrange. Anything less than 1GHZ and 800x480 screen with less than 512mb ram is below midrange.