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Apple Reportedly Retakes U.S. Smartphone Sales Lead from Android on iPhone 5 Strength
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I could be wrong but I think what a "smartphone" is is defined by its ability to have "smart" features like emailing, web-browsing, apps, etc., not the fact that it's sold with a data plan.
Someone could buy an iPhone at full-price and only activate a voice and text plan on it, and it would still be a smartphone. It's just that its "smart" features would only be available on Wi-Fi.
Some of the most popular Android phones are prepaid phones you can get for really cheap without a contract or data plan. People buy those as dumphones, they rarely do anything with them other than talking and texting. People who buy those weren't in a market for a phone like an iPhone, they just wanted a cheap basic phone.
Samsung revealed their sales numbers in court with Apple and (of the phones included), their best-selling Android device in the U.S. was the prepaid $179.99 Galaxy Prevail. This probably changed since the GS3's success but I'm sure those cheap prepaid Android 2.3 are still popular and I don't see why they wouldn't be included in those kind of charts. They technically are smartphones as well.
Apple will never increase the physical size of the iPhone. And iPhone Mini should be coming out soon.
Why do you care?
You prefer iPhone, good for you! As do I. I have lots of friends in my field (software developers, not sheep that follow trends) that do prefer Android, good for them! And most of us have used and developed for both platforms!
And why do I read these posts and worse, comment them! Shame on me!
As a developer, I'm rooting for iOS since it makes my life much easier (easier to develop for, more paying customers). Gave Android a chance, but it was no different than the old BlackBerry days. Don't let people tell you that device fragmentation is a myth.
And yes, my personal phone is an iPhone. Gotta be able to show off your work.
Good for you, but Android isn't going to die off or anything, you're only going to feel more pressure to put your apps on "that other platform".
Ie. you may not like Android, but it's just going to get more difficult to ignore it.
This is a proportion graph, not total sales. See "% Smartphone Sales Share" on the y-axis.
If the iPhone suddenly sells more, the Android line will drop even if Android sales don't actually slow down.
My wife has said she would love an iPhone the size of an iPod nano. I tend to think this is more where Apple will go rather than a larger size.
So the original iPhone wasn't a smartphone but a feature phone according to your definition. I agree. I'm not sure others will.
While I agree Apple makes the nicer device, a $900 telephone is a luxury item. A Ferrari is also worth the money, but it's still more money than most people are willing to spend on a mode of transportation.
In one of the towns I stayed in for a week this summer, there was one phone for the whole village. The next village over would walk an hour to come use it. The whole time I was there, I didn't see it get used even once.
Somehow, all the people managed to come across genuinely happy and friendly despite this glaring lack of iPhones.
The screen of the iPhone 5 is the largest one yet and its also selling stronger than its predecessors - so your friends don't seem to share the public opinion
A bigger screened iPhone is selling better than any other iPhone, and from that you somehow conclude that people don't like bigger screens?
I wish they made it slightly wider. The keyboard is too damn small for my slightly big hands. Oh well, I'm happy with Android. IMO Mac > Windows, iPad > Android Tablets, and High-end Android phones (S2, S3, Optimus, Nexus) > iPhone. I also feel iPhone needs a UI update. My Android runs buttery smooth, lets me fully customize from themes to system tweaks, and the app market is very similar.
What are you talking about? Every iPhone including the first could do all of those things, thus making them a smartphone...
After 5.5 years, I finally switched from the iPhone to the Galaxy S3 because of the screen size and the lack of innovation in iOS. The iPhone 5 and iOS6 were a big disappointment to me. I was hoping we were going to get the iPhone we were shown mock-ups for back in 2011 prior to the 4S. After using the Galaxy 3S for the past 2 weeks, I'm very pleased but would consider coming back to the iPhone if they actually make a larger screen and improve iOS. I still love my iPads and Macs, but feel that Android is taking the lead in the phone market.
Ditto to you, you should try a flagship Android phone and realize it is worth the money.
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I will buy whatever iPhone that has a larger screen without sharp edges. the phone is a beauty but very unconfortable to hold for long conversations.
Uh?
Why? Because the app store didn't exist? I said apps, not app store, which the original iPhone did come with. It was just shorter for me to write "apps" than to enumerate all the standard apps which people expect to come bundled with a smartphone.
AFAIK the smartphone "app store" concept didn't even exist before iPhone OS 2, so by your logic no smartphone ever existed until 2008.
It should be no surprise that the iPhone has only 0.4 market share here in Brazil. After all, we have the most expensive iPhone in the world. The 4S base model sells for US$ 1,000 (and that's after a steep price drop following the international release of the iPhone 5, which by the way is not available here yet).
Really? The original iPhone didn't have exchange email. No app store. No MMS.
It was a slick feature phone.
I seriously doubt these numbers are reliable. Just the sales of the the galaxy s3 and the note II combined already combined is more than the iphone. Not to mention the razr series is extremely popular on verizon.
KnightWRX had the best post about these types of comments. He believes (paraphrasing) that these posters are actually paid by Apple's competition to make Apple users look silly.
It's an amusing thought...
It is not really worth getting into an argument with Sam Craig. It is a form of entertainment for that lot.
The original certainly did meet the criteria of smartphones at the time. It did have "real" email and a "real" browser, "real" calendaring and other features not found on feature phones.
My Motorla KRZR had ''real'' email, ''real'' calendaring and other features... Did that make it a smartphone? Oh and it also had an online app store GetJar.com
Engadget didn't think the original iPhone was a smartphone either.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/the-iphone-is-not-a-smartphone/
It's a matter of opinion. And like I said - I didn't think my comment would be a popular one. That doesn't make my opinion any less worthy than others.
Regardless - Apple's sales lead in the US is impressive. Not too surprising - but impressive.