Consumer Preference for iPhone and Android Returns to Neck-and-Neck Race

[KnightWRX]

Absolutely true ... once again, a flawed survey (or should I say, a flawed set of choices by vendors).

Absolutely true, if not for the fact that it was debunked page 1. AT&T is a major carrier offering both iPhone and a top end Android phone. So what he says can't really be true now can it ?

I love posters who +1 people who were wrong and proven to be so.

 

[chugg]

I just wish Android was a bit more user friendly. There are parts of both OSes that I love and hate.

With Android, it just seems like I see people spending more time searching for ROMs, flashing firmwares, tweaking, over/underclocking CPUs, disabling GPS, disabling data, disabling push notifications, turning brightness to 0 just to get good battery life or an optimized OS. None of which is what I want to be doing with a phone. I thought the whole point of a smartphone with data was to stay connected?

With iPhone, the OS has gotten to the point where it just feels archaic. Nothing's unified. The notification system is AWFUL. And the whole in and out feel of apps despite the "multitasking" is just dated.

 

[MacinDoc]

Absolutely true, if not for the fact that it was debunked page 1. AT&T is a major carrier offering both iPhone and a top end Android phone. So what he says can't really be true now can it ?

I love posters who +1 people who were wrong and proven to be so.

Yes, AT&T offers both, but unless EVERYONE surveyed was with AT&T, the carrier bias persists.

 

[BC2009]

Absolutely true, if not for the fact that it was debunked page 1. AT&T is a major carrier offering both iPhone and a top end Android phone. So what he says can't really be true now can it ?

I love posters who +1 people who were wrong and proven to be so.

I suppose if you ran the survey with only AT&T customers in the US then you'd have narrowed it to a customer pool who has access to both iOS and Android devices. But I don't think that survey will play out well for Android just because AT&T's smartphone customer base was mostly converted to iPhone years ago and likely have contracts and few have yet to try the Samsung Galaxy S. In addition Apple has a good deal of lock-in on those iPhone customers.

So clearly the "Absolutely True" was a bit too "absolute" by that previous poster. But clearly we'll get a better gauge if they narrowed this survey to pools of customers who have had the choice of iOS and Android with their carrier for a significant period of time.

This survey would be best run with a non-US carrier who did not originally have the iPhone and later got the iPhone around the same time that Android phones were introduced. That way you negate the Apple lock-in effect for long-term iPhone carriers and you negate the Android lock-in effect with carriers such as Sprint and Verizon in the U.S.

The fact of the matter is that every survey/poll is flawed in some way. I still love the photo of President Truman holding the newspaper with the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" the day Truman was elected president. I'll bet somebody at that newspaper was fired for trusting the results of a poll and running the presses early.

 

[Radjin]

Devices or software

It's funny to read all the posts about Apple and Google when there is no comparison. Google made an OS that a number of device makers use and modify placing their own ads and apps on, where as Apple makes both the software and hardware.

Let's compare the number of iOS devices in the world to Android devices, then lets compare the number of iPhones to the number of each separate makes of mobile phone out there.

Hardware to hardware and software to software.

Until then numbers people throw out there really mean nothing.

 

[KnightWRX]

Yes, AT&T offers both, but unless EVERYONE surveyed was with AT&T, the carrier bias persists.

Stop moving goalposts. The guy I responded to simply said you could not get an iPhone and a top of the line Android phone on the same carrier :

Until you can get an iphone and the top of of the line android phone on the same carrier, Any comparison data doesn't have true relevance.

I proved him wrong with AT&T in the US, Bell/Rogers/Telus in Canada and there's probably tons of other examples elsewhere in the world. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised at moving goalposts on this forum though... *sigh*.

 

[SurfSpirit]

What About the MOST USED PHONE OS SYMBIAN?

Are Apple Afraid, MacRumors afraid? Symbian is the most used phone OS in the WORLD, why it isn't in the list? I prefer Symbian 9.4 to iOS because it does so much more for my needs, you can like it or not, but still is the most used smart phone OS used!!

 

[OllyW]

Are Apple Afraid, MacRumors afraid? Symbian is the most used phone OS in the WORLD, why it isn't in the list? I prefer Symbian 9.4 to iOS because it does so much more for my needs, you can like it or not, but still is the most used smart phone OS used!!

I asked on the first page if the survey was carried out in the USA.

The lack of any mention of Symbian confirms it probably was as Nokia has struggled to make any impact in the US smart phone market.

 

[maflynn]

Honestly, I'll be a bit surprised if Android manages to keep (or grow) its share of votes as "first choice" for a cellphone OS.

Everywhere I turn, I see people dissatisfied with their Android-based phones!

That's opposite to what I've found.

First off, I'm, a satisfied android owner, and the people I know (there's quite a few) are personally happy with theirs.

conversely, my wife, and co-workers who bought the iPhone 4 are unhappy because of the antenna issue and proximity sensor.

 

[starnyc]

with google essentially copying apple's multi-touch iPhone user interface, you should really count the two as one entity versus the rest of the playing field. The whole space that Apple/Google occupies now is Apple's to own later. Think iPod.

 

[Zepaw]

Makes sense to me. I loved my iphone 4 i had this summer but I am LOVING my Droid X on Verizon. Even if they do get the rumored iphone this january I will almost certainly stick with my droid. It makes me realize how closed the iphone really is.