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Could the iPhone 4's Verizon release kill Android slowly?

yearofthe

yearofthe

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 23, 2010
160
0
Earth
I find Android popular, because of the wide variety of carriers.
But now that the iPhone is being released on a descent carrier finally, do you think Android will die slowly and painfully? I'm no fanboy or anything, but I'm just saying. Most advanced Android phones start at $199, same as the iPhone.
 
Android already has huge user base, and it will be difficult to kill it unless google messes it up like Rim. It's all about innovation. Apple can take some market shares from Android for sure. A lot of Verizon users have been asking for iphone and we will see how it goes. I am sure it will do very well.
 
I believe it will kill the droid iphone clones out there
maybe it will push droid into another direction to capture a different crowd.
 
No. Android is a solid OS, with a solid following. It's not going anywhere.

What I do think, though, is for a while it will see drastic growth drop. Then as people either adopt, change, etc, their allegiances again on the CDMA side (face it... we all do it) then we'll see it start to bounce back a bit.

I do think we wont see it exploding as much as it has been, though.
 
There is a lot more Android phones sold world wide that just on Verizon. AT&T knew the iPhone was coming to an end hence the reason you see them finally caring some more high end Android phones instead of really lagging behind everyone else.

Verizon is still pushing some more new high end Android phones as well and by the looks of things they are going to treat the iPhone as just another phone.
For AT&T the iPhone is getting reduced to just another phone status for them.
 
The biggest problem with Android is a fragmentation. They are so unorganized and messy. Apple takes care of both hardware and software on iphone. Google? No. They take care of software... well kind of, because samsung and others mess it up with their own skins and release the hardwares.

This has to stop. For example, there are tons of android users out there who still don't even have Android 2.2 froyo yet while google just released 2.3 gingerbread. In worst cases, you will have to install XDA version or buy a whole new phone. My biggest problem with android always has been software update. Because you don't know when you will be getting one unless you get nexus phones.


Bottom line, Android will see decline in growth, but they better do something about that messy updates in software. Tons of galaxy S users in US are pissed off because no one has official software of 2.2 yet.
 
digitard said:
No. Android is a solid OS, with a solid following. It's not going anywhere.

What I do think, though, is for a while it will see drastic growth drop. Then as people either adopt, change, etc, their allegiances again on the CDMA side (face it... we all do it) then we'll see it start to bounce back a bit.

I do think we wont see it exploding as much as it has been, though.
Click to expand...

As far as the US is concerned, I think you have nailed it.
 
I think many of you are underestimating Android. I don't believe the Verizon iPhone will kill the OS, but seriously stun it's growth. Especially in the US market where Verizon was the carrier that really pushed it. I really hope Android advances and I hope the best for webOS. Remember people, competition is great for the consumer.
 
While the competition is good and just as much as I want both platforms to survive, I really want google to do something about their stupid and awful software updates. Do not allow manufacturers to skin the android. Or make them release software updates fast. Because they just blame each others and carriers on updating software and leaving customers in cold feet. I hate Android for awful service.
 
I dont even it see it making a difference right now because to me atleast, the iPhone is a whole different device than an Android.
The implementation and user experience is entirely unique, considering a lot of people with iPhones use Macs and other Apple products...the whole experience and echosystem really pull it all together.

However Im sure there are comparable and identical functions with Android based phones but nothing quite like Apple's.

The droids in my opinion are too saturated...if Google wanted to make an impact and buckle down to take control over the entire device itself then you may see more of a 'black & white' iphone vs droid situation.
 
Newton,
It's not so much a side by side, but a "did they go Android because the iPhone wasn't an option".

One of the big selling points people tend to say to others, that aren't crazy on the tech side, is "it's just like an iPhone". I've heard it DOZENS of times from people. They point out things that are similar to the iPhone, and things that the iPhone can't even do yet.

So on the people side you're going to have a similar situation. How many people went Android, or considered it, because they couldn't go iPhone? Probably a good amount.

So you're going to see a swing from early android adopters, and future sales as people actually have that choice and aren't trying to fill functionality w/ the best option on the carrier.

Is Android solid? Yes.
Do most know that? Yes
Are there large amounts who would've, or did, gone to Android because the iPhone wasn't available? Yes

I think we'll see Android churn because of it for sure.
 
iOS has not killed anything yet. Android is not going anywhere.

Google would do a huge service to Android users by mandating certain rules such as mandatory upgrades for X years and they must be released within a specific time frame. However it defeats the entire reason behind Android which is openness.

Competition is a great thing. This will continue to motivate Google, a company with great resources and some of the smartest minds in the world like Apple has, to do an even better job with Android going forward.
 
hcho3 said:
The biggest problem with Android is a fragmentation. They are so unorganized and messy. Apple takes care of both hardware and software on iphone. Google? No. They take care of software... well kind of, because samsung and others mess it up with their own skins and release the hardwares.

This has to stop. For example, there are tons of android users out there who still don't even have Android 2.2 froyo yet while google just released 2.3 gingerbread. In worst cases, you will have to install XDA version or buy a whole new phone. My biggest problem with android always has been software update. Because you don't know when you will be getting one unless you get nexus phones.


Bottom line, Android will see decline in growth, but they better do something about that messy updates in software. Tons of galaxy S users in US are pissed off because no one has official software of 2.2 yet.
Click to expand...

The State of Android Froyo Updates Isn't Pretty
500x_androidupgrades.jpg



I couldn't agree more. I don't know if this is true or not just heard that the carriers have to pay Google to get updates that's why so many phones aren't getting updates or the carriers are taking there sweet time updating those phones.

I understand that you can root your Android phone to get an update,but I think that worst that having to jailbreak just to get apps.
 
iPhone on Verizon will not kill Android but will certainly squeeze it thin, at least in the near future. Verizon has way too much invested into Android and they have a lot more control over Android's agenda than they will ever have on the iPhone, so they will keep it alive. I can see a future where Android becomes the ubiquitous, commodity "Windows" type of device (with the requisite "high specs list" and mediocre software), while the iPhone will be the exclusive, polished "Mac" type of device. Neither will go anywhere but we will see Android becoming a lot cheaper to compete and increase market share (similar to how Window's beige boxes today are a lot cheaper than Macs).
 
It will most certainly stunt Androids growth- a large number of users with expired contracts will choose iPhone first. If the iPhone were on all 4 carriers then yes, Android's death would occur rapidly. If it were to kill Android it would take a few years as everyone's upgrades to become available. This should be giving Android a wake up call - fix fragmentation and differentiate itself from copying Apple.
 
I hope so, because then google will be forced to innovate more....which will force apple to innovate even more.

I think we will see more progress in smartphone's in the next 2 years, then we have in the last 5, which is great for the consumer.
 
Well, I don't think this will put any big hurt on android at all to be honest, at least not as much as everyone thinks. Android has a pretty solid base of users who really like it. Most of the people I know who have droids wouldn't even consider going to an iPhone. That's not to say that others wouldn't, just that not everyone bought an android phone because iPhone wasn't an option. I was in an att store a few weeks ago and heard a lady specifically wanting "some kind of droid". There are to many people out there who like to customize things and have control over there devices to much to switch over to the iPhone. iPhone is a great phone, but android has it's appeal.
 
At the Droid forums, there was a poll that a user started, and about 23% of the members would get the iPhone, while over 50% would stick to Droid. I forgot what the other percentage is for.

Obviously, this doesn't say much, cause these members are in love with their droid phones, and that its a small group of people being asked this. But, it should give a somewhat good insight on the future of Verizon, iPhone, and Android.
 
I think Android will kill itself if Google doesn't do something about it.

First off is the fragmentation. Yes people will say "iOS is fragmented!" but not to the extend of Android and anyone who says otherwise is wrong. I wont even bother arguing that again on this forum.

Second, there should be a minimum hardware requirement to run Android so that the OS can get at least some kind of consistent user experience. This will greatly help Android be a more credible development platform and lets face it, you can have the best OS but without great apps its nothing. There are many phones out there that just simply aren't powerful enough to run a lot of the features of the OS.

Third, Google needs to implement OpenGL ES 2.0 support.

Fourth, Some kind of singular app store. There are too many different app stores on android and its annoying. Very annoying.

Fifth, require OEMs to provide updates for 2 years or more after the release of a phone.

There are many more reasons I could list (the many fraud apps, etc)


What I find funny too is the amount of friends of mine who were all pro-android anti iPhone all sitting there now whining about how their original droids are so slow now while I play happily on my iPhone :p
 
Assuming that...

a.) Apple expands to T-Mobile and Sprint as well.

b.) Apple keeps up with it's rapid pace of upgrades to the iPhones that it has been recently (there was a pretty huge jump in specs from 3G to 3GS, an even larger jump from 3GS to 4, and it looks to be another large jump from 4 to 5 (dual core cpu and gpu etc).

Once Apple delivers on this...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1021233/

Andriod's marketshare will get eaten alive.
 
Android won't die as long as carriers are literally giving phones away. Same thing is going on with Windows-based PCs on the bargain basement end versus the low-end Macs. People are so worried about that extra few hundred bucks up front and then complain about this problem and that problem. I have no clue how good or bad Android is, but if you are given a phone for free, exactly what do you expect out of it?

The fragmentation issues will probably hurt Android more than iPhone competition itself. This is what kills Windows reliability and is what helps Macs be so reliable. Apple knows what hardware it is supporting with its software and also doesn't need to support 15,000 different little pieces.
 
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