Thread: Apple Tops Microsoft

Originally Posted by slackula

Anecdote time: I bumped into a friend 2 days ago who has had a Nexus 1 for a couple of weeks and he was raving about the damn thing. He would never buy an iPhone and he has always used Windows Mobile smartphones but I highly doubt he will ever buy another WinMo device now.

Exactly - Android caters, and is targeted, at the market of Windows fanbois, and tech dweebs that will never buy an iPhone - and as such cannibalizes the WinMo and 'other' market.

Absolutely no (or, insignificant) overlap with Apple's market.

If anything, Android users are more poised to eventually pick up an iPhone (and then stick with it), than the other way around. I have had 4 friends / clients who switched from iPhone to Android, touted to me how great Android was, and within 3 months (or less) switched back to an iPhone (in some cases paying a lot to do so, as they sold their prior iPhone, and initially paid an ETF to get out of their contracts, only to sign up for a new contract).

Let's just have current numbers speak for themselves:

iPhone triples Android in mobile market share | Apple - CNET News

Originally Posted by DaffyDuck

I have also happened to invariably have been right, historically, so I'm pretty confident in my ability to understand and foretell the market developments.

Interesting statistics and pretty graphs, but they don't seem to give the big picture.

New market research from The NDP Group confirms Android phones outsold the iPhone last quarter in the United States. RIM’s Blackberry OS remained at the top with 36%, while Android jumped to number two with 28%, followed by the iPhone OS at only 21%.

or

Google-powered Android phones and iPhones are both gobbling up market share. The combined worldwide market share of both operating systems reached 25 percent in the first quarter, up from 12 percent the year before, according to Gartner. The iPhone still has a bigger share, at 15.4 percent (up 5 points), but Android is catching up fast with 9.6 percent (up 8 points). All other smartphones lost relative share during the quarter, even RIM Blackberries, although they still grew in absolute numbers (see table below)

And best of all:

Google has rapidly polished the software, and phone manufacturers have responded: More than 50 phones made by more than 20 manufacturers in 48 countries now run the operating system, up from just three models a year ago. In the U.S., Android phones are on all four of the major carriers.
Consumers are starting to respond, too: According to the latest report from Gartner, an industry research firm, Android-based phones outsold iPhones in North America for the first time in the first quarter of this year. Compared with the year-earlier period, Android phone sales grew an eye-popping 707 percent.
And analysts think that Android is only getting started.
"In a couple of short years, they are going to be the No. 2 operating system in the world — with virtually no marketing," Will Stofega, a smartphone analyst with research firm IDC, said of Android, putting it ahead of the BlackBerry OS and Apple iPhone.

Yeah, that's sort of how I thought it was.

But no doubt Daffy is busy looking up his Apple Evangelism manual to contradict me, because he is "invariably right".

You aren't making a fair comparison. The iPhone OS runs on iPhones, WinMo and Android run on things other phone makers decide to run them on.

The phone makers aren't choosing between iPhone OS and another OS because iPhone OS isn't available to them; they are ditching WinMo in favour of Android and having seen the Nexus 1 I can understand why, it was a very slick looking thing with some nifty features.

I'm fairly certain that if iPhone OS was available to other phone makers they'd be manufacturing them - they'd be daft not to (the Chinese are doing it already, albeit illegally)..

But it's the free nature of Android as an alternative to iPhone that makes it attractive to them.

And it's the array of phone features (50 phones, 28 manufacturers and rising) that make them attractive to the user.

No doubt the iPhone is the single best selling phone model at the moment. As Daffy points out, the profit margin is pretty good as well, but that's what happens when you force people to use certain carriers, effectively giving them a monopoly.

Quids in all round - except for the consumer, of course.

I've seen the future.....

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

But it's the free nature of Android as an alternative to iPhone that makes it attractive to them.

You keep missing the point -- as Android is free, and will run on the same hardware WinMo runs on, it directly stole the entire market from Microsoft in a little over a year. The point is that this is a market that Apple had no interest in competing, as the 'commodity smartphones' are a market with razor thin margins. Look what smartphone makers all lost huge chunks of money last year, and which one did not.

I honestly could not care who has 'marketshare', if they lose money. Sure, they lose $10 a handset, but let me guess, they make it up in volume...?

Nokia, a global 'leader' when it comes to marketshare, experienced 90% profit losses, and has been posting losses since 2008. They are the marketshare leader, though.

Sony Ericsson - ditto, huge losses over the past several years, starting in 2008, with little change in sight.

....and these were/are the leaders.

Windows Mobile has just been in a death spiral since 208 as well.

.... and guess what was released in late 2007, and has been experiencing significant yearly growth since then? iPhone.

Yes, Android is jumping in that market, and it's obviously growing, as it is expanding into the space formerly occupied by WindowsMobile licenses - but that market space is limited, being at the #5 position.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

No doubt the iPhone is the single best selling phone model at the moment. As Daffy points out, the profit margin is pretty good as well, but that's what happens when you force people to use certain carriers, effectively giving them a monopoly.

Oh, right, because the iPhone is the first carrier locked phone to ever hit the market?

Plus, your statement applies only to the US - plenty of multi-carrier differentiation in every other country, where most consumers can choose from many carriers. Heck, buy your phone in Hong Kong, or Thailand, and it's unlocked by default. I use mine on AIS and TRUE, albeit I prefer TRUE.

Again, you're just showing how you are only arguing in a knee jerk fashion, with very little understanding of the market, market conditions, or even the business models in play.

Plus, your statement applies only to the US - plenty of multi-carrier differentiation in every other country, where most consumers can choose from many carriers. Heck, buy your phone in Hong Kong, or Thailand, and it's unlocked by default. I use mine on AIS and TRUE, albeit I prefer TRUE.

Oh purlease. Why should you ever be limited to a carrier because Apple decides? It's just another part of the control they exert over you. They decide which carriers you can use. They decide which apps you can use. They even decide which websites are OK to use, by dropping Flash support.

Yours, mate.

As for SIM-locked phones, don't buy 'em.

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"Flounce Flounce stamp stamp"

Show me THAT from Android!

ROTFLOL

Apple Unveils iPhone 4
Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone 4, a thinner version of the company's popular smartphone, as he looks to extend the company's momentum in the mobile market. It will cost $199 or $299 depending on storage.

Apple Unveils iPhone 4 - WSJ.com

Originally Posted by DaffyDuck

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Originally Posted by Butterfly

Apple Unveils iPhone 4

Originally Posted by Plan B

Yeah, pretty much.

Very authentic!

ROTFLOL!