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Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S.

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Re: Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S.

#31

Post by Samuel_Michon »

TrevorFancher wrote: post #6

This is only interesting if you look at it the right way. The way I see it is that there are many manufacturers of Android phones, while every iPhone is manufactured by Apple. Also, every phone that runs iOS has specifications much more the same than that of every phone which runs Android. Apple's approach makes it easier for developers to get their app running consistently on as many devices as possible. http://giga…

Interesting stats, indeed. These are Nielsen's, but Yankee Group reported on the same thing a week ago -- the results are nearly identical.

"Subscriber migration to iPhone is a one-way trip" http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/07/27/not-great-news-for-go...

Re: Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S.

#32

Post by billybob »

billybob wrote: post #27
byoung2 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The integration point for Google's stuff is the cloud, not physical devices That may be part of the problem with loyalty to Android. If everything is in the cloud, there is nothing tying me to a Google device. When I got my Android phone, I put in my Google account and got all of my contacts from Gmail and Google Voice, etc., but that is nothing new, as I had the same thing on Windows Mobile, and I could get the same…

"That may be part of the problem with loyalty to Android. If everything is in the cloud, there is nothing tying me to a Google device." ...Which is exactly why I'd like to get a Google device. And to the loyalty point: you don't HAVE to keep all of your users if you're getting more by the boatload. If the lack of lock-in draws more users than your competitor's lock-in keeps from leaving, hooray! The whole concept of…

Or to put this in HN terms: lack of lockin = "fail faster."

Re: Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S.

#33

Post by nlanier »

old-gregg wrote: post #13
dlsspy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He has an iPhone, a Macbook, and a Mac Mini. He loves the fact that iTunes ties them all together, and wouldn't get a different phone because of it. I have a macbook, mac mini, iPad and formerly used an iPhone. iTunes was the worst part of that. I simply never plug any of that stuff into my computer unless I really need to get photos or something off of it. That's a usability pain. It doesn't help that I have more…

+1. I absolutely love my Nexus One (we have iPhones in our family) and I believe that N1 represents the "next generation" of mobile devices, if you will. iPhone is stuck in the past - it requires a computer to be fully operational: a few months ago we went overseas and I wanted to put more stuff on it to listen/watch on the plane, but the people we were staying with only had a Linux laptop - iPhone was as useful as b…

+1 This more or less mirrors what I just said. The Nexus One is a tragedy not because the phone itself is bad; in fact it is quite the opposite - The Nexus One is a tragedy because it is the best smartphone on the market and Google/HTC/T-Mob didn't bother to tell anyone about it.

Re: Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S.

#34

Post by fredwilson »

old-gregg wrote: post #13
dlsspy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He has an iPhone, a Macbook, and a Mac Mini. He loves the fact that iTunes ties them all together, and wouldn't get a different phone because of it. I have a macbook, mac mini, iPad and formerly used an iPhone. iTunes was the worst part of that. I simply never plug any of that stuff into my computer unless I really need to get photos or something off of it. That's a usability pain. It doesn't help that I have more…

+1. I absolutely love my Nexus One (we have iPhones in our family) and I believe that N1 represents the "next generation" of mobile devices, if you will. iPhone is stuck in the past - it requires a computer to be fully operational: a few months ago we went overseas and I wanted to put more stuff on it to listen/watch on the plane, but the people we were staying with only had a Linux laptop - iPhone was as useful as b…

i agree. i love my nexus one too. it got me off blackberry which iPhone never could

Re: Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S.

#35

Post by noodle »

gregholland wrote: post #10

Unfortunately, the Android Marketplace as well as the SDK still sucks for us developers. Buggy and inconsistent behavior across different devices; Bad performance (MotionEvent anyone?); The lack of paid apps in different countries and the prevalence of spammy crapware apps on the unregulated marketplace. I wonder if google will do anything to address these issues as Android gain a wider audience. Otherwise I can see…

this kind of sounds like a problem that could be solved by a good startup, no?

Re: Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S.

#36

Post by gregholland »

melling wrote: post #20

This trend was pretty easy to spot. Almost 6 months ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1129465 The problem is that developers are making a lot more money on iPhone apps. I've heard several developers complaining that their apps don't sell on Android. Will this eventually change?

I don't think it will change anytime soon.

1, The marketplace sucks compared to the app store in many ways. There are few ways to feature your apps on the marketplace vs apple which has the "what hot", "new and noteworthy", "top paid", "top grossing" categories. In comparison, the android marketplace doesn't.

2, On the apple app store, you are given more promotion room on your app page itself for more descriptive text and screenshots.

3, The android marketplace is FILLED with crap and spam apps, just go to the "whats new" section of your android marketplace and its filled with 95% crap-ware and those ringtone apps. There is no clear way for consumers to find good apps vs these garbage apps. This destroys the user's experience in the marketplace.

4, Related to above, the lack of regulation has fostered a system where comment spamming other apps's page and creating apps that does shady things with user's data is actually more profitable than creating quality apps. see here: http://tinyurl.com/2f3r4g9

5, There is a culture of "free" and "opensource" in the entire Android ecosystem and most apps are released for free or are ad-supported. Google seem to love this since if you use their ad system, they get a cut and therefore they don't seem to have an incentive to push paid apps to have wider availability.

On the other hand, I'm looking forward to what Meego and Win7MO will bring for us developers. I hope they will follow Apple's model of having tighter control over their app stores rather than the mess that the Android marketplace is.

Re: Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S.

#38

Post by bad_user »

el_chapitan wrote: post #11
bad_user wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No doubt android is an excellent platform, but the barriers to obtaining an iPhone seem relatively higher than android. That's a feature of Android, not something that just happens because of factors outside the control of Apple or Google.

Actually, it is something outside of the control of Google. Admittedly, they made the right choices to allow the OS to spread (I was going to say easier, but really they allowed it to spread at all). This didn't mean, however, that anyone else was going to pick it up and use it.

Picking up Android is only a matter of how open and capable it is.

Developing your in-house mobile OS is not easy or cheap. Companies like HTC/Motorola can't compete with Apple/RIM/Nokia only on hardware quality.

Most phones are Java ME enabled for that reason, but it's a shitty platform and everybody knows it.

Re: Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S.

#39

Post by paul9290 »

melling wrote: post #20

This trend was pretty easy to spot. Almost 6 months ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1129465 The problem is that developers are making a lot more money on iPhone apps. I've heard several developers complaining that their apps don't sell on Android. Will this eventually change?

I think there are two demographics. iPhone users already are used to buying music and have an iTunes account. It's a natural progession to buy apps. Android many probably hate iTunes and used p2p;

Other issues are...

- Google Checkout - Apps not being sold internationally - As noted above a messy marketplace; yet Google's focus is the web not apps.

Re: Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S.

#40

Post by Samuel_Michon »

melling wrote: post #20

This trend was pretty easy to spot. Almost 6 months ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1129465 The problem is that developers are making a lot more money on iPhone apps. I've heard several developers complaining that their apps don't sell on Android. Will this eventually change?

Don't forget that the iOS platform is more than just the iPhone. Of the 100 million iOS devices sold, 40 million were iPod touches and 3 million were iPads. So an app made for iOS can really travel.
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