Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S.

gigaom.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 133 posts

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

#41

Post by matwood »

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…

Android and the N1 are a good combo. My problem with your statement is that other than activation the iPhone doesn't ever have to be plugged into a computer. Your example only shows that iPhone support on Linux is a not perfect, not that a computer is required. I download music and apps all the time directly to the phone, no computer required. My contacts, calendars and emails are all synced to the Google cloud that then syncs back to my mac.

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

#42

Post by tvon »

I wonder how much of a dent the iPod Touch would put into the numbers if it were counted.

On a related note, it seems an iPod Touch sized clone for Android would be a worthwhile device for a company to make (especially if it fit in all those iPod Touch running armbands). I hear news snippets here and there, but you'd think there would be a worthy competitor at this point... (there could well be one I'm not aware of, but a quick google didn't turn much up).

edit: Samsung YP-MB2 seems to be iPod Touch sized and "coming soon": http://androidcommunity.com/samsung-yp-mb2-poses-for-photo-2...

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

#43

Post by redrobot5050 »

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?

Also, sales of iPhones do not factor in sales of iPads and iPod Touches, which both run iOS and run Apps. DaringFireball.net tried some back of the envelope math a few days back and his claim is that "Android isn't there yet, but its catching up."

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

#45

Post by hop »

If you want a smartphone and are already with Verizon, T-Mobile or Sprint, you're options are pretty much limited to Android. When the iPhone expands carriers, probably next year when AT&T and Verizon move to faster LTE networks, it will be a different story. Verizon currently has 91.2 million customers and AT&T has 87 million.

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

#46

Post by jonknee »

andreyf wrote: post #37

I don't understand why people compare sales volume of iPhone to Android. Isn't that kind of like comparing MacBook Pro sales to Windows sales? People should either compare iPhones to Droids, or iOS devices to Android devices.

The iPhone is the only mobile phone running iOS so the only way to do market share for mobile phone operating systems means just counting the iPhone. If you're doing laptop OS marketshare it makes sense to just count Apple's laptops even though the same OS runs on other devices.

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

#47

Post by josefresco »

hop wrote: post #45

If you want a smartphone and are already with Verizon, T-Mobile or Sprint, you're options are pretty much limited to Android. When the iPhone expands carriers, probably next year when AT&T and Verizon move to faster LTE networks, it will be a different story. Verizon currently has 91.2 million customers and AT&T has 87 million.

Will it? I'm not so sure. The few million left who don't have an iPhone aren't enoungh to slow androids snowballing (with increasing speed) growth. For consumers now, a full touchscreen smartphone is enough, they don't care what OS it has. The ones that do are AT&T customers already.

The real question now that android is the 'windows' of the mobile world is where will Win phone 7 fit in the landscape? Premium offering to compete with Apple? Or a consumer OS like desktop windows that will go against Android

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

#48

Post by awad »

tvon wrote: post #42

I wonder how much of a dent the iPod Touch would put into the numbers if it were counted. On a related note, it seems an iPod Touch sized clone for Android would be a worthwhile device for a company to make (especially if it fit in all those iPod Touch running armbands). I hear news snippets here and there, but you'd think there would be a worthy competitor at this point... (there could well be one I'm not aware of,…

I'm totally ignorant of the Android landscape but does it have a music player than can rival the iPod app music + iTunes syncing of an iPod Touch?

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

#49

Post by credo »

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?

As an iPhone developer (who occasionally gets requests for Android ports), my assessment is that the Android-revenue issue isn't going to change much in the short-term.

As for the total Android vs. iPhone sales numbers, I think two factors will play a significant role next year (a) if the iPhone is available on Verizon, T-Mobile etc. they'll be able to overtake Android sales again (b) I realize that Microsoft is unpopular on HN, but imo Windows Phone 7 will take away more sales from Android than from the iPhone.

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

#50

Post by Samuel_Michon »

axod wrote: post #4
byoung2 wrote: post #2

I think part of the loyalty numbers for iPhone users is the substantial investment they make in other Apple hardware, software, and App Store apps. Unfortunately, I don't have any hard data to back this up, but I imagine a large percentage of iPhone users have at least one other piece of Apple hardware, such as a Mac, iPad, iPod Touch, etc., that works seamlessly alongside the iPhone and iTunes. That makes it tougher…

Google showcased a ton of this at Google I/O. Android ties in really well to their webapps, Google TV (If that succeeds), etc. I remember one example was that you can go to maps.google.com and click on a phone icon, and it just sends it straight to your phone which opens a map in the same place. That's really useful integration. I forget the rest of the examples, but they were all pretty 'wow'. I think iTunes is an e…

"The iPhone is reliant on iTunes completely."

Syncing of email, events, contacts, bookmarks, and files can all be done over the air, through MobileMe. Purchasing and downloading apps, music, podcasts and movies can also be done from the iPhone itself.

You only need to connect to iTunes for activation and software updates.

Post reply on HN