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The Android Opportunity

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Re: The Android Opportunity

#71

Post by jacobian »

jrockway wrote: post #55
jacobian wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That, my friends, is what's called "missing the forest for the trees." Yes, every single one of my question has an easy answer. Yup, just need to install this app or activate this hidden preference or tweak my Xorg.conf, or learn to live with the problem... Using this device is like the death of a thousand cuts. None are even remotely fatal, but over time there's just a mounting list of little annoyances. Everything'…

I can do the "death by a thousand cuts" thing to the iPhone just as easily as you can do it to Android. Every user has different priorities. (You also mentioned Xorg.conf. I have not had one of those for years.)

Ah, so if the iPhone is flawed that makes all of Android's flaws go away. Finally, I understand! Thanks!

Re: The Android Opportunity

#72

Post by Ras_ »

forkqueue wrote: post #50

And the manufacturer to do this? Nokia. Frankly, if the N97 only ran Android and had a better touch screen it'd do most of what this article recommends.

Nokia is committed to Maemo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maemo_(operating_system)

Here's the announcement: http://www.ftd.de/technik/it_telekommunikation/:Strategiewen...

Re: The Android Opportunity

#73

Post by stcredzero »

mattmaroon wrote: post #54
qhoxie wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people, even high-end smart phone users, choose their carrier first and their phone second. I think there is a lot of truth to that, but I also have seen a big shift since the iPhone. Countless friends and colleagues of mine have said something along the lines of "I would never use AT&T if it were not for the iPhone."

The numbers indicate that it's a small shift at best. People switch carriers every 3-4 years on average (usually citing employer discounts, pricing plans, family networks, etc,) meaning that for any given phone, you'd expect 25-33% of purchasers to be new customers. The iPhone is somewhere between 30-40%, meaning that it's probably outperforming the average by 5-10%, which is great but not indicative of a sea change…

Hmm, aren't you forgetting the mathematics of compound interest? A 5 to 10% conversion advantage over your competitors, combined with a higher retention rate -- this is going to really hurt competitors after several years. After 10 years? Ouch!

It's a good thing that AT&T sucks so much. Otherwise, the iPhone would be unstoppable.

Re: The Android Opportunity

#74

Post by jsz0 »

jacobian wrote: post #19
jrockway wrote: post #8

As a recent Android convert, I am confused by all the "issues" that people keep mentioning. Everything on my phone Just Works. When I change the color of a calendar on Google Calendar, the color on my phone's calendar widget changes. When I change a contact on my phone, GMail and Google Voice update almost instantly. When I dial a number on the normal dialpad, my call is automatically routed through Google Voice. Whe…

Since you've got no problems with Android, maybe you can solve mine: - Why does the phone crash when I try to pair with my bluetooth headset? - Why do all eleventy-billion of my contacts show up in the dialer instead of the relatively small handful who've got phone numbers? - Why the *@#$% doesn't this thing have a proper headphone jack? - How do I sync music between my computer and my G1? - How about podcasts? - How…

Engadget is reporting the G1, due to internal flash limitations, may be stuck at version 1.5 forever. Really horrible situation for such a young platform to already be having these issues.

Re: The Android Opportunity

#75

Post by krschultz »

unalone wrote: post #59
jrockway wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's better for me. I think a lot of people design systems for imaginary users that don't actually exist. I try to make stuff that works for me, because then at least it works for one person. (I assume "normal people" use some sort of GUI for this. If you are using Amarok, for example, it's a simple matter of drag-n-dropping your playlist to the icon that says "Android Phone".)

"Normal people", by which I mean myself, want to plug in their iPhone and have all of their stuff synced without ever clicking any button. Drag-n-drop is nice, but even that's more of a hassle than I care to bother with.

"Normal people", by which I mean myself, want to plug their iPhone in and NOT have it sync, because I have more music than can fit on it, so auto-sync for a subset of my playlist is nice, but even that's more of a hassle than I care to bother with.

Re: The Android Opportunity

#76

Post by jcl »

stcredzero wrote: post #67
jgfoot wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually the Pre has all the features the article is recommending for Android: Over-the-air calendar, contact, and email syncing through Google services; background-capable apps; and no centralized App Store under one company’s ironclad control. (OK, there's no app store at all, although precentral.net and others are already distributing homebrew apps that can be installed if you download Palm's SDK).

I wonder why Google isn't doing an App Store?

Did you mean to say "Palm" instead of "Google"? Android has the Android Market, which is like the App Store.

Re: The Android Opportunity

#77

Post by unalone »

krschultz wrote: post #75
unalone wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Normal people", by which I mean myself, want to plug in their iPhone and have all of their stuff synced without ever clicking any button. Drag-n-drop is nice, but even that's more of a hassle than I care to bother with.

"Normal people", by which I mean myself, want to plug their iPhone in and NOT have it sync, because I have more music than can fit on it, so auto-sync for a subset of my playlist is nice, but even that's more of a hassle than I care to bother with.

...which is why iTunes also supports drag-n-drop, and subset syncing. Are you trying to make a point?

Re: The Android Opportunity

#78

Post by mattmaroon »

unalone wrote: post #63
mattmaroon wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure Apple will fix this. I mean, why did Apple tether themselves to AT&T in the first place? AT&T was a giant turd that everyone hated 2 years ago, just like it is now. If anything it's gotten far better in that time, and the iPhone has racked up serious sales. It wouldn't surprise me if both parties are very happy with their relationship, and AT&T willing to concede even more for exclusivity. They did it…

They partnered with AT&T because they needed a company that would let it add things like visual voicemail to its existing system, and rolling that out with a single company would be easier. The argument against Verizon is that Verizon insists on adding branding to every Verizon phone, which Apple is against. Neither Verizon nor Apple is stupid. If network choice really starts hurting the iPhone, which it isn't becaus…

Wrong and wronger. You can't say that because the iPhone sells very well, network choice isn't hurting it. There might be 2x as many iPhones in consumers hands in the U.S. if they were on Verizon too, and 3x if it were on the other majors on top. I'm clearly just making those numbers up, but they seem reasonable.

The exclusivity was about a lot more than visual voice mail. It had to do with sales channel and profits from ongoing contracts as well, which were probably far larger issues and ones Verizon has absolutely no reason to cave on. And my point was that it might be in both Verizon and Apple's best interest to not work together.

The network is a huge part of the product when it comes to phones. A phone that is constantly dropping calls, one of the iPhone's biggest complaints, or out of fast data range is an inferior product through no fault of its own. In the mobile industry by being on a better network you have a better product.

Nonetheless, the best and worst thing about capitalism is that inferior products win all the time when the salient point of competition isn't product "quality" as you're meaning it here. We in the tech industry love the idea of a Google or an Apple making a better mousetrap and slaying the entrenched competition, but the reality is that for every one story like that, there are 20 of a better product that died due to vendor lock-in, marketing, or some other form of differentiation. Apple's been on both sides of that equation.

Re: The Android Opportunity

#79

Post by igorgue »

unalone wrote: post #59
jrockway wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's better for me. I think a lot of people design systems for imaginary users that don't actually exist. I try to make stuff that works for me, because then at least it works for one person. (I assume "normal people" use some sort of GUI for this. If you are using Amarok, for example, it's a simple matter of drag-n-dropping your playlist to the icon that says "Android Phone".)

"Normal people", by which I mean myself, want to plug in their iPhone and have all of their stuff synced without ever clicking any button. Drag-n-drop is nice, but even that's more of a hassle than I care to bother with.

I don't use iTunes, how do I copy music to my iphone? btw, I use Ubuntu...

On the Android part I sync my music with Banshee ;)

Re: The Android Opportunity

#80

Post by mattmaroon »

raganwald wrote: post #36
mechanical_fish wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the #1 area where you can compete with Apple (at least for now) Your qualifier here explains why Gruber doesn't dwell on this. He wants a competitor to Apple that can succeed in the long haul, not a bunch of scavengers who survive for another year or two, picking off the edges of the market that Apple hasn't gotten around to steamrolling yet. Indeed, my off-the-cuff take on the state of the market is that Apple's car…

+1 In the book "Marketing Warfare," Reis and Trout emphasize that a strategy should attack a competitor's strength , not its weakness. Weaknesses will all be fixed over time, so attacking a weakness is simply making hay while the sun shines. Of course you should do it, but it shouldn't be a cornerstone of your strategy. It costs your competitor nothing to fix a weakness, they simply fix it and get better. When you pi…

Is it just a weakness? They presumably get a lot from the AT&T deal. The right to exclusive Apple branding on the phone. Visual voicemail, some untold but presumably high % of monthly contract fees (allowing them to plow tens of millions into ads, creating the virtuous cycle of users and app developer growth), an unprecedented degree of freedom over app distribution, commitments to building out the cell network, etc. Building the hardware and software themselves gives them better quality control over the end product, having tremendous upper hand in an exclusive deal with a national carrier performs a similar function.

I'm guessing that had they given in to whatever the hell Verizon requested, and has no reason to discontinue requesting, you'd be looking at a much different phone. That's why I still don't believe we'll ever see a CDMA iPhone.

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