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700,000 Android devices activated each day

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Re: 700,000 Android devices activated each day

#31

Post by thought_alarm »

azakai wrote: post #15

It's remarkable the legal lengths to which Apple and Microsoft are going to try to stop Android, but it looks like they are having little or no effect. Lawyers get paid, some silly patents get worked around, but that's about it it seems.

It's all about the carriers.

A guy walks into an AT&T store and wants an iPhone. He'll get an iPhone.

A guy walks into an AT&T store and wants a Windows Phone. He'll probably be talked into an Android.

A guy walks into an AT&T store without a clue. He'll walk out with an Android. It's the most profitable for the carrier, because it's perhaps the only smartphone left that grants the carrier full control over how it's configured and what software is bundled.

Patent attacks against individual Android manufacturers and individual models are irrelevant. Your carrier will always have a wall of indistinguishable Android phones for the next customer to choose from.

Re: 700,000 Android devices activated each day

#32

Post by rjd »

Does anyone else look at these numbers and instantly think of the shear volume of waste?

With iphones thats a well over million per day. With most people already owning a phone thats a lot of superseded devices to deal with. Thats a lot of chemical waste...

Re: 700,000 Android devices activated each day

#33

Post by cryptoz »

whatusername wrote: post #26
diminish wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 years is a better interval.

Not over 1 billion people it's not. There's a lot of families that use hand-me-down phones. Consider the scenario where Mum gets a new Phone every 2 years and Dad gets her old one when she's done. The phone has a 4 year life. Averaging it out (over the richest 1billion people in the world) and 3 years is possibly a pretty close figure.

I highly doubt the richest 1 billion have anything at all to do with the majority of Android phone purchases. Countries like Nigeria (140,000,000 people) and Kenya (40,000,000 people) are starting to see their populations going from no-computers to everybody-has-a-smartphone. Most people there may never own a PC but will move straight to cheap, open source smartphones.

I would bet that Android's growth numbers are a majority of new users and a minority of returning users. The platform's only been popular for a single "update cycle" anyhow. 3G networks are popping up in the poorest parts of the world and people are buying phones there.

Re: 700,000 Android devices activated each day

#34

Post by cryptoz »

rjd wrote: post #32

Does anyone else look at these numbers and instantly think of the shear volume of waste? With iphones thats a well over million per day. With most people already owning a phone thats a lot of superseded devices to deal with. Thats a lot of chemical waste...

I think the vast majority of these users are probably on their first smartphone. For example, Android is huge in African countries where families who've never owned a computer are starting to sign up for cheap 3G plans with cheap Android phones.

I bet there's a lot of waste, but I also bet that it's nothing compared to the waste from old American cars driving around and polluting. Think of what these new cheap smartphones mean for humanity - the ability for entire populations to pop on the internet that never have before, read wikipedia, etc. Surely that is worth the waste it is producing.

Re: 700,000 Android devices activated each day

#35

Post by rjd »

thought_alarm wrote: post #31
azakai wrote: post #15

It's remarkable the legal lengths to which Apple and Microsoft are going to try to stop Android, but it looks like they are having little or no effect. Lawyers get paid, some silly patents get worked around, but that's about it it seems.

It's all about the carriers. A guy walks into an AT&T store and wants an iPhone. He'll get an iPhone. A guy walks into an AT&T store and wants a Windows Phone. He'll probably be talked into an Android. A guy walks into an AT&T store without a clue. He'll walk out with an Android. It's the most profitable for the carrier, because it's perhaps the only smartphone left that grants the carrier full control over how it's…

Indded, one of my friends went to buy a windows phone recently, c# dev looking for a phone he could work on.

The clerk literally told him they only have display models and don't hold stock and that he'd been told not to push them. The clerk couldn't even organise for a windows phone to arrive at the store so my friend decided he'd try learning obj-c and walked out with an iphone 3G (as said dev is a jaded ex-java enterprise programmer and hates the language with a vengeance).

Re: 700,000 Android devices activated each day

#36

Post by rjd »

cryptoz wrote: post #34
rjd wrote: post #32

Does anyone else look at these numbers and instantly think of the shear volume of waste? With iphones thats a well over million per day. With most people already owning a phone thats a lot of superseded devices to deal with. Thats a lot of chemical waste...

I think the vast majority of these users are probably on their first smartphone. For example, Android is huge in African countries where families who've never owned a computer are starting to sign up for cheap 3G plans with cheap Android phones. I bet there's a lot of waste, but I also bet that it's nothing compared to the waste from old American cars driving around and polluting. Think of what these new cheap smartp…

I wasn't really referring to the 'carbon footprint' if thats why you brought cars into it. I was more referring to things like PCBs and batteries, and the chemical processes used in refining these things. Toxic and harmful chemicals appearing in ecosystems they shouldn't... when things like cell phones don't get reprocessed properly.

Re: 700,000 Android devices activated each day

#37

Post by ars »

rjd wrote: post #35
thought_alarm wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all about the carriers. A guy walks into an AT&T store and wants an iPhone. He'll get an iPhone. A guy walks into an AT&T store and wants a Windows Phone. He'll probably be talked into an Android. A guy walks into an AT&T store without a clue. He'll walk out with an Android. It's the most profitable for the carrier, because it's perhaps the only smartphone left that grants the carrier full control over how it's…

Indded, one of my friends went to buy a windows phone recently, c# dev looking for a phone he could work on. The clerk literally told him they only have display models and don't hold stock and that he'd been told not to push them. The clerk couldn't even organise for a windows phone to arrive at the store so my friend decided he'd try learning obj-c and walked out with an iphone 3G (as said dev is a jaded ex-java ent…

Seriously? They didn't have the phone he wanted so he let them sell him something else entirely?

Re: 700,000 Android devices activated each day

#38

Post by vetinari »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #18
arron61 wrote: post #3

Andy Rubin: "...and for those wondering, we count each device only once (ie, we don't count re-sold devices), and "activations" means you go into a store, buy a device, put it on the network by subscribing to a wireless service." So it seems like a new device only.

I wonder why they don't just use a word that people understand.

Because if the used the word sold, the Internets would be full of people claiming, that the products were just hauled from factories to sellers warehouses, where they are sitting and not being bought by anyone.

Re: 700,000 Android devices activated each day

#40

Post by troll24601 »

rjd wrote: post #36
cryptoz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the vast majority of these users are probably on their first smartphone. For example, Android is huge in African countries where families who've never owned a computer are starting to sign up for cheap 3G plans with cheap Android phones. I bet there's a lot of waste, but I also bet that it's nothing compared to the waste from old American cars driving around and polluting. Think of what these new cheap smartp…

I wasn't really referring to the 'carbon footprint' if thats why you brought cars into it. I was more referring to things like PCBs and batteries, and the chemical processes used in refining these things. Toxic and harmful chemicals appearing in ecosystems they shouldn't... when things like cell phones don't get reprocessed properly.

The good news is that services like gazelle, Amazon Buyback, eBay Instant Sale and Verizon Trade-in are making it more likely that old phones get sold and kept in use, instead of rotting in a drawer until they're tossed into the household waste.
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