I was at the cinema on Saturday and got a seat near the back. As people arrived I noticed something. Almost everyone who was using a mobile (some texting, some on facebook some on other apps/internet) was using an iPhone.

There definitely were people using other smartphones but I couldn't tell them apart. The only recognisable one was the iPhone.

Secondly, an advert came onto the screen and I can't remember wat it was for (something about film previews and reviews or something). Anyway, it ended by saying "you can now access all this on our iPhone app".

I had the thought that Nokia/Samsung/Motorola etc... may move quite a few phones but with Apple there is only one model. If you want an Apple phone then you have the choice of a single handset and still they are competetive. If people wanted more variety etc... then they'd all be buying Samsungs or Nokias but they're not. Also, if you want to use the app that was advertised then again there is only one single phone that will run it. If you get any other phone then it won't run the app on the advert.

I just found it very interesting that even with a "choice" of one single phone that Apple can still compete with HTC and Samsung et al who have 5 or 6 smartphones on the go at any one time.

No, but that's the point - that's the fundamental difference. Apple sell 'the iPhone' whereas hardly anybody - beyond the (in the real world) vanishingly small geek fraternity - buys an 'Android' phone. They buy Samsung phones or HTC phones or Sony Ericsson phones. The crucial question is where the brand loyalty lies - does it lie with the handset or the software the handset runs? If it lies with the handset then Apple's model is better, if it lies with the software then Google's model is better, because it's position is protected regardless of what happens with handset manufacturers.

Essentially Apple and Google are coming at the market from opposite ends, and who has the better bet depends on exactly how the population as a whole - not just the people who think reflashing the ROM on their mobile phone is a great way to spend a Friday night - spreads itself along the software/hardware continuum.

That's a tricky one and I experienced it recently with my new phone. Although I looked at handsets from Samsung and the like the reason I went with the Desire HD was because I wanted the Sense UI. The fact it runs on Android I guess is part and parcel of it but that was probably the determining factor for me. The actual hardware, although I like it, is not a brand choice for me. The brand choice for me was the HTC software. I guess I get Android (and a HTC handset) by default.

And your point is?


Quite a few phones? To be exact twice as many!


And how long do you think it will last when twice as many phones sell with android? Forever? I think not...

That's kind of my point though.

They have 6 or 7 different smart phones on the market (each) and still only out sell the iPhone by 2:1.

Indeed, but I feel you are missing my point, many people out there don't give a damn. It's a phone. Yes some people will get an iPhone as a status symbol, others will buy Android because it's not Apple, some will buy a BlackBerry for whatever stereotypical reason people buy BlackBerries.
But most people out there won't buy because of those reasons, they will buy because the price is right for them. If you get a free netbook with your BlackBerry then does that not sway you to buy one of them? Android phones come free with the contract, why not buy that in this financially hard time? The iPhone you've got to pay for, but everyone knows about it. An amount of it might be that Android is the cool new kid in the playground, with kids asking their parents for one simply because it's new. Also, I know many people who still go into the O2/Orange/Vodaphone/Carphone Warehouse/etc. type places to buy their phones, then you have to add whatever the special plug is that day in to the equation.

So, to reiterate my point, I doubt it is as simply clear cut as "I don't want an Apple product", but there are a whole load of other factors in which only a minority include "I don't want an Apple product" as a factor.



And that's how it should be, though after reading some of your threads I can tell that you're the careful type who looks around before he buys, unfortunately not everyone is like that.

Twice as many? I missed the reports of that.

These are the latest figures I can find.

Yes, but so what? I don't care what manufacturer sells how many. I care about having choice if I want to buy a phone. I care about competition between phone makers so they go try to create the best phone they possibly can, not just drip me upgrades just so I keep buying the slightly upgraded versions all the time.

I can have physical or software keyboard, physical horizontal or physical vertical keyboard, small or large display, amoled or superamoled or lcd display, big phone or small phone, phone with sd card, single or dual processor, choice of colours, choice of UIs or i can have plain vanilla os. I can have open appstore where anything goes or closed appstore that will be safe. Or I can download any app I want from anywhere I want. I can run CyanogenMod aftermarket firmware and nobody will say a word.
I can unlock/jailbreak the phone I paid for and do whatever I want with it because it is mine!
And if I unlock or root my Xoom tablet I can still send it back to Motorola who still upgrade it for LTE and they will even be nice about!
http://www.androidcentral.com/motorola- ... k-software

That's what choice brings you...

EDIT for Fogmeister: just to be clear, all above is about ANDROID ONLY

EDIT: I posted incorrect link, this one is right:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/20 ... hone-sales
As linked in the other thread by proffesor. EMEA numbers for Q4.

So why did you bring up sales figures in the first place?

You are the one who said...


All I was saying is that regardless of what I would like or dislike in a phone (my personal preferences seem fairly irrelevant when looking at mobile phone sales figures) there are (in total) maybe 30+ different Android + Blackberry + WM smartphones available from various manufacturers but (as CC's figures show) they are (as a combined entity) only outselling a single handset available from Apple by slightly over 2:1.

Symbian is largely irrelevant now that it has been sacked off by Nokia.

Most of the Android owners I know have said the same thing, including my wife and son.

Which makes me wonder if economic difficulties are helping the spread of Android phones, because an iPhone is still very much a luxury item and people cannot justify spending THAT much. I include myself there - I expect I'll be hanging on to my 3G for quite some time.

When I brough up sales figures I was talking about platforms: android v iphone. That's what i care about. I don't care about manufacturers in terms of who sells how many (htc v samsung v lg v whoever).

You only see what you want to see, don't you?!
There is no point telling you the Android on its own outsells iphones by 2:1 I guess...

I only see what you show me.

I had CC's chart vs an irrelevant article about Flash on a Xoom tablet.


So in my comparison of Android + WM + Blackberry (RIM, whatever you want to call it) vs iPhone is that not exactly what you said I was not just doing...? I'm comparing platforms not hardware manufacturers.

You only see what you want to don't you?!

OK, so looking at your, now relevant, link...

Apple (iOS) has 16% of the market share compared to 50.4% owned by a combination of Google, RIM and MS. (i.e. Android, Blackberry OS and WM). That still means that a single phone produced by Apple is only being outsold by a little over 3:1 by a group who has something in the region of 30+ phones available.

Even taking ONLY ANDROID as you like to put it they (as in Google, the OS manufacturer and no specific handset manufacturer (just to clear it up for koli)) only just has 2:1 over the iPhone. (A quick button press on Carphone Warehouse site shows 23 available Android handsets for pay monthly)

Again I am not doing anything other than pointing out a fact. I am not saying Apple are better than Google nor that I prefer a choice of vertical or horizontal keypad. I am not saying that I think Carphone Warehouse is better than Phones 4 U. Nor am I saying that I prefer pepperoni to ham and pineapple.

I am pointing out a comparison of sales figures that have been provided by koli.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/reviews/2011/03/ars-reviews-the-motorola-xoom.ars/2

Oh dear.

Oh come on. Given this and the fact it's apparently CDMA only, I think it may be a bit longer than rumoured before we see it in the EU.

Jon