

Android sales "trouncing" Apple since release of iPhone 4 - PythonDeveloper
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/07/13/android-mops-floor-with-apple-new-sales-figures-show/

======
lotides
So, the iPhone is almost even in sales with the entire Android ecosystem
consisting of thousands of models, many of them cheap or free to consumers. Am
I supposed to be impressed?

~~~
ajross
To be fair, the title (both this one and the foxnews.com headline) is
linkbait. But Apple is selling 2/3 as many handsets (not really "almost even")
and losing market share, so the report represents real motion and is
newsworthy. You're not supposed to be "impressed" per se, but if you're
interested in the smartphone market it's stuff you should be reading. And if,
as I suspect, you're a die hard Apple fan who hates all things Android to the
core: play around with a device running ICS or JB. I think you'll be surprised
at how impressive they are.

~~~
drivebyacct2
>And if, as I suspect, you're a die hard Apple fan who hates all things
Android to the core: play around with a device running ICS or JB. I think
you'll be surprised at how impressive they are.

I understand why it's hard to get people to believe this, but it's absolutely
insane how hard it is to convince people of this. I've seen more and more
people floored at Jelly Bean. They watched the demo video and are amazed at
how nice it looks and how slick it is. I don't have the heart to tell them
that Honeycomb was 50% of the way there (Between Froyo and JB) and that ICS
was... 99.9% of the way there. There are hardly any visual changes outside of
the "Project Butter" between ICS and JB and yet all the people are acting like
JB is this big visual refresh.

Don't get me wrong Project Butter uped the ante, but not that much. It's as
smoother or smoother than the iPhone, but ICS was nearly there. The 60Hz vsync
just made it that much nicer. Plus, none of that 2002-2003-esque
skeuomorphism. It almost pains me to see iOS in places after Holo in ICS, it
reminds me of plasticy KDE.

~~~
pkulak
The problem is the hardware. It's always the hardware with Android. If the
phone has a nice camera the GPS is crap. If the GPS works, the screen is shit.
Or it's got hardware buttons a year after ICS came out. And if you're lucky
enough to get all that? Then it'll have a locked bootloader so you're stuck
with whatever TouchSenseBlur crap the manufacturer's marketing department
decided to vomit all over the beautiful, stock Android.

~~~
ChuckMcM
I suspect this is a significant challenge for Google and Android branding in
general. When people compare their experiences "with Android" it seems they
don't mention the particular hardware they are using. Unlike Apple where if
you're using an 'iOS phone' the hardware is known. So its perfectly
understandable when two people have diametrically opposed opinions on Android,
switch hardware, and switch sides. Its like every dessert was named 'ice
cream' and yet some people ate mars bars and some people m&ms and some
twizzlers.

------
nemik
Just like the PC. Funny how they manage to do this all over again.

Apple will go bankrupt again in the 2030's until around 2039 when Jobs gets
re-animated...to squander whatever the next big opportunity will be.

~~~
lotides
> Apple will go bankrupt again in the 2030's

I hope not. Apple is one of the few companies making an effort to design
software and hardware together. Until other companies realize you can't have a
good user experience without considering all aspects of the product, many
people will continue to cheer Apple's approach to product development. This is
one of the reasons why it's exciting that Microsoft is doing the Surface
tablet. It seems like Microsoft took a step back and looked at how Apple has
executed some great products and is taking a similar approach.

------
ladzoppelin
As a 2010 Android user, I get angry reading how "impressive" these new
releases have become while my phone is stuck with huge exploitable holes and a
horrible user experience(2.3). I have a feeling the numbers will decline once
other alternatives come out because I can't be the only person disgusted with
the platform. Can Jelly Bean even play pro audio apps without latency? Will
any real pro audio companies even make apps for Android if they actually fixed
the latency?

~~~
cageface
Actually Jelly Bean is _finally_ supposed to provide usable audio latencies
for audio apps:

[http://createdigitalmusic.com/2012/07/android-audio-
improvem...](http://createdigitalmusic.com/2012/07/android-audio-improvements-
will-appear-first-on-galaxy-nexus/)

Unfortunately, it will probably be a while until there's enough of an
installed base of 4.1 to matter, but at least the fix is in.

------
glenra
The color chart on that page is truly misleading - there's essentially no
relationship between the size of the rectangles and the actual share numbers.
The real news from the actual share numbers is that (iOS + Android) is now
utterly trouncing everybody else.

Here's one attempt to fix the graphics - a more accurate look makes Apple look
much more impressive relative to the market as a whole, mostly at the expense
of RIM and Windows and Other but also somewhat at the expense of the largest
Android competitors (Apple has roughly twice Samsung's market share):

[http://9to5mac.com/2012/07/13/nielsen-needs-to-work-on-
their...](http://9to5mac.com/2012/07/13/nielsen-needs-to-work-on-their-
graphics/)

------
eridius
This data comes from Nielsen. Where does Nielsen get information on smartphone
sales? In other words, how close to the truth is their data?

~~~
thechut
Are you serious? How desperate are you to refute this claim? Nielsen is one of
the top and most respected marketing research companies in the world. They
have an entire division dedicated to mobile research, called what else?
Nielsen Mobile. If you take a look at their website they mention exactly how
they collect data. I will copy it below to make things easier for you.

"Nielsen uses a broad range of measurement tools to help companies make the
most of their investments in mobile, including:

-Monitoring network signaling in 86 U.S. markets to count mobile subscribers and determine marketshare

-Analyzing the cellphone bills of more than 65,000 mobile subscribers in the U.S.

-Conducting extensive drive tests to measure quality of service in North America

-Deploying On-Device Meters to measure smartphone activity

-Analyzing carrier server logs to understand feature phone usage behavior

-Surveying mobile consumers via telephone, in-person and online surveys"[1]

[1]:[http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/measurement/mobile-
measurement....](http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/measurement/mobile-
measurement.html)

~~~
sp332
Easy there, eridius didn't say anything about refuting anything. Relax, and
thank you for the information.

