

Apple's Arrogance Stokes Android Gains - eplanit
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224701492

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gabrielroth
Yes, I'm sure Android's success is a result of consumers' response to all this
tech-world inside baseball, and nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that
Verizon's network is so much better than AT&T's.

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jasonlotito
You know what? That's Apple's fault, too. They went with AT&T. AT&T is what
Apple wanted, and AT&T is a part of the iPhone experience. Everyone says how
Apple works really hard to make sure every aspect of the experience is rock
solid, etc. Fine. AT&T is apart of that. Apple said "The AT&T experience is
how we want to be represented in the mobile world." If AT&T's service isn't
good, this reflect directly on the iPhone, and Apple. The iPhone is Apple's
product, not AT&T's.

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MWinther
Actually, it was more of a "AT&T accepted Apple's terms when it came to
developing a new phone back before anyone had seen the original iPhone." As
thanks, they got a 5-year exclusivity agreement with Apple.

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jasonlotito
However you want to swing it, Apple went with AT&T as the provider.

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slantyyz
Sad when the "legit tech press" have to resort to linkbait headlines to get
eyeballs.

The simplest answer to Android's success has more to do with the number of
models and network availability than with some bogus claim about arrogance. A
better headline would have been "Is Apple being bitten by Android because of
its exclusivity agreement with AT&T?"

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theBobMcCormick
I have to agree with you there. I'm certain that the iPhone's ties to AT&T
only has to be a drag on iPhone sales. Not everyone is willing/able to switch
to AT&T.

For myself personally, I love my N1, but I probably never would have got to
know that if the iPhone had been available on other carriers. I wanted to by
an iPhone since back when they first came out, but AT&T get's completely
crappy reception in my neighborhood. :-( If there'd been a TMobile iPhone I
would have bought one a loooong time ago.

(I realize you _can_ run a jailbroken iPhone on Tmo, but that just never
seemed worth it. You lose 3G, and I'm not excited about ruining the warranty
right out of the box on something as expensive as an iPhone.)

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tzs
How come this is the only article claiming that the engineer who lost the
phone was fired?

The author also claims that criminal charges were filed against the blogger
who found the phone. What blogger would that be? The phone was bought by
Gawker who had one of their paid bloggers write about it, but he did not find
it. Did the person who found it also have a blog?

Also, he claims Apple files these alleged charges. Really? I must have missed
where Apple became the District Attorney. At most Apple reported the phone
stolen.

There have been a gazillion articles covering this, and a gazillion minus one
were better than this one.

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turnersauce
I don't mean to be pedantic (and I certainly don't mean to defend this
article), but the author doesn't claim that the engineer was fired; they say,
"Apple may _yet_ fire the engineer". Which is true, I suppose - Apple may yet
fire _any_ of their employees. Nevertheless, it is still a ridiculously
speculative thing to write in a "news story".

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tzs
It looks like the article is being updated (without being so marked). Shortly
before I posted it said that "Apple summarily fired the engineer who lost the
phone".

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turnersauce
Oh dear, as if this article needs another reason to add to the list of why it
is terrible... My apologies for blaming you for the error.

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va_coder
It may also be that the new Android phones kick butt. A friend of mine just
got the HTC Incredible, which runs on Verizon, and it's smoking fast.

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jimbokun
"News that Google Android-based devices are outselling the iPhone may be a
sign that consumers are fed up with Apple's increasingly restrictive policies
and behavior that, in the minds of many, could be characterized as nothing
short of bullying."

Or it may not be, as we present no data to back this claim, but that's OK
because we put the "may be" qualifier in there, so now we can write the rest
of the article assuming that our premise is true.

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melling
There are almost 50 Android phones, and every major carrier sells at least one
Android phone. Apple can't possibly win against that. In fact, they aren't
trying to. They want to build the "best" (in Steve's eyes) phone in the world.
They aren't trying to build the phone for everyone. These two tasks are
mutually exclusive. Android will find its way onto $5 phones in the developing
world, for example.

But hey, that sure is a news grabbing headline.

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Tamerlin
It would be nice if the "best phone in the world" reliably made phone calls.

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nopal
This article is complete garbage. It gives absolutely zero facts to back up
the author's assertion that Apple's recent behavior has led to Android's
gains.

How can a publication publish this? Look at some of the ambiguous language
used by the author: "...may be a sign..." "...in the minds of many..." "...bad
taste in many consumers' minds..." (The last one is not only ambiguous, it's a
cliche, and a mixed one at that.)

Is this supposed to be an opinion piece? It's certainly not labeled as such.
IW should be embarrassed to have published this drivel.

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adammichaelc
On iPhone, automatically redirects to a general home page; this story buried
among the other headlines. When will companies learn basic mobile web ux?

