
Galaxy S III beats out iPhone 4S as top selling device in US - lusob
http://androidandme.com/2012/09/smartphones-2/galaxy-s-iii-beats-out-iphone-4s-as-top-selling-device-in-us/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=galaxy-s-iii-beats-out-iphone-4s-as-top-selling-device-in-us
======
archgrove
"The overwhelming success of Apple’s iPhone 4S has finally hit a lull" - about
2 weeks before it's due to be replaced as the flagship iPhone. The iPhone
purchasing cycle is very cyclical - huge sales after the new model is
introduced, gradually declining up to the next model (which repeats the
cycle). It would surprise me if the S3 _hadn't_ taken the lead over the
summer.

~~~
MatthewPhillips
Has this ever happened in previous years (before new iPhone releases)?

~~~
delinka
Yes. Every year.

Edit: archgrove speaks of the pre-release lull, not the competitor's sales
figures. By 'this' MatthewPhillips can only be referring to the lull. If
MatthewPhillips had meant SIII sales numbers, he should have clarified the
antecedent of his pronoun. Ergo, sp332 is still correct that this is the first
time a competitor has outsold iPhone and I am still correct that this lull
happens every year - these facts are not mutually exclusive.

~~~
MatthewPhillips
The 'this' I was referring to was the subject of the article (which was iPhone
being outsold by a single handset).

Being correct shouldn't always be the goal in discussion, by the way.

~~~
tripzilch
A good friend of mine once told me:

Don't just defend your right to be wrong, _EXERCISE IT!!_

Truly words to live by.

------
lawdawg
People are all pointing to the fact that the new iPhone is coming out, and for
obvious reasons, the iPhone4s will not sell as well.

That said, people are forgetting that this is basically the FIRST TIME that
any smartphone has sold more than the iPhone in the US. It's not as big news
as it could be, but its definitely big news, and could be indicative of a
trend in the US, namely, not just cheap/mid-range Androids are being sold, but
a lot of high-end Androids, _that cost as much as iPhones_ are being sold.
This is a very interesting and important distinction.

~~~
incision
Anecdotally, the release of the Galaxy Note was the first time I witnessed
average people anticipating and being excited by an Android phone. I witnessed
the same to a much greater extent with the S3.

I do think it's indicative of a trend. I'm very interested in seeing what
happens with the momentum I perceive once the next iPhone has been revealed.

~~~
hessenwolf
Samsung kinda came out of nowhere with their original Galaxy S, and, along
with other people, I absolutely love mine, which I've beaten the hell out of,
left in the back of a taxi (this weekend - but got it back), and generally
mistreated like a lover for 2.5 years, and it is still in perfect condition.
There must be a gradual market effect from the fact that they've made some
really good quality kit. I've seen so many iphones with cracked screens!

------
cryptoz
Doesn't it blow your minds how many people are adopting a linux as a primary
user OS? And how irrelevant that is, since they don't even know that's what
they're running?

Also, the S III has a barometer. How cool is that?

~~~
huxley
Similar situation for *BSD on the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch, it is a golden age
for Unix/Linux but, like you say, invisible to the end-user.

~~~
porlw
Does Apple contribute back to BSD on any meaningful level?

~~~
huxley
Not anywhere as much as they should. A few things I do know of:

Clang/LLVM (which has substantial support from Apple) will be the primary
compiler for FreeBSD.

Apple's Grand Central Dispatch (libdispatch) has been ported to FreeBSD.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Central_Dispatch>

The TrustedBSD Security Event Auditing and OpenBSM are based on the Mac OS X
BSM audit implementation and donated by Apple.

As well, CUPS has been ported to FreeBSD.

~~~
gillianseed
>As well, CUPS has been ported to FreeBSD.

Well CUPS did not originate with Apple, they bought it when they needed a
mature printing system. It existed for BSD prior to Apple's purchase.

I don't know if the BSD's have made any use of anything from Apple's Darwin
release? Perhaps it's not possible due to the licencing (Apple Public Source
Licence) which is copyleft'ish.

~~~
X-Istence
There is quite a bit of sharing between Apple and FreeBSD. For example
libdispatch has been ported to FreeBSD. Also when Apple imported pf into
Darwin; FreeBSD used that same port to update their port of pf from OpenBSD.

As others have mentioned, stuff like the TrustedBSD and Audit framework came
from Darwin, and features such as Seatbelt and sandboxes are slowly being
considered or improved upon by Capsicum for example.

------
josteink
While comments about iPhone 5 being due soon is probably correct, I suspect
this is the first visible sign of a tend which began quite a while ago: iPhone
has peaked (just like the iPod did) and right now Android us exploding
_everywhere_.

The question is just when we officially start treating iOS as the minority OS,
the one we develop for last.

To those thinking I disregard Windows 8 tablets, I don't. I know they're out
really soon now, but it's just too early to predict its impact on the market.
My guess is that it will eat into both Android and iOS's market-share for
tablets, but how much is impossible to say.

~~~
nodemaker
> The question is just when we officially start treating iOS as the minority
> OS, the one we develop for last.

At least for me(as an indie dev), probably never. Developing for the Android
is not enjoyable at all.

~~~
option_greek
I'm curious about what makes android development not enjoyable. Is it the
fragmentation or development tools or low economic incentive ?

~~~
yuriyg
Not trying to troll here, but can someone explain this "fragmentation" issue
please? There's a single API for Android; there are also different versions of
the API, but there's a same issue in iOS. Is the issue the different screen
resolutions? Does all the Android developement require low-level access to
hardware?

~~~
X-Istence
The biggest issue with fragmentation is the extra hardware and the screen
size.

The company I work for does Android development for the gov't, and we have had
a lot of issues with difference in camera support for example. Yes, there is
one API, but for each camera in a phone it behaves slightly differently.

The worst still is the different screen sizes. It will look and work perfectly
on one or two devices, and then you try it on a third and all of the elements
are laid out differently or are rendered wrong and we have to add a work-
around for that specific device.

The other issue we have found is the different versions of the libraries that
various different versions of Android ship with. For example BouncyCastle is
extremely outdated, or sqlite versions differ enough that it works on one
device but doesn't work on the other.

We've also had issues with the phone switching between the cellular network
and then wifi whereby sometimes our app will get sent up to 50 notifications
in rapid fire saying it is switching between the two, which causes our app to
tear down/restart the connection process. We ended up putting a timer in that
waits a couple seconds and uses the last notification that came in ...

That's not to say that iOS development also doesn't have its issues. I had one
app that if you used the switch on the iPad for screen orientation lock that
it wouldn't output sound due to the switch not being recognised correctly. A
bug that still exists in the latest version of iOS, and still hasn't been
fixed (here is hoping for iOS 6 (which I have not yet installed on this
device), my radar got closed as duplicate). But iOS has less of an issue with
fragmentation due to the fact that most of the hardware is the same, and
people with iOS devices tend to upgrade en masse to the latest version when it
is released so it becomes less of an issue to have an app require a new
version of iOS and no longer function on older versions of iOS (although, I am
still targeting iOS 4 for now when doing consulting/client work).

~~~
MatthewPhillips
Thanks for your comments. I was hoping you would elaborate on what makes the
screen sizes so problematic? Web developers have had to deal with different
screen sizes and different resolutions for a long time. Luckily we have CSS
which makes it much easier (and especially now with media queries). Is it that
Android layout doesn't give you enough control?

~~~
X-Istence
The issue isn't layout control, although that could definitely be better, the
issue is that even with all their fancy auto-resizing everything sometimes
depending on the device/OS version you HAVE to hard code a pixel perfect
layout or it just won't render correctly.

This means that even if you use Android's layout tools and create
automatically resizing and fitting layouts it may not work correctly, and
render incorrectly for example when you move from landscape to portrait, or
move from one screen to the next. Highly annoying.

We've also had bugs that we could not reproduce on any of our test devices
(all 27 of them that we have now ...) but that a customer had out in the
field. We then attempt to locate the same device with the same OS version to
test on.

Sometimes it has to do with themes that a manufacturer has installed not
working correctly... this gets annoying fast when you've got the same phone on
multiple carriers and they each customise it their own way.

------
Derbasti
I recently bought an S III and gave it back.

At least on my device, the back cover felt cheap and flimsy.

But more importantly, that PenTile screen just looked terrible to me. I
constantly noticed a faint checkerboard pattern in bright surfaces. None of my
friends see it, but it drove me insane. Am I the only one to notice that?

Apart from that, not a bad device, though.

~~~
89a
PenTile is a complete joke, Boggles the mind how anyone can ship that on a
premium device.

~~~
zobzu
To be fair, you have to be < 2 centimeters from the device to see the pentile
on the SGS3 due to the resolution (and at 2 cm your eyes will hurt. Mine do.)

I had a SGS (pentile), SGS2 (no pentile), SGS4 (pentile), various iphones (no
pentile) and others.

I can only see the pentile on the SGS.

If that's not enough, I score 21 on EU visual tests (maximum is 20, above
is/are bonus points for exceptional vision)

I believe the only jokes here are this post and the parent :P

~~~
notJim
I don't understand people who say this. My friends have pentile phones, and
say they don't notice, but I looked at a GSIII, and it was immediately obvious
to me. The screen looks sort of grainy, and the colors are all weird.

I prefer Android, so I've been holding out for a high-end one with a great
camera and a non-pentile screen. If there isn't one this year, I might have to
switch :(.

~~~
blinkingled
HTC One X has great screen and camera.

~~~
binarycrusader
I've owned a HTC One X; the camera was far inferior to the SIII's, while the
screen was way better. Not happy about the tradeoff.

------
jusben1369
I think the challenge Apple has, even with the 5 around the corner is this.
Not sure I'll explain it as well as I'd like but it goes something like this:

iPhone "1" is mind blowingly awesome. A fantastically complete device.
Subsequent updates to the hardware and OS make meaningful but incremental
improvements. So an original iPhone 1 is 80% of what a 5 will be.

Android early phones are fascinating but generally pretty average - especially
compared to an iPhone. Yet/Therefore every new hw and OS update provides
substantial improvements over what's come before.

Therefore two things happen. Android phones close the absolute gap to iPhone
helping for competitive wins. Secondly, Android new/upgrade phones excite the
heck out of existing Android owners because they (along with the OS) are a
real improvement.

I see iPhone 5 sales driven by people who held off getting an iPhone for the
last two months because of the news. I don't see that other afterburner of
sales though - 4 and 4S users who see a real driver to upgrade.

~~~
yawn
I bought the second iPhone. 2 years ago I bought an HTC Evo 4g to test the
Android waters. I still use it (upgrading soon) and never really loved it. But
it "converted" me for a few reasons:

\- The screen size. I write iOS apps at work and get annoying having to use
that tiny screen. I had hopes the iPhone5 would address this. Making the
screen a little taller is a weak answer.

\- More customizability. The Verge had a thread recently where they asked you
to show off your phone/tablet home screen. It was a stark contrast to see the
way android users personalized their home screens vs. the same grid of icons
the iOS users posted. The widgets I have on my home screen tell me all kinds
of things without having to run any apps.

\- More control. I can run whatever app I want on it, and I can sell my apps
to other android users however I want with my own billing methods if need be.
Selling Android apps is easier than dealing with the iOS App Store.

I (obviously anecdotally) think the scales have tipped. I'm running into more
people loving their Android phones instead of tolerating them. The latest fad
apps have launched with Android counterparts (Draw Something, SongPop). When
we show our software to potential clients running on a SGSIII and an iPhone4s,
they all want to touch the SGSIII phone and play with it. Side by side with
the screens turned on, there's no comparison.

It's a fun "fight" to watch, and we're benefitting from it.

------
Sambdala
This is obviously just a subjective opinion, but I was using both these phones
the other day (in the UK), and I was blow away to the extent that the S3 just
demolishes the iPhone in form factor and just overall "sexiness."

------
petercooper
After being on iPhones for years, I've just bought an S3 for my wife. She
broke the iPhone's screen last week and needed a new phone fast and.. Apple's
lawsuit both made me aware of Samsung _and_ somehow put the thought in my head
that the S3 must be a pretty good phone. I'd have never even thought of buying
non-Apple before.

As it turns out, it's not a perfect phone but I've been pretty wowed so far
while setting the phone up and might even skip the iPhone 5 and get an S3 for
myself too. Oops, Apple..

------
jd
Given that the iPhone 5 will be announced next week, a lull in 4S sales isn't
so strange.

------
beedogs
I'm sure those sales numbers will plummet once Apple pays off some other judge
to block the S III from being sold in the US.

------
tsieling
Samsung's new phone is _crushing_ last year's iPhone!

~~~
pooriaazimi
Are you Macalope? :)

------
roc
I'm pretty sure we all read this same story last year, at least once. Well, at
least twice, if we count the "Verizon subscribers don't really want the
iPhone" stories that came out in Q2, as iPhone sales on Verizon tapered off as
people expected the new iPhone to launch around July.

~~~
spiralpolitik
Or more likely anybody who bought an AT+T iPhone 4 when it launched went out
of contract in July and is waiting for the launch of the '5' before signing on
again or switching to another carrier.

------
enraged_camel
I think number of sales is not anywhere as important as the percentage of
total profits, and Apple has an overwhelming dominance in that area. The
reason I say profits is more important is because you end up with more money
to allocate to R&D and innovate more. In addition, the bigger your war chest
is, the better of a position you are to jump on opportunities that come up.

Perhaps this is why Apple managed to come out with two revolutionary products
(iPhone and iPad) within the span of just one decade, whereas competitors are
mostly stuck in reactive mode.

------
doe88
I'm certain Galaxy S3 has tremendous success.

But I also think iPhone is in a league of its own, yesterday my jaw dropped
when I saw this 'news' on TMZ <http://www.tmz.com/2012/09/04/iphone-5-release-
date/> . I really don't know how to interpret it, but I think it is safe to
assume it is not common for a smartphone to have an entry on this kind of
site.

(don't ask me how I ended-up there, I don't remember. But I'm sure ashamed of
myself.)

------
tcskeptic
I don't see enough numbers in the link to do the analysis, can anyone tell
whether this is more due to iPhone slowdown or due to Samsung consolidating
premium Android device market share with the Galaxy S III? In other words, is
the iPhone really stumbling badly or is the Android market coalescing around
Samsung and we are seeing the result of a 2 horse race rather than one big
horse (iPhone) vs many little horses (Android)?

------
ch0wn
It's also the second most popular Android device in use at the moment,
according to AppBrain[0].

[0] <http://www.appbrain.com/stats/top-android-phones>

------
qwertzlcoatl
It's not directly comparable. Basically iOS users have the 'choice' of one
model, while Android user have dozens of models to choose from.

------
lectrick
Enjoy your 1-2 weeks at the top, I say... The 5 is around the corner

------
mindgrep
I like that

------
markmm
Isn't Apple looking to ban the S3 in the US? The new iPhone (based on rumour
sites) is looking like just a taller version of the current.

~~~
w1ntermute
Apple is looking to ban all Android devices in the US and abroad. From what
the iPhone 5 looks like, they've run out of ideas and are now resorting to
litigation to keep their profits up.

~~~
bornhuetter
To be fair, we should probably wait until the product launch to comment on
that. Apple are very good at keeping new features secret, so who knows.

~~~
markmm
I doubt they will change the width, there must be 1000's of apps that will
break or look wrong if they change that (without updating).

~~~
bornhuetter
That's not what I mean. They could release a new integrated service, do
something with the sound, make the thing out of some new material.

They almost certainly have something their sleeve to hype that they can claim
competitors don't have. If they just make the screen bigger and some minor
changes to the case, they will just be seen as playing catch up.

~~~
beedogs
> They could release a new integrated service, do something with the sound,
> make the thing out of some new material.

Those are all relatively absurd examples. They tried the integrated-service
route with Ping, and it was an unmitigated failure. What could they possibly
do with the sound or the material?

Something tells me I'm going to be severely underwhelmed in a week or so.

~~~
bornhuetter
They weren't intended to necessarily be good examples. By an intergated
service, I meant something like Siri.

