

Android is now the most popular OS for people aquiring a new smartphone - AndrewDucker
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/android-most-popular-operating-system-in-u-s-among-recent-smartphone-buyers/

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GiraffeNecktie
Is "people" now considered the short form for "people in the United States"?

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Joeboy
I don't really follow these things - is Android not the most popular
smartphone OS outside the US?

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tptacek
Another way of saying "more people buy smartphones on Verizon, Sprint, and
AT&T put together than do people on AT&T by itself".

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ergo98
No one made that bed but Apple, and it is but another example of Apple putting
Apple first. It also seemed remarkably irrelevant back when the iPhone, still
just on AT&T, dominated the my-company-didnt-buy-it ranks.

It is interesting though: a year ago Android was doomed by, well, people like
you for being too crazy with too many choices and confusion versus the simple
perfection of the iPhone model. Now that is some burden that Apple heroically
bears.

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jad
"No one made that bed but Apple, and it is but another example of Apple
putting Apple first."

It's an example of Apple putting its products first, and by extension their
customers. Breaking the innovation-killing death grip the carriers had exerted
over the mobile phone industry until 2007 was one of the most important
breakthroughs of the iPhone.

Contrast with Android. From pre-installed bloatware to sacrificing long-held
core values on net neutrality, Google is very cynically putting market share
first, and by extension the carriers. It's breathtaking how quickly and
willingly Google has thrown away the very hard fought gains Apple made against
the carriers.

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ergo98
Did you take that right from the Book of Jobs? I realize that's the newest
talking point of the pro-Apple hordes, but I thought this crowd was above it.

Apple replaced one evil (carrier control) with another evil (maker control). I
suppose it's insulting that some Verizon phones come with a Nascar app, and
yet another replaces Google with Bing, but remarkably as a consumer I have a
_tremendous amount of choice_ in the matter. The vanilla TMobile G2 looks
quite nice, for instance. Actually personally I currently ride with the
unencumbered, unsubsidized Nexus One.

Consumer choice and empowerment is mighty nice.

Apple's only liberation was liberating their _own_ control and domination. How
anyone sees that as a positive is baffling, but that's what brainwashing will
do to you, I suppose.

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jad
"Apple replaced one evil (carrier control) with another evil (maker control)."

Do you think it's evil that Sony controls the Playstation? Or that Tivo
controls the Tivo box?

"Consumer choice and empowerment is mighty nice."

Does consumer choice have to be limited to choosing from within the Android
ecosystem? Are you saying the very existence of the iPhone somehow inhibits
consumer choice?

As for the rest (except the personal attacks), sure. I think competition is
great. I definitely do not want Apple to have monopoly control over the
market. I don't want Google or Microsoft to have that control, either. And
above all else I want the carriers to have as little control as possible. I
would vastly prefer Comcast-style dump pipes for my wireless Internet access.

Everything doesn't have to be black versus white, us versus them. You may hate
Apple, or the iPhone, or Steve Jobs, or whatever, but that doesn't mean Google
does everything right, or that they never sacrifice consumer interests for
their own.

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InclinedPlane
_"Do you think it's evil that Sony controls the Playstation? Or that Tivo
controls the Tivo box?"_

I would hesitate to use the word "evil" in this context, however I think it's
critical to differentiate between gaming and entertainment devices on the one
hand and communication devices on the other. One company having utter control
over the means many people use to communicate privately and publicly vs. one
company having utter control over the means many people use for some forms of
recreation leads to hugely different consequences.

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ROFISH
What I really want to see are upgraders or switchers. Who is switching from
what to what? New smartphones may be Android simply because it's not available
on any other carrier except AT&T and it has the lowest barrier to entry (ie.
cheapo Androids are available).

Because I think that the Android growth is simply people upgrading their
dumbphones because they'd be silly not to upgrade at the "free phone w/ new 2
year contract". Not that it's a bad thing, but "market share percentage" of
smartphones doesn't really show how smartphones are growing over dumbphones.

Good for Android, but as Windows v. Mac has proven: it's not the market share,
but what you do with it. ;)

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ergo98
Denial is the first stage. Anger will come next.

