Apple Accounts for 51% of Devices as Christmas Gifts

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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When you think of only one company being responsible for over half of the electronic devices sold this holiday season, it’s really hard to believe. Apple pulled off this feat and just possibly pointed out the trends for the rest of 2015 in the process.

If Christmas is a bellwether for the year ahead, users should expect strong performance from iOS devices and a continued shift to the once-derided phablet form factor.
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Regardless of your feelings towards Apple this is an amazing feat. I'm just glad they don't make life saving devices.
 
I'm part of the 1% they mentioned. I bought myself an LG phone. going against the grain
 
You've got to love how sneaky advertorials have gotten. How does this article help anyone other than the company that probably paid for it?
 
Knight_of_BAAWA said:
This is what happens when status symbol takes over from usability.
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What do you mean by "usability"? Apple's devices work well, last a long time, and retain their value much more than others.
 
fdiaz78 said:
Regardless of your feelings towards Apple this is an amazing feat. I'm just glad they don't make life saving devices.
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Yeah, can you imagine a defib that only comes with one charge, you have to visit the app store to purchase additional charges lol.

Ruoh said:
What do you mean by "usability"? Apple's devices work well, last a long time, and retain their value much more than others.
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This is true, Apple created a device usable by 99% of people, and made it so it is actually difficult for people to jack it up. With the exception of the random software flaws (Everyone has them) its just a usable device.
 
All I can say is you wish you had invested in AAPL. The iPhone accounts for about half of their earnings - so they should have a good quarter. Doesn't matter if the iPad is not selling well, at least one of their products is.
I'm curious how the Apple Watch is going to do. I have no interest in it - but a lot of people do.
I saw something sad/funny the other day - I saw someone with a silver-ish laptop that had an Apple sticker on the case (where Apple puts their logo on Macbooks). They also had a non-iPhone with an Apple sticker on it. I was just passing through and did not know the person - but my giant question mark above my head came out :)
 
is their plan to use the phablet to help push their smart watch sales? Unless you have large hands (and i've seen guys with hands that make a 7" tablet look like an iPhone 4/5), I don't see how you use the 6+ with one hand. Even the 6 is a bit wide (as is the Galaxy). It won't stop me from buying one of these phones, but unless we all use phones with 2 hands, I think you'll have more dropped phones.
 
Was eyeing picking up a 1080p Chromebook to satisfy my curiosity, Galaxy Tab S for the screen or iPad Air 2 but ended up with two Windows touch and pen hybrids.
 
How do they get these device activations? Yeah Apple you MUST activate your phone before use, but Androids you don't if you used it before you log into your google account and thats not even a requirement if you want to do that.
 
k1pp3r said:
Performs it's intended purpose without needless customization.
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Define "intended purpose".

If it's make phone calls, lock you into apple's walled garden and sell lots of apps/media to make Apple lots of money then ok.

As for me I find Apple's GUI to be antiquated and the hardware too locked down to be useful.
 
Dazz said:
How do they get these device activations? Yeah Apple you MUST activate your phone before use, but Androids you don't if you used it before you log into your google account and thats not even a requirement if you want to do that.
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I call bull on there numbers.

Notice how they used the dates December 19th – 25th.
This allows them to ignore many of the people buying Android or Windows phones who will just swap their sim card after Christmas.
 
I use an iPhone and iPad every day. They are great products. I have had them all, Windows Phone, Android phone and tablet. Sorry for all the haters here but Apple devices sell well because they work well without as much headache.

Most the haters have never touched one and just drink the kool aid that they are terrible.
 
k1pp3r said:
Performs it's intended purpose without needless customization.
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So bassicaly every modern popular gadget? Android smart phones, Windows PCs, etc.

Apple is not the only company that knows how to make nice, usable stuff.
 
nutzo said:
Define "intended purpose".

If it's make phone calls, lock you into apple's walled garden and sell lots of apps/media to make Apple lots of money then ok.

As for me I find Apple's GUI to be antiquated and the hardware too locked down to be useful.
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A few years ago, I would have agreed with you, but I used one for a couple of years, and I didn't find myself buying a lot of apps. AFAIK, I only bought one app. I think that matches my time with Android, though technically, my company bought a Touchdown license for email.

Is Apple perfect? No. I've seen iOS reboot many times. If you're not watching, when it happens, you'll never know, because all your apps are still open after reboot. IME, when android rebooted, your apps were all closed (thus I noticed it every time), but it's certainly not any worse than Android and most people don't want to screw with their phone OS. What's most phones are updated by the carrier, so you may not get updates that Google has (or the phone company) has pushed out. With apple, it goes straight to the customer.

I'm no fanboy, but aside from not getting a free app from Amazon every day, I fail to see how Android is better for most users. For those that want to mess with their OS, I can see the advantage, though you can jail break iOS if you want more freedom, which is exactly what most of us that used android did a few years ago.
 
k1pp3r said:
Performs it's intended purpose without needless customization.
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Bullshit.

I have an iPad that was gifted new to me from work. While I appreciate the generosity and well intent, it's the easily biggest piece of shit I've ever used. If I want to play a movie/video on my Android phone (which I do at the gym) I plug in a USB cable, navigate to the "Movie" folder like a flash drive, and drag and drop it on to the phone's flash storage. On my iPad - First I have to install this bullshit iTunes software that wants to change all of my file associations, next I have to re-encode the movie to an Apple compatible format which takes 5ish minutes, then I have to add it to iTunes, assign it to sync, and then sync the iPad. If all of those steps aren't "needless", then I don't know what is.

The whole process takes 45 seconds on my Android device and about 8 minutes on my iPad. Why can't Apple let me mount storage like a flash drive... you know... like every other fucking device on the market?

Getting FLAC audio to my iPad also sucks balls. Same song and dance as above, my Android device plays FLAC files pulled directly off my media server just fine without any need to convert so some proprietary format.
 
Warms my heart to see the 51% majority. That means the 49% Android fanboys are butthurt. I honestly can't tell anymore which fanboys are worse.
 
Ad_apple_1984_2.png


Looks like this finally came true.
Oh look! Apple is introducing a new iProduct:

apple1984_slide-100023158-gallery.jpg
 
mi7chy said:
Was eyeing picking up a 1080p Chromebook to satisfy my curiosity, Galaxy Tab S for the screen or iPad Air 2 but ended up with two Windows touch and pen hybrids.
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I'm so sorry.
 
canna said:
Bullshit.

I have an iPad that was gifted new to me from work. While I appreciate the generosity and well intent, it's the easily biggest piece of shit I've ever used. If I want to play a movie/video on my Android phone (which I do at the gym) I plug in a USB cable, navigate to the "Movie" folder like a flash drive, and drag and drop it on to the phone's flash storage. On my iPad - First I have to install this bullshit iTunes software that wants to change all of my file associations, next I have to re-encode the movie to an Apple compatible format which takes 5ish minutes, then I have to add it to iTunes, assign it to sync, and then sync the iPad. If all of those steps aren't "needless", then I don't know what is.

The whole process takes 45 seconds on my Android device and about 8 minutes on my iPad. Why can't Apple let me mount storage like a flash drive... you know... like every other fucking device on the market?

Getting FLAC audio to my iPad also sucks balls. Same song and dance as above, my Android device plays FLAC files pulled directly off my media server just fine without any need to convert so some proprietary format.
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You are not setup for the system so of course it is a hassle for you. But that "system" that you despise so much offers some incentives that the free-form system you use does not. ITunes allows for consistency across multiple devices and platforms. Whether it be a computer, music players, cell phone, tablet, or TV. I do not have to make separate lists and allocations for each one. I have one centralized point of operation and everything feeds back to that.

You are also starting with a different container and that is the issue you are seeing. Maybe you are downloading free stuff of the Internet, who knows. But if you started out with MP4 movies and AAC (lossless even) you wouldn't have that issue. I rip all my own content, so for me there is not a problem.

I can buy a song on my phone and it shows up on my main computer at home as well as my work computer. In reverse I can upload my own music (no iTunes purchase) on one of the computers and it gets pushed to my phone.

It's the integration that people enjoy. Once you are setup for it, it works very well.
 
Oh and my experience with Samsung. I wanted to refresh a phone to sell to someone (Galaxy S3). So I used Samsung Keis software and it completely bricked the phone. And you want to manually write a stock ROM to a phone? Good luck actually finding a link on the Internet for that exact phone that works or isn't spam.

iTunes restore is fool proof and has worked 100% the dozen or so times I have done it.
 
Knight_of_BAAWA said:
If its intended purpose is to frustrate people because of the crappy UI and needlessly walled-off ecosystem, then I suppose it "works well".
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Been using an iPhone for about 2 years now and have no idea what you are talking about. It works just as well as the phones running Android I used for the ~2.5 years before that. The arguments usually boil down to it not running a format that YOU want or something like multitasking with a bunch of spreadsheets or similar situations. I still have a PC with 2 monitors on which I will be more productive than anyone, even on their 6" phones.

canna said:
Bullshit.

I have an iPad that was gifted new to me from work. While I appreciate the generosity and well intent, it's the easily biggest piece of shit I've ever used. If I want to play a movie/video on my Android phone (which I do at the gym) I plug in a USB cable, navigate to the "Movie" folder like a flash drive, and drag and drop it on to the phone's flash storage. On my iPad - First I have to install this bullshit iTunes software that wants to change all of my file associations, next I have to re-encode the movie to an Apple compatible format which takes 5ish minutes, then I have to add it to iTunes, assign it to sync, and then sync the iPad. If all of those steps aren't "needless", then I don't know what is.

The whole process takes 45 seconds on my Android device and about 8 minutes on my iPad. Why can't Apple let me mount storage like a flash drive... you know... like every other fucking device on the market?

Getting FLAC audio to my iPad also sucks balls. Same song and dance as above, my Android device plays FLAC files pulled directly off my media server just fine without any need to convert so some proprietary format.
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This is a case of "omg it's not in the format I want to use, so it sucks". You could download handbrake and convert those video files within a few minutes. MKV is/was also a PITA to use with most devices. More devices are finally supporting it now.

As for the FLAC, you should already have foobar2000 as a media player on your PC. In that case, download this http://www.foobar2000.org/encoderpack and watch as your FLAC can be converted to Apple Lossless within a matter of seconds for each file. You don't lose any quality (you can check head-fi for that).

Basically it all come down to you not wanting to change any of your media.
 
PCunicorn said:
So bassicaly every modern popular gadget? Android smart phones, Windows PCs, etc.

Apple is not the only company that knows how to make nice, usable stuff.
Click to expand...

I agree, there are plenty of options out there for people that "Work as intended"

canna said:
Bullshit.

I have an iPad that was gifted new to me from work. While I appreciate the generosity and well intent, it's the easily biggest piece of shit I've ever used.
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Sounds like more of your "Opinion" than anything else. I agree that the needless iTunes is a pain and I dislike it as well. As a technical person, I find my android and surface much easier to use than any Apple product. However not everyone sees it that way, so if Apple products "Work as they intend" and they don't have a desire to go outside of the box, then hey guess what, it works as intended!

Knight_of_BAAWA said:
If its intended purpose is to frustrate people because of the crappy UI and needlessly walled-off ecosystem, then I suppose it "works well".
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I have not seen my wife get frustrated with her iPhone or ipad. So it works well for her.

On the other hand, my asus transformer frustrated the hell out of me, mostly cause I could not do anything I wanted to do with it. The surface pro 2 resolved that issue for me.

Again, this is more of a "Choose the right tool for the job" if you have a screw with a flat head end, a Philips screwdriver won't do the job. If you need more than iPhone or ipad offer, or don't like 'How" they offer it, choose something else.
 
canna said:
Bullshit.

I have an iPad that was gifted new to me from work. While I appreciate the generosity and well intent, it's the easily biggest piece of shit I've ever used. If I want to play a movie/video on my Android phone (which I do at the gym) I plug in a USB cable, navigate to the "Movie" folder like a flash drive, and drag and drop it on to the phone's flash storage. On my iPad - First I have to install this bullshit iTunes software that wants to change all of my file associations, next I have to re-encode the movie to an Apple compatible format which takes 5ish minutes, then I have to add it to iTunes, assign it to sync, and then sync the iPad. If all of those steps aren't "needless", then I don't know what is.

The whole process takes 45 seconds on my Android device and about 8 minutes on my iPad. Why can't Apple let me mount storage like a flash drive... you know... like every other fucking device on the market?

Getting FLAC audio to my iPad also sucks balls. Same song and dance as above, my Android device plays FLAC files pulled directly off my media server just fine without any need to convert so some proprietary format.
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You are not the average user though ... the average user for either Android or Apple or Microsoft will never use anything other than the supplied stores to purchase movies or use Netflix to stream them ... Apple works well for the average user which is one reason they tend to do so well ... Samsung has been catering a little too much to the specialized users and it has hurt their profitability ... I would expect them to make improvements for the average user services this year to return to improved profitability (they won't abandon the specialized user but they should devote less effort to them)
 
PCunicorn said:
So bassicaly every modern popular gadget? Android smart phones, Windows PCs, etc.

Apple is not the only company that knows how to make nice, usable stuff.
Click to expand...

There's all kinds of devices from many companies that work perfectly for their users. We all have our biases and points of view but we're talking about literally billions of people and devices and endless uses for of these machines. So whatever generalizations one can make, even if they cover 90% of the real world, there's hundreds of millions of exceptions.
 
xIronCrossx said:
Been using an iPhone for about 2 years now and have no idea what you are talking about.
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Well I do have an idea of what I'm talking about, so that's good. When I have to set up people's mail or add an app to be able to direct-print or anything else I sometimes have to do in the course of my job: I prefer to have to do it on an Android. Much easier to find the right area of settings to look in or set.

And I don't have to deal with iTunes.
 
Knight_of_BAAWA said:
Well I do have an idea of what I'm talking about, so that's good. When I have to set up people's mail or add an app to be able to direct-print or anything else I sometimes have to do in the course of my job: I prefer to have to do it on an Android. Much easier to find the right area of settings to look in or set.

And I don't have to deal with iTunes.
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Unless you want to use the Apple cloud music match service (to match all the titles in your music library) there are few reasons to use iTunes anymore ... I do almost all my Apple activities through their cloud based services since iTunes never seems to run quite right on my PC
 
westrock2000 said:
ITunes allows for consistency across multiple devices and platforms. Whether it be a computer, music players, cell phone, tablet, or TV.
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Spoken like a true iBot.

If you are praising iTunes, you must have never dealt with it on a windows platform. I've lost count of how many time I've had to reload someone's system at the office because they loaded iTunes and it corrupted something in the OS or in other software we use.
It's gotten to the point that if someone is having unusual problems with their system, and there is no obvious malware, one of the first things I uninstall is iTunes. Usually fixes the problem.
 
mi7chy said:
Was eyeing picking up a 1080p Chromebook to satisfy my curiosity, Galaxy Tab S for the screen or iPad Air 2 but ended up with two Windows touch and pen hybrids.
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I took the plunge for a descent and relatively inexpensive tablet. Want a 8" android, with a fast graphics SoC. Got a HP Slate PRO 8 with a Tegra4 was $220.
About the best your are gonna get unless you pay $300+ for a Tegra K1 device.

It lasted the total of 2 hrs of use after charging for several hrs.
Shipped it back for a refund. :(
Decided to wait till the K1 devices get more affordable.
 
MajorDomo said:
When you think of only one company being responsible for over half of the electronic devices sold this holiday season, it’s really hard to believe. Apple pulled off this feat and just possibly pointed out the trends for the rest of 2015 in the process.
Click to expand...

Article said:
2014 turned into a banner year for Apple, its devices accounting for 51 percent of the new device activations worldwide Flurry recognized in the week leading up to and including Christmas Day (December 19th – 25th). Samsung held the #2 position with 18% of new device activations, and Microsoft (Nokia) rounded out the top three with 5.8% share for mostly Lumia devices
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I'm thinking that 51% of "new device activations" doesn't necessarily represent "over half of the electronic devices sold this holiday season"...... :rolleyes:

I know that at my local frys there were probably 10-15 cheap Chinese android tablets sold for every 1 apple device, and I doubt any of those cheap tablets required "activation"...
 
I picked up a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 on sale after Christmas. For right around $500 I now have a 75GB tablet for the price of a 16GB iPad Air. The iPad would be a little bit quicker at some stuff but a 64GB version is about $100 more.

I'd like to see the split of device sales as I believe that most iPads are useless 16GB models. That goes for phones too. I really hope that 2015 is the year we finally move away from 16GB models especially for flagship devices. 64GB would cost maybe $5 more but would allow for so much flexibility. And the cloud is a joke at least here in Canada. Nation wide calling + 10GB per month is around $150 on a 2 year plan. Bringing your own device drops the price by $10.
 
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