Android Still Gaining Ground

John_Keck

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 3, 2010
Messages
379
In a three month period spanning March through May, Android has continued its rampant growth by gaining 4% market share. This is on top of the 5.2% from December-February. The success can be attributed to an open system and fantastic phones. Between the Motorola Droid, HTC’s Droid Incredible, and now Sprint’s EVO 4G, the Android platform has had a plethora of admirable and competitive phones.
Will Android -- or iOS -- be able to take out the 800 pound gorilla in the room? It's hard to say, but it surely is not going to be easy, especially with BlackBerry 6 rapidly approaching, and continued rumors of a forthcoming BlackBerry tablet.
 
Not to mention Windows 7 Phones. People who want a simple straight forward device and that aren't worried about a bazillion ways to hack their phones or a gigabillion crApps will love this thing.
 
Had a G1 on launch day, and grabbed a Nexus One on launch day as well. I don't think I'll go back to another phone OS after using Android. I've converted about 10 of my friends as well. Can't wait for more new hardware as my upgrade with TMO is coming up in November, maybe the rumored HTC Scorpion [1.5ghz] will be out by then.
 
I moved from an Iphone to a Evo and I will never look back. The configuration and open source community makes this phone great.
 
RIM's BlackBerry customer retention is supposed to currently be in the 35% range, whereas Droid and iOS are in the high 70s/low 80s. That's a predictive metric by which to measure the marketshare changes.
 
I'm out of my contract now with AT&T and have been looking to jump onto Android. Due to our family plan, as much as I would love to change carriers switching is not an option at the moment. I'm not too terribly impressed with any of the Android options on AT&T now, but is there anything that I don't know about or is on the horizon?

Eerrrr sorry to threadjack
 
VS,

The Captivate is releasing next week. It's a Samsung Galaxy S in AT&T clothing. 4 inch super AMOLED screen, 1 ghz processor, fast GPU, 16gb internal storage. Nice unit, one of the best coming to market this year so far, but might have a longish wait until Android 2.2. Supposed to be only $350 no contract.
 
Love my EVO. Long time blackberry user and pretty glad I made the switch. Android is great!
 
I'm out of my contract now with AT&T and have been looking to jump onto Android. Due to our family plan, as much as I would love to change carriers switching is not an option at the moment. I'm not too terribly impressed with any of the Android options on AT&T now, but is there anything that I don't know about or is on the horizon?

Eerrrr sorry to threadjack


Captivate coming out next week.
 
Froyo (2.2) added some more enterprise features like remote wipe and password policies, so Google at least has some interest in taking RIM on in the enterprise sector.

Go Android!
 
Just left a windows phone for an EVO. Unless MS brings something dramatically different and not some incremental update of their current OS, I won't be going back. Android is fast, customizable, and stable. In the month I've had the EVO, it has not locked up at all.
 
I love MS products, but two years with a Win Mobile phone was more than I could ever take. Only phone that locked up on me continually. I went iPhone one year and now happily on Android. I do miss a few apps from my iPhone, mostly the pop cap games, but I bet most of them will be over to the Google side soon.
 
Just left a windows phone for an EVO. Unless MS brings something dramatically different and not some incremental update of their current OS, I won't be going back. Android is fast, customizable, and stable. In the month I've had the EVO, it has not locked up at all.

Windows 7 Phones aren't going to bring people back who like Droids for their customizability, Microsoft decided not to go that route and I believe that was the right call. But what they will do is bring in customers who just want an elegant smartphone that's focused on communication, organization and media consumption. In these departments they have a winner I think. With billions and billions of smart phone customers out there not everyone wants the same thing and not everyone wants to spend hours and hours screwing with their phones. I'm done with that unless I working on developing an app. Really the smart phone experience blows for a lot of stuff, its mobile but its slow and limited compared to more powerful machines. I'll use my phone in a pinch but when I go shoping or know I'm going to have time to kill, the tm2 is with me.

I think that in time you'll see more and more of this. I know that everyone is in a smart phone craze but one day I just said "Why am I looking at this on a 3.5" screen when I have this 12" device that 20x faster right next to me?" I'd cancel my phones 3G but I still need that for work from time to time.

At any rate Droid is awesome, very powerful and customizable and Windows 7 won't touch it in customizability.
 
I wonder if manufacturers made a android phone without 3g access, if Verizon would still force the stupid data plan down our throats. I can understand requiring a data plan for smartphones, but they're forcing data plans now for practically any phone that you can download ringtones to.


The only phone you can use with their service now without paying for an extra $270+ are phones that look like old-inventory that they couldn't get rid of 8 years ago.
 
WP7 will be great for my wife, but me and the rest of us power users, ill stick with WM6.5 (HD2) or get Android later.
 
When it comes to this sorta stuff, cell phone, any service really that I typically sign up for, I almost never get a break or a circumstance where something turns in my favor.

ACCEPT .... this.

I signed up for a new 2 year contract with Alltel right before the merger and got their friends and family anytime 500 packaged. I think for $79, I get 500 anytime minutes, 5 anywhere friends, unlimited text and unlimited data. No caps.

I have this plan for another year and look forward to really using my Droid X to the fullest.

Couple of questions. I had free tethering before, do I still get it? Also, once my plan is up, do I get to keep my old Alltel plan ( unchanged? )
 
The bottom line is, is that if Apple doesn't want to face itself looking at Android/Google kicking it's ass, then Steve Jobs better get the fucking memo that he needs to open up the Apple platform. If Jobs is smart, he would announce this soon if not tomorrow and watch Google/Microsoft shit their pants. This would be good for the consumer all the way around. Let the Appleytes fawn over their closed, but ultimately dying platform.
 
The bottom line is, is that if Apple doesn't want to face itself looking at Android/Google kicking it's ass, then Steve Jobs better get the fucking memo that he needs to open up the Apple platform. If Jobs is smart, he would announce this soon if not tomorrow and watch Google/Microsoft shit their pants. This would be good for the consumer all the way around. Let the Appleytes fawn over their closed, but ultimately dying platform.

Why? Open platforms don't necessarily mean shit. Really, 99% of phone users, computers, etc. don't give a shit about an open platform. They care about getting their calls, running some apps and that's about it, doing what they need. Openess doesn't mean a flying flip to them.

I'm not saying that open platforms are bad but they simply don't mean shit from the consumers perspective. If they did all of the iDevices would have already failed and instead of Windows 7 selling like 200 millions copies by now we would all be using Liniux for free.
 
Just left a windows phone for an EVO. Unless MS brings something dramatically different and not some incremental update of their current OS, I won't be going back. Android is fast, customizable, and stable. In the month I've had the EVO, it has not locked up at all.

I am eagerly awaiting for the zPhone with Win 7 mobile, but I'll tell you right now, if it doesn't live up to even a modicum of what it should do, then I'm done with Windows mobile and going Android. I won't go to Sprint, but I will go Android somehow. What really needs to happen is a company like HTC to tell all of the providers to fuck off and create a world gsm/cdma world phone for anyone to buy and not make it exclusive to a provider like the Evo to Sprint. I want the Evo, but I'm on AT&T, but I won't leave AT&T to get a phone. It needs to be the other way around.
 
WP7 will be great for my wife, but me and the rest of us power users, ill stick with WM6.5 (HD2) or get Android later.

Yeah the wife and I will be getting Win 7 Phones, though Verizon is Droid nuts, I worry that they won't have good Win 7 devices. I really have so many other toys that I shouldn't be spending all the time on anyway that all I need now is phone for basic stuff, screw spending hours customizing all that BS. 3D gaming is much more fun!:D
 
The success can be attributed to an open system and fantastic phones.

That is part of it, but a lot of people I know that have Android phones because of AT&T. They all had iPhones as their first "smart" phones; but have become so disgruntled with the shit service of AT&T that they moved to Verizon. Everyone that did this move went to droid phones. Every single one of them. So far among the people I know that is 20+ people.

I handle the cell phones at work and people come to me asking advice and getting their phones set up for email, etc. So I know what phones a lot of people run.
 
People don't need to know that something is more open from them to benefit from it, thats the beautiful part. Its faulty logic just like when someone says no one cares if a platform is easier to program for unless they are a programmer. They still benefit when more or better software is made for that platform.

People don't have to know that Google Navigation is available for free on Android and isn't available at all on iOS because Apple is closed and won't allow it, they will just know they can get amazing navigation built into an Android phone preinstalled for free and with no monthly charge.

Do you think the Sony Playstation greatly outsold Nintendo N64 and Sega Saturn because people bought it because they knew it was a platform that was easier to develop for or because it was cheaper to produce media for it? No they just knew that they could get cheaper games or play Final Fantasy 7 and Metal Gear Solid.

I'm not saying that open platforms are bad but they simply don't mean shit from the consumers perspective. If they did all of the iDevices would have already failed and instead of Windows 7 selling like 200 millions copies by now we would all be using Liniux for free.

But Windows IS an open platform and is available on a multitude of devices, which is exactly why Microsoft dominated in sales and market share against Apple, Sun and IBM.
 
Just got a HTC Hero while I wait on EVO's to be in-stock. I definently prefered the responsiveness of the iphone/touch over the HTC. The Hero lags quite a bit. The EVO may improve that. But software wise I like Google's domination more then I like Apple's domination. But Apple is still pretty good user experience.
 
Love my HTC Desire.
But I don't think Apple has anything to worry about for a long time yet. People have an emotional attachment to iPhones, they're lucky to even know that other phones can do what iPhones do (let alone more)

Personally i think google needs to start policing its apps a little more too. I know they are trying to build up an app market, but there are way too many shoddy apps, some of which prevent phones sleeping and drain battery, etc. 100,000 apps isn't any good when they are all shoddy. They don't need to be as piss poor and strict as Apple, but i think a 'google guarantee' on apps would go a long way.

Yeah, It is as if for most people, there only exists two types of phones: iPhone and "other phones" which is everything else...

I haven't had problems with any app, really. Some system apps like task killers (which are completely pointless) or OS monitors can drain the battery or prevent sleeping, but most people wouldn't download those. I've also encountered a few games that were absolutely terrible, but they didn't do any damage. There's a rating system for apps - I never download anything with less than 4 stars.

Naturally you *do* want things like games and movie players to prevent the phone from sleeping, otherwise you would have to keep touching the screen to keep it active. That warning you get when you install an app doesn't mean it will always prevent sleep from the moment you install it, only that the app can do this if needed.
 
Android and IOS both have theior advantages and disadvantages, and we can (and have) argue about this all day. :p

The part that surprises me time and time again is why anyone - and i mean anyone at all would buy a blackberry. I am stuck carrying one that work gave me, and it is the worst turd of a phone I have ever had the misfortune of having to use. Any iPhone or Android phone would be a better choice...

I completely and totally expected RIM to have gone the way of Palm by now.

And I know, someone (TexUS maybe?) is going to say that it has more policy management features for businesses than any other manufacturer, and this is true (though the others are slowly catching up). This still doesn't explain the mass delusion of people buying these pieces of crap as their personal phones... :confused:

I feel about BlackBerries about the same way as I feel about Corolla's. Why ANYONE would buy one is beyond me...
 
Love my HTC Desire.
But I don't think Apple has anything to worry about for a long time yet. People have an emotional attachment to iPhones, they're lucky to even know that other phones can do what iPhones do (let alone more)


There are plenty of people who blindly believe Apples statements of "This Changes Everything... again..." when in fact it changes nothing really, and these people are idiots. Then there are some of us that buy iPhones because we really like the user interface and sampled every QAndroid based phone in the local cellular store because we desperately wanted to switch to Verizon, but found that we couldn't live with the user interfaces of these other phones. I fall into this category :p

Personally i think google needs to start policing its apps a little more too. I know they are trying to build up an app market, but there are way too many shoddy apps, some of which prevent phones sleeping and drain battery, etc. 100,000 apps isn't any good when they are all shoddy. They don't need to be as piss poor and strict as Apple, but i think a 'google guarantee' on apps would go a long way.

Same goes for Apple. While there aren't many apps that drain battery and that kind of stuff (because they are so tightly sandboxed. There are benefits and limitations of the sandbox principle, though I could go without it). The problem Apple has is that the app store is so full of junk that finding a good app is like looking for a needle in a haystack...

The ads (as of a few months ago) were touting the fact that the Apple App store had over 75,000 apps. What it didn't say was that all but ~30 of them are absolutely useless crap.
 
One thing, people... This was through May.
This is none of the iPhone 4 launch data in here... So add a few million more units to what Apple has sold (granted only 23% of them are new customers)... The numbers aren't as impressive.

Regardless though, Android is still outselling everyone else on a daily basis. Quite handedly.

#1 problem with Apple at this point is that every month a new-gen Android device is hitting selves. The iPhone 4 is already outdated now what with the Galaxy S devices coming out.
Holiday season we'll be seeing 2Ghz and Dual Core phones, too. Apple cannot keep up with this growth with just one release per year.
Granted... These 2Ghz and Dual Core devices will probably drain battery terrible. Only reason batteries have kept up for this long is the other tech (Screen, CPU, RAM, etc) has improved in using less power. Battery tech isn't moving fast enough to support 2Ghz devices and such. At least in handhelds.

Not to mention Windows 7 Phones. People who want a simple straight forward device and that aren't worried about a bazillion ways to hack their phones or a gigabillion crApps will love this thing.
So you take Locked Down Platform #1 (Apple) or Locked Down Platform #2 (Microsoft).

History tells us that if #1 already exists, #2 won't see many consumers.

The Captivate is releasing next week. It's a Samsung Galaxy S in AT&T clothing. 4 inch super AMOLED screen, 1 ghz processor, fast GPU, 16gb internal storage. Nice unit, one of the best coming to market this year so far, but might have a longish wait until Android 2.2. Supposed to be only $350 no contract.
"One of the best"? It's THE best device on the market. The yet-released Droid X is already outdated by it :p

Granted I'm not saying the iPhone 4, Droid X, etc aren't great hardware phones... It's just that they're now a step behind the curve.

Windows 7 Phones aren't going to bring people back who like Droids for their customizability, Microsoft decided not to go that route and I believe that was the right call. But what they will do is bring in customers who just want an elegant smartphone that's focused on communication, organization and media consumption.
IE, the iPhone. That's exactly what you described.

This is exactly why I think Microsoft is making a mistake. If they would have released this LAST YEAR before Android started taking off, they'd have a place. It's too little too late now.

The bottom line is, is that if Apple doesn't want to face itself looking at Android/Google kicking it's ass, then Steve Jobs better get the fucking memo that he needs to open up the Apple platform. If Jobs is smart, he would announce this soon if not tomorrow and watch Google/Microsoft shit their pants. This would be good for the consumer all the way around. Let the Appleytes fawn over their closed, but ultimately dying platform.
Not going to happen.
They didn't want to loosen their control on the iPhone platform to MORE THAN DOUBLE their potential consumer base (Verizon... In case you don't know, Verizon rejected Apple, it's not the other way around). If they're willingly giving up almost twice the revenue- just because they can't loosen control of the device... I don't see them ever doing it.
Maybe after Android continues making them bleed.
 
Went from android on a MyTouch to the HTC HD2.

*Shudder*, baring the hardware differences the android os just wasn't my thing at the time. I rather prefer the windows mobile os with a good shell over it. I'll probably swap over to Winmobile 7 when its released and then back to android again to see how it stacks up.

All os will be on the HD2 and my os choice will be up in the air. We'll see how it goes.
 
Holiday season we'll be seeing 2Ghz and Dual Core phones, too. Apple cannot keep up with this growth with just one release per year.

So you take Locked Down Platform #1 (Apple) or Locked Down Platform #2 (Microsoft).

I'm aware of 1.5ghz snapdragon processors coming out in the fall/winter but where did you hear about 2ghz cores as well as dual-core phones?

Care to explain how Windows Mobile is a "locked down" os?
 
I'm aware of 1.5ghz snapdragon processors coming out in the fall/winter but where did you hear about 2ghz cores as well as dual-core phones?

Care to explain how Windows Mobile is a "locked down" os?

http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=6140
http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/0...ual-core-powered-gingerbread-running-monster/

The dual core device will be sweet (running Gingerbread).

However, if the Captivate truly turns out to be $350 with no contract, and I don't have to pay ETF for switching away from ATT... It probably won't be enough to get me to move away from ATT yet, especially since TMobile doesn't have 3G here. (I think it has something to do with TMobile's 3G bands being used by the military...)

Find the other Windows Mobile 7 thread around here. They're going to be locking it down to the App Store and everything just like Apple. We really just don't know yet until we see it... But the way it's been described it sounds like a restrictive device exactly like iOS4. No cut/copy/paste, etc because Microsoft thinks people don't need it... They're doing all the same crap Apple is doing.
 
Why? Open platforms don't necessarily mean shit. Really, 99% of phone users, computers, etc. don't give a shit about an open platform. They care about getting their calls, running some apps and that's about it, doing what they need. Openess doesn't mean a flying flip to them.

I'm not saying that open platforms are bad but they simply don't mean shit from the consumers perspective. If they did all of the iDevices would have already failed and instead of Windows 7 selling like 200 millions copies by now we would all be using Liniux for free.

I understand what you are saying. However, the larger implication of an open platform like Android is going to hurt them in the end. Apple so far has been riding the slick interface train for awhile now, but all the industrial design and simplistic GUI won't help them retain people when they realize there is another alternative out there besides being locked into Apple. I understand that the bulk of Appleytes won't ever leave, but as Apple becomes more restrictive and expensive, they will start to see people leaving. iPhone 4 is just the start. iPad has been a fairly non-descript kick-off.
 
IE, the iPhone. That's exactly what you described.

Not exactly. I've been working with the Windows 7 Phone eumlator and this device simply isn't as app-centric as the iPhone or Droid, not in a conventional sense. It's a very subtle difference. Live tiles, yes apps but you're really not installing anything, not directly and you never leave the twist interface to get there.
 
I understand what you are saying. However, the larger implication of an open platform like Android is going to hurt them in the end. Apple so far has been riding the slick interface train for awhile now, but all the industrial design and simplistic GUI won't help them retain people when they realize there is another alternative out there besides being locked into Apple. I understand that the bulk of Appleytes won't ever leave, but as Apple becomes more restrictive and expensive, they will start to see people leaving. iPhone 4 is just the start. iPad has been a fairly non-descript kick-off.

The iPad non-descript? It's the most popular slate device ever. I'm not a huge fan, I'm the best known Tablet PC fan on this board, but the facts are the facts. Now a lot of that is simply because there's no competition. Yes, there's Android and other devices on the way but the iPad will be the leader in sales for a while. Apple can sell a big iPhone. Not so sure if anyone can sell a big Droid.

But yes the competition is heating up on Apple, I think their glory days are about done, no more totally free lunch. There's going to be Droid in the slate space but, and yes I know that Windows "sucks" as touch screen OS (actually nothing could be further from the truth IMHO) but desktop Windows will be a solid #2 after the iPad in this space for a couple of reasons. The main one being that it will run all the apps you already have. I simply can't understand why some people don't get this. And if these things are being used as media consumption devices, nothing consumes media like Windows. Throw in Office, Photoshop, etc. and yes, there's going to be strong appeal for these things on the RIGHT hardware.

Droid is a big question mark to me on slates. Apple has its cult. Windows has its functionality, openess and limitless software library. I simply don't know what Droid will bring to this space that's not cover by the other two. We shall see.
 
The iPad non-descript? It's the most popular slate device ever.
Because it's been about the only one so far. Everyone else knows that's just a small niche market ;)

Kindof like saying the Model T was the most popular car... Well, no kidding.
 
Because it's been about the only one so far. Everyone else knows that's just a small niche market ;)

Kindof like saying the Model T was the most popular car... Well, no kidding.

True, its been the only serious consumer effort thus far but that it is about to change. Niche? That argument is generally irrelavent. As a long time TPC user I hear this all the time. Nonetheless these devices do a lot for me and others, can be used in ways like no other device and serve a purpose that can't be replicated by laptops or phones or even an iPad (no EMR pen).

Not everything of value will be the #1 all time selling thing in history. TPCs are niche, but they are 8 years old and they'll leep making them because they serve a purpose that people will pay good money for.
 
I love MS products, but two years with a Win Mobile phone was more than I could ever take. Only phone that locked up on me continually. I went iPhone one year and now happily on Android. I do miss a few apps from my iPhone, mostly the pop cap games, but I bet most of them will be over to the Google side soon.


co worker just went from a touch pro2 to an evo.

when asked "whatja do with the touchpro?

"well, i have this aluminium bat...." *tossing phone up, swinging gesture*

"no...you didnt, you know you could have sold that thing...."

"i know, i wouldn't want to curse someone else with that piece of junk"


definitely not confirmed, but i actually believe him....
 
I have a Touch Pro 2 and its got one thing that I've not seen matched, a speaker phone. Honestly though I like mine and no a lot of people with it. And this is WinMo 6.x anyway. 7 is totally different.
 
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