Google's Android is Eating Apple's Lunch

[l_macd]

Originally Posted by Apache

Apple was going the way of the dinosaurs when the iPod/iPhone happened along. Now they are losing market share again. Sound familiar?

If the same thing is to happen again though won't Apple just come up with more innovative ways to maximise their profits on future tech?

[kennyc]

Did Sony?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by pl001

I'm not a Samsung fan for a variety of reasons, but if I were a betting man, I'd bet on Samsung being a greater long-term success than Apple. They are simply a far more diverse company and capable of doing their own manufacturing. Apple is very good at what they do but their revenue is based on a limited portfolio.

Not trying to start a fanboy war or anything, I just find it to be an interesting point of discussion.

Agreed.

[ProfCrash]

Not an Apple fangirl here but the iPad had the apps I wanted and Android did not. It really was that easy. So now I play my silly games and I can play them with my friends who have iPads and I am not going to be thrilled with switching because I have bought a good number of apps.

[Penforhire]

Sales volume is one thing, profit is entirely another. Apple continues to take names and kick @ss when it comes to profit.

Yet another issue is the splintering of Android. When you say iOS you pretty much know what you're talking about (iPhone, iPad, or a Touch model). When you say Android you could be talking about a premium tablet, bargain basement phone, or even a camera! Further, it may or may not even tie into Google's store (e.g. Amazon's hardware using Android does not). Android OS is too fractured. It is as much a strength (applicable to many breeds of hardware) as a weakness (fewer apps are optimized for any given device).

I'm not surprised a dozen vendors combined are shipping more units than Apple. I will be surprised if/when their user experience approaches the ease and polish of Apple's walled garden. How is it that the very latest Android hardware and software combination is only now approaching the interface smoothness iOS had for years now? I know, fair is fair, it took Apple years to add cut/copy-and-paste, lol.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

I'm not surprised a dozen vendors combined are shipping more units than Apple.

Although looking at the numbers, only one of them is actually making any money out of it. Is Android dominating, or is Samsung dominating?

[pl001]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

Sales volume is one thing, profit is entirely another. Apple continues to take names and kick @ss when it comes to profit.

Yet another issue is the splintering of Android. When you say iOS you pretty much know what you're talking about (iPhone, iPad, or a Touch model). When you say Android you could be talking about a premium tablet, bargain basement phone, or even a camera! Further, it may or may not even tie into Google's store (e.g. Amazon's hardware using Android does not). Android OS is too fractured. It is as much a strength (applicable to many breeds of hardware) as a weakness (fewer apps are optimized for any given device).

I'm not surprised a dozen vendors combined are shipping more units than Apple. I will be surprised if/when their user experience approaches the ease and polish of Apple's walled garden. How is it that the very latest Android hardware and software combination is only now approaching the interface smoothness iOS had for years now? I know, fair is fair, it took Apple years to add cut/copy-and-paste, lol.

Actually a single phone, the Galaxy SIII, did outsell the iPhone in Q3 last year.

You have a point about "smoothness", but don't mistake that for speed or capability. My 18 month old EVO has never left me wanting in functionality or apps. Well, except for a better camera which I knew going in. iOS, in comparison, seems very old and limited when I play with it now (although I know it is still quite capable). I feel Apple has fallen way behind Android and Windows when it comes to the interface.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

...I am not going to be thrilled with switching because I have bought a good number of apps.

That is the *long-term* threat Apple faces: people who commit to Android or WinPhone will be equally wedded to their investment in applications.
Short-term, Apple still has the larger installed base of devices and the bigger app catalog and they will likely *always* have the bigger profit margins so they aren't going away any time soon.

But if this goes on long enough, the pool of featurephone and basic phone users from which the overall smartphone market draws its growth is going to shrink and the installed base that is locked-in by the existing platforms will become critical.

I would suggest that the growth of the smartphone market as a fraction of the overall phone market is sooner or later going to hit a wall and when it does shipment market share isn't just going to be a matter of bragging rights.

[Sil_liS]

Samsung's Galaxy S3 overtook Apple's iPhone 4S in the third quarter to give the South Korean firm the world's best-selling smartphone model for the first time ever, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

The problem with this statistic is that it has little meaning. I'm assuming that most of the people looking for an iPhone were waiting for the new model, so the sales were lower. I'm sure that for Q4 we will see the opposite trend. The market is still fluctuating.

When it comes to Windows 8, I think that it is going to do better on the touchscreen laptops then on tablets.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

The problem with this statistic is that it has little meaning. I'm assuming that most of the people looking for an iPhone were waiting for the new model, so the sales were lower. I'm sure that for Q4 we will see the opposite trend. The market is still fluctuating.

------

A first is always a first. To say it had no significance is to say there was no significance when Samsung wasn't first.

.. besides, that Jobs fellow is no longer around.

[MrDoug]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

"Google's Android is Eating Apple's Lunch
IndiaTimes - Posted 6 hours ago Enterprise

Google's Android is Eating Apple's Lunch
SAN FRANCISCO: Smartphones and tablets powered by Google's Android software are devouring the mobile gadget market, eating into Apple's turf by feeding appetites for innovation and low prices, analysts say.

The Android operating system powered nearly three out of four smartphones shipped worldwide in the recently ended quarter as the mobile platform dominated the market, according to industry trackers at IDC.

"Android has been one of the primary growth engines of the smartphone market since it was launched in 2008," said IDC's mobile phones research manager Ramon Llamas."

more info

Of course most of us knew this already.

What kinda Pot? I want some..

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Apache

You would have thought that Apple would have learned their lesson when Microsoft started dominating the PC.
Apache

Apache, I am having a hard time perceiving the lesson.

Did Apple even have a shot at getting the IBM operating system contract that launched Microsoft into the computing stratosphere?

And wasn't Apple right to stick to their strength (designing, and overseeing the manufacturing, of high end hardware running their own operating systems)? Back when Apple licensed the Mac OS to other manufacturers, it wasn't all that successful.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Did Apple even have a shot at getting the IBM operating system contract that launched Microsoft into the computing stratosphere?

Uh, they had an even better deal offered to them:
Bill Gates himself suggested to Sculley that they License MacOS and (later) NuBus to Compaq and HP and others. He even did all the footwork; all that Apple had to do was set the terms and they would've been in business.
(This was around the time IBM was going all proprietary with the PS/2 line.)
http://www.macobserver.com/columns/t...20040630.shtml

...in 1985 that Bill Gates, the very same Bill Gates that heads Microsoft, tried to get Apple to license the Mac OS to third party vendors. Not only did he try to get Apple to do so, he actually went out and lined up prospective licensees for Apple, going directly to the head of some of the biggest players in the computing industry at the time. When initially ignored by Apple CEO John Sculley, Mr. Gates continued his efforts to help Apple set his plan in motion by trying to keep communications open between the prospective parties.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by frahse

A first is always a first. To say it had no significance is to say there was no significance when Samsung wasn't first.

.. besides, that Jobs fellow is no longer around.

I didn't say that it has no significance, I said that it has little meaning. All the statistics based on single quarters have little meaning.

[ProfCrash]

I am slowly finding myself won over by Apple. I like that there are very few virus. I like how easily the products work. I like the ease of the genuis bar. The reality is that I do not need a computer that does a ton at home, I barely use word and excel. I use my home computer for games, videos, and surfing the web. Heck, I can do 90% of what I do on my IPad.