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Android-based Smartphones Outpaced Apple's iPhone in Q1 2010

74 points by tc 16y ago

davidedicillo 16y ago
No news here. 1. More networks, more devices. It's like saying that Windows sells more than Macbook Pros. 2. Everyone and their mothers knows that in a month Apple will introduce a new one 3. Soon the big majority of cell phones will be what we usually call smartphones. It would be fool to think that one single device will maintain dominate the marketshare. The point is that if you look at the single device, no-one is even closed to Apple's number.
- detst 16y ago
  > The point is that if you look at the single device, no-one is even closed to Apple's number. Really? Is that what matters? It seems to me the more significant thing would be the OS and not any one device, especially for HN-types that write apps and build sites for OSes/browsers and not a piece of hardware.
  - javery 16y ago
    The most significant thing is actually what kind of market there is for the apps/sites we are building. Market is not just about the number of users, it's about how much those users are buying. It's the reason that Mac developers can make more than their PC counterparts on many types of applications, because the Mac users buy more software. (at least I know I have since I switched).
    - revaaron 16y ago
      My experience over the last few weeks spent using a new Nexus One as a former iPhone certainly supports this. Frankly, I'm stunned at the difference in quality and breadth of applications available in the App Store vs Android Market- compared to the App Store, the Market is like Softpedia or Tucows...
      - krschultz 16y ago
        The install base of the iPhone still dwarfs Android, this is unit sales for one quarter. The iPhone has been out for a while longer than Android. But if this quarter a sign of things to come, what platform do you want to be selling apps on long term?
        slyn 16y ago
        Both?
        revaaron 16y ago
        I'd have to agree with slyn- both. I think it's most likely I'd be selling apps for Android in the long term, if only because I don't have to live by 3.3.1... I wouldn't be surprised if a divide not unlike Mac vs PC software developed- traditionally, Mac users were a smaller group but more willing to pay for overall better software.
        lutorm 16y ago
        I just looked at the Android SDK for the first time the other day, and it seemed to indicate that you must write your apps in Java? That seems even more restrictive than 3.3.1 to me. Or did I miss something?
  - davidedicillo 16y ago
    The problem is that doing great applications that sells well it's harder when you need to make them looks polished like iphone ones with such a big variety of devices. Soon your fridge will use Android, that doesn't mean I'd like to develop apps for it. Also iPhone users have been "trained" for years with iTunes to buy digital content.
    - dannyr 16y ago
      When the IPhone was selling more than Android, Apple defenders were saying that you should choose a platform that has a bigger market (i.e. IPhone). Now that Android is outselling the IPhone, you should now choose based how many users actually buy digital content.
      - jasonwocky 16y ago
        I don't see a distinction between "bigger market" and "how many users actually buy digital content". I think these are the same thing.
- moultano 16y ago
  Does that matter to us? When I'm deciding what to support as a developer I care only about the size of the platform.
  - davidedicillo 16y ago
    It's not about the size of the market as much as the quality. Would you rather have 100,000 potential users and make 1,000 sales or 200,000 users and make 800. Or maybe make the same amount of sale but being able to charge more because you know that who spend $500 for a phone is more incline to spend $10 on an app than somebody who spent $100?
    - krschultz 16y ago
      Ok, but that is a pile of assumptions. If the iPhone user buys 3 apps for every 1 the Android user does, but in a couple years there are 10 times as many Android users, where do you sell your app? The attach rate and the market size make all the difference, and there is no data to support the conclusion you are trying to make. A gaming PC is a hell of a lot more expensive than a console, yet their attach rate is way way lower than a console.
  - sueders100 16y ago
    "Does that matter to us?" Yes, I imagine fragmentation would matter when it comes to developing for a platform.
    - revaaron 16y ago
      Indeed. Fragmentation is probably the biggest reason we'll never see Android Market-sales on a per-device basis top what each iPhone user spends in the App Store- there's a wife range of CPU power, RAM, graphics capability, peripherals, multitouch or not, etc on Android devices. Like being back in the world of Windows CE...
      - not_an_alien 16y ago
        The same is happening to the iPhone ecosystem; at a slower pace, but it's happening. Before it was the iPhone 2G; now it's iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS, iPad, soon the new iPhone 4G... soon there will be way too many differences in resolution, screen size, CPU and OS too. Sales per-device is irrelevant, IMO. If I sell 100 for 10 devices, it's better than selling 90 for 3 devices. It's not like I have to add one IF() condition for each new model in my code; merely that I have to plan for slower CPUs and different screen sizes and resolutions, and when I do so, it's for a whole group of similar devices.
- buster 16y ago
  "Soon the big majority of cell phones will be what we usually call smartphones." My guess here is, that this will be a major winning point for Android, as i think that the next-gen low cost smartphones (presumably the ones that will most likely be bought by current featurephone owners) will be Android ones. Vodafone in germany will sell an Android phone for 130€ (prepaid, 1€ with contract) soon, for example. Even more so, this may be a huge advantage in the emerging markets like china and india.
- ergo98 16y ago
  >No news here. Is this like "the seven stages of grief" or something? Yeah, there is big news here, denial-be-damned. A few short months ago we were all told that there was just so much confusion in Android-land. So many choices and so many versions it was a major turn off for consumers. Instead the one-sized-fits-all iPhone model was the winner (and it was). Now it's "duh...of course Android moves ahead" as if that's the new reality. >Everyone and their mothers knows that in a month Apple will introduce a new one The Nexus 2 will be out in a very short while. The Samsung Galaxy S will be out with 3x the GPU power. The Evo 4G of course. And on, and on, and on. >The point is that if you look at the single device, no-one is even closed to Apple's number. It was never about a single device. It has never been a single device.
stanleydrew 16y ago
There were a lot of iPod Touch devices (and now iPads) sold too though, so the mobile application market is still heavily dominated by Apple devices. Good to see competition in the smartphone space though.
dave1619 16y ago
Android is definitely picking up pace. I just hope Apple releases an iPhone for Verizon. I think that will give the iPhone a boost. Apple should also release an iPhone Nano, a smaller version of the iPhone. Maybe also have colors.
- listic 16y ago
  Hm, iPod nano might actually be a viable idea. I mean, now, when Apple (a) stopped sticking to the only resolution for all iPhone OS devices and (b) is putting much higher resolution screen into older package - maybe it might make sense for them to also put old resolution (320 x 480) into smaller package? The problems I see in these approach are the following: 1. How can one meaningfully make iPhone smaller/more energy efficient/cheaper? 2. Do people need a smaller iPhone? Is physically smaller touch screen as usable?
  - dave1619 16y ago
    Yeah, good points. I think they can make the screen a bit smaller than the current iPhone, but keep the 320x480 resolution. This way apps will still be usable. But they can also remove space from the top and bottom of the phone and make it a lot thinner. Overall, I think they can really shrink the iPhone significantly. This could appeal to lots of people. Especially, now the iPad is out and people don't mind having a smaller iPhone to compliment their iPad.
    - eldenbishop 16y ago
      My fat fingers can barely hit some of the tiny buttons now...I don't think the keyboard could get smaller and still be usable.
- jsz0 16y ago
  I think if Apple ever does an iPhone Nano it will be more of an extension of the current iPod Nano than a smaller version of the iPhone. It would be difficult to scale the iPhone UI/apps down to a physically smaller screen without usability problems. I imagine they would only go this route if iPod sales really plummeted due to convergence of media players in phones. It might be a compelling device though with an iPhone-ish UI and some simplified widget style applications.
martythemaniak 16y ago
I think Android outselling the iPhone (and eventually overtaking it in raw numbers) will soon become pretty obvious. Android is a pretty mass-market product - its flexibility means that manufacturers can put a wide array of products and users can make those products their own. I really don't think a single product (especially a tightly-defined one like the iPhone) can meet even a majority of people's needs.
- symesc 16y ago
  I agree. And I think this is why Adobe's anti-trust activity against Apple won't go very far. Apple is very comfortable taking part of the market, owning it, doing things their way, and making boatloads of money. They are not trying to be everything to everyone. Disclosure: I just switched from iPhone to a Google N1 because I was tired of the box Apple put me in.
  - revaaron 16y ago
    @symesc: I just switched from an iPhone to a N1 for the same reason. An inferior phone for a dozen reasons- but a switch I plan to stick with, for now.
    - blhack 16y ago
      An inferior phone for a dozen reasons Could you elaborate on that? Everybody I know who has an N1 loves it...
      - Volscio 16y ago
        Just went from iPhone 2G/AT&T to HTC Droid Incredible/Verizon. SO much better in every way.
        jacoblyles 16y ago
        Except viewing in the sunlight.
yason 16y ago
Android is the Windows of smartphone operating systems. iPhone OS is the OS X of smartphone operating systems. Guess which will have the majority of sales and smaller profit-per-phone and which will have minority of sales and higher profit-per-phone, eventually.
- jpark 16y ago
  If we follow that train of thought further... Guess which will have the majority of apps and developers? unless it becomes way too hard to target a sizable chunk of the Android market due to hardware spec fragmentation.
  - loire280 16y ago
    Another thing to worry about is manufacturers abandoning support for old phones prematurely, or causing long delays between updates to new major versions. (I'm not sure if Android phones can update over the air, but if not then you may have a large number of users who never upgrade their OS.) Yes, technical users can probably acquire third-party firmware if the manufacturers drop the ball, but that's not a mainstream fix. Android will not be fun to develop for if you're targeting (hardware spec fragmentation) x (Android feature fragmentation) different combinations of phone.
    - DrSprout 16y ago
      Well, the iPhone solution is basically throw away your phone every 18 months, which should work equally well on Android.
      - loire280 16y ago
        The carrier subsidy model provides an incentive to throw away your phone every 2 years, anyway.
not_an_alien 16y ago
While people will want to dismiss this because it's based in several devices, prior to the release of the new iPhone, and because it's still restricted to AT&T - all valid facts - the important thing to notice here is trend. Android devices have been gaining market pretty solidly lately; first the AdMob ad pushing statistics, now unit sales... this seems to be one from many more that will come. Apple has no reason to be afraid, I'm pretty sure, as they are probably happy in having just a slice of the market and still being super lucrative (same position they play in the desktop business). But for app developers, this is a pretty strong hit of future market changes.
- hboon 16y ago
  Not necessary. Their strategy seems to be going for the mass market with their iPhone-OS-based products rather than a niche with OS X-based products. Look at their: 1. Pricing for iPhone (after the initial launch), iPod touch and iPad launch price. They aren't the most expensive "smartphones" and tablets. 2. App store app prices, especially for iPhones/iPod touch. They don't control the prices, but they provide a list to choose from and they indirectly influence pricing. See (3). 3. App store top X, what's hot, etc charts. Apps are sold exactly like mp3s.
  - barrkel 16y ago
    And developer tool lock-in: section 3.3.1.
  - zweben 16y ago
    Looking only at the price they charge consumers doesn't give an accurate picture of their pricing strategy. Most estimates I've seen peg the average total revenue Apple makes per iPhone hardware sale at about $600, most of this paid to Apple by AT&T. Once that's taken into account, the iPhone probably has one of the highest revenues per unit on the market. So their strategy is really to make a product that everyone wants, and to use that popularity to get phone companies to sell a high-margin niche product at mass market prices.
    - 16y ago
emehrkay 16y ago
Good to see that an open platform is leading the way with these "super personal computers" (phones/tablets). I still love my iphone and pad, but it is nice to know that the market leader isnt some corporation who is bent on defining how the market should move
- loire280 16y ago
  Google's interest in how the mobile market develops is at least as strong as Apple. Google provided the business muscle involved in getting a phone sold by a major carrier (who provide the massive subsidies that make these phones mainstream) and Google's massive popularity among regular internet users helped drive interest. Google's involvement is the key factor in Android's adoption.
WiseWeasel 16y ago
Now that Android has somewhat matured and HP is dumping massive resources into WebOS, it may be time for Apple to think about winning hearts and minds again, doing things like allowing iPhone users to install the apps they want to install, including those which carriers and other partners may not be particularly fond of, as Android and WebOS users are able to do. Of course the yearly iPhone release cycle is a big factor, and it can be expected that the product will do relatively poorly at the end of its cycle, but that's also what makes the iPhone so incredibly profitable for Apple. A possible solution to this may be for Apple to have two radically different iPhone models serving different markets, and have the release cycles staggered by six months. Another alternative would be to release a new model every eight months instead of twelve, take a hit in profitability, and still be able to line up with people's two-year plan refreshes, now every three phone models instead of two. Overall, this problem is somewhat mitigated by the attraction of iPhone OS app availability and the iPhone's brand strength, so it may not be the most important issue to address. The other obvious factor is the exclusive carrier agreement with AT&T in the US, with Verizon pouring marketing money into Android to counter Apple's iPhone. Apple is leaving the door wide open for competitors to establish themselves with people who prefer other carriers for various reasons, giving a great boost to Android device vendors. Ending this exclusive distribution agreement as soon as possible seems like the most obvious answer to this competitive pressure. Personally, I recommend people get Android phones because I'm fearful of the power Apple wields over its users (namely me, making me jailbreak my iPhone to run valuable applications that Apple won't allow for whatever reason), and I need credible competition to keep that power in check. I think many technophiles are rooting for and promoting competitors, even if they use iPhones themselves, simply due to Apple's repression of user empowerment with iPhone OS devices. I honestly believe that loosening the reins on their iPhone OS users would afford Apple a whole lot more goodwill with geeks, and remove many of the reservations they have recommending iPhones to people. Making the iPhone more geek-friendly should obviously not be done at the expense of usability for the less geeky, but the value of courting this class of users is to be ignored at Apple's peril, as they are the ones many people trust to guide their purchasing decisions. So that seems about the extent of what Apple can do to turn their fortunes around. It will be interesting to see how this marketshare trend holds in the next year in relation to the iPhone release cycle, ruling out the effect of the end of the current iPhone model's life, compounded by the Gizmodo iPhone 4G leak. There are other obvious areas of improvement in the iPhone OS I'm sure they're working on, such as a workable documents and basic filesystem functionality, but the PR problem surrounding the issue of vendor control over users seems like the critical one for the iPhone at this point. That said, I don't want to take away from this momentous day for Android users, developers and stakeholders. This is a huge milestone for the Android platform, and a watershed moment for mobile app developers. You can bet this is music to the ears of Android devs looking for investment, and that Android will be getting a lot better software for it. It's good to see Apple get a taste of humble pie; they've always done their best work as underdogs, when the pressure is on. Personally, if Apple stays their current course another year, I would expect this trend to be irreversible. Disclosure: I own some AAPL and PALM shares. Sorry for the essay!

74 points by tc 16y ago

No news here. 1. More networks, more devices. It's like saying that Windows sells more than Macbook Pros. 2. Everyone and their mothers knows that in a month Apple will introduce a new one 3. Soon the big majority of cell phones will be what we usually call smartphones. It would be fool to think that one single device will maintain dominate the marketshare. The point is that if you look at the single device, no-one is even closed to Apple's number.

detst 16y ago
> The point is that if you look at the single device, no-one is even closed to Apple's number. Really? Is that what matters? It seems to me the more significant thing would be the OS and not any one device, especially for HN-types that write apps and build sites for OSes/browsers and not a piece of hardware.
- javery 16y ago
  The most significant thing is actually what kind of market there is for the apps/sites we are building. Market is not just about the number of users, it's about how much those users are buying. It's the reason that Mac developers can make more than their PC counterparts on many types of applications, because the Mac users buy more software. (at least I know I have since I switched).
  - revaaron 16y ago
    My experience over the last few weeks spent using a new Nexus One as a former iPhone certainly supports this. Frankly, I'm stunned at the difference in quality and breadth of applications available in the App Store vs Android Market- compared to the App Store, the Market is like Softpedia or Tucows...
    - krschultz 16y ago
      The install base of the iPhone still dwarfs Android, this is unit sales for one quarter. The iPhone has been out for a while longer than Android. But if this quarter a sign of things to come, what platform do you want to be selling apps on long term?
      - slyn 16y ago
        Both?
      - revaaron 16y ago
        I'd have to agree with slyn- both. I think it's most likely I'd be selling apps for Android in the long term, if only because I don't have to live by 3.3.1... I wouldn't be surprised if a divide not unlike Mac vs PC software developed- traditionally, Mac users were a smaller group but more willing to pay for overall better software.
        lutorm 16y ago
        I just looked at the Android SDK for the first time the other day, and it seemed to indicate that you must write your apps in Java? That seems even more restrictive than 3.3.1 to me. Or did I miss something?
- davidedicillo 16y ago
  The problem is that doing great applications that sells well it's harder when you need to make them looks polished like iphone ones with such a big variety of devices. Soon your fridge will use Android, that doesn't mean I'd like to develop apps for it. Also iPhone users have been "trained" for years with iTunes to buy digital content.
  - dannyr 16y ago
    When the IPhone was selling more than Android, Apple defenders were saying that you should choose a platform that has a bigger market (i.e. IPhone). Now that Android is outselling the IPhone, you should now choose based how many users actually buy digital content.
    - jasonwocky 16y ago
      I don't see a distinction between "bigger market" and "how many users actually buy digital content". I think these are the same thing.
moultano 16y ago
Does that matter to us? When I'm deciding what to support as a developer I care only about the size of the platform.
- davidedicillo 16y ago
  It's not about the size of the market as much as the quality. Would you rather have 100,000 potential users and make 1,000 sales or 200,000 users and make 800. Or maybe make the same amount of sale but being able to charge more because you know that who spend $500 for a phone is more incline to spend $10 on an app than somebody who spent $100?
  - krschultz 16y ago
    Ok, but that is a pile of assumptions. If the iPhone user buys 3 apps for every 1 the Android user does, but in a couple years there are 10 times as many Android users, where do you sell your app? The attach rate and the market size make all the difference, and there is no data to support the conclusion you are trying to make. A gaming PC is a hell of a lot more expensive than a console, yet their attach rate is way way lower than a console.
- sueders100 16y ago
  "Does that matter to us?" Yes, I imagine fragmentation would matter when it comes to developing for a platform.
  - revaaron 16y ago
    Indeed. Fragmentation is probably the biggest reason we'll never see Android Market-sales on a per-device basis top what each iPhone user spends in the App Store- there's a wife range of CPU power, RAM, graphics capability, peripherals, multitouch or not, etc on Android devices. Like being back in the world of Windows CE...
    - not_an_alien 16y ago
      The same is happening to the iPhone ecosystem; at a slower pace, but it's happening. Before it was the iPhone 2G; now it's iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS, iPad, soon the new iPhone 4G... soon there will be way too many differences in resolution, screen size, CPU and OS too. Sales per-device is irrelevant, IMO. If I sell 100 for 10 devices, it's better than selling 90 for 3 devices. It's not like I have to add one IF() condition for each new model in my code; merely that I have to plan for slower CPUs and different screen sizes and resolutions, and when I do so, it's for a whole group of similar devices.
buster 16y ago
"Soon the big majority of cell phones will be what we usually call smartphones." My guess here is, that this will be a major winning point for Android, as i think that the next-gen low cost smartphones (presumably the ones that will most likely be bought by current featurephone owners) will be Android ones. Vodafone in germany will sell an Android phone for 130€ (prepaid, 1€ with contract) soon, for example. Even more so, this may be a huge advantage in the emerging markets like china and india.
ergo98 16y ago
>No news here. Is this like "the seven stages of grief" or something? Yeah, there is big news here, denial-be-damned. A few short months ago we were all told that there was just so much confusion in Android-land. So many choices and so many versions it was a major turn off for consumers. Instead the one-sized-fits-all iPhone model was the winner (and it was). Now it's "duh...of course Android moves ahead" as if that's the new reality. >Everyone and their mothers knows that in a month Apple will introduce a new one The Nexus 2 will be out in a very short while. The Samsung Galaxy S will be out with 3x the GPU power. The Evo 4G of course. And on, and on, and on. >The point is that if you look at the single device, no-one is even closed to Apple's number. It was never about a single device. It has never been a single device.

stanleydrew 16y ago

There were a lot of iPod Touch devices (and now iPads) sold too though, so the mobile application market is still heavily dominated by Apple devices. Good to see competition in the smartphone space though.

dave1619 16y ago

Android is definitely picking up pace. I just hope Apple releases an iPhone for Verizon. I think that will give the iPhone a boost. Apple should also release an iPhone Nano, a smaller version of the iPhone. Maybe also have colors.

listic 16y ago
Hm, iPod nano might actually be a viable idea. I mean, now, when Apple (a) stopped sticking to the only resolution for all iPhone OS devices and (b) is putting much higher resolution screen into older package - maybe it might make sense for them to also put old resolution (320 x 480) into smaller package? The problems I see in these approach are the following: 1. How can one meaningfully make iPhone smaller/more energy efficient/cheaper? 2. Do people need a smaller iPhone? Is physically smaller touch screen as usable?
- dave1619 16y ago
  Yeah, good points. I think they can make the screen a bit smaller than the current iPhone, but keep the 320x480 resolution. This way apps will still be usable. But they can also remove space from the top and bottom of the phone and make it a lot thinner. Overall, I think they can really shrink the iPhone significantly. This could appeal to lots of people. Especially, now the iPad is out and people don't mind having a smaller iPhone to compliment their iPad.
  - eldenbishop 16y ago
    My fat fingers can barely hit some of the tiny buttons now...I don't think the keyboard could get smaller and still be usable.
jsz0 16y ago
I think if Apple ever does an iPhone Nano it will be more of an extension of the current iPod Nano than a smaller version of the iPhone. It would be difficult to scale the iPhone UI/apps down to a physically smaller screen without usability problems. I imagine they would only go this route if iPod sales really plummeted due to convergence of media players in phones. It might be a compelling device though with an iPhone-ish UI and some simplified widget style applications.

martythemaniak 16y ago

I think Android outselling the iPhone (and eventually overtaking it in raw numbers) will soon become pretty obvious. Android is a pretty mass-market product - its flexibility means that manufacturers can put a wide array of products and users can make those products their own. I really don't think a single product (especially a tightly-defined one like the iPhone) can meet even a majority of people's needs.

symesc 16y ago
I agree. And I think this is why Adobe's anti-trust activity against Apple won't go very far. Apple is very comfortable taking part of the market, owning it, doing things their way, and making boatloads of money. They are not trying to be everything to everyone. Disclosure: I just switched from iPhone to a Google N1 because I was tired of the box Apple put me in.
- revaaron 16y ago
  @symesc: I just switched from an iPhone to a N1 for the same reason. An inferior phone for a dozen reasons- but a switch I plan to stick with, for now.
  - blhack 16y ago
    An inferior phone for a dozen reasons Could you elaborate on that? Everybody I know who has an N1 loves it...
    - Volscio 16y ago
      Just went from iPhone 2G/AT&T to HTC Droid Incredible/Verizon. SO much better in every way.
      - jacoblyles 16y ago
        Except viewing in the sunlight.

yason 16y ago

Android is the Windows of smartphone operating systems. iPhone OS is the OS X of smartphone operating systems. Guess which will have the majority of sales and smaller profit-per-phone and which will have minority of sales and higher profit-per-phone, eventually.

jpark 16y ago
If we follow that train of thought further... Guess which will have the majority of apps and developers? unless it becomes way too hard to target a sizable chunk of the Android market due to hardware spec fragmentation.
- loire280 16y ago
  Another thing to worry about is manufacturers abandoning support for old phones prematurely, or causing long delays between updates to new major versions. (I'm not sure if Android phones can update over the air, but if not then you may have a large number of users who never upgrade their OS.) Yes, technical users can probably acquire third-party firmware if the manufacturers drop the ball, but that's not a mainstream fix. Android will not be fun to develop for if you're targeting (hardware spec fragmentation) x (Android feature fragmentation) different combinations of phone.
  - DrSprout 16y ago
    Well, the iPhone solution is basically throw away your phone every 18 months, which should work equally well on Android.
    - loire280 16y ago
      The carrier subsidy model provides an incentive to throw away your phone every 2 years, anyway.

not_an_alien 16y ago

While people will want to dismiss this because it's based in several devices, prior to the release of the new iPhone, and because it's still restricted to AT&T - all valid facts - the important thing to notice here is trend. Android devices have been gaining market pretty solidly lately; first the AdMob ad pushing statistics, now unit sales... this seems to be one from many more that will come. Apple has no reason to be afraid, I'm pretty sure, as they are probably happy in having just a slice of the market and still being super lucrative (same position they play in the desktop business). But for app developers, this is a pretty strong hit of future market changes.

hboon 16y ago
Not necessary. Their strategy seems to be going for the mass market with their iPhone-OS-based products rather than a niche with OS X-based products. Look at their: 1. Pricing for iPhone (after the initial launch), iPod touch and iPad launch price. They aren't the most expensive "smartphones" and tablets. 2. App store app prices, especially for iPhones/iPod touch. They don't control the prices, but they provide a list to choose from and they indirectly influence pricing. See (3). 3. App store top X, what's hot, etc charts. Apps are sold exactly like mp3s.
- barrkel 16y ago
  And developer tool lock-in: section 3.3.1.
- zweben 16y ago
  Looking only at the price they charge consumers doesn't give an accurate picture of their pricing strategy. Most estimates I've seen peg the average total revenue Apple makes per iPhone hardware sale at about $600, most of this paid to Apple by AT&T. Once that's taken into account, the iPhone probably has one of the highest revenues per unit on the market. So their strategy is really to make a product that everyone wants, and to use that popularity to get phone companies to sell a high-margin niche product at mass market prices.
  - 16y ago

emehrkay 16y ago

Good to see that an open platform is leading the way with these "super personal computers" (phones/tablets). I still love my iphone and pad, but it is nice to know that the market leader isnt some corporation who is bent on defining how the market should move

loire280 16y ago
Google's interest in how the mobile market develops is at least as strong as Apple. Google provided the business muscle involved in getting a phone sold by a major carrier (who provide the massive subsidies that make these phones mainstream) and Google's massive popularity among regular internet users helped drive interest. Google's involvement is the key factor in Android's adoption.

WiseWeasel 16y ago

Now that Android has somewhat matured and HP is dumping massive resources into WebOS, it may be time for Apple to think about winning hearts and minds again, doing things like allowing iPhone users to install the apps they want to install, including those which carriers and other partners may not be particularly fond of, as Android and WebOS users are able to do. Of course the yearly iPhone release cycle is a big factor, and it can be expected that the product will do relatively poorly at the end of its cycle, but that's also what makes the iPhone so incredibly profitable for Apple. A possible solution to this may be for Apple to have two radically different iPhone models serving different markets, and have the release cycles staggered by six months. Another alternative would be to release a new model every eight months instead of twelve, take a hit in profitability, and still be able to line up with people's two-year plan refreshes, now every three phone models instead of two. Overall, this problem is somewhat mitigated by the attraction of iPhone OS app availability and the iPhone's brand strength, so it may not be the most important issue to address. The other obvious factor is the exclusive carrier agreement with AT&T in the US, with Verizon pouring marketing money into Android to counter Apple's iPhone. Apple is leaving the door wide open for competitors to establish themselves with people who prefer other carriers for various reasons, giving a great boost to Android device vendors. Ending this exclusive distribution agreement as soon as possible seems like the most obvious answer to this competitive pressure. Personally, I recommend people get Android phones because I'm fearful of the power Apple wields over its users (namely me, making me jailbreak my iPhone to run valuable applications that Apple won't allow for whatever reason), and I need credible competition to keep that power in check. I think many technophiles are rooting for and promoting competitors, even if they use iPhones themselves, simply due to Apple's repression of user empowerment with iPhone OS devices. I honestly believe that loosening the reins on their iPhone OS users would afford Apple a whole lot more goodwill with geeks, and remove many of the reservations they have recommending iPhones to people. Making the iPhone more geek-friendly should obviously not be done at the expense of usability for the less geeky, but the value of courting this class of users is to be ignored at Apple's peril, as they are the ones many people trust to guide their purchasing decisions. So that seems about the extent of what Apple can do to turn their fortunes around. It will be interesting to see how this marketshare trend holds in the next year in relation to the iPhone release cycle, ruling out the effect of the end of the current iPhone model's life, compounded by the Gizmodo iPhone 4G leak. There are other obvious areas of improvement in the iPhone OS I'm sure they're working on, such as a workable documents and basic filesystem functionality, but the PR problem surrounding the issue of vendor control over users seems like the critical one for the iPhone at this point. That said, I don't want to take away from this momentous day for Android users, developers and stakeholders. This is a huge milestone for the Android platform, and a watershed moment for mobile app developers. You can bet this is music to the ears of Android devs looking for investment, and that Android will be getting a lot better software for it. It's good to see Apple get a taste of humble pie; they've always done their best work as underdogs, when the pressure is on. Personally, if Apple stays their current course another year, I would expect this trend to be irreversible. Disclosure: I own some AAPL and PALM shares. Sorry for the essay!