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Best comment on this was said by MG: "Wait, So 20 Phones On 4 Carriers Outsold 1 Phone On 1 Carrier? Shocking." Indeed. Full article: http://tcrn.ch/ccmuFj ht

by kloncks 16y ago

Best comment on this was said by MG: "Wait, So 20 Phones On 4 Carriers Outsold 1 Phone On 1 Carrier? Shocking." Indeed. Full article: http://tcrn.ch/ccmuFj http://tcrn.ch/ccmuFj

robin_reala 16y ago
Picky, but 2 phones. You can still get a 3GS from AT&T.
- kloncks 16y ago
  Oh, that's right. Two phones, it's just that one is a lot crappier than the other. (Also in the article :)
  - rbanffy 16y ago
    Wait a minute. You are talking about the one that's somewhat slower and lacks a camera or the one that you have to hold in a certain way to prevent dropped calls? ;-)
rbanffy 16y ago
Market penetration has little relation to overall quality. Apple has always been happy with a smaller slice of a huge pie. Macs have outsold individual PC makers since ever. In the end, though, there are so many PC makers that Macs have a small market share. The same is happening here - a dozen manufacturers agreeing on commoditizing their software and differentiating in hardware will, eventually, relegate Apple's exclusive platform to a very lucrative, but relatively small, niche.
00joe 16y ago
So you think Apple would outsell Android if they licensed their OS, not a chance. If Apple customer's compared features and not style they would be out of business
- Terretta 16y ago
  Unless the customer is comparing the feature rarely listed: usability. Check why Consumer Reports rated iPhone 4 highest among all the phones tested (despite the supposed antenna problems).
- tvon 16y ago
  A product is more than the sum of it's feature-grid checkboxes.
ergo98 16y ago
It's some delicious sour grapes. Go back in time a while, and the reason that Android was absolutely doomed was that it was a fragmented collection of devices and interfaces that would only confuse and turn off the consumer, with little or no coherent branding (many consumers don't even know what Android is), whereas the iPhone is one or two simple devices that have a singler back, a very strong brand identity, you know what you'll get, etc. MG Siegler is worse than John Gruber -- at least Gruber is seeing the writing on the wall and is starting to sing a different tune.
- OrangeGuutan 16y ago
  "Seeing the writing on the wall..." Really? Is this what it has come to? I bought an iPhone 3G on day one, used it until the Nexus One came out, and have recently gone back to iOS and bought an iPhone 4. Why? Because in my opinion, the quality of the apps I use on a daily basis are simply superior on iOS as compared to Android, whether the iPhone has 1% or 99% of the smartphone market. I'll repeat that again: the quality of the iPhone and iOS4 remains the same regardless of its market share! I love Android's openness, and I even use Google Voice as my sole telephone number (yes, even with my iPhone 4). Wasn't enough; couldn't take the glitchiness, even in Android 2.2, and other annoying features of Android. Because I know someone will yell "provide examples," here are some superior iOS apps that have no rival on Android: Reeder for iPhone (NewsRob is okay...), Twitter (Twitter for Android is okay...), Instapaper, Simplenote (there are glitchy apps that use the Simplenote API on Android), Dropbox (can't save for local access on Android), Pastebot, Calcbot, Convertbot (all are great examples of apps that are possible on Android, but have no where near the attention to detail), BeejiveIM, Calendar (yes I know Android has a calendar app, but it's weak), Mail (for all non-Gmail accounts, Android sucks, and for Gmail accounts, I find iOS4 to be equal to Android's stock Gmail app), etc. Oh, and I forgot to include all of the games that Android lacks, but I don't really play games so I didn't miss them with my Nexus One. Point is, not everything is zero-sum; I can enjoy my iPhone regardless of how small or large its market share is! Can't we all just get along?
  - ergo98 16y ago
    "Really? Is this what it has come to? I bought an iPhone 3G on day one, used it until the Nexus One came out, and have recently gone back to iOS and bought an iPhone 4." I think you are misreading what the "writing on the wall" is. It is not the end of the iPhone. Instead it is "the smartphone world will remain multi-polar, and the iPhone's domination is not a predetermined conclusion". Pundits like Gruber developed a cocky swagger of being on the "right", winning team, on some sort of morally justified religious campaign. "Because I know someone will yell "provide examples," here are some superior iOS apps that have no rival on Android" I would not at all debate that the overall app ecosystem on the iPhone is superior to Android, largely owing to its early lead, yet the gap is rapidly narrowing. Very rapidly. However, to your specific examples, Dropzone of course allows local saving (just to prove I'm not insane, I just did it). The official twitter client is now considered the premiere version (it was developed by Google). RealCalc is a close-to-perfect calculator and conversion application (does it have a spinner? No. Do I want that in a calc/conv app? Of course not). Mail in Android 2.2 is superb, and the GMail client is unrivaled. There are hundreds of note taking apps, most of them excellent. Personally I think the Android calendaring app is excellent. I think your examples are very weak, and most smell of being a pre-2.2 analysis. Where you are absolutely and overwhelmingly right is games, where iOS has a massive lead, owing to the wide disparity in hardware capabilities of Android devices, and many devs targeting the lowest common denominator.
patrickaljord 16y ago
> "Wait, So 20 Phones On 4 Carriers Outsold 1 Phone On 1 Carrier? Shocking." But as hackers who write and sell apps for a given platform, we don't care how many devices make up a platform. We just want to write apps for the platform that has more users.

by kloncks 16y ago

Best comment on this was said by MG: "Wait, So 20 Phones On 4 Carriers Outsold 1 Phone On 1 Carrier? Shocking." Indeed. Full article: http://tcrn.ch/ccmuFj http://tcrn.ch/ccmuFj

robin_reala 16y ago

Picky, but 2 phones. You can still get a 3GS from AT&T.

kloncks 16y ago
Oh, that's right. Two phones, it's just that one is a lot crappier than the other. (Also in the article :)
- rbanffy 16y ago
  Wait a minute. You are talking about the one that's somewhat slower and lacks a camera or the one that you have to hold in a certain way to prevent dropped calls? ;-)

rbanffy 16y ago

Market penetration has little relation to overall quality. Apple has always been happy with a smaller slice of a huge pie. Macs have outsold individual PC makers since ever. In the end, though, there are so many PC makers that Macs have a small market share. The same is happening here - a dozen manufacturers agreeing on commoditizing their software and differentiating in hardware will, eventually, relegate Apple's exclusive platform to a very lucrative, but relatively small, niche.

00joe 16y ago

So you think Apple would outsell Android if they licensed their OS, not a chance. If Apple customer's compared features and not style they would be out of business

Terretta 16y ago
Unless the customer is comparing the feature rarely listed: usability. Check why Consumer Reports rated iPhone 4 highest among all the phones tested (despite the supposed antenna problems).
tvon 16y ago
A product is more than the sum of it's feature-grid checkboxes.

ergo98 16y ago

It's some delicious sour grapes. Go back in time a while, and the reason that Android was absolutely doomed was that it was a fragmented collection of devices and interfaces that would only confuse and turn off the consumer, with little or no coherent branding (many consumers don't even know what Android is), whereas the iPhone is one or two simple devices that have a singler back, a very strong brand identity, you know what you'll get, etc. MG Siegler is worse than John Gruber -- at least Gruber is seeing the writing on the wall and is starting to sing a different tune.

OrangeGuutan 16y ago
"Seeing the writing on the wall..." Really? Is this what it has come to? I bought an iPhone 3G on day one, used it until the Nexus One came out, and have recently gone back to iOS and bought an iPhone 4. Why? Because in my opinion, the quality of the apps I use on a daily basis are simply superior on iOS as compared to Android, whether the iPhone has 1% or 99% of the smartphone market. I'll repeat that again: the quality of the iPhone and iOS4 remains the same regardless of its market share! I love Android's openness, and I even use Google Voice as my sole telephone number (yes, even with my iPhone 4). Wasn't enough; couldn't take the glitchiness, even in Android 2.2, and other annoying features of Android. Because I know someone will yell "provide examples," here are some superior iOS apps that have no rival on Android: Reeder for iPhone (NewsRob is okay...), Twitter (Twitter for Android is okay...), Instapaper, Simplenote (there are glitchy apps that use the Simplenote API on Android), Dropbox (can't save for local access on Android), Pastebot, Calcbot, Convertbot (all are great examples of apps that are possible on Android, but have no where near the attention to detail), BeejiveIM, Calendar (yes I know Android has a calendar app, but it's weak), Mail (for all non-Gmail accounts, Android sucks, and for Gmail accounts, I find iOS4 to be equal to Android's stock Gmail app), etc. Oh, and I forgot to include all of the games that Android lacks, but I don't really play games so I didn't miss them with my Nexus One. Point is, not everything is zero-sum; I can enjoy my iPhone regardless of how small or large its market share is! Can't we all just get along?
- ergo98 16y ago
  "Really? Is this what it has come to? I bought an iPhone 3G on day one, used it until the Nexus One came out, and have recently gone back to iOS and bought an iPhone 4." I think you are misreading what the "writing on the wall" is. It is not the end of the iPhone. Instead it is "the smartphone world will remain multi-polar, and the iPhone's domination is not a predetermined conclusion". Pundits like Gruber developed a cocky swagger of being on the "right", winning team, on some sort of morally justified religious campaign. "Because I know someone will yell "provide examples," here are some superior iOS apps that have no rival on Android" I would not at all debate that the overall app ecosystem on the iPhone is superior to Android, largely owing to its early lead, yet the gap is rapidly narrowing. Very rapidly. However, to your specific examples, Dropzone of course allows local saving (just to prove I'm not insane, I just did it). The official twitter client is now considered the premiere version (it was developed by Google). RealCalc is a close-to-perfect calculator and conversion application (does it have a spinner? No. Do I want that in a calc/conv app? Of course not). Mail in Android 2.2 is superb, and the GMail client is unrivaled. There are hundreds of note taking apps, most of them excellent. Personally I think the Android calendaring app is excellent. I think your examples are very weak, and most smell of being a pre-2.2 analysis. Where you are absolutely and overwhelmingly right is games, where iOS has a massive lead, owing to the wide disparity in hardware capabilities of Android devices, and many devs targeting the lowest common denominator.

patrickaljord 16y ago

> "Wait, So 20 Phones On 4 Carriers Outsold 1 Phone On 1 Carrier? Shocking." But as hackers who write and sell apps for a given platform, we don't care how many devices make up a platform. We just want to write apps for the platform that has more users.