4 ms·

This article is a bit like postulating "Why you might not eat steak for dinner", and then positing reasons that all orbits the assumption that steak is your def

by personZ 12y ago

This article is a bit like postulating "Why you might not eat steak for dinner", and then positing reasons that all orbits the assumption that steak is your default choice, and alternatives must therefore have extenuating circumstances. It is an absurd foundation. Did the grocer get more commission selling you chicken? (sidenote: That commission bit appears in every conspiracy laden story about Android's rise, despite having zero empirical evidence. Indeed, many carriers do more to market and pitch the iPhone than any other brand, implying something very different). For most people now, smartphones are largely interchangeable. They really are. You have a browser, can make calls, can access Netflix and your fantasy football app and Facebook and Twitter, etc. An iPhone 6x versus a GS 5, for instance, to many users it is simply a wash. Apple has tried hard to lock people into an ecosystem (Facetime me? No, Skype or Hangouts me please), but those efforts have fallen by the wayside and are becoming more of a hindrance than a benefit. So it comes down to marketing (you know, like having U2 and giving out albums to gain more attention for your keynote) and differentiating features. Apple tried with the "true tone" flash or whatever. HTC is trying the dual-lens camera. Others make their devices waterproof. And so on. It isn't so clear. Further, Ben Evans isn't just a bit of an Apple fan boy -- he is a huge Apple fan boy, with compromised credibility outside of that circle. He got a taste of the Apple aficionado love so now he panders to it fullstop. And given that Evans loves pointing out the payout to developers (then, absurdly calculating per capita metrics because it sells his point), note that the Play Store payout is growing more quickly than the App Store is -- YoY growth in the most recent yearly period was 150%. At current rates the Play Store will payout more than Apple within a year. But of course they're both very lucrative targets, and it would be folly to ignore either, and it's bizarre that this metric even appears in a piece contemplating consumer choices.

pinaceae 12y ago
the true value of the iphone is the Apple ecosystem. i give an rat's ass about android phones, they could be miles ahead - doesn't matter anymore. just a phone. i have an iphone, ipad, apple tv, macbook air and a compatible printer. and everything just works, like magic. i've spent years in the windows ecosystem tinkering. wrote my own sync for my iriver mp3 player, fiddled with regedit and battled drivers. so much lost time. IT bullshit galore. so tired of it. i know that if i want an apple watch i can buy it and it will perfectly into the rest of my devices and just work with them. no other vendor can claim such a value. iOS8 and Yosemite make this crystal clear, the new handover between apps will even work from Apple Watch. Just like that.
- Mikeb85 12y ago
  You must have never used Google's cloud services. Docs, Drive, Hangouts, etc... Everything works device to device. Even a non-Google device that belongs to someone else. All you really need is Chrome and your credentials. How about Google Cloud print? All you need is to have Chrome on the computer that hooks up to your printer, and you can print to that printer from any device, even remotely. I can be at school/work and print to my printer at home... And if you buy a printer with the feature enabled, it doesn't even need to be hooked up to anything (except some sort of internet connection). And of course, Google Now. Tells me how far to work on the days I work. What the weather's like, even when I go out of town. Where my car is parked if I'm somewhere new. Where the restaurant I just called is located. Even the application on my phone that I use to call people (the one with a phone icon that used to just be for calling people) - I can search for their name and call them or, if it's a business or place I've never heard of, I can search for them in the same box, and it will find them and just call them. Super cool. I'm sure your Apple ecosystem is just fine, and I'm sure it feels like magic compared to Microsoft's sludgery... Heck, Linux feels like magic compared to MS. But on the other side, Google's ecosystem is absolutely fantastic. Oh yeah, and then there's Chromecast. But even without it most Smart TVs have some measure of compatibility with Google's ecosystem...
- smrtinsert 12y ago
  There really isn't that much fighting if there's fighting at all. The people buying Android in droves don't care. They see wide range of devices with more options. You might see an ecosystem, and they see lack of diversity.
- tolmasky 12y ago
  Its funny because my iPhone still doesn't support the same level of interconnectedness as sailing clicker did back in the feature phone days. I remember thinking it was so cool that my music would just pause on my mac if someone called me on my phone, or come back on when I walked back into my room. Apple's ecosystem seems to be increasingly based on obsolete ideas. Spotify offers me more magic than any weird hard-to-explain more expensive iTunes Matchery. My music is available everywhere. Actually everywhere. Not everywhere asterisk if its an apple product. If I'm at a friends house and I want him to listen to a cool song I heard, but my phone is out of battery, I can go to his computer and still play it, even if he doesn't have spotify because they have a web player. That's actual magic. Imagine if you could only watch youtube clips if you had a Google device or software. Its madness and far from an argument for "interconnectedness", and yet this is the situation the Apple music ecosystem is in. The handover technology is another recent disappointment in this regard. We are still stuck in app-land. Handover is app-to-app. So when I'm listening to a podcast in Safari, I won't be able to handover to Overcast on my phone. I actually have to wait for marco arment to write a desktop podcast player, and worse, I have to use it, to get this basic functionality. Again, an aggressive misunderstanding of what it means to have true continuity: reading the same data on two devices, not using the same app on both. Anyways, all this to say: I would have agreed with you ~4 years ago. But due to Apple's business interests (wanting to continue the own-music model much longer than people did, wanting to push app sales, etc), their ecosystem no longer represents what I want anymore, which is really unfortunate because I know that if they put their effort behind implementing real continuity, they'd do it best.
slantyyz 12y ago
>> For most people now, smartphones are largely interchangeable. This. I could be called an Apple Fanboy, and I myself stopped using iPhones in favor of an Android phone (I really wanted a Windows phone, but my carrier didn't have any available when I upgraded). After a little bit of self-analysis, I realized that from iOS' gigantic app ecosystem, most of the stuff I was buying and installing was throwaway stuff. Most of my activities revolve around the core apps of the phone - e-mail, calendar, browser. My main non-core apps are basically RSS and Read Later apps. Given that most of my stuff is in the cloud (but not the iCloud), it really doesn't matter what OS I have on my phone. And I'm not very interested in buying the latest and greatest when nothing I do really needs the horsepower. So I basically bought the cheapest phone that could do what I need it to (1st gen moto G). I don't worry about it getting stolen or broken, because my investment is so small. In the end, the thing that really drove me away from iOS was how each software upgrade gradually crippled the usability of the device. I didn't mind paying the Apple premium for my 3G and 4, but that was because Android and WP didn't have parity (my opinion, not necessarily fact). Today, however, it's a completely different story. I'm sure I could be quite happy with any of the top 4 mobile OSes.
benedictevans 12y ago
Idle observation - Windows Phone year-on-year growth is way higher than Android or iOS. Are you going to write your next app for that? We don't, actually, have enough data to see quite how Play revenue is growing. But the really relevant point is that on roughly double the users, the payout is half. I'm not sure why that should be an absurd observation - you could try addressing that, but perhaps insults are easier.
- personZ 12y ago
  Having portability to Windows Phone is a concern, and it is something that I am increasingly considering because it looks like an emerging, important platform. I prefer techniques and tools that allow me to cater to a multitude of platforms, because users are my customers, not platforms. I am not beholden to Apple or Google, and I don't serve in their name. However your point is comically specious in the context -- Android Play Store sales went from $0.9B, to $2.0B, to $5.0B over successive years (these numbers are in Google's yearlies, despite your repeated claims that they're mysteriously shrouded. They're as transparent as Apple's numbers). Android Play Store sales right now are where App Store sales were last year. Where were the people talking about the dire results of the App Store last year? In fact, quite contrary it was held as an incredible, unparamounted success, by people like you. And not only is the Play Store already there, it is seeing extraordinary growth. I'm not sure why that should be an absurd observation Your own points are contradictory, holding the dichotomy of the rich Android users (who all apparently were just waiting for a larger iPhone) versus the poor Android user, but then mashing them together into one universally "poorer" Android user. Android is the platform of all demographics. We know that from the famous city analysis of Android/iOS usage of twitter, where Android was dominant in the poorer areas of town, and similar to iOS in the rich areas of town. That is a great thing about the platform -- it is inclusive and lifts all boats -- and it is utterly reprehensible when some people hold this as a bizarre negative, as if platform association with the less wealthy brings it down. It seems probable that the people in the richer areas are spending in the store. The people in the poorer areas aren't. That's life of consumable items and varying spending money. There is no great mystery to it. And your contention is that since all of those Android users with money are going to race to iPhone (the same story we've heard with every iOS release for years), there goes the store. So how does a per capita basis make any sense? Oh because all facts need to be contrived into the message of Ben Evans? I apologize for resorting to "insults", but it seems that reality has an insult-based bias in the case of analyzing your various creations. You are selling to the converted.

by personZ 12y ago

pinaceae 12y ago

the true value of the iphone is the Apple ecosystem. i give an rat's ass about android phones, they could be miles ahead - doesn't matter anymore. just a phone. i have an iphone, ipad, apple tv, macbook air and a compatible printer. and everything just works, like magic. i've spent years in the windows ecosystem tinkering. wrote my own sync for my iriver mp3 player, fiddled with regedit and battled drivers. so much lost time. IT bullshit galore. so tired of it. i know that if i want an apple watch i can buy it and it will perfectly into the rest of my devices and just work with them. no other vendor can claim such a value. iOS8 and Yosemite make this crystal clear, the new handover between apps will even work from Apple Watch. Just like that.

Mikeb85 12y ago
You must have never used Google's cloud services. Docs, Drive, Hangouts, etc... Everything works device to device. Even a non-Google device that belongs to someone else. All you really need is Chrome and your credentials. How about Google Cloud print? All you need is to have Chrome on the computer that hooks up to your printer, and you can print to that printer from any device, even remotely. I can be at school/work and print to my printer at home... And if you buy a printer with the feature enabled, it doesn't even need to be hooked up to anything (except some sort of internet connection). And of course, Google Now. Tells me how far to work on the days I work. What the weather's like, even when I go out of town. Where my car is parked if I'm somewhere new. Where the restaurant I just called is located. Even the application on my phone that I use to call people (the one with a phone icon that used to just be for calling people) - I can search for their name and call them or, if it's a business or place I've never heard of, I can search for them in the same box, and it will find them and just call them. Super cool. I'm sure your Apple ecosystem is just fine, and I'm sure it feels like magic compared to Microsoft's sludgery... Heck, Linux feels like magic compared to MS. But on the other side, Google's ecosystem is absolutely fantastic. Oh yeah, and then there's Chromecast. But even without it most Smart TVs have some measure of compatibility with Google's ecosystem...
smrtinsert 12y ago
There really isn't that much fighting if there's fighting at all. The people buying Android in droves don't care. They see wide range of devices with more options. You might see an ecosystem, and they see lack of diversity.
tolmasky 12y ago
Its funny because my iPhone still doesn't support the same level of interconnectedness as sailing clicker did back in the feature phone days. I remember thinking it was so cool that my music would just pause on my mac if someone called me on my phone, or come back on when I walked back into my room. Apple's ecosystem seems to be increasingly based on obsolete ideas. Spotify offers me more magic than any weird hard-to-explain more expensive iTunes Matchery. My music is available everywhere. Actually everywhere. Not everywhere asterisk if its an apple product. If I'm at a friends house and I want him to listen to a cool song I heard, but my phone is out of battery, I can go to his computer and still play it, even if he doesn't have spotify because they have a web player. That's actual magic. Imagine if you could only watch youtube clips if you had a Google device or software. Its madness and far from an argument for "interconnectedness", and yet this is the situation the Apple music ecosystem is in. The handover technology is another recent disappointment in this regard. We are still stuck in app-land. Handover is app-to-app. So when I'm listening to a podcast in Safari, I won't be able to handover to Overcast on my phone. I actually have to wait for marco arment to write a desktop podcast player, and worse, I have to use it, to get this basic functionality. Again, an aggressive misunderstanding of what it means to have true continuity: reading the same data on two devices, not using the same app on both. Anyways, all this to say: I would have agreed with you ~4 years ago. But due to Apple's business interests (wanting to continue the own-music model much longer than people did, wanting to push app sales, etc), their ecosystem no longer represents what I want anymore, which is really unfortunate because I know that if they put their effort behind implementing real continuity, they'd do it best.

slantyyz 12y ago

>> For most people now, smartphones are largely interchangeable. This. I could be called an Apple Fanboy, and I myself stopped using iPhones in favor of an Android phone (I really wanted a Windows phone, but my carrier didn't have any available when I upgraded). After a little bit of self-analysis, I realized that from iOS' gigantic app ecosystem, most of the stuff I was buying and installing was throwaway stuff. Most of my activities revolve around the core apps of the phone - e-mail, calendar, browser. My main non-core apps are basically RSS and Read Later apps. Given that most of my stuff is in the cloud (but not the iCloud), it really doesn't matter what OS I have on my phone. And I'm not very interested in buying the latest and greatest when nothing I do really needs the horsepower. So I basically bought the cheapest phone that could do what I need it to (1st gen moto G). I don't worry about it getting stolen or broken, because my investment is so small. In the end, the thing that really drove me away from iOS was how each software upgrade gradually crippled the usability of the device. I didn't mind paying the Apple premium for my 3G and 4, but that was because Android and WP didn't have parity (my opinion, not necessarily fact). Today, however, it's a completely different story. I'm sure I could be quite happy with any of the top 4 mobile OSes.

benedictevans 12y ago

Idle observation - Windows Phone year-on-year growth is way higher than Android or iOS. Are you going to write your next app for that? We don't, actually, have enough data to see quite how Play revenue is growing. But the really relevant point is that on roughly double the users, the payout is half. I'm not sure why that should be an absurd observation - you could try addressing that, but perhaps insults are easier.

personZ 12y ago
Having portability to Windows Phone is a concern, and it is something that I am increasingly considering because it looks like an emerging, important platform. I prefer techniques and tools that allow me to cater to a multitude of platforms, because users are my customers, not platforms. I am not beholden to Apple or Google, and I don't serve in their name. However your point is comically specious in the context -- Android Play Store sales went from $0.9B, to $2.0B, to $5.0B over successive years (these numbers are in Google's yearlies, despite your repeated claims that they're mysteriously shrouded. They're as transparent as Apple's numbers). Android Play Store sales right now are where App Store sales were last year. Where were the people talking about the dire results of the App Store last year? In fact, quite contrary it was held as an incredible, unparamounted success, by people like you. And not only is the Play Store already there, it is seeing extraordinary growth. I'm not sure why that should be an absurd observation Your own points are contradictory, holding the dichotomy of the rich Android users (who all apparently were just waiting for a larger iPhone) versus the poor Android user, but then mashing them together into one universally "poorer" Android user. Android is the platform of all demographics. We know that from the famous city analysis of Android/iOS usage of twitter, where Android was dominant in the poorer areas of town, and similar to iOS in the rich areas of town. That is a great thing about the platform -- it is inclusive and lifts all boats -- and it is utterly reprehensible when some people hold this as a bizarre negative, as if platform association with the less wealthy brings it down. It seems probable that the people in the richer areas are spending in the store. The people in the poorer areas aren't. That's life of consumable items and varying spending money. There is no great mystery to it. And your contention is that since all of those Android users with money are going to race to iPhone (the same story we've heard with every iOS release for years), there goes the store. So how does a per capita basis make any sense? Oh because all facts need to be contrived into the message of Ben Evans? I apologize for resorting to "insults", but it seems that reality has an insult-based bias in the case of analyzing your various creations. You are selling to the converted.