Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

So, I've always assumed that iOS accounted for a large percentage of all smartphones in existence. I base this on the fact that iPhones are highly visible, often occupying large blocks of retail space, and there is a huge application base for the platform, with apps often becoming available for iOS before Android and other platforms, if at all.

I never really bothered to look up any hard data, I just took it for granted that as an Android user I was probably in the minority.

So I was kind of surprised yesterday to see a little clip about how Android just broke through 80% market share. iOS, to be fair, is in the #2 position ahead of Windows and Crackberry, commanding a princely 12.9% of the market.




That just blew me away.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

Lol i am the 1%. 0.6% to be exact.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Ok, I'll bite. I've been dying to know what "other" means in the context of a smartphone OS. Has Commodore gotten into the game?

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

Symbian?

shuiend

iTrader: (24)

You are speaking from experience of what you have seen mostly in Cali and NYC for iphones right? Anyone who actually watches the smartphone market would have been able to tell you that Android is kicking *** globally. What it really comes down to is that most of Asia can not afford iphones, and for some reason do not like them. When you can flood the third world with $50 android phones, it makes perfect sense that android would be the most widely used.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

are they counting win8? that's cheating.

I<3flippyheadlights

3.6%!

WOOOOO!

Stein

iTrader: (46)

Glad we got off the Blackberry sinking ship last month. Granted, it supplied by work and thus free cell and data service but happier with an S4 now.

richyvrlimited

iTrader: (1)

Don't think so. Don't confuse it with WP8 - which replaced WP7.

As an aside Windows8 isn't the best, but WP8 is a lovely phone interface. Very slick with really low power requirements. My Lumia 620 outperforms my Samsung GalaxyS2 (running CM10), in day to day/smoothness use despite being a slow single core processor in comparison.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

I have an oldschool slide phone. But, it has all the abilities of a modern day "smartphone". Maps, weather, web browsing, facebook, ect. Has a data package... I recently stopped paying for that though. So i consider it a smartphone.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

That, as well as what I hear on the news, and what I see from the amount of shelf and floor space being given to iThings in stores like BestBuy, and also what I observe when I look at certain applications and see that they were either released for iOS first and then ported to Android, or that they are still iOS exclusive.

Interestingly, Apple has also recently lost the tablet market as well. The iPad is still the best-selling single model of tablet, but Android as a whole has utterly annihilated iOS over the past 12 months. In the second quarter of 2012, iOS accounted for slightly more than 60% of the tablet OS market share, with Android at 38%. Twelve months later, the numbers have flipped. iOS shipments actually SHRANK (in absolute numbers), while the Android market grew by 162%. Today, iOS accounts for 32% of tablet sales, and Android owns 62.6% of the market.


What I find fascinating is that the market has not yet reflected this radical turn of fates. AAPL took a bit of a dip at the beginning of the year, but they're actually back on the uptick right now, crossing through 530 on their way back towards their all-time high in 2012.

If I were holding AAPL right now, I would not be considering it a long-term investment. They've had a good run, but right now it's 1984, and Compaq has just released the DeskPro. IBM's days in the PC business are numbered.

fooger03

iTrader: (2)

Apple would have you believe that they are dominating the market right now - they pick their numbers just like any company to show this is the case. I believe it was a recent marketing add that said something along the lines of: "There are more iPhones in use today than any other phone on the market." This straightforwardly suggests to any low-information user that "The iPhone is on top!! RAWR!!" But the ad completely dodges the fact that there is only a single phone on the market with iOS (The iPhone S and the iPhone C are both "iPhones" in apple's eyes) while there are literally HUNDREDS of choices for an Andoird phone worldwide.

FWIW, my girl just ditched her iPhone for a Nexus 5 after a year with a Nexus 7 tablet. On day 2 of ownership, Google Now told her (without prompting) that there was an accident on a bridge on her way to work. She took a side street route and made it to work just in time for an important meeting. She says she'll never go back to her iPhone.

Even Siri has lost a substantial amount of charisma with the latest iOS update.

aaronc7

iTrader: (8)

Google Now is getting better and better with latest versions. I have 4.4 running on my Galaxy Nexus and I love how well it is all getting integrated together. Now my only problem is ******* Verizon and the lack of the latest Nexus phones....

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

I was going to say "Apple did fine as a niche PC maker, why do they need to lead the market in mobile?" But then I realized the reason they did "fine" was due to iPod (classic) and eventually iPhone sales.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

And that's exactly it.

Yes, the iThing still sells more units than any one single competing product.

But in terms of overall market share, the iThing is going down faster than Hustler's mom in a high-school locker room.




They kind of didn't do fine as a niche PC maker, though. Overall, PC sales were 3.5% in the 3rd quarter of 2013, while in that same period, Mac sales dropped by 11%.

Source: Mac sales down, PC sales up - Oct. 10, 2013

This trend has been going on for a long time in both the desktop and laptop markets, as Apple is becoming more and more marginalized as a legitimate computing platform both at work, at home and, increasingly, in academia. It's the same thing that happened in the early 1990s when the WinTel platform caught up and then surpassed them in terms of graphics / publishing / multimedia capabilities which, until that point, had been their niche.

As a broad generalization, Apple tends to do neat things in short bursts, then sit back and rest on their laurels while the rest of the industry keeps grinding along.

If I were a large stakeholder at Apple, I'd be starting to question my faith right about now.

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

At ASU at least, many departments have only Macs for instructors. Every computer lab I've found has a Windows/Linux side and a Mac side equally as large (sometimes larger).

I thought it was odd, but it always seems the mac side is more crowded too. A bit surprising to me, but I guess the average mac owner is fairly young.

Onyxyth

iTrader: (2)

We just got rid of two mac labs at school. I think they were replaced with windows machines for server 2012 classes.

y8s

iTrader: (8)

This may explain while the apple stock I bought august 18 2011 is only up 44% while the google stock I bought august 18 2011 is up 105%

incidentally, if you look at the android version distribution (OMG FRAGMENTATIONZ), JellyBean represents 48.6% of the android market which represents 81% of the smartphone market which means that ONE version of android represents 39.4% of the market--STILL more than iOS.

so the question is: if you were going to write an app for one version of one os, which would it be?

Ryan_G

iTrader: (8)

iOS because the users spend far more money on average both on initial app purchases and in game purchases.

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

Android because Objective C objectively looks like it's already been compiled.