Android is now the most popular...

[kennyc]

THE LATEST FIGURES from consumer peepers Nielsen have shown that the Android operating system is the most popular of the mobile pack.


http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...popular-mobile

[devilsadvocate]

Originally Posted by kennyc

THE LATEST FIGURES from consumer peepers Nielsen have shown that the Android operating system is the most popular of the mobile pack.


http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...popular-mobile

Actually, as an Android user and Inq reader, this is kinda flawed; Symbian actually has the biggest market share worldwide; it's 1st in the States though.

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1421013

This is an important distinction because if the iPhone is to be considered a competitor, you have to remember it doesn't have nearly the market penetration outside the U.S.; most other countries just see it as another phone. In addition, as much as I hate to admit it, Jobs is right: Android is on 2 dozen phones, iOS is on one. What he doesn't mention is that it couldn't survive in the market on more than one phone; no one else would put up with the nanny attitude.

That said, Android has easily posted the biggest increase in usage in recent memory. It's all in how you spin the numbers.

I should probably post this as a comment on Inq but they don't read any of that crap anyway. Again I hate to admit it but they lean heavily open-source and Linux over there (which is fine by me ) but sometimes I question their credibility.

[kennyc]

True. I was thinking a bit along those lines myself..

lies, damn lies and statistics!!

[EowynCarter]

Being use on multiple phone is one of android's advantages. People are more likely to find the phone to fit them
Though it's also a downfall, because it mean the dev have to take in account multiple hardware.

[devilsadvocate]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Being use on multiple phone is one of android's advantages. People are more likely to find the phone to fit them
Though it's also a downfall, because it mean the dev have to take in account multiple hardware.

This was something Jobs talks up as an advantage. It's no different than desktops and/or laptops though; Linux runs on anything, so devs either have to keep their code as generic as possible or stay up on which phone has the biggest (potential) market share. From what I'm seeing however, it's not so much the hardware causing problems as it is the version of Android being run and devs can plan for that to a degree.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by devilsadvocate

This was something Jobs talks up as an advantage. It's no different than desktops and/or laptops though; Linux runs on anything, so devs either have to keep their code as generic as possible or stay up on which phone has the biggest (potential) market share. From what I'm seeing however, it's not so much the hardware causing problems as it is the version of Android being run and devs can plan for that to a degree.

yup.
And people buying an iPhone buy it because thy want an iPhone. Some some buy an android phone for android, but other might buy an android phone just because the have the functions / style / price they are looking for.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kennyc

THE LATEST FIGURES from consumer peepers Nielsen have shown that the Android operating system is the most popular of the mobile pack.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...popular-mobile

No, what the study shows is that Android has had the biggest growth over the last 6 months. That's a different thing from "most popular".

Android's growth seems to have been mostly at the expense of RIM (Blackberry), with Apple holding steady. (Though it's likely that Apple has been hit, too: they haven't lost market share, but neither have they gained. I suspect people who might otherwise have been tempted by an iPhone have been seduced by the droid side of the force. )

Worldwide, the leader is still Symbian.

The smartphone market is in a state of flux, and it will be curious to see where it falls out.

Nokia bought the part of Symbian it didn't own from the consortium of cell phone makers that controlled it, and has been busily making it open source. They may have been inspired by the success of their Internet Tablet line, using the Linux based Maemo platform and an open source development model. (The new Nokia N900 tablet is also a cell phone.)

After the Palm Pre has disappointing sales results, Palm put itself on the block, and was acquired by HP, which seems to have plans for Palm's Linux based WebOS.

Lots of folks have Android based devices in the pipeline. The best known is probably the Motorola Droid, which has been a smash hit, and put Moto back in the cell phone race. (There were industry rumors that Moto was looking at exiting the cell phone business after failing to come up with a successful follow up for their popular Razor line.)

Microsoft is supposed to be doing a rewrite of Windows Mobile, so we'll probably see something based on it, and Access Corp. in Japan has been pushing their Access Linux Platform to Asian hardware vendors.

And it appears that Android has some name recognition on it's own, and will be an incentive for buyers playing the "my phone is cooler than yours" game.

We'll see.
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Dennis

[Graham]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

No, what the study shows is that Android has had the biggest growth over the last 6 months. That's a different thing from "most popular".

The way I read the stats was that Android had the largest share of sales in the US in August; so in August, at the end of the 6 month period in question, it had risen to be the most popular - in the sense that more people were buying Android in the States than any other OS.

Graham

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Graham

The way I read the stats was that Android had the largest share of sales in the US in August; so in August, at the end of the 6 month period in question, it had risen to be the most popular - in the sense that more people were buying Android in the States than any other OS.

Graham

If you want to call it "most popular new purchase", fine. But when you toss around terms like "most popular", you have to define your terms to avoid confusion. Just calling it "most popular" could be taken to mean "commands the majority of the market", and Android is nowhere near that yet.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Being use on multiple phone is one of android's advantages. People are more likely to find the phone to fit them
Though it's also a downfall, because it mean the dev have to take in account multiple hardware.

Not that much of a downfall.

Android has some compelling attractions. It's free and open source, so any manufacturer can get it and use it in a device without licensing or royalty issues. It provides a highly developed base from which to start, relieving the vendor of the need to code their own OS from scratch, or license someone else's. And it's modular, so vendors include the particular modules intended to support what they want their device to do. Just doing cellphone and not doing Wifi? Fine, don't include Wifi support in the build...

And you'll have customization issues regardless of what you start from.

The biggest issue for the vendor won't be using Android - it will be differentiating their device from all of the other devices running Android.
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Dennis

[Graham]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

If you want to call it "most popular new purchase", fine. But when you toss around terms like "most popular", you have to define your terms to avoid confusion. Just calling it "most popular" could be taken to mean "commands the majority of the market", and Android is nowhere near that yet.
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Dennis

Hmm. I think you're being a little unfair. The linked article also covered the overall market share where they made it clear that Android had some way to go - in fact they led with that statistic to use it as their reference point. And they began the discussion of Android's popularity with the phrase "For new purchases though".

It does include the word National on the graphs to differentiate them from the global figures, although it could have been clearer; but then again, like most people I guess, I saw the same figures in a number of articles released at the same time and knew that they referred to the US figures anyway.

Graham

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Graham

Hmm. I think you're being a little unfair. The linked article also covered the overall market share where they made it clear that Android had some way to go - in fact they led with that statistic to use it as their reference point. And they began the discussion of Android's popularity with the phrase "For new purchases though".

Oh, I agree. I don't disparage the article, which I thought did a good presentation of the numbers. I was reacting specifically to the MR post linking to the article. Taken out of context, it can have a different connotation than the article itself.
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Dennis

[kennyc]

Dennis pick on me if you like but I just used the title from the article no added or spun info.

[Dopedangel]

Their is a rumor is going on that Nokia might be in talks with Google. As they have stopped working on Symbian and Meego is not ready for production yet if they don't want to loose market share to Motorola, Samsung, HTC in the smart phone market they will have to do something quick specially for this holiday season.
And if they put their hat in the Android the OS wars will be over before they have really begun.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

Their is a rumor is going on that Nokia might be in talks with Google. As they have stopped working on Symbian and Meego is not ready for production yet if they don't want to loose market share to Motorola, Samsung, HTC in the smart phone market they will have to do something quick specially for this holiday season.

They've made Symbian open source. That's not quite the same as "stopped working on it".

And there's no need for Nokia to talk to Google if they want to use Android. It's free, and open source, and any manufacturer can use it in any device without Google's approval.

And if they put their hat in the Android the OS wars will be over before they have really begun.

They would be indeed. I just don't see them doing so. Symbian still has a huge installed base, and Nokia has a substantial investment in it. And smartphones are a minority of the total cell phone market. Lots of devices are sold that don't need (and couldn't run) Android, MeeGo, or the like.

If they want to go with a Linux based cell phone OS, they could just use Maemo. The Nokia N900 is based on their popular Internet Tablet model, but the N900 includes cell phone capability.

Phones are fashion accessories. Users buy the one that has the features they want with a sufficient coolness factor to impress their friends. They may or may not be aware of what OS is under the hood. Folks who buy iPhones, for example, and buying the Apple brand, not iOS.

The question is what name recognition value Android has, and how much that contributes to sales of products using it.
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Dennis