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MG Siegler writes for TechCrunch, “Obviously, Beach isn’t the first person to bring this idea up. But he brings it up in a way that he’s able to back-up his feelings from a developer’s perspective, while at the same time roping in what isn’t ideal from a consumer perspective about Android as well.”
“This is going to sound like flame bait, and everyone knows that I love the iPhone — but I have to agree with Beach. I’ve used no less than six Android phones for extended periods of time over the past couple of years. I really am trying to like them. But I just can’t,” Siegler reports. “Now, don’t get me wrong, almost all Android phones are a million times better than the phones we had just a few years ago before the iPhone burst onto the scene. And if the iPhone didn’t exist, there is no question that I would use an Android phone and would probably be very happy with it. But the iPhone does exist. I simply can’t bring myself to use an Android phone when I know a superior device is out there. That’s my only requirement for me to use a product: it has to be the best.”
“There are a dozen or more elements that are better about the iPhone. Everything from the big: the App Store versus the Android Market (from the consumer perspective) — to the little: the multi-touch and overall touchscreen responsiveness,” Siegler reports. “The thing some consumers don’t like about the iPhone is that it’s AT&T only (in the U.S., obviously). Even if you live in an area where AT&T doesn’t absolutely suck, having no choice of carriers is a big restriction. People have work plans, family plans, etc, etc, that they just can’t switch. Or they don’t want to.”
Siegler reports, “If the iPhone was on Verizon (VZ) (which is a larger network, remember), is there any question that it would be selling at least double the amount of units it is right now in the U.S.? I don’t think so. What if it was available on all the networks? And what would happen to Android sales if that was the case?”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we’ve been saying since the “Android is a success” meme first began. Research backs it up: Verizon and other non-iPhone carriers’ customers want iPhones; they settle for Android while they wait (see releated articles below).
The other elephant in the room is just how much, if any, does Google’s Android infringe upon Apple’s iPhone patents, Multi-Touch™ and otherwise? And, what are the ramifications if Android does infringe, especially if it does so heavily? We’ll see iPhone on multiple U.S. carriers before the slow-turning wheels of justice come up with answers to those and other questions.
Too many cooks spoil the broth, or in google’s case the fruit salad
There’s one person to blame for why the iPhone isn’t on verizon, but no one ever wants to say that.
yeah remember the last time this happened, I think they called it WINDOW S!!! poor Bill Gates had to swap usability for KING OF THE EFFING WORLD!!!!
Bottom line is we on the outside do not know why Apple does what she does.
Steve and company move in mysterious ways. They are certainly intelligent enough to know without comment from the greater peanut gallery that having the iPhone attached only to AT&T is a handicap.
When otherwise highly intelligent people do something that seems completely irrational to you, you can be sure of one thing. You don’t know the whole story. You barely know part of it.
Seems to me at this point, considering the tiny supply of iPhone 4, that it’s a moot point about selling iPhone on other carriers. Apple can’t fill the current demand.
Apple needs to find additional suppliers or start creating their own manufacturing facilities with some of the cash they have stored up.
There is demand. They need to meet it. They are losing many customers to long lines and long waiting times.
Question for MDN:
What percentage of AT&T smartphone subscriptions are on the Android OS? Do some research, and perhaps your Verizon-Doesn’t-Offer-iPhone argument will be null.
We in America are getting ripped off by this ridiculous cell service that locks us in to only one carrier for a phone. That’s it.
@cptnkirk
Apple also controls their manufacturing. The word “can’t” does not apply. Apple chooses to barely make enough to meet demand. I believe that Apple does this because it psychologically maintains demand. It is better to have people wanting iPhones, than thousands of iPhones sitting on the shelves.
Apple is also known for being masters of JIT inventory practices.
“…Just-in-time (JIT) is an inventory strategy that strives to improve a business’s return on investment by reducing in-process inventory and associated carrying costs. Just In Time production method is also called the Toyota Production System. To meet JIT objectives, the process relies on signals or Kanban (看板 Kanban?) between different points in the process, which tell production when to make the next part. Kanban are usually ‘tickets’ but can be simple visual signals, such as the presence or absence of a part on a shelf. Implemented correctly, JIT can improve a manufacturing organization’s return on investment, quality, and efficiency …”
Apple has taken this practices to a whole new level, in which inventory on hand is measured in hours instead of days or weeks.
Again, it seems irrational to us, but we just don’t know crap about how things work inside of Apple.
Everyone should email the link of this article to STEVE JOBS. I am only suffering with AT&T because of iPhone.
The reason that the iPhone is not on Verizon is because Apple and ATT have a CONTRACT. Does anyone here understand the definition of contract? It means that Apple CAN’T sell it to Verizon yet.
The fanboys here also refuse to remember what Apple faced entering the market with the original iPhone. Verizon wanted to control the App market. I don’t even want to think about the criticism that the people here would levy on Steve Jobs if they had to deal with buying Apps and ringtones from the carriers.
ATT was the ONLY carrier that would give Apple the control it wanted, and that is why Apple went exclusive with ATT.
If the US had multiple GSM carriers then this would be different…
But the US only has 1 and half (T-mobile).
sad.
@theloniousMac
I have to agree with you on this one. I work in JIT dept of a large aircraft parts supplier and the practice of JIT is a huge cost saver. However, the biggest point you make is that fanning the flames of peoples desires will keep you prosperous. Hold back just enough to keep them wanting. Part of the reason Apple products are so appealing is that not everyone has them. Not EVERYONE will want an iPhone (some believe Apple is too restrictive and others just want to rage against the machine), but at the end of the day, most quality seekers will like get the iPhone.
“And if the iPhone didn’t exist, there is no question that I would use an Android phone”
This premise is fundamentally flawed, because if the iPhone didn’t exist, Android phones would not look and work the way they do, because there was no iPhone to copy from in the first place.
This is EXACTLY the point that I have been trying to make in my blog entry here:
It’s Just Like An iPhone
@critic
A. You think there is a contract, but do you know for sure? I have read so many accounts of this on again off again contract that I’m sure it’s under the care of the Sasquatch Yeti and Bigfoot law firm. Even if it exists, we don’t know what’s in it. I’m pretty sure there is some kind of contract, but does it really say how long AT&T gets the iPhone exclusively? We only know what floats in the rumor toilet.
B. Assuming that there is, it is still a contract Apple chose to sign knowing full well what they were doing. So pointing it out is redundant, kinda like saying the iPhone is exclusive to AT&T because that’s what Apple chose to do.
Bottom line is, we don’t know why things are the way they are.
In the field of portable media players, iPod has been the king for the past nine years. It was always the most expensive in its class, from the top-of-the-line touch, to the bottom-line shuffle. Feature-for-feature, competitors were always undercutting it in price by a healthy margin. Yet, iPod continued to dominate the market.
I don’t believe for one second that there is a significant number of people who don’t want AT&T, or cannot switch away from Verizon. However, this isn’t really all that relevant. The primary reason Android is selling well is because majority of consumers are ignorant. They walk into an AT&T (or Sprint, or Verizon, or even T-Mobile) store and ask for an iPhone. These days, there aren’t that many iPhones available out there. Consequently, any salesman worth his salt will sell an Android phone when an iPhone isn’t available. This is why Android is successful on AT&T, (even though the carrier actually HAS the iPhone on the offering), and even more so for other carriers. When an uninformed consumer walks into a store and a salesman tells him that this here phone is even better than the iPhone, because it has Apps, web, e-mail, music and all other things just like the iPhone, plus it is open, and it has Flash, consumer will believe the “expert” salesman, as consumers tend to do.
I believe Apple is manufacturing as many iPhones as it can possibly handle (support-wise), and they will continue to ramp up the production as they expand their support team. Until they are able to completely satisfy the demand on the existing single US carrier, as well as on all other existing carriers worldwide, there is no point in signing more contracts with more carriers (and that includes Verizon in the US).
Apple’s only short-term choice to fend off Android is the patent lawsuit.
One flaw in the “restricted supply” theory is that Apple is making a lot more of the iPhone4 than the 3GS. Its not like Apple is artificially constricting supply to make it look like a big seller: it is a big seller, and demand grew a lot faster than the increase in production.
I seem to remember a few months ago the (flawed) argument for Apple to migrate to Verizon was that the market was already saturated with the 3GS iPhone…
TheloniousMac:
You surprise me!
You doubt there’s a contract???
@critic
Thanks to AT&T we have a carrier and now into iPhone 5.
Thanks for verbalizing my thoughts about why “the AT&T only carrier”.
@theloniousMac
Yes, there is a contract:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/10/confirmed-apple-and-atandt-signed-five-year-iphone-exclusivity-de/
Obviously they knew what they were doing. They couldn’t come to agreement with Verizon on control. The “no iPhone on Verizon” is more the fault of Verizon management than it is Apple’s.
I also don’t understand why anyone thinks Verizon is any better than ATT in any case. All the big carriers suck at customer service, and they all try to rip off the customers.
Yep. There is a contract. One that they decided to extend. It costs apple to have the iPhone which they must make up in BS data contracts. I’ve read vzw didn’t agree to the terms of AT&T so that’s why. You’re also right, we may never know what else. But they’ve survived(vzw). Now it appears tmobile may beat them to the iPhone. Competition is good. They’re still a force.(vzw)
Here is the sales myth that Cell company sales people are using to push Android phones over the iPhone:
“With Android because it’s open source most of the Apps are free. Because Apple controls the Phone phone and all the Apps come from the iTunes App Store there are no free Apps for the iPhone.”
I know this cause a friend ask me to go with her to buy a new phone, she was looking at some of the Android phones, The sales guy was taking with her and asked what other phones was she thinking of getting. She said she was thinking of switching to AT&T and buying an iPhone. This set him off on a long rant on why Android was better then an iPhone of which all of it was BS. The point that he kept pushing was the point above. That was until she called him a liar and a fraud in front of a dozen other customer and pulled out her iPod touch from her purse. The one guy who had purchased an Android phone prior and was waiting for them to activate it in the back room, Ask (demanded) to see the manager, he told the manager he had changed his mind on purchasing the DroidX and want to cancel everything, because he had been lied too by the sales guy. Everyone that was looking at Android phones while we were there left. We left a short time later once we helped the guy prove that the sale guy had lied to him in order to sell the DroidX phone.
You got that right! I have ZERO AT&T bars – and I am 7 miles from the center of a Big Ten Campus —
I have the new iPod touch on order – and I long for an iPhone.
I gave in and bought a Verizon Droid – and tried to make gmail calendar work with ical for one month – and I took the Droid back to Verizon and went back to a clam LG cell phone. I own the Droid and they did not give a refund after one month of frustration.
If I was counted in the Droid camp – it was ONLY because I cannot buy a Verizon iPHONE.
AND – BTW – the Verizon MiFi works great with all my iPod touches – and gives me a “sorta” iPhone everywhere there is a Verizon signal – which, here in the Heartland, is everywhere.
Android is successful because AT&T is an albatross around Apple’s neck – and because of google’s misleading and untrue sales tactics.
Eh, while I do believe that iPhone only being offered on a single carrier has helped Android’s popularity a little, I still believe that Microsoft’s inability to deliver a modern mobile OS has played an even larger role.
WinMo was a popular smart phone OS (in the US) before the iPhone showed up, afterwards people saw it as an outdated, lumbering dinosaur. Microsoft attempted to thwart the rise of other mobile platforms with the lackluster release of WinMo 6.5. US carriers were unimpressed and began to look elsewhere. They found a modern mobile OS in Android.
It was no coincidence that just about the time WinMo began its descent, more and more Android phones began to appear on the market. That trend will eventually reverse if Microsoft can convince carriers and handset makers to license WP7, which it has already begun to do.