“Android is widely thought to have taken over smartphones (in a manner similar to how Windows took over the PC market) because there are now more phones being sold with Android in the US than there are iPhones being sold in the US,” Dilger writes. “To someone living in the US, this might seem very much like what occurred in the early 90s, when Apple’s market share in PCs was rapidly outpaced by the growth of rival Windows PCs from a variety of manufacturers.”
“However, there are tremendous differences between the two that make this simplistic comparison entirely useless in understanding what will happen over the next year or two in the mobile world,” Dilger writes. “First of all, the PC market of the 90s is nothing like the smartphone market of today. As I’ll point out afterward, the tablet market is unlike smartphones as well.”
Full article here.
I read this article early this morning before it posted on MDN. DED makes some very interesting arguments. Coherent and well thought out.
I can quite honestly say the Android UI sucks donkeys nuts. Why anyone would need widgets in a small form factor like a mobile phone is beyond me. In what sense can an app not do what a widget does. More evidence of the clunkiness of the Android UI that you have to have a shortcut to a shortcut. Junk.
That is a great article and most of the comments after it are from morons who don’t understand the big picture.
It’s an iPad. I’m typing on one now. I like it a bunch. I like my iPod Touch, Mac Mini,iPhone,Apple TV and Macbook Pro too. But it’s an iPad. Leave the commercials (revolutionary iPad) to Apple. Just present the news. How silly.
The most important point that he doesn’t drive home is that while many are already assuming that, due to the sheer number of Android mobile phones available out there (over 20 in the US market), they must be collectively taking larger market share.
Recent data from NPD claims disputes that assumption. Until recently RIM had the largest market share in the smartphone market, and has, a few weeks ago, been overtaken by the iPhone. Android is still in 3rd place, with all the different models out there (not to mention different OS versions and carriers), competing against essentially two models (and one single OS, and one single carrier) of iPhone (3GS and 4).
#1 there is room for more than the iPhone in the market.
#2 iPhone is best, Android is 2nd best
Just like Windows. Windows SUCKED from the get go. Loaded on cheap boxes. Now they rule market share.
Google Android is good enough loaded on good enough hardware. Also free. They already passed Apple. Tablet are next. Google is the new Microsoft!
> Why Apple’s revolutionary iPad will continue to dominate the tablet market
Why? Simple… There are no viable competing products.
A CDMA iPhone will essentially level the marketplace, basically making the iPhone available to all via radio type rather than just carriers. Androids, Blackberries, WinMO, ALL have a CDMA based mobile phone…
Very Good Article! Spot on.
Android has had phenomenal growth by filling the vacuum left by RIM’s inability to innovate rapidly enough for the market. It’s ability to sustain this growth is overstated, much like RIM’s 2 summers ago when it was at the high water mark, fresh off a huge Verizon BOGO promotion.
BAD UI is magnified in a small form factor and Android loyalty is fleeting, having gained most of their audience from former Blackberry and new users, while iPhone has a fiercely loyal customer base, unlikely to jump platforms because they are happy with their experience and have a library of apps and music that would be lost if they switched.
Dec 02, 10 – 02:18 pmComment from: Md. Masud Rana
Hi
I don’t know whom should I write to discuss on it.
Can anyone tell Steve Jobs to put less pressure on ‘Home Button’ on iPhone! Sensitivity of the Home Button of my iPhone is decreasing day by day, using more of it!!
Like, to go from one app to another we have to push Home Button (once to twice). But if we could do that on the touch screen we could avoid hardware damage (i.e., sensitivity of the Home Button)
How we can do that:
When we start an apps, there can be an exit/quit button where just pressing (touching) that twice we can go to home screen in stead of pressing the Home Button once.
When we start an apps, there can also be an ‘Multi-Apps’ button where just pressing (touching) once or twice we can go to Multi Apps menu (on the bottom of the screen) in stead of pressing the Home Button twice!
This way we can make our hardware’s (i.e., iPhone) life longer!!!
Steve, I am a user of all your iPhone models. Please reply to my idea.
Md. Masud Rana
Managing Director
Asia Composite Mills Ltd.
My major take-away from the article is that for smartphones, iPhone is now (in only its fourth year) making most of the available profit in the industry. With this money, Apple has the resources to further innovate, enhance the user experience, and make iPhone’s market position stronger. Android is given away for free, and the only way for Google to profit from it is through related ad revenue (and whatever Google does with collected user data).
The same thing is happening with iPad, except that iPad enjoys iPod-like dominance from Day One. Unlike iPhone when it released, iPad is the tablet market.
@Masud Rana
Switches are meant to be pressed. My light switches in my house are older than any computer I have ever owned.
If you are experiencing problems with yours take it back.
Now back to the thread. Great article, a bit biased but that’s OK. I am glad people are remembering that MS already lost the race with tablets when they started in 2000.
What i want is a way to quit an app completely, rather than sending it to the background.
The big things are:
1. Apple can already count on selling 10s of millions of iPads. The Android/MS/RIM OEMs can’t make that bet. At all.
2. And because the iPads share components with iPhones, iPod touches and AppleTVs, Apple has economies of scale that no one else can even touch. Price will be an issue in Apple’s favor this time.
3. Apple isn’t playing the telco price subsidy shell game this time. Android/RIM/MS/HP can’t hide behind the BOGOF shenanigans.
4. The Android OEMs have to first beat each others brains out for components, subsidies, unique apps, shelf space, marketing, telco favors, etc. before they even begin to face Apple.
5. The app developers have to futz around with 7″ screens, 5″ screens and upcoming 10″ screens. Or do they just wait until Google has a “real” Android tablet OS? Or should they wait for Chrome?
6. The only real lock-ins for cell phones/tablets so far have been been carefully crafted native apps. And guess who has the most custom, native apps, the most profitable app market and the most popular SDK?
Apple has almost completely sidelined the telcos with the iPad. They won’t screw up things like they almost did with the iPhone.
1. iPad wifi was first
2. iPad 3g– no contract necessary
3. iPad in China–no telcos to be seen
4. iPad in Verizon stores–NO CDMA chip and NO two year contract to sign! That is incredible.
@ken1w
I would add that there are not going to be any viable competing products. Apple has established an unparalleled creative engine, driven by a vision way beyond the scope of any other technology company; an impenetrable walled infrastructure and an astonishing ability to execute. And if that were not enough, Apple has locked up the supply of flash and displays. Oh, and patents… Game over. What’s next?
Whether or not this guy is right, this is one of the most thoughtful, substantive technology articles I have ever seen posted on a Website I never heard of. Unlike most things posted on MDN, this guy knows how to think and how to write and how to edit a piece properly. This is the standard in (some) major national print magazines but all too rare in online journalism. Kudos to Daniel and RoughlyDrafted magazine. Again quite aside from whether he is right, this article is a serious piece of work and one of the most enjoyable reads I have ever seen posted on MDN.
Im my opinion, iPad sales very successfully this year, but the next iPad may not have such a smooth trip as which will meet a lot of competitors such galaxy Tab, Playbook,Motopad. but I am still expect the new iPad will bring a big surprise for us iPad users.
http://www.aneesoft.com/tutorials/ipad/index.html
Companies make products that compete with with other companies not with their own products.Yes, the iPad is a larger itouch and addresses 3 main applications..a) Gaming, where a larger screen than the itouch is nice (competes with the PSP) b) e-book reading and web browsing, where again the extra size is really helpful (see Kindle)…
Muscle X Edge
@Fredo
emphatic cosign!