“There’s a dirty little secret about Android devices that most manufacturers are facing: the return rate on some Android devices is between 30 and 40 percent, in comparison to the iPhone 4′s 1.7% return rate,” John Biggs reports forTechCrunch.
“[Samsung’s] Galaxy S II sold 3 million in 55 days, a strong showing,” Biggs reports. “However, on the ground, many return rates are approaching 40% said a person familiar with handset sales for multiple manufacturers.”
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“Why? For the ‘average’ phone user, Android is a maze,” Biggs reports. “Anecdotally, I’ve heard of multiple examples of folks who bought an Android phone in order to ‘Think Different’ and came away disappointed when faced with the glaring differences between Android and a friend’s iPhone or Blackberry.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you don’t have an iPhone, well, you don’t have an iPhone.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
That seems abnormally high. You may need a better source than “a person firmiliar with handset sales.”
“That seems abnormally high.”
I believe that is the point of the story: Android returns are abnormally high.
You both have a point. Yet, it is true some sort of a stronger base/source for the claim is necessary (I’m not Android fan or defender); it’s become a useless overused cliche “people familiar with the” in reports, rumors or whatever, that has to be rid of.
As for the claim, I use to say things fall by its own weight…. With or without secrets.
I’ll give you a source. How about if you go round the landfills, checking out the dumpsters round where you live. That’ll be authoritative. No, better yet be a dumpster diver. Loads of Android junk there.
I had the same thought as KSH, need a credible source.
I am also wary of people who use phrases such as “on the ground” in their reporting. Where else would this be? In the air? On the water? Just like “going forward,” the most useless currently fashionable phrase. Utterly unnecessary in most if not every instance.
Would ‘going backwards’ suit you better?
Uh, you mean “going backward”? Come up with a sentence where “going forward” is actually needed (other than the obvious ones, such as “the car was going forward”) and you will win a copy of Windows Vista autographed by Ballmer and Gates.
Living with grammar OCD must be a bitch!
So you’re better off not knowing what you’re saying? Really?
Hey BillyJack, if you ever have to sign a contract, better have a responsible adult go over it for you first. You’re likely to overlook some hellacious clause because you didn’t bother understanding the grammar.
And yes, that does happen. Frequently.
I think BillyJack is sufficiently in possession of his senses to differentiate looser language used in a blog than one used in a legal document which no doubt needs to be tighter. Besides if a legal document depends solely on grammar to carry a particular meaning of a clause to the exclusion of all else then it’s not a very well crafted document.
From my circle of friends and relatives, the number is more like 50%.
They think Android is “just like iPhone,” just as they used to think Windows was “just like Mac.” Slowly they learn.
At least half the people I know who got an Android phone returned it for an iPhone within 30 days.
I talked to a staffer at the Verizon Wireless store and he said “a lot” of people return Android phones. He said, “They’re a big headache compared to iPhone.”
There are more Android phones at the bottom of the Hudson River than there are fish. Figure that out.
LOLZ. Android pollution.
In my case, all my friends who had bought Android phones have returned them. This is a 100% return rate.
You need new friends.
No he doesn’t. They sound like they learned, so they must have some smarts about them.
My wife changed from an iPhone to an android type phone…she went back to an iPhone the very next morning.
Have you been getting good nookie thereafter?
I got my wife an iPhone thinking it’d get me some nookie, but the exact opposite occurred. She spent so much time on the iPhone I west left to fiddle the iBone in my pants.
Did you get the extended battery case for that iBone?
Of course.
Get her an iPad and you won’t get any supper either. I’ve lost 30 pounds since Christmas.
I absolutely refuse to get mired in Android fragmentation when someone has a problem with their new SmartPhone.
If it is Apple I know the answer to almost any question, and can teach you how to use it.
If it is Android, you bought it, you live with it.
Life is too short to figure all all the weird permutations of Android and their resulting pain. I will show you that hundreds, if not thousands have the same Android problem. I will show you how to use Bing! or Yahoo to find a solution but I will not even read the results, nor explain them.
You are on your own, unless you dump Andy’s Dung for an Apple iPhone.
Many do just that, and switch to an iPhone at that point.
Playing with Android is like figuring out that 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle your aunt from Wisconsin gave you. There are random pieces scattered everywhere and if you have the patience, they’ll all fit together eventually but you’d have had two myocardial infarctions in the meantime.
Yeah, come on, Gaargle, give us the number of Android DEactivations.
If you don’t have an iPhone. Well, return it and get an iPhone.
World to Microsoft, Google and Linux:
“I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”
Linux has its place; it’s just not on end user devices like phones, tablets, desktop and laptop computers.
My first thought was this… if the return rate that high, are some phones being ‘activated’ twice, give how high googles ‘activations per day’ are.
As in, Person A buys a phone, activates, returns and is rest, Person B buys the returned phone, activates etc…
Not worry, Andy Rubin reboots his phone a thousand times a day thereby contributing hugely to Google’s activation numbers.
so much for Android’s “activation rate”.
How about a “keep rate”, thief Google?
MDN’s posting Apple’s ad says it all. Consumers who buy an Android should do their homework before purchasing one; or pay mention more of Apple’s ad and act on it.
I think y’all missing the point, iPhone’s return rate is 1.7%
Wow! (in my opinion it’s still too high)
Those are just the folks who decided they wanted white instead of black (or vice versa). 🙂
I’ve experienced this first hand. I had an iPhone 4 and didn’t really like the design, so I sold it and got the HTC Inspire 4G. This is a nice phone, but Android apps are terrible. After two weeks I sold it and went back to an iPhone. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to get another iPhone 4, so I got an iPhone 3GS. A great phone, but I do miss the better screen, camera, and speed on the iPhone 4.
Drew, I jus spent over an hour this morning with a nice young man who is doing the same thing except he still has the Andy Dung Inspire 4G. He wants to get rid of the Andy Dung in the worse way and back into an iPhone.
I feel sorry for him, but all I could do was email him some suggested links to try on his own.
It surprised me at the time as that the Inspire 4G was the latest and greatest Andy Dung not too long ago.
I ended up getting a refurb 3GS from AT&T for $209.00. I was able to get a discount for time in contract. The iPhone 4 refurb would have cost me another $200.00 discounted. I just didn’t have the cash. Oh well, when I am able to upgrade again, I’ll get the iPhone 5 and lesson learned.
Do you want a spanking to go with that lesson?
Wow, nice offer, but no, I was punished already from using Android and then not being able to get another iPhone 4…
I’m sure there’s an app for that . . . on iOS.
I’m sure there’s an app for that . . . .
You didn’t like the design? What, do you got a painting of dogs playing cards on your wall?
Haha, everyone is a comedian. No, I don’t. I didn’t like the design because of the same reasons others complain about it: The glass back is very breakable, the front glass is very breakable, and despite what people convince themselves is the case, the signal does indeed attenuate when you hold your hand in the well-known spot. The phone looks beautiful, but I actually like to use my smart phone, not just sit it on the desk and look at it. The 3 GS, while clearly not as powerful, allows me to do that. That being said, I do miss certain aspects of the iPhone 4 and if I could have afforded it, I would have gotten another.
Ferris: [after the end credits] … You’re still here? It’s over!
I think a key point here is that iPhone 4 (a design that was released more than one year ago at this point) is still doing great against any competition. Now, imagine what happens in about one or two months, when “iPhone 5” is released. Even if the only change is an A5 instead of A4 (plus iOS 5), it is going to be unstoppable…
No, don’t say that. A 4″ screen would be nice. 4.5″? That would be a slam dunk in my opinion. Put the rest of the Android crowd in the shade. Plus I don’t think it’ll be just a refresh of the iPhone 4. If it were, with the same exterior but different innards, why wait till September to release it? They could have slapped on the A5 processor in next to no time and shoved it out the door in May.
@ B’s left nut, you really need to get over your old PC ways of assessing an upgrade by a bigger/larger spec. I frankly don’t want a monster screen on my phone. That is what my iPad is for. An iPhone needs to be a phone first and fit easily in one’s pocket. I think Jonathan Ives and the design team @ Apple understand this balance. I would be shocked if Apple made their screens much bigger than than they already are.
Apple can probably squeeze a 4″ display with the same aspect ratio as the current 3.5″ display on the iPhone 4. The limiting factor is the width of the phone – there is plenty of room at the top and bottom.
That would be sensible and probably require a software button instead of the physical button we have today. I’m sure Steve would love that minimalist design. I just can’t believe Apple would placate to the Android hardware designs that have these monstrous screens (think HTC EVO or Samdung Infuse) that make your phone practically impossible to fit into one’s pocket.
At 4.5″ it’d be more of a Star Trek PADD than an iPhone, for 4″ would be sweeeet!
However, this will stay on the background compared to the *other* card they’ll play really soon. I expect them to release a contract-free not-overpoweringly-awesome version of the iPhone (perhaps with altered 3GS hardware?) that’ll take Apple’s humiliating tablet lead on top of Android to the smartphone market.
Since the “Retina Display” is only one generation old, I don’t think it is going to change this time. In fact, I don’t think the screen will change at all until iPhone’s OS has true resolution independence. What that means, in practical terms, is that the user can adjust GUI elements smoothly, to any size (within a reasonable range).
At that point, native screen resolution becomes irrelevant. And a slightly larger (or slightly smaller) iPhone screen will NOT cause “fragmentation” (due to native resolution being slightly different than the current standard). The OS and apps will be designed to accommodate the user’s preferences for how large things appear on screen, and adjust smoothly. And any iPhone that is at least an iPhone 4 (with A4 and Retina Display) will be able to to handle it. That means support for iPhone 3gs will have to end; selling it as “new” ($49 special) for another year means supporting it with iOS (at least partially) for another two years.
The current iOS (and the next version) is absolutely dependent on native resolution of the screen. That’s why Apple is NOT going to make a small adjustment to screen size, like going from 3.5″ to 4″. That would mean changing the screen resolution (fragmentation), or spreading out the same number of pixels out onto a larger screen (worthless, larger, heavier, more power hungry, and “less Retina”). Apple is too smart to do either of those things…
And Apple is certainly not going to make the overall size of iPhone any larger. A larger screen is an Android phone maker’s excuse (disguised as a “feature”) for not being able to miniaturize as expertly as Apple. 🙂
Google activations are soaring. Says Google with a big Microsoft Smile.
Now maybe, it would be fair to show de-activations to balance the statements. Anyone seen this reported on any phone?
Software is all beta, takes forever to sync. No support whats so ever. That’s where it really hurts the android customers. To many variations on software make it confusing. Many apps say there free then want you to upgrade to a pro app for the features you thought were free.
Want an iPhone, get an iPhone its that simple. It works, it has support at any Apple store or over the phone. It’s not confusing, and it’s fast to sync.
Disclaimer – I didn’t read the source article. Glancing at the comments here, most of you seem to think that people return their Android phone because the software sucks. As a switcher from an iPhone 3G to a Motorola Atrix (Android), I have a different perspective. I actually like Android, and have found it to be more stable than iOS (mind you I’m comparing to iOS 3.13). It is true that it is not quite as intuitive as iOS, but it’s far from difficult to use. And the corresponding strength is that it is highly customizable. There are a lot of crappy Android apps, that’s for sure. But there are also many high quality apps for Android. In fact, I was surprised the other day when I tried to purchase iFitness for my son’s iTouch. Guess what? No longer available for iOS — it’s now an Android-only app. That’s gotta be a first. But my point is that the number and quality of apps for Android are very rapidly increasing. In fact, I don’t see this as an iOS advantage anymore.
The reason I switched was because the Atrix was the first phone to offer a dual-core processor. Plus it had 1 MB of RAM meaning that multitasking on it is phenomenal. I have had great luck with the build quality of my phone, but I’m one of the lucky ones. The forums are filled with people that have serious hardware and/or build quality issues. I believe that this is more of a factor causing people to return their Android phones. The build quality and consistency on the iPhone in general is better than what is being put out by Motorola, Samsung, and HTC.
A second issue why I believe many people return their Android phone is the lack of accessories. Think about it – the iPhone is standardized. Those who build accessories for it know that they will have a huge market. Each Android phone is a little different. In and of itself, this isn’t a bad thing. But when it comes to accessories that will work with the phone, this is a serious issue. Especially considering how fast Android phone vendors are coming out with new models — those who build accessories couldn’t keep up even if they wanted to. And the market share for a given Android phone model simply doesn’t warrant making an accessory that will work with it.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts on why the return rates of many Android phones are significantly higher than for the iPhone (although I’m not sure I buy the 30-40% figure touted in the headline). With the next gen iPhone, Apple will likely catch up with many of the latest Android phones in terms of processor speed and RAM. That should be a very fast phone. My wife’s iPhone 4 actually feels almost as fast as my Atrix now, and that is with the iPhone 4s single core processor.
You say Android is better and you talk specs. The reason that a large percentage of Android phones are returned is not because the specs weren’t there. The reason is the OS is not intuitive. Nobody knows how to operate the damn phone.
If the phone has a crappy user interface, and Android phones do, who gives a shit how many Apps it can run simultaneously?
Besides, if you only have enough screen real-estate for one App at a time, why the hell do you need 10 other Apps running a the same time using up CPU cycles?
I’m not sure I buy his argument that “my wife’s iPhone 4 feels almost as fast as my Atrix.” The iPhone 4 has always felt zippy in my hands. Android apps run on a virtualized Java engine which penalizes it in terms of speed so it’s not a direct CPU cycles comparison as iOS is written in Objective C which does not rely on virtualization to compile to machine code.
Well, I have no idea (nor do I care) whether or not Android relies on virtualization. All I care about is whether or not it makes me wait. And quite frankly, there is no substitute for more processing power. Applications on the Atrix absolutely fly. Pocket Money and Netflix are two apps that are common between the platforms, and they’re definitely faster on my Atrix than on my wife’s iPhone 4 (loading, responding to input, etc.). However, the iPhone 4 user interface does feel more fluid than Android Gingerbread on my Atrix. Hence my comment that the iPhone 5 should really fly if it does indeed have a more capable dual core processor.
Come on now. Re-read my post. I didn’t say Android is better than iOS. To me it seems more stable, but I’m comparing to quite an old version of iOS. And it is definitely easier to customize. But it is not as easy to use. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, but I certainly didn’t state that Android is better than iOS. That’s really a personal judgement that depends on what you want your phone to do. For instance, as a music player, Android simply is not as good as iOS (even when using 3rd party music players on Android — trust me, I’ve tried almost all of them). Apple simply has the music player perfected. In contrast, navigation on my Atrix is extraordinary — a little better than my son’s Garmin and significantly better than my wife’s iPhone 4. But each platform has its strengths. And the weaknesses they have are rapidly being fixed by copying one another (i.e., look at all the lawsuits filed by Apple recently against Android handset vendors for copying features; also look at the new iOS notification system that is copied straight from Android).
Well, let’s see how the iPhone compares with Android. I need to see my calendar events and to do’s on the lockscreen. The iPhone will do that, right? Not unless you jailbreak it and void the warranty, but Android can. I need weather on the lock or home screen. Again, the iPhone can’t do that.
Last week I looked up driving directions in Google maps, then I simply saved them to “My File”. When I got in the car I fired up my phone and went to Google maps and behold, the directions came up. All I had to to was punch the nav button and I began receiving voice turn by turn directions. It’s also great to be driving and just give the phone a voice command to navigate someplace, or to send a text or email or to dial a number. All things you can’t do on an iPhone, although Apple has promised to copy Android and offer these features sometime in the future after they’ve finished copying their notification screen.
There are many more things I can do with my Android that the iPhone can’t do, even jailbroken. I’ve had two iPhones and now an Android and unless the iPhone takes a very big leap and catches up I’ll never go back. I’m just way too spoiled with what my phone can do now.
What this article shows is the real focus behind Apple – customer experience is THE most important part of any product. Yup, there are Android 4G phones out there. But they suck energy like a leech on steroids.
So when your 4G 4.5″ mini-tablet phone dies by 11 a.m., people are a little upset. A phone with no juice doesn’t surf the web faster than an iPhone 2G.
Yep, the great customer experience of Apple always having their hand in your pocket. The voice navigation app I mentioned – free. And it shows photos of actual streets, not some cartoon rendition. Over the air syncing of my calendar, address book and more – free. Oh, Apple can do that to but they charge you $100 bucks a year for the experience. Then there’s the great experience of buying a song on iTunes and believing you own it because you paid the same price as you would if you had bought it someplace else. But then try to move that song to another device and Apple sticks their hand out and collects 40 cents a song for the privilege. No, I’ve had it with Jobs’ greed and that “great customer” experience.
I think you’re not quite aware that Apple is deprecating MobileMe and replacing it with free over the air synchronization with the introduction of iOS 5. Unlike Google which rushes unfinished beta copies of Android out of the door in double quick time without working out all the bugs, Apple is subjecting iOS 5 to beta testing with developers before general release to the public in September.
I have a very hard time believing that your phone could capture even 80% of voice commands accurately. Do I want a voice command feature that gets it wrong some of the time and sends an email or text to a friend with a nonsensical message or takes me to the wrong address? No. Do I want to have to be constantly looking at the screen while I’m driving to be sure it’s capturing what I’m saying correctly? No.
Do you really think that Apple has never considered a native app with turn-by-turn directions or voice commands that include email or texting? Of course they have. But they won’t release such features until they are done WELL. And that may mean never because voice recognition is EXTREMELY HARD to do well given all the accents that even native English speakers have let alone foreigners. For folks like you who accept a certain error rate as a given and are willing to tinker and tolerate, that’s not a problem. But you are among 1% of the population that feels that way. The rest may just return their phone (see above).
Over 95% capture on voice. It’s amazing how well it works. When I’m driving I can answer emails and texts by voice. Same with getting directions when I can’t find a place. See, the problem here is that the fanboys pile on and heap on criticism of an OS they know absolutely nothing about. But I’ve owned both devices and I know the difference.
“However, on the ground, many return rates are approaching 40% said a person familiar with handset sales for multiple manufacturers.”
I’m reminded of a time long ago during one college break when I was working in a big store’s electronics section. They were running a promotion on a bulky AM/FM portable. Shortly thereafter, the buyer calls me:
Buyer: How are those radios moving?
Me: We’re selling a lot, but we’re spending a lot of time handling returns.
Buyer: What do you mean?
Me: Well, they’re not very well made. Maybe a third are coming back.
Buyer: How long have you worked with us?
Me: About two weeks.
Buyer: You’re rather opinionated for someone here after just two weeks.
Me: That may be so, but it’s still not a good product.
I don’t recall if I actually used the word “junk”, but they were.
A dirty little secret, indeed. It confirms what I and many others have already known about droid junk knockoffs all along. I am actually surprised that it takes so long for someone in the media to reveal the ugly truth about these knockoffs.
Now, about the 500k activation number, which the threesome tards have been passing off without a scintilla of proof, I am flabbergasted that none in the media has asked for some proof. Next time Schmidt yaps about it, could someone please say: “Coming from a known cheat and backstabber like you, how about some proof, buddy?”
Who’s knocking off who in this game? Look at all the recent Apple announcements as to what they are going to include in IOS 5 and 6. Notification center, weather and notifications on lockscreen, voice command, voice navigation, over the air Cloud syncing. These are all features Android has had for some time. Android had multitasking before Apple and still does a much better implementation of it. I don’t see anything that Android supposedly copied from Apple. If you look at both platform’s features you can make a clear case that it is Apple that is doing the copying.
Forgot to mention one other feature Android has that Apple has said they are considering copying for IOS 6 and that is Widgets. On my phone I can set up seven different homescreens and implement widgets if I like. Until you’ve used a widget you don’t realize how limited the iPhone’s capabilities are, even the ones that are jailbroken.
Wow drew I fell for you I actually lost my iPhone 4 and went to and apple only to find out that it was going to cost 599 for a new iPhone 4 I was so sick to my stomach I prayed that god could somehow help and I swear I look across the mall at AT&T store and the very helpful woman who worked there got me a brand new iPhone 4 and it only cost me an extra 10 a month and 200 for a family plan I was so happy that day and now i bought another user iPhone 3GS and charge my cousin the difference on the family plan (: I couldn’t imagine any one returning an iPhone
I’m on my 4th droid incredible in a 13th month timeframe and my current replacement phone is stuck on headset. No surprise on the return rate!
the source for this aritcle already retracted their statement saying these numbers simply were not possible. seriously “a source”….? how reliable is “a source” anyway?