| News | Features | Interviews |
| Blog | Contact | Editorials |
| Apple survey: people choose Android because of carrier, screen |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-08-14 22:17:47 |
| You wouldn't believe it, but something actually, truly interesting came out of the Apple vs. Samsung lawsuit yesterday. Apple had conducted a survey to find out why, exactly, consumers opted to go with Android instead of the iPhone. The results are fascinating - not only do they seem to invalidate Apple's claims, they provide an unusual insight into consumer behaviour. The gist? People choose Android not because it's an iPhone copy - they choose it because of Android's unique characteristics. |
|
| Off Just a Little |
| By gilljr on 2012-08-14 22:28:23 |
| While it is true that some carriers offer better service in certain areas. At the time of that survey, there was an exclusivity deal between Apple and ATT that prevented others from carrying the IPhone. It has not been until this last year that you could buy the IPhone on other carriers. The IPhone also was only GSM and the other large carriers (Sprint and Verizon) were CDMA. |
 - Score: 2 |
| RE: Off Just a Little |
| By Thom_Holwerda on 2012-08-14 22:31:17 |
| I know, that's point :). People went with Android because their carrier didn't have the iPhone, and couldn't switch to At&t because its service sucked in their area, for instance. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[2]: Off Just a Little |
| By cjosc99 on 2012-08-14 22:59:20 |
| I don't see your point.. Now, almost every carrier has the apple phone and yet ANDROID still #1 number one. So, what is the point? |
| - Score: 2 |
| About Apple not being able to deliver |
| By d3vi1 on 2012-08-14 23:12:31 |
|
I agree with people wanting the latest and greatest. But I don't agree with Apple not being able to deliver. The Android ecosystem is huge, and kudos to them for that. Android Is exactly what the industry needs in order to keep everyone on a straight(ish) path. However, I believe in Apple's power to consistently deliver beyond expectations. For the last 14 years Apple has delivered and innovated like nobody. Apple, with less financial resources than Google, Yahoo or Microsoft, has been able to deliver better than them altogether. Since 2011, the differences minus a Steve Jobs and a big plus in financial resources. Apple has more cash than Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook altogether and I can only hope that they are investing it into competing by delivering rather than competing by lawsuits. For the sake of Wall Street, they all also have to compete by lawsuits, but until now competing has been 90% by innovation. The rest of the 10% have been lawsuits for the sake of PR. Samsung's Galaxy line would have been nothing on the market without the awareness brought on by the Apple suits. Samsung's biggest partner is Apple. Do the math. Until now, both Apple platforms have had an at a more than satisfactory evolution, so I can't find any reason to doubt their future. While I'm an Apple user, I watch the competition closely, and I'm hoping that they all evolve at a similar pace, with Apple making just enough difference to make my investment until now count. The difference being the same difference that we see in the price. |
| - Score: 0 |
| Comment by ilovebeer |
| By ilovebeer on 2012-08-14 23:29:11 |
|
> The other reasons listed indicate that people chose Android because of its unique strengths over the iPhone: larger screens, the Google brand, the Android Market, and Google integration. These are all things where the iPhone - in the case of the Market and the brand, obviously so - the iPhone clearly lacks. Come on Thom, you know better. First of all, only people who bought Android were surveyed. Were people who bought iPhone's surveyed the exact opposite of what you're trying to say would be the case. Next, if you claim the Google brand is stronger than Apple, show me sales figures proving more people who picked their phone based on brand went with Android. Also, how about people who had no real preference aside of texting, calls, games, and went with whatever the youngster at the store was pushing? This describes a very large number of users. People are smart enough to see where this is going so I won't bother bringing up anything else. I'll simply say that to imply this survey is a reflection of the big picture, is being disingenuous at best. Assuming Apple create the survey, the one thing it does do is give insight into how Apple sees its competition. Ps. Before you go on with your `Apple fanboi` claims, be aware that I am not loyal to any cellphone maker, cellphone OS, or otherwise. I care only if my phones suit my needs -- beyond that I couldn't care less. Unlike others, I'm not a cheerleader for any company. Edited 2012-08-14 23:34 UTC |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE: Comment by ilovebeer |
| By Thom_Holwerda on 2012-08-14 23:33:04 |
| With that quote, I'm not claiming the Google brand is stronger. I'm stating that the Google brand obviously isn't a strong point of the iPhone. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: About Apple not being able to deliver |
| By Yehppael on 2012-08-14 23:38:04 |
|
I'm missing the -1 Biased rating. How good Apple is, doesn't matter. It's completely irrelevant actually. They have only one phone. iPhone. Not only that, but all the phones they launched are nothing more than an up-to-date. Basically they didn't make 4 phones, they made only ONE. Every other smartphone maker offers a lot of different brands. Some try for the corporate market, others go for the gamers like Xperia Play. But it's not just the hardware, it's the software as well. I'm not talking about the app stores, they're pretty much the same, but the underlying OS. Not just Android, but every other non-iOS OS. They all offer something, and while you may be happy with Apple and have been for 15 years, others have different tastes, different needs. Which they can get only with a large variety, something that Apple doesn't have. They're a big corporation, they have lots of money, but they're still thinking like the little guys with 1% share of the market. |
| - Score: 12 |
| Comment by Tony Swash |
| By Tony Swash on 2012-08-14 23:40:47 |
|
> What fascinates me most, however, is the stuff about wanting the latest technology and smartphone. I've long professed the belief that Apple would never be able to keep up with the fast pace of development in the Android world, and that this will eventually harm their business just like it did in the PC space. People do want the latest technology, and they know perfectly fine where to get it: not in Cupertino. You mean like Retina displays? This whole 'it's the 1990s all over again' meme is a shallow way to analyse the mobile revolution, not only is this not a repeat of the PC era (because so many fundamental things are different) but it's also based on some deeply embedded but false myths about what happened in the 1990s. I know we are in many ways at an early stage of the mobile revolution but already there are phenomena which are very hard to explain if one views events through the 'it's the 1990s all over again' lens. Why does Apple make so much more money than all the Android devices makers added together, especially given that the use of the almost useless but traditional metric of market share means one should expect to see Apple in commercial decline by now and Android device makers financially ascendant? Why have Android tablets failed so spectacularly? Why is the OS distribution and update mechanism in the Android ecosystem so obviously broken? Why, given the relative market shares, is the developer and app space in iOS so much richer, healthier and fuller than in the Android space? These are all tremendously interesting questions but I think constantly looking for signs that the pattern of events of the 1990s is happening again limits useful or deep analyses. Especially when people are looking for the the recurrence of a pattern of events which never actually happened in the first place. |
| - Score: -1 |
| Why I chose Android... |
| By ferrels on 2012-08-14 23:44:35 |
|
I chose Android over the iPhone for many of the same reasons brought up in the hearings. I have a larger screen, better price for both the phone, and my monthly bill was lower, and my Android phone is an infinitely more customizable device. Heck I can even run a chroot Linux on my phone. To me, the iPhone seems to have more appeal to the brand-conscious crowd who have no technical skills whatsoever. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, it's just different. But I love my Android systems because they're infinitely more hackable than iPhones too. @Tony Swash And where did you get the information that Android tablets have been a spectacular failure? I own 3 tablets, my wife owns a Motorola Xoom AND and an iPad and my 2 kids also have Android tablets. They absolutely love them and my Asus Transformer Prime is so popular that my local BestBuy can't keep enough of them in stock. You should do a little better research before making such comments. Android market share will exceed 40% by the end of this year. That's sound pretty successful to me, especially since Apple had a two-year head start in the smartphone and tablet arena. Maybe you could cite some sources explaining how 40% market share is a spectacular failure. Edited 2012-08-14 23:52 UTC |
| - Score: 6 |
| RE[3]: Off Just a Little |
| By zztaz on 2012-08-14 23:53:06 |
|
The point is that people didn't buy Android phones because they wanted a cheaper iPhone knock-off, they bought Android phones because they were better than the iPhone. The key is that they bought Android phones because of the differences, not the similarity. Of course, some people prefer the iPhone. That's fine, and enough people prefer the iPhone for Apple to have made lots and lots of money. But lots and lots is not enough, Apple wants to drive everyone else out of the market. Apple's story is that Samsung copied the iPhone, but the survey shows that people didn't want a copy, they wanted something different. |
| - Score: 21 |
| News | Features | Interviews |
| Blog | Contact | Editorials |