Comments on: Motorola On A Robot Rampage

By: sean

sean — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:53:50 +0000

android will take over as soon as peoples eyes are opened to open source…that being said…at&t is goin to release android phones…these wil put a blemish on androids image…they wont adopt google and seek to standardize the app market…basically they will be alternative looking iphones with all the same crappy limitations……android has the potential to take apple out…but its all the players in the android game that will determine if it happens or not…and u will always have the people who are brand loyal and will argue this till the day they die….but i do believe the devices (due to constant competition) will in themselves take the iphone out….open source will always win…just takes people becoming aware of the possibilities….believe it or not there are people out there still that have absolutely no idea what an app is…or that a cell phone can do more than call people….mass ignorance is the android platforms downfall

By: Zach

Zach — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:26:47 +0000

So this chart measures the amount of advertisements the user is forced to see? Advertising sucks– that’s why I went to cable…

By: Steve Hendricks

Steve Hendricks — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:51:07 +0000

“…Android is posed to become the Microsoft of the next decade, at least in the mobile phone department…”

That makes me throw up in my mouth a little. Not disagreeing, just contemplating the horror of the Vista version of the Android O/S.

Actually, of course, this is a confusion between a phone manufacturer and an O/S platform. What is interesting is that the traditional bully vs underdog roles played by Msoft and Apple are virtually reversed in the phone market where Apple is the established player and the Android platform is the insurgent.

I don’t expect to see Apple’s dominance ending anytime soon. No more than I expect Microsoft to slip into obscurity. As other posters noted, the vast consumer market couldn’t care less about an “open” operating system. As long as Apple continues to deliver a highly stable, integrated hardware/software solution and attracts a legion of developers, it will retain its dominance.

What the Android platform offers, on the other hand, is a base for developing a wide variety of niche devices with specialized functionality. And for those of us who enjoy leading edge technology and don’t mind a little bleeding now and then, it offers the promise of toys that are worth the price.

By: tom

tom — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:41:59 +0000

Open standards are not the same as open source. A single developer on a single os / single device and myriad developers on single os multiple devices, I wonder who will produce the most prolific and useful tool? This is a market problem. The market always favors a competitive field. If Apple would have gone open source from the start they could have set the field. Google did. As a result, Android will dominate the smart phone market and soon start to penetrate the desktop/laptop market.

By: Pneumatic

Pneumatic — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:51:06 +0000

I don’t have an iPhone but I DO have an iTouch. My kids and I use it around the house and have a ton of apps on it. Is that factored into the calculations when they discuss how many ‘iPhones’ are in the wild?

By: Kusgan

Kusgan — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:04:23 +0000

The android after many android devices will never be “quite ordinary” . I used to have a G1. When the moto droid came out, I envy the cool and not ordinary droid. Then the nexus one came, I thought it was very cool and very fast so I bought it from google. And I realized I got the coolest android and it is not ordinary. Newer and cooler androids will come and they will not be ordinary. The android improves itself through competition within the android eco-system. What is ordinary is the feeling you get when you used tohave the coolest iphone 3GS and now everybody has the same Iphone (in hardware and software). That is definitely ordinary.

By: David Clark

David Clark — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:47:25 +0000

All the Mac/PC to iPhone/Android comparisons are wrong. the the difference lies in the use of open standards. The iPhone supports enterprise functionality along with non enterprise functionality. The Mac/PC was not like that – you had the mac doing things ( ie different networking, printer protocols, disk formats etc… ) its way and the rest of the world doing it another way ( ie shit ). The iPhone on the other hand embraces open standards. It will work on any network the chipset supports. Just wait until the iPhone hits another network ( ie verizon )…

By: Zach

Zach — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:50:37 +0000

“AdMob found that Motorola had the second most popular handset after the iPhone with the Droid receiving 11.3 percent of ad requests in December…”

So HOW does the pie chart show 30%– the droid wasn’t released until November. The numbers look fishy…

By: snkmchnb

snkmchnb — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:40:28 +0000

Also not to mention that AT&T is also a culprit here as far as Apple’s market share goes. If/when they start releasing Android devices that will work on their 3G frequencies I’d bet that the iPhone’s dominance will start to dwindle.

By: wademac

wademac — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:39:13 +0000

DROID!

By: Caswan

Caswan — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:04:23 +0000

@methodz actually 40 -50 is about right. I think I read somewhere that Motorola alone is coming out with 20 phone models, even Garmin is jumping in on the android game. but I have to agree with sunny, the charm of android when I first jumped onboard with the G1 was the exclusive/wow factor. I could do things with my phone that no one else could such as streetview, multitasking(b4 the Pre) and instant gmail and calaendar sync. But 2 or 3 years from now when there wouid be over a 100 android phones and everybody and their mother has one it would become quite ordinary.

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:16:45 +0000

I think a more interesting stat would be market share by OS…

By: asqwerth

asqwerth — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 06:19:15 +0000

I think the smartphone landscape could get more complex if Microsoft gets its game together and can get a good phone OS + viable app ecosystem out very soon. Developer’s costs, cost of most apps, cost of OS to phone makers, IP rights of all interested parties – these are of course things to consider. Of course, if their rumoured Feb announcement is just more vapourware, then Android’s growth will increase. I think the Google vs China spat may not affect Android that much, because Chinese firms can just strip the Google apps and stuff out of Android. Google, however, as an information business, may be affected.

By: SharonW

SharonW — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:30:54 +0000

@ amargari

My educated guess would be yes. iPod Touches are included in that market share and really should be broken out considering they’re not competing in the smart PHONE market.

My education is based on two sites I follow. The first breaks out Droid from all Androids and are all inclusive for Apple. I correlate this with the second site that breaks out iTouch and iPhone, but is all inclusive of Android.

First site with Droid/Android break out, but all inclusive Apple:

http://getclicky.com/marketshare/us/droid/

Second site with iPhone/iTouch break out (both are US only):
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-US-weekly-200936-201003

Funny thing is, in the US, the iPhone is showing slippage.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:16:12 +0000

I believe that companies are taking a close look at the Verizon/Moto comeback using Android. I think there will be more that try this tried and true method. Android + good device + lots of ‘good’ advertising will win marketshare. Also – companies are realizing that to compete with Apple you need an OS with lots of apps/games. That pretty much leaves Android/Palm/Windows. Windows costs money…