“Apple’s new iOS 7, which the company unveiled last week at its Worldwide Developer Conference, says a lot about the future of mobile devices because Apple owns the future of mobile devices.” If you’re an Apple fanatic, you’re going to love this article. If you’re not an Apple fanatic, you’ll be shaking your head in disbelief that the once great AppleInsider runs stuff like this these days. Hey, there’s always MacRumors – the last great bastion of proper Apple rumour reporting.
Well, imo, iOS 7 together with Windows Phone 8 are proper operating systems designed for mobile.
When I look at Android I see poor linux OS that was tried to be pulled to mobile. And it failed, again, in my opinion.
That said, I won’t be buying iPhone or Lumia, because these OS, albeit having a good design, are way to restricted and I cannot pay that price for a device that is more powerful yet I can do less than with my old Nokia E70, let alone Nokia N900.
When I will do something I hope I will fail like Android.
Well Bieber has a ton of fans too, so I cannot say that he failed as a singer?
Atleast here in Lithuania, the only reason I see cheap Android tablets instead of iPads is, well, because they’re cheap. And yes I asked.
Yes that is what I have been hearing since the iPhone came out: The only reason Android succeeds is because it is a cheap knockoff.
The only way you can be _that_ dense is if you have Apple glasses on.
Its been my experience as well that a lot of Android users are there primarily because of cost, and that a good chunk of them aspire to own iOS devices.
I think its great that some people here like Android for its ideals. Open, free, yada, yada. However I don’t think that sentiment is necessarily universal, or a significant driving factor in its adoption.
I’ve never heard a lay person say they love Android because its Linux, or because it has an SD Card, or a task manager, or can run an HTTP server or whatever.
People use Android because its flexible, cheap, and available. There’s very little brand loyalty there (save for the Samsungistas)
I have never heard anyone say they use Android because it uses Linux.
I agree, it is very similar to Windows.
Agreed. Android is the Windows model successfully applied to mobile phones. It is in many ways the spiritual successor to Windows Mobile.
I feel like it will also have Windows type problems, and you’re already seeing some of them manifest. The perception that Android carries a lot of malware is one that Windows had to fight as well.
Another is preinstalled crapware and idiotic OEMs to deal with. Some times openness comes back to bite you when it comes to quality.
Performance takes a nose dive and it is unfairly attributed to Google or Android as a whole at times — another Microsoft type of problem.
Google isn’t stupid though, and they have the advantage of hindsight in all of this. These aren’t really bad problems to have, growing pains are better than hunger pains I suppose. Either way, I expect them to carefully navigate these waters as Android matures as a platform and gains a critical mass.
I don’t think it will necessarily trip them up, they just need to make Android more attractive as a premium brand. Holo, Project Butter, and Google’s excellent showing at I/O for developers will help here.
Edited 2013-06-23 21:13 UTC
Well, now you have. I do use android because it uses linux, as well as other reasons.
Why is it important to you that it runs linux?
The linux kernel is well tested, high performance, and supports a variety of hardware ( important for future growth ARM, MIPS, Intel all should work as well as anything new ever developed) and software ( I play around with Android Scripting Enviornment, busybox, etc).
Very little brand loyalty? You seriously want to pretend the Android fanbois don’t exist?
Fanboyism and loyalty are not one in the same, whereas fanboyism is rationalization and justification, loyalty manifests itself in retention statistics.
How many new Android subscribers came from iOS? How many people who bought an iPhone 5 owned an iPhone prior? How many people who bought an iPhone 5 converted from Android?
These are the relevant stats, not a vocal minority of rabid fanboys.
And since Android still is growing, you already know the answer. Of course, as a hobbyist Android-hater, you don’t like it.
Android can be growing without there being much brand loyalty, if the growth is derived from an expanding market. However, as people churn through their contractual agreements with their carriers, Android users pivoting to iOS and Windows Phone presents a problem.
This is a medium to long term problem, but it is a problem. That’s not to say that Google can’t (or isn’t already) improve Android to make it more desirable.
Likely if every Android experience consumers had was with a Nexus device running a vanilla Android experience then perhaps things would be different. Its not however, so Android’s lack of brand loyalty would have little to do with the relative success of Samsung (which I assume is why my comments offended you).
I’m sure if everyone held and used a Galaxy S 4 then there’d obviously be some real good retention stats for Android, but not everyone does. The vast majority of Android devices are cheap pieces of garbage.
What’s going to happen when the people who got pushed into these contracts by sales reps have to renew? The landscape in 2013 is more competitive than in 2010 or 2011.
Actually, the best selling Android phones are all top of the line. Look at Amazon: Galaxy S3s and 4s, HTC Ones all over. You’re just lying to yourself to make Windows Phone look better.
Your comments offend me because you’re constantly lying.
Unfortunately for Android, it is like a Windows PC… the kind of experience you have usually is determined by the kind of device you get. And since a lot of people go out to buy the absolute cheapest piece of crap device they can find, it’s no wonder that so many of them yearn for an iPhone/iPad. And it doesn’t help that 98% of Android tablets on the market are complete shit either.
But if the hardware is good and the vendor bloatware is minimal, iOS doesn’t hold a candle to Android. For example, if you’ve ever used stock Android on a Nexus 4, it is as ‘smooth’ as iOS ever was. iOS7 looks impressive because they’ve finally gotten some features that Android has had for years, but it still hasn’t caught up quite yet, and there have only been two minor updates to Android since October of 2011.
Yeah, but these kind of users are dumbf*cks. You simply can’t compare a sub $200 device with a plus $500 device. It doesn’t matter if you get a plus $500 Android phone or iPhone, both will slap the sub $200 device silly.
The reason that all iPhones perform so well, is that there are no sub $200 devices and there is only one manufacturer. The absolute strongest point of the iPhone.
Google would do well to get some sort of logo program that signifies to consumers that a device runs well and use that to introduce some minimum specs for OEM’s into the Android space.
Yeah, you kinda just restated what I said
Except that a Nexus 4 is only $300 with an 8MB config, which is plenty if you don’t store a lot on your phone. And there’s only a few Android phones that are arguably better than the N4.
No, those are not relavant statistics. The relevant ones are market share growth over time. As microsoft proved, its not how much people *LOVE* their computer, its how useful it is to them. If it was, then this computer I’m typing on would be an amiga.
Same as with Linux fanboys – small minority, but a vocal one.
Plus people are thick and they want to defend their cheap Android phones to make themselves believe that “oh yes I bought a good phone”.
Only half-true. Yes, some people would like to own an iDevice but can’t afford them. On the other hand, there a people who simply want a smartphone, even though they still only make calls and messages (along with maybe facebook and twitter or whatever). It’d be the same use case scenario whether they were on iOS or Android. They don’t have much use for everything smartphones offer, so there’s no point in spending more. I’d wager this “get shit done and move on to real life” demographic is bigger than the “would own an iPhone if I could afford it” one.
Can’t speak for all lay people, but this lay person thinks Android is about as Linux-y as his microwave oven; it’s only the kernel they share. On top of the kernel, they couldn’t be more different, and thankfully so, imho. Having fairly secure, lean Linux distributions mentioned in the same sentence as Android is already insulting enough.
and Samsungistas listen to cheesy K-pop, which is even worse than Bieber.
Edited 2013-06-23 22:26 UTC
That’s purely anecdotal.
Really, which part tipped you off, the part where I said it was my experience?
Are you going to call my opinions subjective too?
Are they not?
In other words, all the right reasons.
Maybe they’re smart enough not to be loyal to a brand and a company who really don’t give a shit about them…
I’ve heard a lot of Android owners saying they love it because it has an USB port, can be charged from whatever USB powered port and can act as an USB mass storage under whatever operating system without having to install some bloated software first, if it’s even available for this operating system.
And?
Since when hardware plateform rules over software plateform!?
The ecosystem which matter is the features one, most of them being software ones, not some unique hardware ones.
Good. Because brand loyalty is dumb. I’d rather see more platform agnostic users push Google and the OEMs into continually improving Android on price and features than have hoards of fanboys loyally buying Android because they’re too narrow-minded to try anything else.
The “people buy Android because it is cheap” argument has 0 weight in the US. With our 2 year agreements, all phones cost about the same. You can get an Iphone 4 on Verizon for free right now with a 2 year agreement. Top of the line phones are $200, the iphone 5 is the same price as a S4 or RZR MAXX. Yet they still sell lots of Android devices. There may be some people that buy phone because their cheap, but a lot of the time they buy iphones. I know plenty of people that bought 3GS’s when the 4S was out because it was free.
People buy Apple phones for lots of reasons, and people buy Android phones for lots of, presumably different, reasons. Trying to pigeon hole them into stereotypes just doesn’t work.
> Its been my experience as well that a lot of Android users are there primarily because of cost, and that a good chunk of them aspire to own iOS devices.
That isn’t exactly true, people have access to iOs devices even used ones at comparable prices to android.
I don’t use apple devices out of choice and prefer more open systems but I know my choices is not the mainstream reasons.
I think many people just don’t care.
Bieber’s music isn’t all that interesting, but he’s certainly not a failure as a pop singer. There are hundreds of well respected legends of pop and rock who don’t have nearly that good a command of their voice.
And even though talent alone won’t get you anywhere in pop music, it’s hardly by random chance that he’s struck something in so many teenage girls. They want something which they believe they see in Bieber. Android sells for pretty much the same reason: a huge number of people believe it is what they want, at a price they’re willing to pay. And certainly neither iOS nor WP8 can do anything Android that can’t, so they’re objectively right.
Meanwhile, a bunch of idiots on the internet will pretend it’s a failure.
You can say that but you would be provably wrong as he has been hugely successful.
Asked who?
Well yeah, cheap Android tablets are popular because they’re cheap. However if you compare iPads and iPhones to similarly spec’ed Android devices (read: non-cheap Android tablets and handsets), then they’re popular for whole other reasons.
Yep, in a country where the average monthly income is equal to the price of an iPad they would buy expensive non-essentials.
And yet expensive Android phones are still widespread in Lithuania. Granted, prices of iPhones in Lithuania make is sensible to grab a plane ticket to any larger EU country and buy one there.
No you don’t, but I’d bet you hope you will succeed like Samsung. There is a difference between Android the operating system, and devices that run it. Android by itself, if you factor in monetary gain for Google, is fairly dismal. Factor in the gain in device sales for other companies besides Google (companies that market what the users actually want in a device and don’t have to develop the os themselves) and you’ll see success. Even Google has noticed this.
Yeah I’m sure Google are really upset that they make little from a successful mobile OS which permanently ties a Google account into all their (and 3rd party) services while making sure you have tracking and adverts fully working throughout.
Google’s services are value-add on top of Android which could go away as soon as viable alternatives are found.
There is extraordinary pressure on OEMs to do this given the razor thin margins everyone except Samsung enjoys. Being able to subsidize cost on the back of a service is the next logical step in the Android price war going on.
Amazon has already done it, why not others? Google would be wise to worry, and wiser to exert some more control over their platform before it gets away from them.
Amazon is really little more than a sophisticated Ponzi scheme with Jeff Bezos as the main beneficiary. Amazon doesn’t makes a profit. It will almost certainly never be a sound investment because its “business plan” relies on selling items below cost (if you include shipping costs) and avoiding sales tax. This creates a massive but unsustainable market. If Amazon charged the real costs of its’ products its’ market would collapse overnight.
Edited 2013-06-24 05:20 UTC
Samsung is not able to match specs for lower end local branded mobiles sold in india. There are more then 5 major indian brands fighting for the lower end which questions how thin or thick are those margins.
Samsung doesn’t want to compete at the very bottom end of the market. Samsung handsets typically have lower specifications but better quality than many similarly priced handsets.
Amazon has done that, and lost most of the value that Google now provides. But to be fair – it’s hard to replace Google’s services, they are just too good.
And no, OEMs are not scrambling to replace Google. They are scrambling to find that value-add that will lure in people.
IF high-end phones from HTC Sony and Samsung are all comparably priced, why is it then that the margins are much thinner for HTC and Sony than for Samsung? I guess all those phones are being build for 150-200 USD and sold for about 500-600 USD.
Samsung produces more of their components (CPU, memory, screen, etc.) in house and thus has better margins.
OK, what I actually tried to say: Why is it, if the margins seemingly are the same (just a little bit better for Samsung because they make a lot of the chips themselves), that Nelson said margins are razor thin for manufacturers other than Samsung. I think building cost $150-200 / selling price $500-600 are not razor thin margins.
Edited 2013-06-25 02:42 UTC
Spoken like someone who has never used a a recent android phone, or possibly never used ios. If you have used both extensively you would never say such a misguided thing.
Android’s most recent iterations, sorry, are far superior to iOS in every way except one: gpu accelerated everything that makes iOS always feel more buttery than Android.
Apart from that it looks nicer (especially with iOS7) has more useful features for mobile, and in general is smarter, more powerful, and *just as usable* as iOS. Not acknowledging this and instead making extreme comments about how bad Android is reveals you as either a raging apple fanboi, raging google hater, or just completely clueless.
Can’t speak for Win8 but you are insanely wrong about iOS and Android.
Edited 2013-06-24 04:40 UTC
many people who complain about Android have probably only tried the bargain basement 2.x versions with a 600Mhz processor and 192MB of RAM.
There’s tablets at work, Android is 4.1, but I’d take iPad any time of the day.
I do not own any tablet because I think that iPad is worth ~100 dollars for such toy, but it’s just better than Android.
So, albeit having a good design, a way too restrited mobile OS is so a success that you will NOT buy any device running it because while more powerfull it does less than an way older device?
Is there is *any* logic here!?
I’m just comparing two shits, and iOS > Android.
I can compare anything I like, you know.
I think iOS was a clear reactionary move to (however fair) complaints that iOS was boring.
Of course the soup of the day just happens to be swiss design and flat aesthetics so that’s where iOS went. I don’t really think they copied Windows Phone or Android as much as they drew clear inspiration.
I think Apple remains uniquely Apple while lifting the good things from Android/Windows Phone. Quick setting changing is a thing I miss on my Windows Phone, and its great that iOS is taking it from Android. FWIW I think UbuntuOS currently does this best.
I’d still say Android’s Holo theme is the least polarizing and best balance of skeumorphism and digital design that I’ve seen on a mobile OS. It isnt overly textured and annoying like iOS is, without being flat to an extreme like Windows Phone.
This article raises some good points (particularly about the importance of meaningful statistics like app developer revenue vs useless activation counts from Android) but again, is tinged with the usual fanatic extremism.
But still, Apple needed something, anything, which would freshen their UI a bit. I think they were wise to retain some familiarity while toning down a lot of the adornments. I don’t think Apple’s redesign will be received badly.
Apple may very well be leading mobile computing, but it isn’t because of an unreleased OS shown off a few days ago.
It’s articles like this, and the people who write them, that cause everyone to view those who use Apple products as idiots. I wish all fanboys would just crawl back under their slimy little rock and leave the rest of us in peace.
Blackberry based on QNX is even more efficient. Whether Linux or BSD – and iOS is BSD – it isn’t optimized for mobile.
As to Apple, I’ve given up. Everything I want to do requires jailbreaking or passing through a toll-booth. If you don’t get 3G/4G, you don’t get GPS, so what do you do if you are in the middle of nowhere and there are no wifi APs to triangulate? There are sub $40 GPS units, but you need magic steve job ash pixel dust for any bluetooth GPS to work on iOS.
Then there’s the Xcode app-store tollboth (I have a few macs, and they are becoming appliances and media players, if I wanted to develop, I could, but refuse to jump through the hoops).
I want to write apps, but they are for me, or would be free. So the slide indicating revenue basically tells me Apple doesn’t want me to develop for them. They only want people who are willing to pay to play, then hopefully get something back.
I have android development on both my dual-boot windows and XP. I’m looking at BlackBerry.
iOS has almost nothing to do with BSD. Linux has more BSD in it than OS X and iOS. As an iOS/OS X programmer I can tell you that while there are BSD remains in Darwin, there aren’t that many, and that while you can use the BSD API’s there are just as many and better integrated IOKIT and CF API’s that do exactly the same thing.
Apple, while small and dying used BSD to bootstrap it’s Darwin kernel, but the BSD to Apple ratio is shrinking dramatically these days favouring Apple.
Yes, you can use /dev/bpf to listen to raw etherframes but OS X provides a much better API that doesn’t require you to change the permissions on the filesystem.
I don’t know where you live, but both my iPad and iPhone work perfectly with GPS without data connections, though with about 90 seconds acquire time as opposed to 1-2 seconds. I’ve used my iPad with the 3G disabled to plot a few flights from gate to fate.
Then there’s the Xcode app-store tollboth (I have a few macs, and they are becoming appliances and media players, if I wanted to develop, I could, but refuse to jump through the hoops).
There’s nothing stopping you from writing your own apps and running them. The API restrictions apply to the store only. If you write your own app that formats the device, it’s your problem. You sign it, regardless of the function, with the Apple Developer Certificate and distribute it on up to 100 devices.
Yes, Xcode doesn’t run on multiple platforms. You finally nailed one out of four complaints.
I honestly couldn’t care less because:
a) I like MacOS
b) I can afford an Apple computer
c) I find Apple hardware to be better than the one from competitors across the whole product line.
In reality, there’s nothing stopping you from developing iOS apps on Windows, Linux, BSD or Solaris, you just have to do a little bit of research. Hint: GNUStep. Obviously, the final compilation and debugging station would still have to be a Mac OS X, but you can easily have a 10 programmer team out of which 9 use GNUStep and 1 uses OS X to test, modify and build for iOS.
Not to mention the countless Java, Flash and .NET (mono) alternatives that are available in both commercial and open source flavours all of which produce iOS binaries.
GNUStep is not an option for any serious Objective-C developer.
You spend more time compiling the tooling while trying to achieve Objective-C 2.x compatibility than working on your application.
As for buying a Mac for iOS development, it is no different than buying a PC with Windows and SandyBridge for WP development.
Remind me how free is that certificate? Last time I checked it’s $99 per year.
That still require a Mac to build.
Both are peanuts when doing commercial software development.
And this thread disputes the commercial part of it?
Let me refresh your memory:
Well, hurry up, Blackberry is about to shut down completely. Nobody is buying their stuff anymore.
That’s probably why the stock price has increased from $6.22 to $13.70. /sarc
From what I’ve read and observed about Apple’s new iOS 7 it has borrowed heavily from Android. (And made a mess if it as it were.) I would hardly consider that as “leading” or “innovating” in mobile computing. Next year, Apple will be suing Google for violating patents of features Apple stole from Android but are now part of iOS 7. That’s apparently the world we live in these days.
Am I the only one appreciating the irony of an OS news site posting ‘news’ criticizing an apple fan site for posting apple fan news?
Pot blaming the kettle much?
“When Intel embraced RISC principles or ARM’s 64-bit architecture in its x86 chips, or when Microsoft copied the Mac’s graphical desktop, NeXT’s object orientation and then the entire architecture VMS, not only were there no allegations that the WinTel partners were visionless copycats that had to steal ideas to remain relevant, but it also did nothing but increase their grasp on the industry. And it was celebrated, not demonized by the mainstream tech media. ”
D:
wut. *scratches head*. Intel embraced RISC? when, exactly? ARMs 64bitness? What? MS copied VMS? David Cutler worked for MS. He is the father of VMS. Of course he is going to bring over a lot of his VMS ideas when tasked with creating a new kernel for MS.
This editorial is so filled with misinformation and foamy, blind fanboyism that is it scary.
Agree with you and Thom. Dilger is delusional (and well known for being so). I thought ai had at least some small amount of integrity but carrying an article from this nut job makes me question even that.
Edited 2013-06-24 18:51 UTC
What a load of incoherent drivel.
The real issue here is that the media outlets are only taking advantage of our own bias so that they do not have to do any actual investigative reporting.
Let’s face it, all the various mobile platforms have strengths and weaknesses. The platform you pick SHOULD be based solely on “best fit” criteria for your needs but for most of us this rarely happens. Humans are too easily distracted by “pretty shiny things” and therefore don’t always make rational decisions based on needs. We are far too visual for that.
When using a Brand X mobile OS, can you honestly say that you could not use Brand B just as effectively? We’ve been brainwashed to not even consider the alternative.
The good folks at Apple, AppleInsider, and even MacRumours need to remember that Apple did not invent the touch-screen smartphone. Apple only made it more user-friendly for the masses.
Technology evolves and our expectations evolve with it. Most of us just keep drinking the Kool-aid dished out by our favorite hardware provider and fawn over their latest offerings like it’s all that there is.
In disappointing news, for less fortunate wannabe iphone owners, the budget iphone set for future release might not be so budget after all. IBtime report: http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/482352/20130624/budget-iphone-lite-l… is set to be a big disappointment to all thrifty buyers who were crossing their fingers for an iPhone device just within their means.”
Apple is throwing away an opportunity here.
Edited 2013-06-24 18:42 UTC
They always say they won’t bring out crappy product, so any “cheap” iPhone has to be a good iPhone. If the cheap iPhone is a good iPhone, why buy the expensive iPhone?
People will start to expect cheap(er) phones. Apple would enter a race to the bottom.
The article does not mean cheap. It means a more affordable iphone. And i know that “cheap” does not necessarily equates to bad quality.
What i see happening here is a repeat of the 1980’s. Apple that stand strong as a luxury electronic vendor and the competition slowly making inroads until the product almost become irrelevant. This is what happened in the 1980-90’s.
And this is happening gradually with iphone vs. android.
Greed lead to many a companies financial ruin.
Again i am not asking for a bargain basement price. Maybe a phone in the $250-$300 range. (prepaid, new i.e not on contract). And by that price i mean global pricing.
Edited 2013-06-25 17:15 UTC
You are making good points!
But many people can already afford an iPhone. If you really really want an iPhone you can save money for it. It make take a few months or even a year, but you can get one.
If they make an affordable one, one that’s good, why would people buy the more expensive one? Apple may sell more phones, but make less money.
Once they start doing that it will become a common assumption that phones cost a certain amount like it is accepted now that iPhones cost $X. Apple can’t raise prices again, because that would take them above the accepted level.
Just like people expect to pay a certain amount of cash for a laptop, which were a lot more expensive in the past.
If you must save a year for an iPhone, you really shouldn’t be getting one…
Are they leading “mobile computing”, because they have patented the phrase?
The author reminds me of Comical Ali the former Iraqi Information Minister who boasted how the Americans were being smashed – even as US forces were entering Baghdad.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Saeed_al-Sahhaf
The author should read today’s news. Apple stock price has been downgraded because iPhone shipments are expected to be as low as 25-30 million units in the next quarter compared with earlier estimates of 40-45 million units. This represents a 30-45% fall.