Everything iphone vs android
After getting regulatory approval in China, Google today wrapped up its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, signalling their entry into the hardware world. As a part of the deal closing, Motorola's CEO Sanjay Jha has stepped down to make way for Google's Dennis Woodside. What does it all mean for Apple?
Industry research firm Gartner just released its latest data on mobile phone sales for the first quarter of 2012. There are some interesting points to be pulled out of this report that I wanted to address.
"Post hoc ergo propter hoc" is Latin for "after it, therefore because of it". That it comes from Latin should indicate how far back that particular fallacy can be traced. Yet ever since Apple launched the original iPhone in 2007, it has been the point of comparison for every flagship phone, from every manufacturer, on every carrier, that's followed. Just like "post hoc ergo propter hoc" isn't often true, "post iPhone ergo propter iPhone" isn't always true. Yet time after time, phone after phone, everything from hardware design to software features is taken as derived from, or as being a response to, the iPhone.
Apple's iPhone 4S has been on the market for 6 months already and the Samsung Galaxy S III doesn't even hit store shelves until the end of May. Yet the iPhone 4S remains the best selling handset in the world and the Galaxy S III claims to be the best handset on the planet, period, so let's put them head-to-head, Mobile Nations style.
Samsung has announced their next generation flagship Android phone, and as expected it's the Galaxy S III (no, they didn't go with "the new Galaxy"). Android Central is covering everything live from London and they've already gone over all the big stuff.
NPD and comScore recently released quarterly research figures over the last few days which suggested that Android was beating out iPhone in the U.S., but some digging into the numbers are showing that might not be the case.
Good Technology's latest data from their enterprise customers confirm that yes, iOS is killing Android in the business world. In the first quarter of the year, the iPhone 4S accounted for 37% of Good's activations, followed by the iPad 2 with 17.7%, while the new iPad is already claiming 12.1%.
Carriers have a love/hate relationship with the iPhone. They hate Apple's control (because they want that control for themselves) but love the money and customer-retention having the iPhone on their network brings them. Sprint's willingness to pay damn near all the money in their pockets, and delve into whatever passes for a corporate second mortgage, proves that that point.
AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint sell Android because they want to. They sell iPhone because they have to.
Instagram for Android finally hit the Market Play Store yesterday -- check out our Instagram on Android vs. Instagram on iPhone shootout -- and the reaction by some in the iOS community was... decidedly negative. It was almost like a TV sitcom when the pristine private pool is suddenly, forcibly opened to the marauding masses. You know, like when AOL users finally got unrestricted internet access. (No doubt Android users would have felt them same way when Google+ opened up, had there been a flood...)
Instagram's developers hinted their new Android app might be better than their existing iPhone app. So is it, and if so, how?
While over 15 Million iPhone users have enjoyed the social photo sharing app, Instagram, for quite some time, just today Instagram for Android hit the Google Play Store. Over 430,000 Android users had registered to be notified about the app's release, and the developers even hinted it might back a few features iPhone users were without. So does it?
