Android Is Now the Most Popular Smartphone Platform | Hacker News Reader

Android Is Now the Most Popular Smartphone Platform

mashable.com

14 pointsapedley11 comments

The title should be "Android is now the most common operating system for heavily subsidized/free phones". I know the debate is tired, but it you measured popularity by brand recognition, NPS, # of apps on the platform, developer enthusiasm, or any meaningful metric iOS would win hands down. Not to say Android isn't important or a force to think about, but its kind of a silly thing to measure.

The other hackneyed point is that iOS crushes Android when you factor in iPod touch and iPad sales. Old news, but never seems to register with reporters.

EDIT: Why did this comment warrant negative votes? Not inflammatory, not inaccurate, just a critique of the way info is presented.

You wrote that down as if iPhone was not heavily subsidized phone. There are not many people, who paid full price for it.

"Android is now the most common operating system for heavily subsidized/free phones"

What distinction are you trying to make? Isn't the iPhone heavily subsidized/free? According to Apple's website the iPhone 'costs' $200. That sounds like heavily subsidized to me. Also I don't know if there are better deals than that in the US, but certainly here in Sweden I can get an iPhone 4 for 'free' from all the major mobile operators.

Of course the iPhone is subsidized, but you can't get an iOS phone for free or a "2 for 1" deal which you can many places with Android. Android has some awesome things going for it, but the reason it is growing so fast is that it's given away for free and carrier friendly, not because it's intrinsically popular with customers.

Says who?

Revoo[1] claims that top-end android phones are now as-or-more popular than the iPhone 4.

[1] http://blog.reevoo.com/2011/01/android-overtakes-iphone-in-u...

"Android is now the most common operating system for heavily subsidized/free phones"

The iPhone is also heavily subsidized. Almost nobody pays the $600+ full price for an iPhone in any market globally.

I get your point, but this wording makes it seem like you're trying a bit too hard to paint Android as "cheap junk that doesn't sell on its own merits".

All you needed was "Android Is Now the Most Common Smartphone Platform" - the iPhone is just (if not more) subsidized.

I can say this from experience, as an iOS developer I've had to pay full-price for iPhones twice because new hardware was released "out of sync" with my AT&T contract :(

No "Android is the fastest selling operating system..."

Installed base would be a better analogue of "popularity" in the context (in fact "popularity" has nothing to do with sales. Which is more "popular" -- chevrolet or ferrari?)

I can't help but notice reading the same headline every month. Very tired of this debate now.

It's been the best selling smartphone OS in the US for a while, this news is that it's now the best selling globally (unseating Symbian AFAIK)

You are tickling the uncontrollable urge I have to try to guess what type of smartphone any given commenter has.

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