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Comment by cstejerean | Hacker News Reader

Keep in mind that unless when personal computers came out Apple was not the first one to release a smartphone. There are already hundreds of devices from Windows Mobile to RIM. I have to admit I haven't been too much attention to Android since I'm perfectly happy at the moment with my iPhone. How does the added competition from Android change anything for Apple?

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That's an excellent way of phrasing this situation, actually. Android isn't the only competitor Apple's got. It's not iPhone versus Android. It's that versus Windows Mobile versus Blackberry versus...

I also don't see what open source would have to do with improving sales of the device. If Android succeeds, it'll have to be because it does something very special that RIM and Microsoft - and especially Apple - haven't done yet.

Considering the reports say that within another quarter Apple might have more iPhones out than there are versions of Windows Mobile everywhere, I'd want something a lot bigger than "This is a good product" to suggest Google has a chance of toppling Apple.

I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers that the iPhone will take over Windows mobile within another quarter. From what I've found, Apple currently has a 2.8% market share in terms of OS use on smartphones and Windows Mobile is up at 12%. Not to mention how far back they all are from Symbian with it's 57.1%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone#Operating_systems

He's talking about total MS phone vs iPhone sales next year, assuming that iPhone sales double and MS phones sales are flat. Which is pretty pie in the sky, imo. But having said that, I've not seen a windows mobile device I would give a second thought to buying.

http://daringfireball.net/2008/10/the_phone_company

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