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Comment by lawdawg | Hacker News Reader

People are all pointing to the fact that the new iPhone is coming out, and for obvious reasons, the iPhone4s will not sell as well.

That said, people are forgetting that this is basically the FIRST TIME that any smartphone has sold more than the iPhone in the US. It's not as big news as it could be, but its definitely big news, and could be indicative of a trend in the US, namely, not just cheap/mid-range Androids are being sold, but a lot of high-end Androids, that cost as much as iPhones are being sold. This is a very interesting and important distinction.

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Anecdotally, the release of the Galaxy Note was the first time I witnessed average people anticipating and being excited by an Android phone. I witnessed the same to a much greater extent with the S3.

I do think it's indicative of a trend. I'm very interested in seeing what happens with the momentum I perceive once the next iPhone has been revealed.

Samsung kinda came out of nowhere with their original Galaxy S, and, along with other people, I absolutely love mine, which I've beaten the hell out of, left in the back of a taxi (this weekend - but got it back), and generally mistreated like a lover for 2.5 years, and it is still in perfect condition. There must be a gradual market effect from the fact that they've made some really good quality kit. I've seen so many iphones with cracked screens!

Or, it could be indicative of a trend away from the myraid of Android devices as Android customers gravitate towards a smaller number of models.

It'll be interesting if the next iPhone isn't at least as popular as its predecessors. Until then, I'm chalking it up to pre-announcement lull in iPhone sales.

>That said, people are forgetting that this is basically the FIRST TIME that any smartphone has sold more than the iPhone in the US.

Well, didn't smartphones exist before the iPhone ? Also i don't think the iPhone would have become the "top selling smartphone" just out of the gate in 2007. It would have taken them quite a while to get to the top spot.

It can't possibly be the "FIRST TIME". Also since 2008, in the US, iPhones have cost $200 on contract which was par for the course for pre-iPhone smartphones (Blackberry etc.) including the higher end Android phones which came later. To say "as much as" is just as wrong as ""FIRST TIME".

Hard to know what counts as a lot of high end phones. The four weeks around the sale of the new iPhone is like the music singles chart at Christmas, almost nothing happens before Christmas except people taking advantage of the lull, then the biggest sales of the year.

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