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Comment by marknutter | Hacker News Reader

How is popularity being measured here? Sheer number of devices running Android? Is that really a good measure of popularity?

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More to the point, what, exactly, is being "revealed" here? This is standard tech "journalism"; a marketing handjob thinly disguised as a story.

It was pretty hostile toward the interviewee for a "marketing handjob"

Android is 75% of shipping smartphones now. I don't think anyone could argue it isn't the most popular OS now. It's winning in tablets now too, although just barely.

Can you provide a different measure for something that means "used by the most number of people"?

Popularity is more nuanced than a simple number. Android phones cover a much broader price range than iOS or Windows phones so people who might otherwise have chosen an iPhone are forced to choose a cheaper Android phone, which doesn't really count as a "vote" for Android. Choice of phone also depends on a person's cell phone provider. For a long time iPhones weren't available on networks other than AT&T's.

...seriously?

You do understand that this choice that you speak of is simply a strength of the Android platform? You can't just push that aside just to maintain your own world view. Android is the most popular mobile operating system right now - it might or might not be the best or most valuable, but it IS the most popular.

By your metric Windows is not the most popular OS on the Desktop, and that each year since 2000 has indeed been Year Of Linux On The Desktop.

I see you didn't read past the title.

The article states:

“Android grew to the world’s most popular mobile OS (it’s now on 750 million devices worldwide, with 1.5 million new activations every day)”

Given how it’s phrased, it must be referring to Android installed base. 8 months a go, Eric Schmidt announced[1] that Android has an installed base of 480 million users and that 1.3 million Android devices are activated per day. So it’s entirely possible that Wired’s figures are correct, and that Android is the most ‘popular’ mobile OS, in the literal sense of the word (lots of people use Android devices).

‘Popular’ also has other meanings, like ‘regarded with favor, approval, or affection by people in general’. For that, it’s more useful to look at surveys measuring user satisfaction and consumer purchase planning. Those surveys tell a different story: consumers are far more satisfied with iPhones than with other smartphones, and more Android users switch to iOS than vice versa.

[1] http://www.androidcentral.com/google-reaches-13-million-devi...

From the stats I could find, I estimate about 0.5% of them are running CyabogenMod. I had expected it to be more.

Which I think raises an interesting point/question. We all know that these 'forums' are essentially echo chambers for all sides of the discussion and are hardly representative of typical use patterns. With that in mind, how much of the market is actually using their device? In my little corner of the world I see them (smartphones) used for photos, IM/SMS, the odd game and Facebook. On occasion the more savvy user has email enabled and may use maps for directions. Is there data out there for this? not that it changes the figures, but it could potentially alter what they mean and therefore have an impact on how we design apps etc.

> and more Android users switch to iOS than vice versa

could you provide some source for this? All statistics I've ever seen seem to indicate the opposite is happening.

http://aytm.com/blog/research-junction/smartphone-market-201...

http://www.vyralize.com/1655/analysts-predict-iphone-will-to...

http://allthingsd.com/20130411/blackberry-tops-iphone-and-an...

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/iPhone-Apple-Consumers-iOS-...

Thanks for the sources!

These appear to be predictions similar to the ones I've seen before, I wonder how tracking after the fact maintains these predictions?

The predictions I listed are some of the latest, but they don’t differ much from one year a go. And indeed, Apple sells more iOS devices than ever.

In the US, where the iPhone has been available longest, iPhone market share has actually been increasing at all the major telcos – it’s growing faster than any of its competitors.

http://gigaom.com/2013/05/03/iphone-remains-top-us-smartphon...

Satisfaction amongst users of the product is a very poor proxy for popularity amongst the general population. One reason for this is that if someone is unhappy with iOS, there is a good chance that they will switch to Android or another platform, and hence remove themselves from the iOS pool. Another big reason is that making a device that appeals very much to a niche segment will give you a much better score than a product aimed at a broader user base - so the "popular" product will almost always end up with a lower satisfaction score.

I tried to distinguish between the two definitions of ‘popular’, you’re conflating them.

Most people have a mobile device that came with Android preinstalled. In that sense Android is popular. It also has the most malware infections on mobile devices, but would you say Android’s malware is most popular?

iPhones are the most popular cameras used by Flickr members[1], but it’s hard to tell whether that also means these people prefer iOS over Android.

[1] http://www.flickr.com/cameras

This is really grasping at straws.

No, you’re just missing my point.

Yes.

I disagree.

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