Gizmodo: The Story of the Guy who Lost the Apple iPhone 4G...

[Deeko]

Not yet. I am not saying the percentages will match 1:1, what I am saying is Apple will ultimately come out #1, Android a distant second, and Microsoft will remain a bottom feeder. Where RIM, Symbian, etc. net out, I don't know. RIM technically make smartphones, but I really don't see anything they currently offer as the same class of hardware as the iPhone, Android, Pre, Windows Phone 7.

....and RIM outsells them. In another one of your anti-Microsoft rants you said the xbox 360 was a failure because the Wii outsells them - even though their hardware is "not in the class" of the xbox and PS3. Make up your mind.

RIM is the leader by a wide margin in the United States, and their market share is growing, not declining, whether you like it or not. Just because you don't understand why people like it doesn't mean that people don't like it, or that they'll stop liking it. In fact, the irony of you not understanding why the general consumer prefers a product that is not as technically superior as the one you prefer is VERY thick.

A contract is precisely what is keeping the iPhone on one carrier. If that contract is three-year then it's up in June and the floodgates are open.

You're totally underestimating the power of over four-billion installed iPhone Apps and 10 billion iTunes songs. Apple has the lock on the application and music markets. Android has a lock on neither.

Who decided to sign that contract? Apple. Your little "what if" games are 100% worthless. If Palm had started the Pre on Verizon instead of Sprint, we might have a very different playing field. If the G1 had started on Verizon and had had multitouch from day one (which the hardware supported, Google just disabled it), Android might be even more entrenched. If Nokia actually cared about the US market like they do foreign markets, who knows what would have happened. If if if if.....it doesn't matter. As of this day, Apple remains exclusive to AT&T, which means claims of "but but but if they had Verizon!!!" mean absolutely nothing.

Your second part has nothing to do with what I said at all, so I don't really have anything to respond to regarding it.

Most people will always prefer the iPhone the same way most people prefer the iPod over Sandisk and Zune. Apple knows how to market a product to the general consumer. Google knows how to market a product to geeks. Which would you say is the bigger market?

Google also knows how to make a product that is technically superior and therefore beats the competition on word of mouth, with very little advertising at all, such as, ya know, Google search. Comparing different product groups is a waste of time. Trying to claim that the iPhone is just like the iPod in terms of consumer view/preference is flatly incorrect and the sales data shows that VERY clearly.

 

[dwell]

Google also knows how to make a product that is technically superior and therefore beats the competition on word of mouth, with very little advertising at all, such as, ya know, Google search.

Sure, if you dismiss their long line of flops: Google Wave, Google Catalog, Google Video, Web Accelerator, Google Answers, Google Checkout, Orkut, Knols, Lively, Jaiku, Google Coupons, Google Page Creator, Dodgeball, Google Buzz...

 

[dguy6789]

Sure, if you dismiss their long line of flops: Google Wave, Google Catalog, Google Video, Web Accelerator, Google Answers, Google Checkout, Orkut, Knols, Lively, Jaiku, Google Coupons, Google Page Creator, Dodgeball, Google Buzz...

Me thinks you just looked at a list of Google Apps that you don't know anything about and listed them here.

 

[Deeko]

haha I didn't say everything Google has ever done is successful, did I? Every company has its share of flops. Hell, half of Google's projects were created in some dev's free time. They make such a ridiculous amount of money with their search/advertising business that they can afford to do things like that.

And besides, between things like search, adsense/adwords, gmail, maps, documents, Youtube (no, they didn't create it, but so? They own it now, and they are working on monetizing what was quite a financial loss), and now Android....I think Google has their share of success, too.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I suspect Google will be split up soon, it's too big for anyone to be comfortable with any longer...

Was just listening to a bit on NPR about that very subject...

 

[Deeko]

I suspect Google will be split up soon, it's too big for anyone to be comfortable with any longer...

Was just listening to a bit on NPR about that very subject...

If Microsoft hasn't been split up, why would Google? Microsoft owns a larger market share in more critical parts of computing than Google does - including being involved in almost everything Google does as well.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Quite honestly, the more recent Google advancements are good but not GREAT. Google , Docs, Maps, Search, and Mail have been huge successes. Other than that, I don't think they've really developed a lot of things to the kind of refinement that Apple does. To me Apple's developed its last series of products almost like Blizzard's rolled out WC2, SC, WC3, WoW, SC2.... they're PERFECT.

Google's not bad. It's not as big of a flop as a lot of MS launches, but recognize that they've only had a few huge hits here and there. Android has a long way to go, and while we all used to attribute it to maturity, it's been a while and Android 2.1 still isn't as polished as iPhone is.

 

[dguy6789]

Polished UI vs Functionality. I prefer the latter being the focus of development to the former.

 

[pm]

....and RIM outsells them. In another one of your anti-Microsoft rants you said the xbox 360 was a failure because the Wii outsells them - even though their hardware is "not in the class" of the xbox and PS3. Make up your mind.

RIM is the leader by a wide margin in the United States, and their market share is growing, not declining, whether you like it or not. Just because you don't understand why people like it doesn't mean that people don't like it, or that they'll stop liking it. In fact, the irony of you not understanding why the general consumer prefers a product that is not as technically superior as the one you prefer is VERY thick.

Deeko is correct - at least according to several companies who track smartphones.

For example:

Share (&#37 of Smartphone Subscribers in the US
Nov-09 Feb-10 Point Change
RIM 40.8% 42.1% 1.3
Apple 25.5% 25.4% -0.1
Microsoft 19.1% 15.1% -4.0
Google 3.8% 9.0% 5.2
Palm 7.2% 5.4% -1.8


Source: http://www.comscore.com/Press_Event...uary_2010_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share

These reports are a bit subjective because it depends on what you define as a smartphone.

Another one tracks worldwide smartphones market share in 2009
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/23/smartphone-iphone-sales-2009-gartner/

 

[CTrain]

LOL, publicity stunt....haha, yeah right.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/26/police-investigating-lost-iphone-prototype-raid-gizmodo-editors/

 

[dguy6789]

LOL, publicity stunt....haha, yeah right.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/26/police-investigating-lost-iphone-prototype-raid-gizmodo-editors/

Do you believe there wasn't any possibility of it being a publicity stunt? Did you read the thread? Sure, definitely looks like this wasn't a publicity stunt anymore, but Apple has tons of reasons to try new marketing techniques.

 

[CTrain]

Of course I read the thread.
I posted that it was idiotic to think it was a publicity stunt so NO I didn't think there was any possibility.
I not debating the merit of Android gaining ground cause it is.
But to think Apple need something like this is absurd.
Like I said, all they have to do is announce a press release and get a hell lot more coverage that way.
Did they need to pull a stunt to get the insane amount of publicity for the ipad release ??

 

[Deeko]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/04/iphone-finder/

A friend of Hogan’s then offered to call Apple Care on Hogan’s behalf, according to Hogan’s lawyer. That apparently was the extent of Hogan’s efforts to return the phone.

After the friend’s purported efforts to return the phone failed, several journalists were offered a look at the device. Wired.com received an e-mail March 28 — not from Hogan — offering access to the iPhone, but did not follow up on the exchange after the tipster made a thinly veiled request for money. Gizmodo then paid $5,000 in cash for it.

The owners of the bar told reporters that Hogan didn’t notify anyone who worked at the bar about the phone. They also said Powell returned several times after losing the phone to see if anyone had found it and turned it in. Powell and Apple’s outside counsel contacted the San Mateo County District Attorney’s office last week to report the phone stolen, according to reports.

So all the people that said if he really found it, he should have just given it to the bartender were correct, it seems.