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Top 5 best selling handsets for Q4

The first picture in the article gives a good example of how being locked into a ecosystem affects purchasing choices.
 
Fingolfin269 said:
The iPhone 4S and 4 aren't free though...
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But if you want iOS, you only have so many options. It makes sense why the top 3 are the top 3. iOS split over 3 phones vs. Android/Windows split over however many devices.

For a lot of people, it'd be pretty difficult to extricate themselves from the iOS ecosystem at this point. If you have a 4S and are getting phones for the kids, get the free one since you're already into Apple's ecosystem.

Fortunately, my wife has a 4S and will probably continue to enjoy iPhones, so it's not a big deal for me to get locked into both dominant platforms.
 
From the BGR article:

“Attracted by a faster processor, improved camera and the Siri speech-driven agent, most iPhone buyers paid a premium for the iPhone 4S, making it the top-selling handset in Q4,” NPD analyst Ross Rubin said in a statement.
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Bullspit. Most of the people buying the 4S didn't know, care, or understand the faster CPU. Most people buying the 4S aren't going to notice the quality difference between the 4/5Mp and 4S/8Mp when the 4's camera was already very good. Aside from 8 being bigger than 5.

And Siri? Heh, still hard to get excited over something I've had since 2009. Its one of those features you use once to show off, then never use again.

The number 1 and 2 things that drove the 4S are thus: 1)Its the new iPhone model, and 2)Lot of older model(3GS) owners were in their upgrade window.
 
My wife tends to use Siri a lot. I don't think she really gets into any of the advanced stuff though.

While I agree that a lot of people just wanted the new iPhone because it was the new iPhone, I think it's probably implied to an extent that it comes with improved "stuff" because it is the new iPhone. People don't necessarily need to know or care about the specifics.

edit: And I kind of agree that it was disingenuous to suggest specific reasons for why people were attracted to the 4S, but not necessarily to the point of outrage. 😀
 
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Bateluer said:
From the BGR article:
And Siri? Heh, still hard to get excited over something I've had since 2009. Its one of those features you use once to show off, then never use again.

The number 1 and 2 things that drove the 4S are thus: 1)Its the new iPhone model, and 2)Lot of older model(3GS) owners were in their upgrade window.
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I think this is an insightful comment - but I think you underestimate how many people "want" Siri. It's gotten great media exposure - like the recent Big Bang Theory TV episode where one of the characters (Raj) falls in love with Siri, and Apple's advertising for Siri has been excellent. I think there are a bunch of people who "want that phone with that Siri person on it". You may be right about people never using it again... but a lot of people want it just because it seems futuristic and they've seen lots of media exposure. I know at least three people who bought a 4S because they wanted Siri, and only Siri. Android users will roll their eyes that people are going out to buy a phone with a feature that Android has had for a while... but you have to admit that Apple does a great job advertising, and I've never seen an ad about the voice recognition features of Android.

But you are probably right that lots of 3GS owners were eligible to upgrade (~18 months) so that's one of the biggest drivers of sales... and it's something that didn't occur to me.
 
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We already know the 3GS isn't the driving factor of iOS growth.
As previously posted to dispel this "rumor".....
12.01.26-iPhoneSales.jpg


96% of units shipped by Apple weren't the "free" model.
 
Bateluer said:
And Siri? Heh, still hard to get excited over something I've had since 2009. Its one of those features you use once to show off, then never use again.
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Maybe because what you were showing off wasn't Siri, and was only vaguely similar to it? uh huh...



WelshBloke said:
The first picture in the article gives a good example of how being locked into a ecosystem affects purchasing choices.
Click to expand...


Customer satisfaction's why the graph looks like that, has very little to do with an ecosystem, both iOS & Android have their own ecosystem right? If anything Android should have higher % in the 1st graph not lower. What I got from that graph is people are more likely to upgrade to a newer iPhone. Since Apple's numbers are LOWER for the 1st time buyers and Android's are LOWER for the repeat buyers. I'm over $200 into Android apps, so Android most definitely has the same Ecosystem Apple has.
 
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Patranus said:
We already know the 3GS isn't the driving factor of iOS growth.
As previously posted to dispel this "rumor".....96% of units shipped by Apple weren't the "free" model.
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Right. But do you know how many 3GS iPhone users - who bought the 3GS around launch - bought a 4S because it was the new iPhone that was in stores at the time that they rolled off of their 2 year contract and it was the new iPhone to get? They bought their 3GS's in ~July of 2009, and then in ~July of 2011, they are due for an upgrade, so they waited and got a 4S.
 
pm said:
Right. But do you know how many 3GS iPhone users - who bought the 3GS around launch - bought a 4S because it was the new iPhone at the time that they rolled off of their 2 year contract and it was the new iPhone to get?
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What does that have to do with the (false) argument that the 3GS is drove Apples Q4 marketshare because it was free?
 
Patranus said:
What does that have to do with the (false) argument that the 3GS is drove Apples Q4 marketshare because it was free?
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Nothing.. but I wasn't sure if you were replying to me or to someone else. I mentioned 3GS's, and then right after my post you mentioned 3GS's, and I wasn't sure if you were talking to me. But I guess not. Plus, I thought maybe you would know... I would like to see upgrade vs. new customer data.
 
QueBert said:
Customer satisfaction's why the graph looks like that, has very little to do with an ecosystem, both iOS & Android have their own ecosystem right? If anything Android should have higher % in the 1st graph not lower. What I got from that graph is people are more likely to upgrade to a newer iPhone. Since Apple's numbers are LOWER for the 1st time buyers and Android's are LOWER for the repeat buyers. I'm over $200 into Android apps, so Android most definitely has the same Ecosystem Apple has.
Click to expand...

I think the original comment on the ecosystem was more of a comment on how dominant Android and iOS are compared to everyone else. Both platforms have a large, thriving ecosystem.
 
Bateluer said:
From the BGR article:




Bullspit. Most of the people buying the 4S didn't know, care, or understand the faster CPU. Most people buying the 4S aren't going to notice the quality difference between the 4/5Mp and 4S/8Mp when the 4's camera was already very good. Aside from 8 being bigger than 5.

And Siri? Heh, still hard to get excited over something I've had since 2009. Its one of those features you use once to show off, then never use again.

The number 1 and 2 things that drove the 4S are thus: 1)Its the new iPhone model, and 2)Lot of older model(3GS) owners were in their upgrade window.
Click to expand...

If you are insistent on this, then I'm sure you can agree the vast majority of Android users don't give a crap about dual core quad core single core or 1gb of RAM, 2gb of RAM, 8MP, etc etc. All they care about is a good experience. No one really cares you can multitask or whatever because we techies know Android doesn't really have full blown multitasking either. The biggest driver of Android sales has been the availability of cheap/free handsets and what not.

People avoid the 4 and 3GS simply because they know its older. However, people don't know the SGS2 is 9 months old now (if we count the international one), but will rave about the 4.3" screen and its $99 price tag.

So if you're trying to say people buy phones because they're idiots and you want to discount any sales data showing iPhone as #1, then we can make the same excuses for every other article where you show Android marketshare reigning supreme.
 
More info:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2...hone-spots-but-loses-new-users-to-android.ars

Collectively, all iPhones sold accounted for 43 percent of smartphone sales in the US for the quarter.

According to NPD analyst Ross Rubin, Apple sold nearly two iPhone 4S models for every iPhone 4 sold, and five iPhone 4S models for every iPhone 3GS sold. And despite the large disparity in numbers, the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS ended up being the top three smartphones sold in the US.
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But even with the top Android smartphone (Samsung Galaxy SII) being outsold more than five to one in the US, Android handsets in aggregate still accounted for 48 percent of US smartphone sales last quarter, accord to NPD's data. Perhaps more alarming for Apple, users buying their first smartphones chose an Android device 57 percent of the time, and an iOS device just 34 percent of the time.
Click to expand...
 
QueBert said:
Maybe because what you were showing off wasn't Siri, and was only vaguely similar to it? uh huh...






Customer satisfaction's why the graph looks like that, has very little to do with an ecosystem, both iOS & Android have their own ecosystem right? If anything Android should have higher % in the 1st graph not lower. What I got from that graph is people are more likely to upgrade to a newer iPhone. Since Apple's numbers are LOWER for the 1st time buyers and Android's are LOWER for the repeat buyers. I'm over $200 into Android apps, so Android most definitely has the same Ecosystem Apple has.
Click to expand...

I'd argue that the iOS ecosystem is much better developed than the Android one. Just look in any slightly techy lifestyle magazine and look at the speaker docks available for iPhones as opposed to the 3(?) models available for Android phones.
 
abaez said:
More info:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2...hone-spots-but-loses-new-users-to-android.ars
Collectively, all iPhones sold accounted for 43 percent of smartphone sales in the US for the quarter.

According to NPD analyst Ross Rubin, Apple sold nearly two iPhone 4S models for every iPhone 4 sold, and five iPhone 4S models for every iPhone 3GS sold. And despite the large disparity in numbers, the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS ended up being the top three smartphones sold in the US.

But even with the top Android smartphone (Samsung Galaxy SII) being outsold more than five to one in the US, Android handsets in aggregate still accounted for 48 percent of US smartphone sales last quarter, accord to NPD's data. Perhaps more alarming for Apple, users buying their first smartphones chose an Android device 57 percent of the time, and an iOS device just 34 percent of the time.
Click to expand...
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We need a graph of this, but if anything it shows the 4S completely outsells anything out there. I'm not saying this means iPhone is superior, but this goes to show how hard it is to have development across 20 gazillion Android phones and to expect top notch development on EACH of them. Essentially, you want developers to be able to port ICS across all 20 Android phones (lets use 20 as an example) on the 4 carriers in the US. You want each of them to run CM9. All 20 development teams have to make sure each of their phones' modems, wifi radios, cameras, etc are compatible. This is a pain in the ass. Fragmentation doesn't hurt? Now if the SGS2 is outsold 5:1, lets not forget there's 3 variants of the SGS2 in the US, and a few more in Canada, and the International version. 1/5th the development of the iPhone 4S further fragmented by different variants. Yeah. That doesn't suck.
 
Spoooon said:
I think the original comment on the ecosystem was more of a comment on how dominant Android and iOS are compared to everyone else. Both platforms have a large, thriving ecosystem.
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Android has ZERO ecosystem and never will unless Google (probably will) makes a major push into hardware. To have an ecosystem would require manufacturers work together but they are competitors so they won't. But then those competitors would get pushed out. Hrm.
 
Patranus said:
Android has ZERO ecosystem and never will unless Google (probably will) makes a major push into hardware. To have an ecosystem would require manufacturers work together but they are competitors so they won't. But then those competitors would get pushed out. Hrm.
Click to expand...

So the bit over $200 I've spent in the Android Market wouldn't be consider ecosystem related? Hummm if I go buy a WP7 phone can I install the apps fro, the Market on my new phone? Android doesn't offer much in the ways of accessories. But their Market's absolutely a huge ecosystem. It's probably the only reason I haven't went out and gotten a WP7 device
 
QueBert said:
So the bit over $200 I've spent in the Android Market wouldn't be consider ecosystem related? Hummm if I go buy a WP7 phone can I install the apps fro, the Market on my new phone? Android doesn't offer much in the ways of accessories. But their Market's absolutely a huge ecosystem. It's probably the only reason I haven't went out and gotten a WP7 device
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I'm still not convinced. I've spent a fair old bit on the Android Market as well but as long as equivalent apps were available elsewhere it wouldn't stop me changing. However if I'd spent several hundred pounds on a decent dock it might make me think twice.
 
WelshBloke said:
I'm still not convinced. I've spent a fair old bit on the Android Market as well but as long as equivalent apps were available elsewhere it wouldn't stop me changing. However if I'd spent several hundred pounds on a decent dock it might make me think twice.
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But you are never going to get an Android dock outside of some $250+ bluetooth speaker because of how Android is being pushed by the handset makers.

Hell. I can get a toilet paper dispenser that charges my iPhone and plays music if i wanted. THAT is an ecosystem.
 
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