Comments on: Myth 7: iPhone Buyers will Flock to Android

By: luisd

luisd — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:14:17 +0000

Thanks for the source. I had seen that article, but never crossed my mind that that was the source. It does not say where the information is coming. I had just dismissed it as a site parroting the news…. as it seems I should have dismissed it as rubbish.

The worst is the huge number of news sites just repeating that piece of misinformation.

By: danieleran

danieleran — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:26:25 +0000

@luisd: “1.5M G1 sales” meme is from The Motley Fool, which did some absurd calculations to suggest that the pipeline is full of G1s somehow.

In reality, T-Mobile’s wildest estimates called for 500,000 sales before the end of the year. Apple sold 270,000 iPhones in the first three days. The reason NOBODY is talking about the G1 is that it is not a success on any level. If it sells .5 million in 2008 (which would be very good), it will hardly matter as a platform. Android won’t make any progress until it has a better phone to sell. Critics have panned the G1 as nicely as they can. It’s not anything amazing.

By: luisd

luisd — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:37:15 +0000

What about the rumour on the internet about 1.5million G1 handsets already sold. If this is true, this myth may not be a myth after all. This 1.5 million figure, sprang of thin air, and I haven’t been able to find a single reliable reference. All articles seem to be referencing each other. But where did it start and what true is there in it?

By: Android: ulteriori spunti di riflessione « Autoritratto con mele

Android: ulteriori spunti di riflessione « Autoritratto con mele — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:39:18 +0000

[...] interagendo con i lettori. Ho trovato di particolare interesse alcuni passaggi del suo pezzo Myth 7: iPhone Buyers will Flock to Android (Mito n.7: gli utenti di iPhone migreranno in massa verso [...]

By: HCE

HCE — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:33:52 +0000

JulesLt,

True Android does not support Flash but chances are it will get added pretty soon – given Android’s more open development model. With Apple, who knows? Depends on Steve Jobs’ whims and right now he seems to be on a mission to kill Flash.

– HCE

By: Myth 8: iPhone will lose out to Steve Ballmer’s Windows Mobile 7 in 2010 — RoughlyDrafted Magazine

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:12:18 +0000

[...] Myths Five More iPhone Myths Myth 6: iPhone Developers will Flock to Android Myth 7: iPhone Buyers will Flock to Android Myth 8: iPhone will lose out to Steve Ballmer’s Windows Mobile 7 in 2010 . 8. iPhone will lose [...]

By: Five More iPhone Myths — RoughlyDrafted Magazine

Five More iPhone Myths — RoughlyDrafted Magazine — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:11:16 +0000

By: Myth 6: iPhone Developers will Flock to Android — RoughlyDrafted Magazine

Myth 6: iPhone Developers will Flock to Android — RoughlyDrafted Magazine — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:10:15 +0000

[...] More iPhone Myths Myth 6: iPhone Developers will Flock to Android Myth 7: iPhone Buyers will Flock to Android Myth 8: iPhone will lose out to Steve Ballmer’s Windows Mobile 7 in 2010 . 6. iPhone developers [...]

By: IainP

IainP — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:21:31 +0000

The truest test will be as one developer for the iPhone commented: If Android is not modified by for each model it will be a competitor. But if developers see a fragmentation of the Android market into incompatible versions, why bother?

By: JulesLt

JulesLt — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:57:28 +0000

HCE – note that the existing Android phone doesn’t support Flash either, and I suspect any devices will face the same challenges Jobs has outlined – on current phone CPUs it will be slow, although I think a useful compromise could be made around Flash video support.

John – in theory the underlying Android platform could be made into something very iPhone like, but there is one crucial difference, and that is in the approach the developers SDK uses.

One is native, and the other is VM-based. As time goes on, the overhead of the VM will become insignificant – Jake, the Java port of Quake, for instance, runs fast on a desktop Mac, because most of the heavy work is really OpenGL anyway.

However, if the portable VM approach was really so great, console developers would be using it as the fastest way to develop cross-platform games. Instead, they largely focus on portable C++ libraries. In that respect the iPhone is closer to existing console platforms (and developers on those platforms) than Android. You can code a lot closer to the metal.

There is a clear flipside to this – most business/enterprise developers are more familiar with Java or .NET, which means it will probably be a stronger platform in those circles.

The ideal solution, I think, is for the market to settle on 3-4 strong platforms, ideally with 15-30% market share, but none achieving the larger dominance which kept desktop computing back for so long.