Android V iPhone

[MrPinkPanther]

Which makes no sense. You assume everyone who buys an iPhone is tech-savvy (as said in your original post) and assume that everyone who uses an iPhone uses it as a smart phone when you'd be surprised just how many use them as an oridinary phone (if they get by the basic signal issues ).

I never said "all" re-read the post, I said more. Many iPhone users don't use it as a smart phone, some use it simply as a fashion accessory. All I was saying is a higher percentage do, "average" mobiles can't run iOS, they can run Android.

Apple do not own any major game titles or companies. Nintendo own many game companies and titles, or are heavily affiliated, with some companies utilising the features and functions of the DS e.g. Electronic Arts. So there is no comparison between Apple and Nintendo when Apple do not develop games while Nintendo do and own the consoles in which those games are played on. If anything, the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad only really get EA exclusives, which suck immensely anyway. Besides, games do not make the smartphones, Apps do, games just so happen to be sold and/or obtained through the App Store/Marketplace :/ Games make up little of the smartphone experience, and assuming smartphones are game consoles is pretty naive when it's usually suggested they're just a computer away from home - for emails, Facebook, news and stuff on the go. The gaming side is pretty minimal at best.

I'm talking purely about third party titles for both devices. The DS attracts more third party support because it has a much greater market share in terms of games than the PSP, it's exactly the same as the iPhone vs Android. Yes it does make sense for a company to be on both but often it isn't logistically possible, especially for small indie developers such as the one I work for. Anyway, there are significant comparisons that can be drawn between Ninty and Apple. Both have bounced back from near oblivion, both have historically had bad third party support and both have arguably revolutionised their respective industries in recent years. As for why I selected Games, it is but an example. Games are going to be one of the most used things on a modern day smartphone. Gone are the days when they were almost exclusive to businessmen, now they are mass market devices and the majority of the time I see someone using an iPhone for purposes other than calls or texts, its for games.

However I must agree with you. I HATE it when people call smartphones games consoles. They aren't it's a completely different market.

Major companies like the BBC develop Apps for both Android and iOS, Google develop for both (even though Android is from Google). Business aim for both big market shares, especially when the Android Marketplace is growing. A business would be pretty terrible if they cannot design for a wider market. EA does not develop games for Android because there is no desire at the moment. Games exist on Android, but they're usually mobile games rather than games made by companies that also create PC games.

Some major companies do develop for both but others don't. I mean you've highlighted EA there and they are one of the (if not the) largest players in the mobile business, ok they are a bit rubbish but some of their titles are pretty good. The iPhone does have many AAA titles from large developers that Android doesn't, take GTA Chinatown wars for example. Originally a DS exclusive and the DS's highest rated game, it's on iPhone and not Android.

What? :S So all the people who download applications on the iPhone is tech savvy? That is incorrect. Say If every iPhone user downloads applications, that does not say that are tech savvy. The iPhone is not rocket science and it doesn't take someone to have a not of Tech knowledge to use it.

Again I didn't say that. What I said is many users don't download apps on Android because they aren't tech savvy like my Grandma for example. Even GommeInc admitted that it is fairly complex to download and install on Android and he's like your bum buddy ^^.

[Dentafrice]

You can look at the 1 billion vs 5 billion in a few ways...

Now just imagine how long the iPhone has been out there, to the mass market; don't forget it's limited to GSM networks, and only a few... as well as only in one device.. the iPhone.

Now look at it from the Android perspective... the OS is capable of being on a CDMA or a GSM network... as well as capable of being on a numerous amount of handsets.

With all that information in mind, lets look at how fast the amount of Android handsets have increased... if it has took Apple this long to get 5 billion downloads, and this little time for 1 billion by Android, I can easily see it taken over before 2015.

I'd love to see it in a graph of how fast 1 billion downloads were achieved by Android vs how long 5 billion were achieved by Apple.

Now does that 5 billion also include iPod Touches? If so... then we can start to see how Android will catch up even quicker.

[GommeInc]

I never said "all" re-read the post, I said more. Many iPhone users don't use it as a smart phone, some use it simply as a fashion accessory. All I was saying is a higher percentage do, "average" mobiles can't run iOS, they can run Android.

I didn't say "all" either, but I get your point However, you did suggest that iPhone users (no mention of 'few', 'all', 'some' etc) are tech savvy, when an iPhone is advertised as a simple smartphone, seeing as Apple do smother the thing with restrictions - they're pretty straight forward devices. Android phones vary and can be made to be simple or as complex as humanly possible while iPhones are a happy medium Saying "average" mobiles can't run iOS is a bit difficult to say, iOS isn't a flexible OS and isn't designed to run anything else, while Android is pretty fluid and flexible, and requires to do more, it's why iPhones aren't future-proof, the original iPhone is no obsolete because iOS 4 is too chunky to run on it, while an Android equivilent phone could happily use the latest Android.

I'm talking purely about third party titles for both devices. The DS attracts more third party support because it has a much greater market share in terms of games than the PSP, it's exactly the same as the iPhone vs Android. Yes it does make sense for a company to be on both but often it isn't logistically possible, especially for small indie developers such as the one I work for. Anyway, there are significant comparisons that can be drawn between Ninty and Apple. Both have bounced back from near oblivion, both have historically had bad third party support and both have arguably revolutionised their respective industries in recent years. As for why I selected Games, it is but an example. Games are going to be one of the most used things on a modern day smartphone. Gone are the days when they were almost exclusive to businessmen, now they are mass market devices and the majority of the time I see someone using an iPhone for purposes other than calls or texts, its for games.

Mobile phone gaming isn't seen fiable. The only major company to make games for the mobile are EA as far as I can tell, but even then they sell the same game on the DS as it's seen as the better market, which I think you agree on as the DS is obviously a better seller than the PSP and the iPhone (which some may say scrapes the portable game console market). You get the odd ROM where people have converted DS, Gameboy and other games to work on Android phones or iPhones, but never anything official. You do, however, get alot of small games appearing on both devices. Comparing the two, I'd say they're not that different after a good look at the markets, especially when you critically view the Android marketplace as smaller. The only thing the iPhone has over the Android phone is the backing of major gaming companies like we've mentioned. Gaming is a pretty small percentage of what people use their smartphones for.

Again I didn't say that. What I said is many users don't download apps on Android because they aren't tech savvy like my Grandma for example. Even GommeInc admitted that it is fairly complex to download and install on Android and he's like your bum buddy ^^.

I only said manual installs are "complex". Downloading from the Android marketplace is incredibly simple Click the categories, click install and so forth. Manual installs are when you upload the android app file to the phone and you use a file explorer to open and install the app. It's quite a simple procedure

[MrPinkPanther]

With all that information in mind, lets look at how fast the amount of Android handsets have increased... if it has took Apple this long to get 5 billion downloads, and this little time for 1 billion by Android, I can easily see it taken over before 2015.

I'd love to see it in a graph of how fast 1 billion downloads were achieved by Android vs how long 5 billion were achieved by Apple.

Now does that 5 billion also include iPod Touches? If so... then we can start to see how Android will catch up even quicker.

iPhone Appstore launch: June 2008
Android Market launch: October 2008

They launched with just a few months between. The "2015" figure is not mine but of an independent research body. I've researched Android to work out if its viable to port some of my iOS Applications onto it, it's not at the moment but I may begin looking at it in a couple of years time.

I didn't say "all" either, but I get your point However, you did suggest that iPhone users (no mention of 'few', 'all', 'some' etc) are tech savvy, when an iPhone is advertised as a simple smartphone, seeing as Apple do smother the thing with restrictions - they're pretty straight forward devices. Android phones vary and can be made to be simple or as complex as humanly possible while iPhones are a happy medium Saying "average" mobiles can't run iOS is a bit difficult to say, iOS isn't a flexible OS and isn't designed to run anything else, while Android is pretty fluid and flexible, and requires to do more, it's why iPhones aren't future-proof, the original iPhone is no obsolete because iOS 4 is too chunky to run on it, while an Android equivilent phone could happily use the latest Android.

Ahem I said "Tend" ^^. As for the limitations thing, it's a media created issue. Apple realistically reject very little and when they reject something it's usually with good reason. Their "smothering" has prevented the spread of malicious applications like you can find on the Android store. When downloading iPhone apps I don't need to worry about viruses, not at all. I know I'm safe. At the beginning Apple were useless, absolutely useless, but recently their approval process has become more transparent and if an App is rejected the person who rejected it will call the App Developer to explain why. Correct me if I'm wrong on the backwards support but No? The original Android handsets are a lot older than the original iPhone and they can't run Android 2.2 can they?

Mobile phone gaming isn't seen fiable. The only major company to make games for the mobile are EA as far as I can tell, but even then they sell the same game on the DS as it's seen as the better market, which I think you agree on as the DS is obviously a better seller than the PSP and the iPhone (which some may say scrapes the portable game console market). You get the odd ROM where people have converted DS, Gameboy and other games to work on Android phones or iPhones, but never anything official. You do, however, get alot of small games appearing on both devices. Comparing the two, I'd say they're not that different after a good look at the markets, especially when you critically view the Android marketplace as smaller. The only thing the iPhone has over the Android phone is the backing of major gaming companies like we've mentioned. Gaming is a pretty small percentage of what people use their smartphones for.

EA suck, agreed. But the iPhone attracts most indie developers hence the sheer mass of applications. Games are a HUGE part of modern day smartphones, in fact did you know as of February 2010 it was estimated that games account for 58% of the Appstores applications?

I only said manual installs are "complex". Downloading from the Android marketplace is incredibly simple Click the categories, click install and so forth. Manual installs are when you upload the android app file to the phone and you use a file explorer to open and install the app. It's quite a simple procedure

Ah ok fair enough.

One thing I forgot to mention is Androids 1 Billion downloads is highly suspect because I believe you can return applications within 24 Hours. These are still counted towards the final downloads total.

[Dentafrice]

The launch date doesn't correlate with the period in which the App Store actually became active... it wasn't nearly active during the early phases of Android usage... now, with as many phones coming out using the Android OS, it has skyrocketed..

Like I said... a graph of it would explain what I'm saying.

[MrPinkPanther]

The launch date doesn't correlate with the period in which the App Store actually became active... it wasn't nearly active during the early phases of Android usage... now, with as many phones coming out using the Android OS, it has skyrocketed..

Like I said... a graph of it would explain what I'm saying.

I know what you are saying but month on month the iPhone Appstore is growing more than Android.

Between December 2009 and August 2010 Android grew by 80,000 apps.

Between November 2009 and June 2010 (A smaller period) iOS grew by 125,000 apps.

Androids highest growth rate per month has been just over 10,000 apps which was in May.

[Dentafrice]

Compare apps to actual downloads.. I'd like to see that... you can make 50,000 soundboards and kitty noise apps... but how many of those actually get downloaded enough times to actually count? 500+ downloads?

[Recursion]

Three words: Full. Flash. Experience.

How many web-based flash apps, sites and video experiences are out there? All of which devices on 2.2 can run

[Dentafrice]

Minusssss Hulu

[Flisker]

One thing I forgot to mention is Androids 1 Billion downloads is highly suspect because I believe you can return applications within 24 Hours. These are still counted towards the final downloads total.

Problem with that is that you can do that on the iPhone app store. So how many app downloads can we subtract off Apples download count?