Android phone sales up 886%

[cbn]

Apple will never let iOS be a commodity OS that can be slapped on any hardware, or open it up so, say, Sprint can bundle their Nascar apps on it. It will never happen/

Just wondering, how many of these phone operating systems are "open hardware"?

 

[ObscureCaucasian]

The alternative is to let carriers and manufacturers have their way with their product (bundled apps, manufacturer skins, etc). Apple saw what a clusterfuck that was for Windows, they see where it's going with Android and want no part in it.

Apple will never let iOS be a commodity OS that can be slapped on any hardware, or open it up so, say, Sprint can bundle their Nascar apps on it. It will never happen/

Keep in mind the "Windows FusterCluck" was a lot of growing pains for a new industry. Humanity has a much better idea of how to design these software systems to avoid many of the problems that plagued (mostly pre XP SP2) Windows installations. IMO you can't compare Windows to Android simply because manufacturers get access to the source code and have the power to modify things to fix them (which can be a double edge sword if the mfgr isn't experienced in this). Also android is built on top of the Linux 2.6 kernel which is already a very mature kernel. iOS will definitely be more stable, but Android doesn't have near the growing pains that Windows had/has.

Also I think it goes without saying that Apple won't license out iOS to third parties, it would go against everything they've worked to achieve over the years. Apple is proud of it's software and they wouldn't ever trust another company to build a device it would deem "worthy" of it.

 

[borisvodofsky]

Seriously,, all it takes for an ugly girl to go to a pretty girl is some makeup... 4 dollars investments... go google.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I realize that there are technical hurdles for Apple to overcome to launch on multiple carriers but I would imagine that a company like Apple can handle developing a CDMA version if they so choose to. It's most likely rooted in Apples "Unified Experience Theory"; they don't think a consumer can handle the concept the there are 2 iPhone that look the same, but won't work on certain networks, or that iPhone 'A' (GSM) may have signal while iPhone 'B' (hypothetical CDMA iPhone) wouldn't.

No, I think it was rooted in the exclusivity deal. Looking back I think Apple wishes it didn't sign that crap (but there are its merits too). It was one of the first amazing smartphones. It was damn expensive back then and what not. Apple needed to get paid off big time. They needed to get paid so AT&T could offer a subsidized phone. Yeah even at $500 or whatever the iPhone was still not that expensive. The N95 at that time sold for $500 and the N82 that just debuted right after the iPhone was closer to $600. I think Apple later realized that pricing so high didn't work so they slashed prices drastically $200 was it? So it became $300/$400 for the iPhone 2G.

Anyway, the thing is the US phone market has the trait of exclusivity. So even if you want a cross carrier phone like the Captivate/Vibrant/whatevertheshit, you need 4 different models. Why? Who knows. I think this is the dumbest part of the US phone market. You're absolutely right that Apple would've had to design 4 different iPhones. Apple would probably want a SINGLE iPhone to do it all, but the carriers want differentiation. The biggest part of marketing for carriers is almost always phones. My phone can do this. It can do that, etc etc. Look at the EVO commercial, iPhone commercials, Droid commercials. Can you imagine 4 different flavors of iPhone commercials for 4 carriers? Now Apple's not going to design something radically different for the 3 other carriers. It's just like you can't design an iPod that works only for Macs and one that only works for PCs. That's retarded. You got one that does it all. Apple started with a firewire only strategy, but it moved to USB in the end as its a more universal format. The same goes with the iPhone. You really just need ONE identical device to be able to sell to all 4 carriers. Even if the internals are different with different antennas, the phone itself has to be virtually identical to the consumer. I think this is where carriers will NOT bite.

But look, honestly who cares? This is the US. This is one freaking market. Granted it has the most influence on Apple's strategy and vice versa but Apple can spread its phone across the world if it wanted to. It's interesting Apple doesn't just start selling worldwide and deployed across countries so slowly. There's got to be more to this whole withholding strategy

 

[rudeguy]

if Apple wished it didn't sign it, they would break it. Plain and simple.

They are gimping themselves and that is the end of the discussion.

 

[senseamp]

No, I think it was rooted in the exclusivity deal. Looking back I think Apple wishes it didn't sign that crap (but there are its merits too). It was one of the first amazing smartphones. It was damn expensive back then and what not. Apple needed to get paid off big time. They needed to get paid so AT&T could offer a subsidized phone. Yeah even at $500 or whatever the iPhone was still not that expensive. The N95 at that time sold for $500 and the N82 that just debuted right after the iPhone was closer to $600. I think Apple later realized that pricing so high didn't work so they slashed prices drastically $200 was it? So it became $300/$400 for the iPhone 2G.

Anyway, the thing is the US phone market has the trait of exclusivity. So even if you want a cross carrier phone like the Captivate/Vibrant/whatevertheshit, you need 4 different models. Why? Who knows. I think this is the dumbest part of the US phone market. You're absolutely right that Apple would've had to design 4 different iPhones. Apple would probably want a SINGLE iPhone to do it all, but the carriers want differentiation. The biggest part of marketing for carriers is almost always phones. My phone can do this. It can do that, etc etc. Look at the EVO commercial, iPhone commercials, Droid commercials. Can you imagine 4 different flavors of iPhone commercials for 4 carriers? Now Apple's not going to design something radically different for the 3 other carriers. It's just like you can't design an iPod that works only for Macs and one that only works for PCs. That's retarded. You got one that does it all. Apple started with a firewire only strategy, but it moved to USB in the end as its a more universal format. The same goes with the iPhone. You really just need ONE identical device to be able to sell to all 4 carriers. Even if the internals are different with different antennas, the phone itself has to be virtually identical to the consumer. I think this is where carriers will NOT bite.

But look, honestly who cares? This is the US. This is one freaking market. Granted it has the most influence on Apple's strategy and vice versa but Apple can spread its phone across the world if it wanted to. It's interesting Apple doesn't just start selling worldwide and deployed across countries so slowly. There's got to be more to this whole withholding strategy

Carriers want differentiation because they don't want others mooching off their advertising. If they are going to put advertising behind a phone, they want it to be theirs and theirs alone. If it's no longer exclusive, carriers will let iPhone on their network, but they will advertise their exclusive phones over it, and Apple will need to promote the iPhone themselves.

 

[Pliablemoose]

The only other major CDMA market outside of the US is S. Korea...

 

[zerocool84]

The only other major CDMA market outside of the US is S. Korea...

http://www.cdg.org/worldwide/index.asp

http://www.cdg.org/worldwide/cdma_world_subscriber.asp

Seems a little bit more than S Korea

 

[Pliablemoose]

http://www.cdg.org/worldwide/index.asp

http://www.cdg.org/worldwide/cdma_world_subscriber.asp

Seems a little bit more than S Korea

Wow, thanks, I didn't know that

 

[zerocool84]

Wow, thanks, I didn't know that

Europe is still basically nil though but I didn't know CDMA was that big in other parts of the world as well.