Android Bosses iPhone in Smartphone Activation Market Share

[Delivered]

Perhaps people are catching on to how far behind IOS is compared to Android. High prices for an inferior OS.

In what ways is iOS behind Android?

 

[Ho Tai]

I had my 4S for four years, my 6S for five years. This is year 4 for my 12 Pro. Each new phone was a major step forward for me. My usage is pretty simple, and nothing new since the 12 Pro has induced me to upgrade. Probably no upgrade this year based on rumors. But I don't see Apple's strategy of high prices and great durability changing to cheap and flimsy to compete with more Android phones.

 

[backstreetboy]

not surprised. Apple has proposed the same phone for half a decade with little to no innovation other than name change, anti-consumer choices (old cpu in non-pro version, extortionate pricing models etc). The market reacted and it will react even more if Apple doesn’t change their ways. And their syrategy to rely on subscriptions and services will be hindered significantly by the European Union as well as legislation from other countries. Apple should focus on what it used to be good at: excellent hardware and great software.

Lol that old CPU still smokes the latest Snapdragon.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs A16 Bionic: tests and benchmarks

We put Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 against Apple A16 Bionic to find out which SoC is better. See performance comparison in benchmarks and games.

nanoreview.net

 

[Beautyspin]

Do new activations mean that much? The average iPhone user keeps their iPhone for a lot longer than the average android user keeps their android.

You are right. When there is not much difference between the models year, iPhone owners are going to update less. Whereas Android users switch between device manufacturers seamlessly as each manufacturer provides something different.

I don’t see how activation rate necessarily speaks to marketshare.

Imagine a scenario where there are only 100 phones in the country and each has 50% marketshare. Now Imagine Android has 10 activations whereas Apple has only 5. Will that change the marketshare or not?

Surely something like what devices are used to access various websites is a better measure of market share.

What if people are accessing apps instead of websites?

Edit: Added % symbol

 

[macconservative]

Ya. Carriers went from 2 to 3 years on their ‘upgrade’ incentives. Many upgrade on what carrier might do for them.

It is a way for the carriers to hide how much the phones actually cost. Instead of saying $1399 they can say it is only $30 per month and the only way they could make them seem cheap is by doing it over 3 years instead of 2 years

 

[spazzcat]

You are right. When there is not much difference between the models year, iPhone owners are going to update less. Whereas Android users switch between device manufacturers seamlessly as each manufacturer provides something different.


Imagine a scenario where there are only 100 phones in the country and each has 50% marketshare. Now Imagine Android has 10 activations whereas Apple has only 5. Will that change the marketshare or not?


What if people are accessing apps instead of websites?

Edit: Added % symbol

We should want to get people away from yearly phone upgrades.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I think Samsung has finally gotten their Galaxy S models right with the S23 and now S24 models. I would consider switching to the Galaxy S24+ but moving especially music over is not exactly an easy job.

 

[Beautyspin]

Won't lower activation numbers simply mean iPhone users are holding on to their iPhones longer? This is made possible by the iPhone being made of more durable materials such as glass and metal, as well as being supported by software updates longer. In contrast, you have android phones that don't receive a single software update ever, or have poor build quality precisely because they are cheap, and so break down more quickly, necessitating more frequent replacements.

I am not certain this is something for Apple to get worried over. Yes, people may be upgrading their iPhones less often, and this has been accounted for in the form of Apple shifting from selling iPhones to selling to people with iPhones. You have higher prices, more accessories, more services, App Store revenue, the annual $20 billion payment by Google, even Apple Pay nets Apple a small cut of each transaction.

In short, Apple seems to have plenty of ways of continue monetising their user base (something most android OEMs can't do). So Apple doesn't really need people to keep buying iPhones; they just need people to keep using them.

iPhone users holding the phone for more days may also mean that the upgrades are not worth it. I mean, when one of the significant changes in an OS upgrade is emojis and the physical design or features don't change much, then why would anyone want to change?

Also, the $20 billion from Google is not fixed. Apple gets 36% of the search revenue that Google gets, which is around $18 to $20 billion now. With Europe mostly gone because users are going to choose a different default browser in a couple of years resulting in the Safari marketshare mimicking that on the MacOS, that revenue also will be affected.

 

[AlexJaye]

“Android bosses iPhone”?

I guess this explains a lot about the Mods. What a mindset!

That said, Apple has done nothing to keep its market share. It’s devices are overpriced, lack innovative features, it utilizes software gatekeeping even to the level of battery health & management on iPhones/ipads, it rips people off for simple upgrades, and lately, people are starting to be more cognizant of where their money goes.

Ol’ Timmy has surfed the Apple name long enough. The beans he counted are coming home.

 

[I7guy]

“Android bosses iPhone”?

I guess this explains a lot about the Mods. What a mindset!

That said, Apple has done nothing to keep its market share. It’s devices are overpriced, lack innovative features, it utilizes software gatekeeping even to the level of battery health & management on iPhones/ipads, it rips people off for simple upgrades, and lately, people are starting to be more cognizant of where their money goes.

Ol’ Timmy has surfed the Apple name long enough. The beans he counted are coming home.

Amazing a company that has gotten so much wrong has managed to reach a $3T evaluation.

 

[a m u n]

Perhaps people are catching on to how far behind IOS is compared to Android. High prices for an inferior OS.

Actually, you wanted to say that Android is lagging behind, didn’t you?

iPhone 15 Pro Max: 1469€ — it incurs development costs for the hardware, OS, iCloud, data centers maintenance, the App Store & other services, apps developed for iPhone, Webkit, Swift, and so on.

Samsung S24 Ultra: 1479€ — they have significantly lower costs because Google & Qualcomm supports 80% of them.

No need to mention that on iPhone, you enjoy better optimized & designed apps, consistent performance for all users (Samsung is the only company selling 3 different processors with 3 different performances), and, most importantly, you receive OS updates on time, the very minute they are launched, not after a few months!

The iPhone and Google Pixel are the only phones that truly justify their price.

 

[contacos]

Actually, you wanted to say that Android is lagging behind, didn’t you?

iPhone 15 Pro Max: 1469€ — it incurs development costs for the hardware, OS, iCloud, data centers maintenance, the App Store & other services, apps developed for iPhone, Webkit, Swift, and so on.

Samsung S24 Ultra: 1479€ — they have significantly lower costs because Google & Qualcomm supports 80% of them.

No need to mention that on iPhone, you enjoy better optimized & designed apps, consistent performance for all users (Samsung is the only company selling 3 different processors with 3 different performances), and, most importantly, you receive OS updates on time, the very minute they are launched, not after a few months!

The iPhone and Google Pixel are the only phones that truly justify their price.

A Samsung Galaxy running iOS would be a beast!

 

[macconservative]

In what ways is iOS behind Android?

One feature that I rely on is real time translation. Unless there is an app I am missing, I don't like the need to copy and paste from from translate into a program to be able to translate and respond. Also I like the phone features better available on the Pixel 8 pro. I will never completely give up iPhone but I find myself using my Pixel more

 

[Flamingdeathbolts]

Yea let’s gloss over the fact that Android comes as standard OS on Google phones, Samsung phones, LG phones, and probably others. Apple is doing pretty well on its own if anything

 

[Mr_Ed]

Yea let’s gloss over the fact that Android comes as standard OS on Google phones, Samsung phones, LG phones, and probably others. Apple is doing pretty well on its own if anything

To be fair, the fact that Apple is the only source for Apple hardware is because Apple chooses that as a business model. Not saying it should be different, but the number of hardware vendors producing Android phones is not that relevant. It’s still essentially an iOS vs. Android comparison.

 

[SpotOnT]

You are right. When there is not much difference between the models year, iPhone owners are going to update less. Whereas Android users switch between device manufacturers seamlessly as each manufacturer provides something different.

It is way more than that. The reality is that unless you are a techie, you aren’t really driven by “new features” or “design changes”.

1) All the cheap prepaid phones, and track phones, and whatever phones people use as disposable phones are Android. Those account for a large number of monthly activations.

2) US employers overwhelmingly prefer iPhones. Most company phones don’t get updated very often.

3) Until pretty recently iPhone was providing software support for about 3x longer than most major Android manufacturers. Many people just wait until their phone doesn’t really work anymore to bother changing phones.

 

[Beautyspin]

Actually, you wanted to say that Android is lagging behind, didn’t you?

iPhone 15 Pro Max: 1469€ — it incurs development costs for the hardware, OS, iCloud, data centers maintenance, the App Store & other services, apps developed for iPhone, Webkit, Swift, and so on.

Samsung S24 Ultra: 1479€ — they have significantly lower costs because Google & Qualcomm supports 80% of them.

No need to mention that on iPhone, you enjoy better optimized & designed apps, consistent performance for all users (Samsung is the only company selling 3 different processors with 3 different performances), and, most importantly, you receive OS updates on time, the very minute they are launched, not after a few months!

The iPhone and Google Pixel are the only phones that truly justify their price.

So, according to you, Qualcomm and Google do not pass on their costs + their profit margin to Samsung? Then according to you, iPhone should cost even less than Samsung as Apple does not manufacture the phone and it is done by Foxconn, it must be free whereas Samsung manufactures its phones so they must be more costly?

 

[LoveToMacRumors]

No innovation.

Apple is lucky to not have competition in the USA. If they were a chinese brand based in China with 4-5 other brands competing to the death, they would already be extinct.

 

[Preclaro_tipo]

No examples given. I’m open to hearing what is better about your android but pick a phone. Don’t pick and choose feature across 4 android phones and sum them up to be better than an iPhone. When I shopped for a phone the iPhone was 40% faster, the videos frame rate was 200% greater than the google phone available at that time, with 20% more usage time. I’ve used most of the google chat a video apps and they are buggy and have lousy quality compared to Facebook messenger and whatsapp. I’ve frequently used android and the lag and delay in simple scrolling or tapping is noticeable on the latest devices. Android panorama stitching is still horrible too. Apple is obnoxious and arrogant, they are focusing on Ferrari and Porsche car-infotainment and have ignored HomeKit, they’ve ignored hotels while google has focused on making thier stuff work for the most people, not just the elites. Apples continuity feature, login experience, headphone switching between appletv, my phone, MacBook, and even watch is out of this world, all of this responds to exactly what I want without my input. It’s really amazing that a head movement and the MacBook responds to my Siri request. Look back at my phone, and Siri responds there. It’s cool! I want to switch but dang the android experience is inferior, they have built-in object deletion in Photos, cool but it is something anyone can get with an app.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

Puting aside the lame headline, here's the correct link to the CIRP report. The link that MR posted is for Amazon stories, not Apple.

I went there looking for data, which the published report lacks. The report only speaks to percentages, but that's next to meaningless without knowing raw numbers, and here's why.

A percentage change can occur due to the raw number of activations changing. In other words, Apple's raw number of activations may remain unchanged year over year, if the combined number of activations of Apple and Android has increased.

So if Apple has 50 activations of 100 total (Apple + Android) activations, they are at 50%. But if Apple has 50 activations of 200 total (Apple + Android) activations, they have fallen to 25%, without selling one fewer iPhone.

So we don't know what is really happening with iPhone sales, based on this report. We only know a percentage change has occurred, which could be due to several different factors - including, as the report says, increased transparency in phone purchase plans leading Apple users to hold onto their phones longer than Android users. The report offers no evidence to back up this claim (as you can tell, I think the report this item is based on is pretty weak)

Lies, damned lies and statistics.

EDIT: Added link that MR posted.

 

[Timo_Existencia]

While I think this thread is another in a long line of meaningless discussions about Apple, wherein the "Apple sucks!" crowd thinks they have been proven right.*

But, let's say you're actually correct and Apple is losing market share in the US. I'd say Great! The DOJ case, that Apple is a monopoly (a claim I think the DOJ will lose) just got much more difficult for them. SWEET!

*(btw, there is no "right" in these discussions because everyone has a different metric by which they decide what they want. "Market share" is simply one metric that doesn't mean anything to most buyers of products. For example, Porsche has a .98% market share in the auto market. Does anyone think Porsche is running their business wrong? Why some of you are even focused on market share mystifies me. But again, I think it's mostly for confirmation bias. You've said that Apple is awful for a variety of reasons and now you're just looking to back up your claim. It's a meaningless discussion).

 

[InnocenceMyth]

Apple’s greed is limitless. Every iPhone model is overpriced.

Yep. I miss the days when we bought everything from non-profit companies, who had no desire to maximize shareholder value. Weren't those lovely, albeit imaginary, times?

 

[CarAnalogy]

"Android Bosses iPhone"

Was this written by a teenager?

Yeah wtf came to comments to see if this was actually a verb people are using now and what it’s supposed to mean…which now that I think about it means it was effective clickbait.

I know this is not a formal journalism site but at least use common language for clear headlines.

 

[arkitect]

Yep. I miss the days when we bought everything from non-profit companies, who had no desire to maximize shareholder value. Weren't those lovely, albeit imaginary, times?

Really? 🤔

Let's rephrase that:

Yep. I miss the days when we bought everything from non-profit companies, who had no desire were not driven only to maximize shareholder value. Weren't those lovely, albeit imaginary, times?

There was a time before shareholder capitalism took hold and left everyone beholden to the almighty stock market.

Depending on your age, you could be excused for not knowing that…

Here's a handy link that might help.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

A Samsung Galaxy running iOS would be a beast!

I'd like the opposite - let me put Android on this excellent hardware!