Android growth unbelievable!

[Bug Splat]

8 months ago I only knew 2 people with an android device the rest had iphones or BB. In the past few month easily half my friends have switched to some kind of android device. Just last week I had 3 friends who don't know each other ask me out of the blue over facebook how I liked my Incredible and within 24hour of asking me they each ordered one. Two of them were iphone fanboys. My best friend and best man just bought a DroidX and 3 of my immediate family members just picked up Droid1's. Yesterday I was seeing my chiropractor and she sees my phone and just fell in love with it and plans to sell her iphone 3GS and move to android.

I met a friend of a friend a few weeks ago with an iphone4 at a party. First time I had seen one outside a store and when I asked him how he liked it he replied.... "its ok I guess. Wish I would have picked up an Evo or DroidX though." The 10 other people sitting around the fire pit all pulled out their phones and 7 of them had an Android phone. I was shocked!

Its very exciting how big this OS is getting and I look forward to whats coming down the pipe.

 

[yojoe600]

its true same thing is happening around me

 

[fortesquieu]

It's matter of time before Android rules the world.

 

[killadanny]

It's matter of time before Android rules the world.

Most of the time when something is on the verge of taking over, its frightening, but since its that cute little green Android, Im perfectly fine with it.

Tell me about it, my friend used to have the only G1 in school when it was released and me and him were fascinated with the stuff it could do, unique OS and pull down notifications and threaded messaging. Ahh ignorance, now-a-days most people have some type of Android phone, mytouch, g1, droid, etc, then Sense came and that was the cherry on top, more access and syncing to email and social networking, etc made Android even more smarter. It's crazy to think its still pretty young and so many people are jumping ship everyday, I have yet to regret getting my DInc. Long live the little green Android.

 

[malice]

Yeah I was at a bar with some iphone hipsters the other day. Another friend was there with me and had an evo. All attention were on the android devices.

 

[fortesquieu]

I just went on a road trip with my friend, with an Iphone 4. He was cursing and bitching about ATT and Iphone 4 for dropped calls, and no service (data and voice) when Verizon and Dinc had no problem doing all those.

 

[killadanny]

Hahaha, you get what you pay for. I live in Vegas and I recently went to California, throughout the whole hour drive I was using 3G, I never lost connection and I had pretty good speed, at times yes it was slow due to gigantic hills, but I never disconnected. Of course I used Wireless Tether and was browsing on the iPad. The 3G map isnt a myth.

 

[mdeamicis]

i've been noticing the same thing. I was eagerly awaiting the release of android on verizon when my old samsung I760 broke and was no longer made. i ended up leashing myself to an omnia on an early upgrade and was so sad because i knoew i would have to wait even longer to get a android. then a classmate walks in with a G1 and it just killed me playing with his phone occasionally doing g all the things droid does. I broke down a couple months ago and and found a someone on craigslist dumping the D1 for 200 buck because they were switching carriers. since then 3 of my classmates have picked up android devices of some sort. those that don;t have them are blown away when we show off what the can do and i am sure more and more of them will end up upgrading, at least the ones who are willing to pony up for the data plan. i think that android will bring people into the smartphone world who would otherwise just stay with feature phones or phones for texting.

 

[erixon]

I just did a quick search online, looks like android is really making headway in the smartphone market: Android grows rapidly overtaking Apple in smartphone OS market: Gartner

 

[jroc]

I was looking for this thread...In the last 2 weeks:

I was at the Dr's office and someone had an EVO. I was on the bus and this chick had some kinda Android phone. It was small, I dont even know what it was.

At first everywhere I turned I saw iPhone, BB or Win Mo.....now I see Android sprinkled in here n there..It kinda hard to tell whats Win Mo, but I saw that big green robot on the chick's phone from a few rows back..lol

 

[substring]

Yupe. All the tech savvy folks in the office are now carrying the HTC EVO. One of my good friends have been bragging about his EVO 4G on a daily basis. I can't wait to show him the Fascinate when I get it. Ha.

 

[substring]

In my humble opinion, one of the key success of Android phones is that you can get it from any carrier under the sun. On the other hand, iPhone is still restricted to AT&T which is a major strategical mistake. Apple can never archive the 100% market penetration with such exclusivity deal. Not everyone wants to be an AT&T customer. I don't.

The second reason is that iPhone has basically only one product line. People are getting tired of everybody around them, including the janitors that clean their office, have the same iPhone. "Smart" people don't want to look like sheep. For example, driving a BMW is cool, but if everyone on the street has one, it ain't cool anymore.

 

[Hrethgir]

A friend of mine got a DInc a few months back, and after showing it to one of his teammates, he decided to get a DInc too. Then another one of his teammates saw them, liked it, and ordered one. And I recently saw my uncle, and last time I saw him, he had a 3Gs. But this time, he comes up to me and says "Check out my new phone!" and procedes to whip an EVO 4G out of his pocket. Oh, and another coworker got an EVo too. Two other coworkers got iPhone 4, alas. One has an iPod Touch and just want s to see what the iPhone is like, and the other is an admitted fanboy, although I did get him to at least jailbreak his iPad, and he was on the verge of jailbreaking his iP4 too. If you have an iPhone and don't jailbreak it, you might as well smash yourself in the face with a brick.

 

[Alieno]

Androids everywhere because its offered on many different types of devices, offered on multiple carriers, and many many new android phones are released every year. When "buy 1 get 1 free" deals are being offeree everywhere, it shouldnt come as a surprise to see it growing. Im surprised it took this long tbh

 

[darreno1]

This has little to do with buy 1 get 1 free and more to do with a great OS on better hardware readily available. People are beginning to see the benefit of other options rather than than the same old same old from Apple. Plus the iPhone 4 fiasco and the fact that Apple didn't want to own up to their poor design left a bad baste in the public's mouth.

 

[Big D]

I think it will be interesting to see what happens when Verizon gets the iPhone. I'm not knocking Android's popularity as a great OS (I'm an iPhone convert myself), but if you're on Verizon what other options do you have? IMHO BB and WinMo is absolute junk and I know a lot of people who agree. So you may see a significant drop in Android adoption when the iPhone hits or it may be too late for Apple to successfully launch on Verizon. Only time will tell.

 

[Alieno]

This has little to do with buy 1 get 1 free and more to do with a great OS on better hardware readily available. People are beginning to see the benefit of other options rather than than the same old same old from Apple. Plus the iPhone 4 fiasco and the fact that Apple didn't want to own up to their poor design left a bad baste in the public's mouth.

Whether or not the hardware is "better" is highly debatable. Each platform has its pros vs cons and this is especially true for the OS in which iOS is more polished, steamlined, and overall more reliable. Yes it has limitations, but whether those are cons is also debatable.

Despite all that however, android is simply offered on more types of devices and more carriers than the iphone. Just imagine the numbers apple would see if the iphone was also offered on verizon, tmobile, and sprint. Imagine if there were "buy 1 get 1 free" deals for thr iphone. The popularity of android is due to all these reasons.

 

[Big D]

Whether or not the hardware is "better" is highly debatable. Each platform has its pros vs cons and this is especially true for the OS in which iOS is more polished, steamlined, and overall more reliable. Yes it has limitations, but whether those are cons is also debatable.

Despite all that however, android is simply offered on more types of devices and more carriers than the iphone. Just imagine the numbers apple would see if the iphone was also offered on verizon, tmobile, and sprint. Imagine if there were "buy 1 get 1 free" deals for thr iphone. The popularity of android is due to all these reasons.

I totally agree!

 

[darreno1]

Whether or not the hardware is "better" is highly debatable. Each platform has its pros vs cons and this is especially true for the OS in which iOS is more polished, steamlined, and overall more reliable. Yes it has limitations, but whether those are cons is also debatable.

Despite all that however, android is simply offered on more types of devices and more carriers than the iphone. Just imagine the numbers apple would see if the iphone was also offered on verizon, tmobile, and sprint. Imagine if there were "buy 1 get 1 free" deals for thr iphone. The popularity of android is due to all these reasons.

IOS being more streamlined, or reliable is also highly debatable. But the Antenna and Proximity sensor and dropped call issues on the iPhone 4 weren't, they were actual issues. And Android was already gaining before the iPhone 4 was released. The Evo, and Incredible were both superior to the 3gs in terms of specs - not debatable, just facts.

Yes you are right in that being released on more carriers was a factor however Android had more new user activations than IOS which meant people were choosing Android rather than jump ship for the iPhone. Plus the 3gs like the 3g was heavily discounted as soon as a iPhone 4 hit. You can pick up a 3g for $49 and and a 3gs for $99 dollars now.

Yeah maybe the iPhone 4 would have done better on multiple carriers assuming HTC and Moto had nothing to compete. But they did so it's very hard to guage how much they would have sold. Remember they had no competition on At&t until recently so using their popularity on that carrier as a guage isn't entirely trustworthy.

As for your buy 1 get 1 one free comment, please, the Droid, Evo, X and Incredible all sold well on their own merit - there was no buy 1 get 1 free. Verizon did that later on with the Droid but that was to get the Eris moving off the shelves as the Droid was still the hot phone - at least that's how I remembered it. The Droid had already sold a boat load and slowly died down as the next best thing was released -The Inc.

 

[substring]

To make the iPhone works on the Verizon network, it requires a redesign of the device. So my guess is that Apple is waiting for VzW to roll out the 4G (which should be about 12-18 months) so that they can put a new 4G iPhone or a 4G variant of the iPhone on Verizon.

I was one of the VzW customers that have been waiting for the iPhone to come to Verizon. But I don't think I can wait that long.

At the rate of improvement the Android devices have in the last 12 months, I think they will surpass the iPhone in both performance and quality 12 months later.

Yes, the "sheep" will still go for the iPhone, but it may not be massive.

Meanwhile, the manufacturers need to improve the quality and the finish of their Android phones. You cannot claim your phones are high-end when the phones are made of cheap plastic.

 

[tom_pop]

I think in many ways Apple have priced themselves out to the regular person and people are going for the alternative which is just as good. I'm glad Apple rate themselves way to high.

 

[ari-free]

Here's another thing: many people want physical keyboards and Android gives them that choice.

 

[Hrethgir]

I think in many ways Apple have priced themselves out to the regular person and people are going for the alternative which is just as good. I'm glad Apple rate themselves way to high.

I don't see cost as a factor in the phone market. Droid Incredible, Droid 2, Droid X, EVO 4G, Captivate, Vibrant, iPhone 4; they are all at the same $199 price point.

 

[tom_pop]

I don't see cost as a factor in the phone market. Droid Incredible, Droid 2, Droid X, EVO 4G, Captivate, Vibrant, i Phone 4; they are all at the same $199 price point.

Not sure about the US market but in the UK market they are massively overpriced compared to all others. I got a desire for