If you read the reviews, it becomes obvious that I am part of a small minority of folks who haven’t been blown away by the new Droid, a Google Android OS-based smartphone made by Motorola (s MOT) that Verizon Wireless launched Nov. 5 in the U.S. All the accolades are actually turning into smashing sales for the Droid, according to data collected by Flurry, a San Francisco-based mobile analytics company. How big are the sales? (Find out below the fold.)
We have been following the Droid pretty closely, and once we learned that the device had a solid (if not blockbuster) weekend, we decided to get a better grasp of the Droid-fever that seems to be spreading across the nation. Flurry, which tracks the usage of mobile applications across various platforms, ran a query at our behest to get us a clearer (if not totally accurate) picture of the Droid launch and its market penetration.
Flurry has come up with a stunning number: 250,000 Droids sold in the first week vs. 1.6 million iPhone 3GS devices sold in the first weekend. Apple (s aapl) said it sold over a million devices in the first weekend of the launch of iPhone 3GS, so 1.6 million is pretty close to the mark. There has been talk that nearly 200,000 units of Droid were on the shelves at the time its debut, so it is not far-fetched to peg the total sales for the week at 250,000. (Related post: “iPhone 3GS vs. Droid: How Do They Really Stack Up?”)
Flurry monitors about 10,000 apps across iPhone and Android and claims that it tracks apps on approximately two out of three unique iPhone and Android handsets. To estimate first week sales totals for the myTouch 3G, Droid and iPhone 3GS, Flurry detected new handsets within its system, and then made adjustments to account for varying levels of Flurry application penetration by handset. Flurry additionally cross-checked its estimates against Apple actual sales, released for the iPhone 3GS, which totaled 1 million units sold over the three days of sales, June 19-21. [Flurry statement]
If Flurry results are accurate, then Motorola and Verizon have a winner on their hands. This is the fastest-selling Android device to date. It also helps that Motorola and Verizon have budgeted $100 million to promote it. As the gadget makes it way across the world, one can expect sales of Droid to go higher. Motorola predicts it will sell a million units by the end of 2009. That works to about $100 per customer in acquisition costs for Motorola and Verizon. (Related posts: “What You Need to Know About the Droid” and “What Are the Downsides to Droid?”)
The average Android app session length is about four minutes vs. two minutes for iPhone apps, Flurry found. I believe that is because the Android apps are not as intuitive to use as the iPhone apps, but hey, that’s just me. What do I know — I don’t think Droid is that hot, and it sold a quarter million units in week one.
PS: Check out this great comment from one of our readers, Nicholas. “Currently, we are witnessing the evolution of mobile technologies past the computing paradigm of laptops, desktops and workstations, and Motorola needs a more cohesive idea of what can and will be accomplished in the mobile space,” he writes. Agreed — and that is why I find MotoBlur, the company’s communications-based interface, more interesting than its hardware. It could, with some work, become the new way of consuming large amounts of data.
not a fair comparison to compare thr droid with the stupid iphone with no keyboard…this is the first droid iphone has been out for years…give the droid the same amount of time and it will kill the iphone….
iphone screen keyboard sucks you type incoherent crap all the time
can only run one app
droid took all the drawbacks of the iphone got rid of them and made a great phone that no one will be able to touch for along time
Totally agree, the keyboard on the iPhone is a serious shortcoming. It severely handicaps the device. Perhaps some people can get past it, but after 2+ years I still can’t… It’s a toy.
One can’t help but think this is part of a pretty serious form over function mantra at AAPL.
As someone that just ditched their Android phone for an iPhone, I can say that you are completely full of cow pies. The iPhone keyboard only ‘sucks’ if you’re a complete idiot that can’t control your own fingers. The software keyboard that most Android phones use is slower, less responsive, and more difficult to use. Even the hardware keyboard on the Droid is difficult to use because they mashed the keys together.
And really, give up on the “can only run one app” garbage. Android gets so bogged down that it’s unusable if you have even a couple simple apps open. Droid is not all that. Android is turning out to be far less ‘open’ than we thought, and Google doesn’t seem to care. The bug list got another 2 miles long when people started using the Droid.
Face it. Android is a mess. Verizon has 2.0, T-Mobile is still on 1.6, devices are still shipping with 1.5 and there are devices that might not even be able to upgrade to 2.0, further fragmenting the market. The apps are often crap versions that lack half the features the iPhone apps do. The low barrier to the Android Market is more of a problem than anything.
I gave up on Android and am happy to have done so.
The multiple running apps thing isn’t a problem… if you know how to hit end all.. its actually kind of nice to quickly switch between different apps… leave your navigation running while you take a call/send a text/ etc… not to mention not losing the state of the game when the call comes in or you stop to read your email and open up a web link.
I completely agree with you, however I’m not saying the iPhone is perfect. I’m so tired of reading “you can run multiple apps”, yay for you! How many apps can you use at the same time? Oh yeah…only one. How many can you use on the iPhone at the same time? One. There’s no comparison here, you can run multiple apps on a BlackBerry too but when it comes down to it you really can only use one at a time. I’m not bashing Droid, I’m talking facts here! It’s common sense really, people say “Droids better because…you can run multiple apps, 5.0MP camera….(the list goes on)”. There’s no comparison here, it’s been all over that the camera is having problems and multiple apps are great but still the reality is you can only use one at a time.
Sounds like you have a complete misunderstanding of Verizon Android Devices, or maybe you have not even tried one out hands-on. I have none of the “issues” you complained about with mine. Like you said about being an “idiot” if you can’t control your fingers on the keyboard of the iPhone, the same goes for using the hardware keyboard on the Droid devices!!
The discussion of features and technologies needs to end, and we need a discussion of use. What do people do, and why is there a two minute difference. All of this is conjecture. I have used SE Ps, BlackBerries, Nokia tablets, and iPhones. The interface is what it is, and it functions for the needs. More critical to its adoption is the fact that a 2 year old can sit down and touch the screen resulting in an action.
Both devices are great, but Apple’s problem now will be retaining developers as we move into viable mobile services. They have the best paradigm, even though I am digging through Android materials and hope that the SDK (WebKit also) becomes more sophisticated. Some would say the Moto keyboard is crap. It is what you prefer. Very simple!
The Droid’s multitasking rules, you say? Try having a call and then fire up Google Maps to locate a restaurant or business as you’re talking with the person on the other end.
YOU CAN’T. All that vaunted multi-tasking doesn’t allow you to make a call and use the Internet at the same time because Verizon’s CDMA network doesn’t support it
Try streaming music (Pandora) or video, and see if you can receive incoming calls.
As for the “inferiority” of the iPhone’s virtual keyboard, can the Droid’s keyboard switch instantly between English, Chinese (traditional or simplified), Japanese, Cyrillic, Portugese (with all those accents), Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, French, German and a Hal a dozen more language sets? iPhone can.
Don’t you think the ability to switch between one’s native language and English is more important to the international business user than a crappy physical, non-adaptable keyboard? Maybe that’s why there are already 3 million iPhones in China despite the fact that all of them paid full price or a premium for a grey market iPhone.
Once you see Chinese character entry on iPhone, no hard keyboard is going to stand a chance.
One thing Apple does better than every other device maker is make their tech wonderfully usable for international customers. With Droid limited to English, it’s not going to work for a bilingual user like me and millions of other like customers.
That’s a completely made up.
I just had Pandora running and google maps, and received a call from another number, had the conversation got off the call, and pandora continued to play. No interruption.
Don’t make things up.
You probably had WiFi on. Internet data is streaming over WiFi while voice was over CDMA.
Try turning WiFi off and doing making a call and firing up Pandora. Because such a thing is theoretically and technically impossible with CDMA.
ridiculous.. pandora or imeem just goes quiet while you receive an incoming call
That’s funny I’m commenting back to your lie whilst I’m on 3G on my Droid, and on hold with my employer from my phone right now (on speaker)… you might wanna know what you’re talking about before you open your dumb mouth. BTW, I’m not on WiFi… your post is fail.
Yeah, but can it do Klingon?
“YOU CAN’T. All that vaunted multi-tasking doesn’t allow you to make a call and use the Internet at the same time because Verizon’s CDMA network doesn’t support it”
You might want to check your fact before posting false info. You CAN stream data receive voice call on a 3G network. 3G network is capable of multicast simultaneous voice and data.
I’ve own every single PDAs/Blackberry that ever released to Verizon Wireless (perks of working in the IT). And I must say that Motorola Driod is by far the best phone I’ve ever own. I’ve used the iPhone for a short while with AT&T but at the time, I’m not sure if that has changed since, the iPhone did not have RDC client app. Plus the AT&T network was not so great where I live.
From reading Lava’a post, it’s obvious that he has never owned a Droid. Just ignore his gibberish.
I’ve own the Droid since the release date and I must say that if you have Task Killer apps and kill those million of windows you keep clicking, your phone wont ‘bogged down’.
I absolutely love the RDC client. It is a great feeling to know that I wont have to run home while i’m out and about and find the nearest PC when there’s a problem at work. It’s like having a laptop in my pocket. I can restart the server, write SQL query at the same speed I would get from a desktop.
That’s just my two cents.
I couldn’t disagree more.
It would be trivial for Apple to address many of it’s deficiencies with a software update, but, we are expecting them to make a major software and hardware refresh here in less than 7 months. the announcement will be mostly out well before that. Now, if you consider that a long time, then fine, I agree.
Of course, I am watching the snapdragon Androids that should be coming any day now as passing the Droid even sooner.
I think the Droid is great. Even keel with the iPhone 3GS, even though it lacks the polish and app quality that Apple has….but it’s NOT an iPhone killer. Moreover, once jail broken, the iPhone already has some of those drawbacks dealt with.
Something else I am really concerned about is the software upgrade process with the Android sets. We are now not talking about phones, we are talking about advanced computers. The hardware on all these phones now is better than PII / PIII hardware. We have Androids with clockspeeds of a Ghz…what’s going to happen to these pocket computers?
I want to see the OS separated from the tight phone integration so that Google can release new Android versions and everyone can upgrade.
Apple and Palm upgrade the OS and all models will get the new OS…That’s what we are going to need from the hardware manufactures.
I want to be pretty sure that I’m only forced to upgrade for better hardware…not because of software that would work just fine with the hardware I have.
lol…seriously? you can go back and look at the 1st gen iphone and see that it ALSO destroyed droids release. the fact that the 3rd gen iphone is still annihilating the droid just goes to show that the LARGE MAJORITY of consumers disagree with your “i need a real keyboard” mentality.
I have been using Droid for 10 days now and I’m not the type who exaggerates or over reacts but, it truly is an amazing phone. I really love the multi-tasking. On a recent road trip, we turned on the voice activated GPS and played mp3 songs on the phone at the same time for several hours. And it can answer phones too at the same time. Having a separate keyboard I initially thought was unnecessary but, it’s lot easier when responding to emails. Voice recognition for google search, navigation, contact search etc works great. In the past, phones have had a tough time recognizing my voice but this one works great. The number of apps comparison with iphone may be true but, I still found all the apps that I needed in the android market (which keeps growing day by day). Overall I think this is a good buy and IMHO the best phone in the market today.
I can also use the GPS app and play mp3 songs on my iPhone. Wow!
To be very clear, I should add – “at the same time.”
@LoveDroid — yes you can use the iPod app (music) and any GPS app at the same time on the iPhone. Cheers…
Yes Kevin, you can do it “at the same time” with the iPhone too. Contrary to the propaganda you have swallowed whole, the iPhone multitasks as well, just places certain restrictions presumably to conserve battery life.
Written on my iPhone while simultaneously listenning to music…
This point that Apple can multi-task is true but ONLY when Apple decides that you need it. Which means reserved for only Apple applications. A more correct statement is:
I can also use the GPS app and listen to Pandora on my iPhone. Wow!
Actually, quite a few apps allow you to listen to your playlists while using the app. I told the developers of Bejeweled for the iPhone that I was tired of listening to their boring repetitive sound effects while playing. Two weeks later they introduced a version that allowed listening to play lists. I have many other apps that do so as well.
Wow. Two truly incompetent comments out of three. That skews the geek vs. working-for-a-living-making-marketing-and-sales-decisions equation more than usual.
Did some retail research over the weekend. Visited several stores to see where the Droid was and how it was merchandised. Answer – it was definitely in more places than the Pre upon launch, but merchandising was awful. Short story – at Best Buy, units were on display, but they were fake shells that fall apart when you picked them up. iPhone display next door – fully functional, operating devices. At Verizon store, one unit on display – operating. Right next to $99 HTC model. No in-store signage or promotion. This at Verizon store which is in highly affluent shopping mall and about the size of an Apple store. No one will beat Apple without proper merchandising.
Om,
First I do not give any credibility to those numbers. Last time around Verizon sold million plus Blackberry Storms. No one talks about the returns. Which is fair. When you talk about sales you don’t talk about returns.
Second point , how on earth Flurry determines the usage? by putting an agent into those android Apps. Then doing what ? Sniff the unique data ? Like the ESN / MEID of the handset ? I doubt they are doing that.
My only gripe with this is there are a ton of folks who rant to BestBuy and Verizon stores to play with the handset. And Play with the Android APPS. Many of these folks didn’t buy it. Assuming that the stats include usage from handsets located in the Verizon / BestBuy stores . You are taking few thousand stores and many handsets that are for display.
I am not saying Verizon didn’t sell that many, but it will be a better argument if the actual numbers are released. So for only APPLE does that. Because they have nothing to hide and create hype.
Last time I remember Verizon releasing STORM numbers , but this time they are playing the game like SPRINT , which never releases sales numbers for their top of the line phones , rather use “Top Selling” , “Best Selling in 10 years” , “Best selling 3G”…. .
I wish the actual numbers be released by Verizon.
I’m sure there’s a map for that…
OM, if they had sold 250Kk of droids they would be shouting because it is a very credible figure and today is 16 Nov. nothing from them yet except more of the ATT and Apple bashing ads. Oh maybe the sale is so humongous that they need an army of accountants to tally them.
As I said before these ads are good for ATT and Apple it will egg them on to provide better services and create greater products.
2 points to make here:
1. I think the you have to remember when comparing the Apple Apps to Android Apps is that Apple had developers designing apps for the Ipod Touch long before the Iphone came to the market. Google/Motorola started with having developers design directly for the Android phones. So in all honesty, you are comparing the Ipod Touch to the Motorola Droid, in my opinion.
2. How many apps, in either store, are duplicates? I do not own an Iphone or a Droid, but I do have a Ipod Touch, and when I look at the Apple App store, there are weather apps, calculators, calendar addons, mail readers, magic 8-balls, mood screens (where you put your finger on the screen and its supposed to tell you what mood you are in), etc. that have 150 duplicates that all do the same thing… Lets just assume there are 1,000 different apps that each have 20 or 25 duplicates that all do the same exact thing with a different flare to them, you are talking about have 20k to 25k apps that are duplicated. Then you can start talking about the truly worthless Apps like the magic 8 ball, fart machines, mood screens, etc… Fun or funny as they may be, there are duplicates of each of those also, all just as worthless as the others, other than allowing these phones to become more than just a business phone.
Just my two cents.
One of my guesses abot the time difference is that the apps that Android does have — Facebook, Twitter, etc. — skew the numbers. There aren’t a lot of 2 minute lighter apps or media apps. Between the NYTimes app and Facebook, I could drain my battery on the iPhone and never hit the weather widget.
BillyS
The iPod touch came out after the iPhone, not before. The original released iPhone did not have independent developers. The SKD – came later, and was available for both devices.
First week sales only indicate how successful the marketing was and not how good the product is. iPhone (Good product + good marketing), BB Storm (Good marketing + bad product ), N97 (Bad product + bad marketing).
If reviews are to go by, there are lot of people out there who are liking Droid and recommending it to others. So I do hope that it will be able to sustain the sales. It will also put pressure on manufacturers to send out updates for other Android devices which are still running on 1.5 and 1.6 devices.
Somehow I have a feeling that SE X10 is going the N97 way. Great product on paper but bad implementation. X10 looks like SE’s last chance to get it right.
There are also a lot of people specifically avoiding Apple in my experience. A friend said that she did not want an iPhone without any reasons, only to dis the G1. Sadly, developers are starting to feel the same way!
And, SE better hope that the X10 is not their last chance! I have been a fan of the P series, but WinMo and now a proprietary skin to an older version of Android! This is the reason that an app interface — the basis of my comment at the end of the article above — is better than a skin. The app is portable the skin, nope! I wish SE luck, but they just repeated their past mistakes with UIQ.
Boy, is your comment going to get some heat!
Let’s say Apple really sold only 1.2m iPhones. That would mean Flurry overestimated by about 33% (partly attributed to those who try it but don’t buy it).
Apply that 33% to Droid and we get about 185-190k, which is what I would expect given that Droid:
1) has had a larger and sharper marketing push than any Android phone before it (plus all the Verizon AT&T/iPhone bashing ads that are helping to deter potential switchers),
2) is on a US cellular network that is at least 2x larger than any other US cellular network that sold an Android phone previously, and
3) Droid is better, overall, than any other Android phone before it, particularly because it has Android 2.0 and the Google GPS app.
Hey thanks for the positive feedback! Interesting times…
If anybody is in Chicago, stop by Mobile Monday tonight!
http://www.momochicago.com
Let’s see how Droid is doing Black Friday. I predict Droid will drop off pretty fast.
I went into a local BestBuy prepared to buy a Droid and once I got one in my hand I hesitated.
The reviews say the keyboard is subpar but it’s much worse than that. I have used many poor keyboards and expected a mushy one. But it’s worse, it took three to four times as much pressure to register a key press as any keyboard that I have ever used in thirty years of computing.
I brought up a browser and went from vertical to horizontal and the browser didn’t flip to horizontal. Maybe it’s the demo phone but why isn’t the browser going into landscape mode? Do you need a custom made application to enable that feature?
Just buy it. You have 14 days to return it, but my guess is that you won’t. Of course there is a learning curve on any smart phone. If you still think the keyboard sucks, then get one of the models without one, or get the iPhone.
Last I checked Verizon had several phones on the Android OS, not just Motorola, not to mention the Storm, Storm 2 and several new Windows Mobile phones. To be fair, the first iPhone only sold in the US and the first weekend numbers were more like 250K. It’s still more than double the Motorola Droid, but Apple assumes the iPhone fits everyone. Maybe they’re affraid to canabolize their own base, or don’t have the resources to do more. I’m sure McDonnalds would still be successful and sell more Big Macs if that’s all they offered.
Every time there’s “a map for that” pops up comparing 3G coverage between Verizon and ATT, that distant cha-ching you hear is ATT spending more of what used to be its U Verse money building new 3G backhaul and radio sites to support its network.
It’s a fairly short term strategy to keep provoking something like an Apple/ATT alliance by stabbing it at close range with a sharp stick.
It’s like poking a hibernating grizzly bear inside a cramped cave. One swipe and you’re mauled.
It’s called reactive marketing and not the best position to be in. The grizzly is really the one striking now at Apple and AT&T. It’s just competition, the American way. If it weren’t for it we’d be stuck with the original iPhone (or just crappy mp3 phones) and no 3G.
What’s funny is that the Droid supporters here are likely the same people who claimed how wonderful the Palm Pre was just before it came out (and flopped). Before that, they were probably cheering for the Storm or some other “iPhone killer”. At the end of the day, people need to realize why everything is being compared to the iPhone and not the Droid, the Pre, the Storm or any Windows phone, etc. It’s because, although no device is absolutely perfect, the iPhone is as close as any device has come. It’s not just one feature like the OS, the browser, the app store, the huge eco system of devices with iPod/iPhone integration, the iTunes software, etc. Rather, it’s the total package which puts the iPhone in a category above the rest. For example, I’m in the market for a new car. From the choices I’m considering, actual iPod/iPhone integration is there, not just some generic USB equivalent, etc. The Droid will never integrate as well as an iPhone, regardless of how good the Droid is.
As for the Droid, if I refused to use AT&T, I’d probably use a Droid. I checked it out… nice screen and the built in turn by turn directions are very cool. That said, the keyboard is terrible… and the virtual keyboard isn’t nearly is good as the iPhone. The 256MB application limit is a deal breaker for me. I have lots of apps, most of which are unavailable on the Android platform to begin with, but the Droid has a serious limitation there. The OS is coming along well, but it’s significantly behind the iPhone OS and the apps have a less consistent fit and finish to them. In short, its a nice device, provided it’s not compared directly to an iPhone. I would definitely choose it over the Pre or any Windows phone though.
I don’t think the Pre flopped. I do think that it needs the resources of a larger company, which is why the Nokia rumors are interesting. Interest is being split between Android and the iPhone in the US at the moment, and everybody else is going to have to fight for developers and attention. Microsoft is fortunate to have a head start and therefore still have developers. How many new developers do you suppose RIM is getting?
Okay, by “flopped” I mean failing miserably to live up to the self dubbed “iPhone Killer” hype we had to endure for months prior to the launch. Post launch, the decent WebOS was hampered by hardware flaws, etc. whereby a significantly higher percentage of devices had to be returned. Generally speak, for an average phone entering the market, it did okay. The point here is that it no where near delivered to the hype.
I agree with you regarding iPhone / Android split for developer mindshare. The iPhone has a better SDK and a more mature OS, however, the app approval process is turning away a few key developers. The problem with the Android is much like the problem with Windows phones. You have a generic OS available to different sets of hardware. This lack of standard puts a burden on developers by not knowing which screen size or hardware capability to code for.
As for RIM, yes, they have the enterprise market, but I’m puzzled why any consumer would purchase one given the much better alternatives. It’s great for e-mail, but not for anything else.
Is that 1.6 million unit first week for iPhone 3GS just domestic sales or does it include international sales as well? If it’s international, 250k might be a pretty compelling number.
the droid keyboard did stink when i tried it on a live phone in a best buy, mostly because the keys have no convexity and partially because of poor tactile feedback. the moto cliq keyboard is much nicer.
i guess a lot of frustrated iphone users are willing to trade a poor network with frequent dropped calls for a so-so keyboard but a solid voice/fast data network.
apple will have to truly open the iphone sooner than later, and add a keyboard model. if they choose not to, they’ll end up like RIM, having had a great run, but starting to sit on the front porch, having a smoke while the sun sets on what was once all theirs to lose.
the open world moves too fast these days and too many big hardware and mobile operator players have major incentives to get beyond successful closed systems like the iphone. not least of which is not letting apple pull a microsoft on them. what kind of love/hate relationship does at&t have right now with apple?
Sorry but i have had 4 dropped calls in 8 months, not including “dead zones” we all know all cell coms have it. AT&T service in my area is excellent!
I’m incredibly jealous. I hope Droid does fantastically well so that Apple and at&t make my iPhone a lot better a lot faster!
We’ve seen figures ranging from 100k to 400k in the initial weekend. I think 250k is a more reasonable number.
Suprisingly, almost 50% of the people who have switched to Droid were Blackberry phone owners.
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-polls/247-what-phone-were-you-using-previously.html
People who imagine physical keyboards are inherently superior.
vs ppl who imagine on-screen keyboards are inherently superior?
We’re tracking droid marketshare via web browsing from the 150,000 sites we track on Clicky. So far the Droid has captured ~3% mobile browser marketshare, which is pretty good. Android has about 9% total so the Droid is already 1/3 of that, and climbing.
http://getclicky.com/droid
Very interesting.. that’s a great percentage in such a short amount of time.
“…the open world moves too fast these days and too many big hardware and mobile operator players have major incentives to get beyond successful closed systems like the iphone…”
Oh. I guess this is why the world didn’t see “open” companies introduced technologically advanced smartphones until 2009 —DECADES after the introduction of the first cell phone in 1973 and the first (IBM) smartphone in 1992, and years after the first RIMM BlackBerry and HandSpring Treo “smarter” smartphone s in 2002 and the first “genius” iPhone in 2007.
Come on. Until Apple entered this market, cell phone advancements, open or closed, have (at best) been glacial, and for the most part, anything but innovative. I went through numerous Sprint “dumbphones” over an eight-year period and not one vendor EVER introduced a single phone, a decent software interface, nor even a single, must-have software update for phones that might have allowed me to easily sync contacts (and later, music) to my computer, much less marry the phone with The Web, GPS, Music, Photo & Video, Mail, Gaming and Apps. Yes a few companies like RIMM and Handspring/Palm tried to add a couple of these features to new phone designs, but ultimately, they failed to break the carrier’s lock (which was more important, because it was all about controlling and limiting the creation and monetization of phone technology).
So really, Apple IS providing an “open” solution in that it was Apple that finally broke the carrier’s stranglehold to “open” phone development, something that RIMM tried to do, but only achieved with narrow success.
Now, each of these suddenly “open” telecommunications companies, including manufacturers like RIMM and carriers like Verizon, are trying to accomplish one thing and it isn’t to “open” development. They each are attempting to quickly copy Apple’s compelling new software, hardware and business model to latch on to a piece of the pie for their own “closed” system of the future.
However, they each are using different hardware and operating system’s to try and create competing, dominant platforms and new “closed” App Stores. Yes, each will be “closed” to all but their own software. While Android and Palm OS each may be “open” and the iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and even Symbian OS’s “closed,” the resulting market still is destined to become “splintered” — and “splintered” will never be as good for innovation as “closed.” If nothing else, the epic Apple – Microsoft battle of the past 15 years established this fact. Heck, RIMM and Google already have splintered their own leading platforms with different OS versions in circulation on multiple phones with different screen sizes. This will cripple and limit BlackBerry and Android App development right out of the gate. As a result, BlackBerry and Android always will lag behind iPhone development.
So, how can these “open” but “splintered” projects ever “get beyond successful closed systems” if Apple forces them to keep playing catch up with each innovative new iPhone model? I think Apple learned some valuable lessons during its’ first 30 years of computing. That’s why the iPhone vs. “Open” Wars of 2007 won’t prove to be like the Mac vs. PC Wars of 1984.
Excellent comment.
I don’t personally care about “open” and “closed”: I care about quality; ease-of-use; depth of capabilities. Many people claim to want something more “open” than the iPhone. Or they want Verizon’s large but, actually, quite primitive network (it is CDMA; not GSM) instead of ATT. Maybe Verizon DOES have better coverage in their town. Or maybe not; maybe the “grass is always greener on the other side”.
I think a lot of the temporary thrill surrounding weak, also-ran handsets like Pre or Droid is simply because there are a lot of “I’m a PC” guys out there who want Apple to fail. The are more than a little miffed that MSFT couldn’t spew out a decent WinMO phone in over a decade of trying. And a lot of these guys “kinda like” Google, because Google doesn’t have overt fan boys, like Apple does. I will grant you, some fan boys CAN be “too much”. Or maybe they just want a “horse race”. In truth , the iPhone continues to be WAY ahead of all contenders; it’s probably already ahead of Droid 4 in UI and features.
The comparison is a little difficult because the iphone is an established product and also a revised product. This is the first my touch and droid phone. Also, knowing how quickly apple moved to a 2nd generation iphone, do you think that is holding people back? I for one am a person who never buys the first of a new gadget. From past experience I’ve found it’s better for other people to find the bugs and deal with the issues of the first phone. I’m a verizon user, and I’ll wait for the feedback and revisions and 2nd generation droid before I look to buy.
I don’t think that I would want a “Droid” phone. To take advantage of most of its features, you have to sign up for a Google account — and Google then knows where you are, what you’re doing, whom you call. Given that Google has merged with DoubleClick (notorious for tracking Internet users via spyware “cookies” in their browsers), it can’t be trusted not to abuse this information or keep it private.
What’s the harm? Is there any space left on the web where G is absent. 😉
I suspect those 1.6 million iPhone buyers needed a replacement battery ASAP. Most folks writing about the iPhone get a new one every year and don’t know about how bad the battery can get and how inconvenient it is to replace. I have a 1st generation Touch on permanent internet radio duty so it can be attached to AC power 24/7. For me, multitasking is owning two Touches.
oh boy another droid vs iphone debate…
I don’t think the comparison vs the iphone with a huge installed base and being in 8 countries gives you any sort of data to compare. Speaking with some retailers there are a lot of people coming in to get droids that otherwise didn’t have a smart phone at all – which is good news – thats the market segment that verizon really is going after.
@Brett you can choose which services you use from google and which ones you don’t, its up to you.
This is a pointless article. The table shows the iphone already has an installed base of 27 million so sales of 1.6 million are not that great when you look at 250k units sold with a installed base of ZERO. Also comparing a brand new device against a 3rd generation of another device is nonsensical since the 3rd gen device has as many websites dedicated to its awesomeness as well as flaws. This means a potential customer for either device has virtually unlimited resources for finding information on the 3rd gen device vs. very very limited and hardly, if any, peer reviews of the 1st gen device. the Droid received very negative feedback over one physical feature that can’t ever be fixed on the 1st gen model weeks before it was released, the physical keyboard. To me, this automatically made it an inferior device, especially since the touchscreen keyboard got such great reviews. It perfectly demonstrates the difference in quality of product your getting from a device conceived, constructed and programmed by one company, Apple, who forced the carrier to comply with its demands vs. a device created by one company, Motorola (modeled after existing devices rather than being something completely new), the programming done by another entity, Google, while both trying to meet requirements set by the carrier, Verizon, which doesn’t have a great reputation for meeting customer demands in terms of devices That last part is especially significant since they are trying to pull in a whole new market. The only advantage Verizon has in this situation is that AT&T has been faulted for most of the drawbacks found in the iPhone.
“The average Android app session length is about four minutes vs. two minutes for iPhone apps, Flurry found. I believe that is because the Android apps are not as intuitive to use as the iPhone apps, but hey, that’s just me.”
how incredibly obtuse.. this is analysis?
when you can run multiple apps without worry, you tend to engage your apps more. When you have to shut them down constantly to switch between them, you grow tired of it.
How’s that for analysis. Just as flimsy, but I offer it up for review
I found the Droid unappealing. I didn’t like the keyboard. But I did buy a Samsung Moment from Sprint, with the Android OS and it is just awesome! It has a slide out tactile keyboard that is very nice. I was a Palm user for 10 years and tried the Pre, the Blackberry and others but those just didn’t work. The Moment has a good sized screen for the browser and that was a key feature for me. It turns out that my contacts and calendar ported over to the new phone and the Google system just fine. The apps are probably not as finished as the iPhone apps just yet, but that will cure itself in a year or so.
i personally think the droid kicks the iphone outta the picture my dad has one and i loved it…. then i got my droid and it runs soo much faster i love it so droid is better… but thats just my opinion
i agree with stevoe i have a droid and its soooo much better
than that crappy i phone and it runs waaaayyyy way faster
I can confirm this row about running Pandora and getting a call on the Droid simply using the 3G network. It happened to me, it kind scared me as I never though it could be done either. I was driving in a snow storm on my way to my house from Christmas with my family. Before I left I turned the Wifi off to save battery life. I was listening to Christmas music all the way home on Pandora. It was about a 45 min drive. When I got in to Omaha my mother called me to see if I made it and Pandroa just paused, I answered the call and when the call was over Pandora continued playing.
As for my thoughts on the iphone try having yours lost or stolen. It will not be replaced and insurance is not available. You are S.O.L. and stuck in a 2 year contract. If you don’t belive me call at&t and ask them 1800-331-0500.
There has been 42 million iphones sold so people must agree that the iphone is the best and sold more world wide than any device that hit the market. Apple has corner the market with this exceptional hit with the iphone. All others can only duplicate what apple has already bought forward. Great Job Apple.
Just another Apple Fanboi trying to ignore the fact that an iPhone killer just may exist.
“Try streaming music (Pandora) or video, and see if you can receive incoming calls.”
uh. why would anyone want to talk over music while trying to hear and talk to the call you just received, you really think that’s a feature?
hey, but i can listen to pandora while surfing the web on my motorola droid. i know you can’t do that on the iphone.
yeah why dont you check the sells now idiot , droid x is way better than the precicious icprap 4 oh and theyre selling more than apple now fool
I am a fan of android phones but I don’t think that a phone should be an internet source people should get used computers. Phones don’t have a good enough internet and computers are to expensive the best option is used computers just as good and cheaper.
The reason these phone cell is because they work as phones – Verizon has a better reputation as a phone company – period – You have forgotten it’s a phone 1st everything else comes 2nd.