The functional differences go right the way up the supply chain. One 'phone shop or carrier issues broken down sales by device and you can bet within a month many of it's competitors will be doing deals on the popular devices (or the closest equivalent they have).
There is also little value in pre-device break downs for investors because they are primarily a one-off event. A vast majority of customers will never buy the same 'phone twice, so it doesn't matter if this month T-Mobile sold 30,000 G1s' on Feb 2009 because those 30,000 customers now have a G1 and so aren't going to come back and buy the same 'phone again (except for a few cases where they break the 'phone). Investors tend get their information from subscriber numbers, because these represent opportunities for selling upgrades, services, and providing a regular monthly income, or from feature groups (i.e. smart 'phones, camera 'phones, etc.), because people tend to go for similar feature sets for future purchases even if their next 'phone isn't the same manufacturer (after all a good investment is about the future potential of the company, not about buying slice of it's already done). Even developers shouldn't hold too much stock in per sales device counts. It's next to impossible to get demographics for the ownership of a specific device, so even if someone said a million G1s had been sold it doesn't mean there's a million potential customers for your app. Some owners may not like the 'phone and have it in a drawer, others will be developers, and others may just not like what your app does. The best thing to do is market research. Look at your competitors download counts. Try to get some sales figures. See what users are saying. That way you can get a feel for where you should place your app in terms of price and functionality. Al. Ed wrote: > Thanks for the clarification, Al. I am still puzzled about the > reporting side of things from non-manufacturer point of view. In other > words, wouldn't you have to tell me about your company's product sales > trends in order to get me to invest in your stock? A smart investor > wouldn't be satisfied with just raw numbers showing an increase over > last year, for example (or even increases over a longer period of > time). Also, given how popular these devices are, I am surprised that > there aren't a great deal of publications with reporters paid to track > down and/or deduce sales figures from the information that is > available. > > --Ed > > > On Mar 5, 3:55 am, Al Sutton <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Ed, >> >> Mobile 'phones suffer far more from feature differentiation than other >> devices and with many manufacturers using the same OSes revealing exact >> sales stats could put them at a competitive disadvantage. >> >> Take, for example, HTC, if they said that the Windows Mobile handset was >> outselling their Android one by 3 to 1 other mobile manufacturers would >> most likely back off Android handset development and increase work on >> Windows Mobile because that's what's selling. >> >> The other products you mention have either little in the way of major >> value add features (such as TVs and PCs) or are only be produced by one >> manufacturer (e.g. iPhone, games consoles, video games), so there is >> little point in, say Sony hiding it's sales figures for 32" LCD TVs >> because their competitors already have sales stats covering most of the >> range of sizes Sony offers showing which sizes are selling well, or >> little point in Apple hiding iPhone sales because no-one else can sell a >> phone with Mac OS iPhone on it. >> >> The closest thing to it is the video games industry which has ended up >> with a mass of First person shooters, Racing games, and Sports tie-ins >> because that's what sells, and original games like WiiFit and Little big >> planet are few and far between. >> >> Al. >> >> >> >> Ed wrote: >> >>> Mark, >>> >>> I'm not sure that I understand this question in the context of global >>> product markets. You can find the sales figures of TVs, computers, >>> video games, gaming platforms, and nearly every other popular >>> electronic device you can name (not to mention non-electronic goods >>> like cars, airplanes, and lots of other stuff). My confusion is why >>> the cell phone market is blanketed in secrecy when pretty much every >>> other market has wide disclosure for sales figures as a basis for >>> stock value. Of course, I notice that Apple is pretty open about >>> iPhone sales, so maybe that is a clue. >>> >>> I'm not interested in arguing, I'm just sincerely baffled by this. >>> >>> --Ed >>> >>> On Mar 4, 10:46 am, Mark Murphy <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Ed wrote: >>>> >>>>> I'm baffled that sales figures are so hard to find in general. I would >>>>> love to see the sales trends of G1 phones overall, in addition to per >>>>> country breakdowns. >>>>> >>>> Why would HTC want to give out this information? >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy)http://commonsware.com >>>> _The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development_ Version 2.0 Available! >>>> >> -- >> >> * Written an Android App? - List it athttp://andappstore.com/* >> >> ====== >> Funky Android Limited is registered in England & Wales with the >> company number 6741909. The registered head office is Kemp House, >> 152-160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, UK. >> >> The views expressed in this email are those of the author and not >> necessarily those of Funky Android Limited, it's associates, or it's >> subsidiaries. >> > > > -- * Written an Android App? - List it at http://andappstore.com/ * ====== Funky Android Limited is registered in England & Wales with the company number 6741909. 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