Scott, thank you for your comments. This post was really illuminating to me, as I am not in the smartphone market and thus do not pay much attention to it. Your analysis is much appreciated!
Apple controling the end user's experience is nothing new; wasn't that primarily the point of products like the iMac and iBook where you could make some broad choices (how much memory, color, etc.) but otherwise you got your product as-is? At the time I never really thought of it like that but over the years that has really made itself clear for me. ~Luke On Jan 20, 9:44 am, Scott D Hamilton <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thursday, January 19, 2012 8:16:46 AM UTC-5, Serv wrote: > > > nothing in that article suprises me. The mistake Apple made was being > > EXCLUSIVE to AT&T for too long. Put the iPhone on Verizon or T-Mobile (a > > near miss AT&T aquisition) and they sell the crap out of the phone. > > Apple's exclusive time at AT&T was hardly a mistake. It was the key to > Apple's strategy, and why Apple still has the three best selling phone > models on the market and is taking the majority of profits > available<http://www.asymco.com/2011/07/29/apple-captured-two-thirds-of-availab...> > even > if they aren't selling the majority of phones. > > Apple came into the market with the intention of offering an Apple > experience to consumers directly. That's completely contrary to the way the > phone business had been done. Traditionally the phone manufactuers would > allow the carriers to dictate what went on the phone, both in terms of > software and ugly physical logos. Apple wanted complete control, and back > in 2007 Verizon wasn't willing to give it them. So Apple made the exclusive > deal with AT&T, and AT&T had no say in what went on the iPhone. And as a > result AT&T's growth and profits > surged<http://seekingalpha.com/article/199920-at-t-s-growth-spurred-by-iphon...>. > That allowed Apple to take their "hands-off, the end user is our customer, > not the carrier" deal to Verizon and Sprint later on. The other carriers > had to take Apple's terms, or AT&T was going to eat their lunch. The > post-2007 churn rate was scaring the hell out of Verizon in particular. As > a result, Apple has prospered beyond anyone's predictions. > > Android takes the opposite tack. Android is "open" -- to the carriers. So > my T-Mobile Android phone had a (crappy, buggy, crashy) phone app written > by T-Mobile, a UI T-Mobile customized (to suck and crash), a bunch of > T-Mobile crapware I couldn't delete, etc. My understanding is Verizon is > the same way. I like some things about Android I like and I'm glad there's > competition, but so long as the carriers are in control of Android phones > the consumer's experience will suffer. > > > In our circle of friends in St Pete Dr Jen and I are the only Android > > users...but we refuse to become Apple-ites like most of the St Pete geeks. > > Nothing at all wrong with Apple products (if you can swallow the purchase > > price), but our carrier (Verizon) didn't sell the iPhone when we needed new > > phones so we bought the competition and have been pleased...at least i have! > > I'm glad you're pleased, but Android's carrier-first attitude is going to > screw you, if not now, then later. The big issue is updates. Apple pushes > updates out to consumers as quickly as possible, because Apple want to keep > its customers up-to-date and happy. Android puts the carriers in charge of > updates, and the carriers have you in a contract and therefore have little > incentive to update your phone's software. So even though your phone is > capable of running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), Verizon will probably > not push it out to you. They want you to get a new Android phone with the > associated contract extension. Here's the state of Android updates > visualized.<http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visuali...> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Unique Geek" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/theuniquegeek?hl=en.
