Comments on: Google vs. Apple – Traffic story

By: tatilsever

tatilsever — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 05:11:50 +0000

Since I signed up for iCloud backups, I never had to redownload any apps one by one when I setup a new phone. My photos, apps, preferences would arrive themselves. Either your experience is out of date or you refuse iCloud backups.

By: PJ

PJ — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 18:29:33 +0000

I agree that locking down the experience to prevent OEMs/ODMs/carriers from mucking around with defaults on top of the OS would improve it, but by no means is the problem related to open source. Most of he fragmentation is not happening at the base OS layer. It is happening one step above, hence the reason Google started the program to “certify” OEMs to force the use of Google’s stack (phone app, etc).
Just because IOS is closed, does not mean it is secure – it is more insecure than you are led to believe. You simply don’t know what you don’t know.

By: PJ

PJ — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 18:23:24 +0000

When I setup my Android handset, I login to google and I get everything I had before. On my Apple phone, I always have to install all of my apps all over again, but I can restore a portion of my data if I’ve elected to sign up to the 1/2 dozen services apple offers.

Android is light years ahead of Apple in SOME places.

By: windsorr

windsorr — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 06:39:46 +0000

Here i completely disagree. Android is still very far adrift in terms of the quality of the user experience. It is more difficult to set up. It is much less secure and the user has to be his own system integrator to make sure the device works properly. There is a long way to go and this is why Google is taking over the entire user experience.

Google has virtually no chance of cracking China as China wants its own ecosystem in China and is perfectly capable of developing its own local versions.

By: Tatilsever

Tatilsever — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 19:15:52 +0000

Yes, it certainly is a risk, but Android has reached acceptable quality in terms of OS to compete against iOS. What holds it back now has more to do with the business model of Android handset market in how OEMs make money as opposed to Google and making its own handsets is clearly not the answer. Further competing with iOS head on may give it a marginal improvement in revenue, while ironically making it more likely for Apple to keep it out of iOS as much as it can: a bit of a wash. On the other hand, the resources Google spends on cracking China could result in enormous returns, without much downside in ticked off partners.

By: windsorr

windsorr — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 15:50:40 +0000

Yes it does. Around 50% of its revenues. Its biggest risk is that Apple boots it from its ecosystem. At the moment it cant do that but that time may come.

By: windsorr

windsorr — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 15:49:43 +0000

That is certainly not the case. As a result of open source Android is fragmented, inconsistent and extremely insecure. Take control of it and lock it down and a lot of these problems will go away.

Good originally differentiated by being open but Now Google is actively shutting it down.

By: tatilsever

tatilsever — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 15:32:09 +0000

Google still makes money off iOS through search, email, ad network for apps, maps etc. If I was Google, I’d worry about getting into China, where it has no presence.

By: PJ

PJ — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 14:32:32 +0000

Your bullet regarding demographics playing a factor, I would argue that IOS has a larger base of “mobile only” users vs “high end users”.

I also argue that “the randomness and chaos of open source” has no bearing on the user experience. Remember that the OS is classified as open source, but the majority of applications are closed. Also, Google only releases the AOSP versions AFTER the same closed version is released to it’s OEMs. Walled gardens (IOS) have significant controls in place to force adherence to rules put in place by the proprietor of said walled garden. In Android, the desire from the beginning was to differentiate on being open. Unfortunately this allowed carriers and device manufacturers to build their own substandard experience. It has nothing to do with any randomness or chaos of open source. It has everything to do with the lack of controls in the right places as you mention.

By: Tim Nash

Tim Nash — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 07:48:47 +0000

From comScore’s report for April – I confusingly used ‘usage’ in my above post – showing a subscriber base of 41.4 for Apple rather than the 30 you are using.
‘Smartphone OEM Market Share
167.9 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (69.6 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in April, up 5 percent since January. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 41.4 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers. Samsung ranked second with 27.7 percent market share (up 1 percentage point from January), followed by LG with 6.5 percent, Motorola with 6.3 percent and HTC with 5.3 percent.’

So why do you consider the Apple user base is lower?