I'll give you this first, because it's huge, drawn-out, and boring. Unless you find arbitrary information about cell phones interesting and/or have a hatred for Apple as I do.
TL;DR
just because two things happen at the same time doesn't mean they are related
I hate Apple, I hate idiots, and the two seem to find each other
I've officially had enough, I'm beyond mad, and I only (partially) have myself to blame. Apple is slowly falling out of the spotlight, and I'm actually slightly concerned about this. Okay, slightly may be a bit of an understatement, and well, they haven't actually fallen out of anything because of irrelevant posts made in order to further hype up a dying fad. Yes, the iPhone is a fad, I said it, but I digress. I have myself to partially blame, because I was scrolling through Pulse and saw the article again, and wanted to shoot someone, a lot. Recently, Wednesday, August 17, a site on the top of my 54!7 list (why do I even bother going there anymore, seriously?), AppleInsider (the same site that included iPads in its “study” to make Apple out to be the “Top Mobile PC Vendor”... yes, iPad is apparently a portable computer, now... ), posted an article stating Verizon's market share of Android phones in the United States is “down dramatically” following the iPhone 4 launch. It goes on to further state that this “dramatic” “erosion” is due to the fact that the iPhone is now available on Verizon. A study that compares every Android phone (only!) based on ad views and categorizes the total Android phones based on carrier to show which U.S. carrier has what percentage of the Android sales/usage/market in America. How can this study of only Android phones say anything about the iPhone? An excellent question! You must go further, and take two more irrelevant pieces of information into account for this to even slightly start to make sense, which it still fails to do, if you have one-fifth of one half of a brain. Irrelevant info 1: Verizon finally launched its iPhone in February of this year. Irrelevant info 2: Verizon, according to ad views and this Chitika whatever, currently has ~24% of the U.S. iPhone market share. While we're at it, I'll add something for you, because well, it actually is relevant. Verizon launched the pre-order for the iPhone 4 at midnight on February 3, 2011, via online sales. I was there, and I was one of the idiots that stayed up late to pre-order the device to get it before it was available in stores, the following week. So, the first study by Chitika (I apologize if I make it the banana company by the end of the post, you'll understand, I hope...) was done at the end of March, arguably two months after the iPhone was released on Verizon, and Verizon had 51.418% of all the Android phones in the United States activated on its network. Another interesting fact: online pre-orders were apparently ridiculous for the iPhone, and in-store sales were less than stellar. On February 23rd, Chitika released a statement saying that after (the iPhone) being on Verizon for two weeks, Android's overall impressions across Chitika's network had actually risen! (spoiler alert: 500,000+ activations daily will do that. Yes, worldwide vs. U.S., but still...) (The article from feb) However interesting, this has little to do with the topic at hand, but still interesting none-the-less. But, further into the article, the end result is that the vPhone is taking away from everthing BUT Android; i.e. webOS (RIP), Blackberry, Windows Phone 7 (somehow, not really sure about that one) and the AT&T iPhone. Back to the point at hand: Verizon's U.S. share of the Android market has dropped since the iPhone came to Verizon. Before the iPhone was released on Verizon, AT&T didn't have to do anything to sell phones, and once Verizon was to offer this phone, they had to do something. Please, do tell me ONE Android phone on AT&T that was worth buying before February. I'll tell me for you; you can't. Another thing to keep in mind: Sprint and T-Mobile's share of the Android market in the U.S. has stayed the same, so we will ignore them for this discussion. Note (whatever I'm up to): US Cellular, MetroPCS, and Virgin Mobile had ~%2.5 of all US Android phones in March and are now up to 8.4%, including whatever other carriers are out there besides the big 4, but I can't really remember any phone they would have had, I assume it to be a variant of the Samsung Galaxy line, possibly an HTC desire, an even possibly the LG Optimus, although I'm not really sure when that came out. All of these other now dime-a-dozen $50 all-you-can-eat pre-paid plans which are now popular due to the fact that money is very tight for many people have added decent Android phones to their arsenals and are now advertising to that fact. Why would cheap cell phone plans take some of the wind away from arguably the most expensive plans in the country? OK, OK, I get it, all of my focus thus far has been on negating the veracity of the ridiculousness that is that post, but what about the other side? Am I stating with 100% certaintude that the iPhone has taken ZERO customers away from Android? No, not at all, I'm sure that people who had an Android phone have since gone to the iPhone because they do not like, understand, or easily use Android. And this next thought can go both ways (I guess it's bithoughtual); think about the popular Android phones on big V. Think about which ones are/were popular. The original adopters were going for the OG, November 2009, which means they are due for an NE2 (their last, at that, f'ing scumbags at Verizon) and I'm sure some of them have switched over to iOS. Next up, we have all of last Summer, a huge time for Android on Verizon. The Incredible, the X, the D2, the Fascinate, all HUGE phones. They are not due for an upgrade any time soon, well, maybe some with their last yearly upgrade on a primary line, but for the most part, I don't think anybody really knows about and/or uses that perk, so we'll call that non-existent(that and it no longer exists any more, but these people last Summer would be able to enjoy this “perk” one more time). Many people are not due for an upgrade, so I'm sure many people, instead of paying 600-700 smackeroos for a shiny new iPhone, are waiting out their stay with Android until they can get it at that sweet, sweet discounted price of 200-300$, right before and around next Summer. Apparently normal people keep the phone they get until they are due for an upgrade, silly people. So the only POSSIBLE way that anyone could be leaving a Verizon Android to go to iOS is if A) they had an OG Droid or B) they are paying full retail for an iPhone. Neither seems too likely, the breakdown: A) after 2 years with something, you get it, and if you get Android, you love it. B) I'm the only person on Earth that cares that much about phones that I buy a new one whenever a shinier one comes out (I've had the Storm, Evo, Glyde (?), Droid 2, iPhone, Incredible, and Revolution all in the past 12 months...and I can't wait until HOPEFULLY the Nexus phone finally comes to Verizon, hopefully). Next possibility, not necessarily leaving Android for iPhone, but going with iPhone over Android now that they have the option. Okay, possible, smartphones are more and more popular, and everyone is getting one. If there were no iPhone, people would be more than likely to grab an Android phone (WP7's only verizon offering is garbage, webOS isn't a contender, really, and well, Blackberry, lulz), but that isn't really taking away from Android, as the article implies. These massive increases to the ViPhone's army could be mostly first time smartphone buyers technically taking away from the Android user base, but again, not leaving as implied. A question for you; just because Verizon's overall percent is down, does that mean that the total number of users isn't up? We're just working off of percentages here, no numbers to show one way or the other. Isn't it logical to assume that this is a possibility? Not if you're trying to spin the Apple Hype Machine. I mean, logically, take 3 seconds to think, could all providers theoretically be up, just Verizon not growing as much as the others? But then you have the whole weird T-Mob and Sprint staying at about the same number, which makes that weird, but still possible.
Lets wrap this up, for I grow tired of this discussion:
Am I saying that not a single one person has left a Verizon branded Android device for a Verizon branded iPhone? Not in the slightest. What I am saying is that people need to stop allowing people to feed them information, and when told something, step back, and think about it for 5 seconds. You have a brain, use it. This is probably the reason why iOS is so popular, because people don't know how to use their brains, and well, luckily you don't need one to operate iOS. Kind of anti-climactic, isn't it? I had it all planned out to be all “POW!” but it didn't seem to come to that, because, common sense and knowledge are rarely exciting. You don't have to agree with me, it's my opinion based on the larger picture, just please, promise me you'll use your brain next time...
peace kiddies
SMIL