[ugh]

It seems to me that Android would be the easiest to switch away from. Not so much for any technical reasons, rather because of the mindset most Android buyers (I know) have.

Android is the default choice if you don’t want an iPhone. It’s the default and generic smartphone. All people who have Android phones I know don’t care about the OS at all. They may like the phone (Look at my nice new Samsung smartphone! Isn’t this HTC phone cool?), they know nothing and don’t care one bit about the OS.

[RyanMcGreal]

"All people who have Android phones I know..."

Selection bias alert. I have an android phone that's nearly two years old, and I bought it specifically for the OS.

[ugh]

Yeah, selection bias alright. I just think I have the more plausible selection bias. That's all :-)

If you are selling nearly a million phones per day it's not the geeks who are buying (don't get me wrong, geeks are buying tons of Android phones – but they are a minority), it's normal people. And normal people don't buy for the OS (at least if it's not the iPhone).

It is my very clear impression that Android phones have become the default generic smartphone. People who want a smartphone (and in all likelihood also people who don’t even know they want a smartphone) but don’t know anything more specific than that will (with high probability) walk out of the store with an Android phone.

The carriers’ marketing speaks to that and also how they place those phones in their stores. Sure, the iPhone gets its stand and Nokia gets its stand but the big table in the middle is full of Android phones at all price points. (And, by the way, no big Android logo anywhere. If there are logos at all it’s the logos of the manufacturers.)