[drivebyacct2]

Yep, 75% of the market loves to buy crappy devices with crappy OSs. The fact that high end Android devices are popular and sell well (SGSIII? Samsung's profits being damn impressive next to Apple's?) is just a weird inconvenient fact.

[rimantas]

Can you make your mind what you are talking about? Unless 75% of the market is taken by those high-end devices (which are two models really: SGSIII and Nexus). If you want inconvenient facts: many of those Android phones are really just dumb phones (or used as such) with Android. Some with very old versions of Android.

[blinkingled]

Why should they be high end devices? Do you define what devices people should use, what qualifies as high end and how people should use them?

Sorry, but I just don't get the argument - if people want a smart phone, any Android phone is a smart phone. If they didn't they would be still buying Nokia true dumb phones. If people want a lower cost smartphone - like those in 3rd world - why would you have a problem with that? Also why aren't people buying cheap RIM phones or cheap Windows Phones if cheap is all they are into?

Older versions? Why would that have anything to do with SmartPhone sales numbers? It is just asinine to look at this from a negative or Apple Salesman attitude.

Fact is simple - people are continuing to buy Androids for many reasons - choice, preference, cost whatever. If Android is enabling the poorer sect of the world to get connected/enabled/smart at a cost they can afford - that's a good thing.

[sbuk]

"Yep, 75% of the market loves to buy crappy devices with crappy OSs"

No, 70% of the market doesn't care and merely what the blingest device for the lowest cost with the highest amount of minutes and texts, data is barely an afterthought. Samsung offering sales commissions doesn't hurt either, or is that 'just a weird inconvenient fact'?

[clarky07]

no, but 40-50% are buying crappy devices with crappy OSs. The high end devices running 4+ are not 75% of the market. they are <30% of the market. only 28.5% of android is on 4+ [1]

[1] http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html

[sinnerswing]

75% of the market also like Britney Spears. people are idiots.

[drivebyacct2]

If we accept the framework that all people are idiots, which I certainly often find myself thinking, then it's probably great to be Android in that world. You know? Whether or not people are dumb (which is obviously a gross exaggeration of people's perception of Android... but let's be serious, you know that) does not change the numbers.

[sinnerswing]

I'll take 25% of the smart, willing-to-pay-and-buy userbase, than 75% of the dumb, not-willing-to-pay-for-anything android users.

[drivebyacct2]

Why are you being so stubborn? Just, why? What do you stand to gain from this?

[jlgreco]

He is invested in the issue, if not with time and money, then with emotion. People can become very stubborn and blind when they are invested in an issue, probably because they are adverse to risk and some variation buyers remorse.

[sinnerswing]

Google is the false messiah. They don't care about innovation or creating great products. They don't care about user experience. they don't care about you. All Google cares about is serving you crappy ads.

[drivebyacct2]

And all Apple wants to do is make a profit, wavy hands oh how terrible!

I don't know how you define innovative if you don't consider the amazing intelligence behind Google Now innovative, or don't find the new 4.2 features innovative, or at least innovative in a smartdevice OS. I hate to tell you because it seems you are vitriolic about the point, but it's always been about ads, they're a business. But obviously the experience has to be compelling enough to get you to buy into it .... so OF COURSE they're competing on experience. And anyone who's used an Android phone recently in good faith knows that.

What's this nonsense about them "not caring" anyway. Do you REALLY think that Irving "cares" more about the design of iOS than Duarte cares about Android? And does it really make a difference, especially given that Android has managed to avoid the 2005 era plastic skeumorphism and created something awesome in its own right with Holo?

Again, this isn't 2009 anymore.