You may not have noticed it, but in the past six months, we've been experiencing a true massacre. Not one written in blood, but one written in microchips and touchscreen displays. The scene of the crime? The United States. The perpetrator? Google's Android. The victims? Everybody else.
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Member since:2005-11-14
Member since:2011-01-04
I agree, one more carrier in one country means little.
Yes the US is the largest market, but most people forget that Verizon actually holds the same or less smartphone market share than AT&T. Plus AT&T has never had an attractive android phone before the Galaxy S, so it was mostly Verizon with Android VS AT&T with the iPhone.
Now both will have good phones on both of the largest networks, however the 6 month old iPhone 4 will be competing will duel core android phones sporting 720p screens and android 2.3 or 3.0. Plus Android still has phones on Sprint and T-mobile.
And again, that's just one county. Worldwide the iPhone 4 is on multiple carriers and still experiences high dropped calls and intermittent data outages that appear on no other phones. So far this has automatically been blamed on AT&T, where neither blackberrys or Android phones have the same problems.
If anything the Verizon iPhone will reveal these defects as Apple's responsibility and Apple may finally fix the biggest problem plaguing iPhone user for three years, instead of just using AT&T as a scapegoat.
Member since:2005-09-08
Member since:2009-04-18
I don't really understand why people think that having the device on multiple carriers will lead to an explosion in sales. People who want an iPhone will generally get one, regardless of what carrier it's on. For the most part (I know this doesn't apply to everyone so don't go mad at this comment) it's a bit of a fashion item. I'm an Android fan and I'm gonna be honest; the iPhone is an extremely desirable device, on both looks and functionality.
Now if these people suddenly have the option to go to two carriers they now have a choice. That doesn't mean double the amount of people will now buy one, just that roughly the same number of people will be buying on two carriers. Obviously in places where AT&T have bad signal this might not be true as people will have been holding out for another carrier, however nationally it's likely to remain relatively true.
The UK has had the iPhone on every network for a while now (both big ones and small one) and I wouldn't say that lots more people have been buying them. Obviously you're seeing more and more, however that's because they're selling well across all networks. Every network can't be selling as many as O2 did when it first came out on there though, it's likely to be spread across all the networks.
I'd love to be able to talk about how Android sales compares to iOS sales in a place where there's more than one carrier selling iPhones, however I've never seen any data for places like the UK yet. If you find any leave a comment cause I'd love to know 
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Member since:
2009-08-05
Some say the arrival of a potential Verizon iPhone might change things around, but I highly doubt it will have as big an impact as many seem to think.
We'll revisit this quote at mid-year. I think you are in for a rude awakening.