
Speaking of Windows Phone - it seems like it's not happening.
Telecom executives for years have trumpeted the need for a new cellphone platform to provide a counterweight to the dominance of Google's Android and Apple's iOS. Maybe it could be BlackBerry. Or maybe Windows.
Or maybe not. According to the data from IDC, the two top players are only getting stronger, grabbing 96.4% of global smartphone shipments in the second quarter, up from 92.6% a year ago.
Windows Phone’s share of shipments fell to 2.5% of the total from 3.4% a year ago, as shipments dropped by more than 9%. BlackBerry’s share fell to 0.5% from 2.8% - below the market share of the "other" category - amid a total collapse in shipments.
This is a two-horse race, and the rest is fighting over the scraps. Those scraps are enough for newcomers such as Jolla, who don't really need the massive numbers to keep a small company alive, but it's the death knell for platforms from larger, established companies with demanding shareholders.
So far, the whole Windows Phone experiment has been a disaster for Microsoft (and Nokia). They've had to pour so much money into Windows Phone just to keep it alive that it will take them 5-10 years before they will ever make any profit on the platform - and that's assuming it actually takes off. If it continues to muddle as it does now, it will remain a huge money pit - and at some point, shareholders and the new CEO will question its existence.
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off the top of my head here are things i do with my ancient iPhone most days. If I had a Droid I'd need it to do this type of stuff:
1- put up a free hotspot anywhere with 2 "clicks"
2- keep synced all of my email, notes, calendars, phone#'s, documents, bookmarks, pictures, music, videos, and workout data with my laptop, in the background with no help from me. 0 clicks.
3- stream audio, auto-pause if skype, call, or video call is coming in, and restart stream once call is finished
4- be a good phone and text machine get my scores and news updates and do lots of browsing. pay my bills to the phone company, insurance, cable, etc. through secure apps.
5- control my roku and throw content around the house to my rokus and appletv
6- capture lots of video, both HD and filtered/vintage style, do a quick edit of video, and send off the device.
7- slide into my akai control surface and become the synth engine so I have a nice portable synth rig
8- act as a general control surface for other apps: reason, ableton live, traktor
9- record and upload to soundcloud,
and most importantly...
10- don't ever lose my data. ever! don't misplace it, weirdly name it, or otherwise delete it.
this is the main reasons friends of mine switch to iOS. either ignorance, error, or hardware failure causes data loss on Android and they know I haven't lost mobile data in years, they see i do everything on 1 iPhone year after year, and they make an investment in stability.
If Android is doing this stuff I listed above with minimal fuss and maximum success then it has advanced as an OS.
I've been doing things like this for years now, on the same little glass and metal iOS device, and it's pretty amazing. Every iPhone i've owned is better than the last so I'll either get a 5S or a 6, probably in the next year. I just hope the screen isn't too big for 1 thumb use, I hate those phablet things, make up your mind!
One swipe from the top down to bring the menu, then one tap to turn the hotspot on?
That's what Google's services are for?
I think that's more about what app you're using than anything else.
Those are also about the apps, not the platform itself.
A quick look on Play Market reveals a dozen or so Roku-apps.
Uh, I'm somewhat baffled about this. Why do you think Android couldn't do this?
Install the Soundcloud-app from Play Market?
10- don't ever lose my data. ever! don't misplace it, weirdly name it, or otherwise delete it.
I haven't heard of this being an issue, either.
Member since:
2006-01-10
What basic things can your amaze balls iPhone do that an android cannot?