Tag Archives: iPhone

Are Smartphone Market Share Numbers an Accurate Representation of the Market?

by thomasfitzgerald on 02. Aug, 2010 in Apple, iPhone

With the recent publication of the latest round of smartphone market share data, pundits will be undoubtedly jumping on the statistics that show Android having overtaken the both the iPhone and Blackberry in the US. While the numbers will be good news for those rooting for Android to destroy the iPhone, I have to wonder if the numbers are a good representation of the actual state of the market. Before you write this off as rampant fanboyism or an attempt to defend Apple at all cost, bear with me.

I have no doubt that the numbers are correct but I have two issues with the context in which they are framed. First of all they are pitting an entire group of manufacturers and brands against two individual companies. Rather than compare the sales of phones from individual manufacturers the people delivering these figures are grouping all Android phones and manufacturers under a single umbrella. They are comparing the sales of dozens of companies to the sale of one (or two). However, even though I don’t think this is a fair representation of the market, I can see why you would do this. It is after all a comparison of operating systems. But then, if you’re comparing platforms based on operating systems, why leave out a huge chunk of one OS, in other words iOS devices other than the iPhone?

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iPhone Antenna Issues outside The US? Not So Much.

by thomasfitzgerald on 30. Jul, 2010 in Apple, iPhone

There are two different reports in the news today about iPhone 4 reception in real world tests on networks in countries outside the US. Both note that there are no real issues with the Phone.

From Australia:

Is the antenna an issue? No it’s not. Have I dropped calls? No, I have not.

Have I noticed an impact on the device’s performance? No.

Now it would be impossible for me to test every single mobile reception area in Australia just as it would be unlikely any iPhone 4 user will use the device in every mobile reception area in Australia.

Here’s another report from Norway (translated by AppleInsider)

Amobil writer Finn Jarle Kvalheim added, ‘Consumer Reports goes far in asserting that the problems do not have anything to with the mobile network. But it is a fact that mobile networks in Norway are much more robust than AT&T’s network in the US.’

Olsen, who helped translate the story for AppleInsider, adds “I have myself tested the iPhone 4 and tried to replicate the signal loss close to one of Norway’s major towns without being able to get even one less bar.”

I’ll test in Ireland when I get mine, but I think this just reinforces the fact that this issue was blown out of all proportion. Remember, Consumer Reports couldn’t replicate this in the field either. Then again, some reliable people did have major issues, so it could be a frequency issue, as europe (I’m not sure about Australia) uses a different GSM frequency as the US. It’s interesting though.

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Android seen as long-term threat to iPhone? Numbers Don’t Add Up.

by thomasfitzgerald on 30. Jul, 2010 in Mac

From Electronista

The analyst points out that Android phones are already trumping the iPhone on a daily sales basis, moving about 160,000 units versus the iPhone’s 95,000. Around 120,000 of RIM’s BlackBerries are being sold each day.

there’s something about these numbers that don’t add up. Google’s been trumping that number (160,000 per day) for some time now and yet they haven’t overtaken Apple or RIM in terms of sales for the last two quarters, and if these numbers are accurate they should have by now, and yet market share numbers don’t put them any where near Apple yet. So what gives?

Could it be that the 160,000 number is “Activations” and not sales. I don’t know how it works on Android, butI’ve activated my iPhone at least 5 times since I bought it. Something is clearly not right here as those figures just don’t add up.

(Read Android seen as long-term threat to iPhone | Electronista.)

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If Phones Were Cars

by thomasfitzgerald on 13. Jul, 2010 in Apple, iPhone

Here’s an imaginary situation to ponder:

Imagine that some car company, let’s say Ford announces a new car. It’s a newly designed low cost sports car for the general public. It has numerous innovative designs but Ford is keen to publicise the new low profile tyre and wheel design designed to improve fuel efficiency. The car receives a generally good reception from the industry and before its release, Ford sends review models to the major Car magazines and Newspapers. The car gets a glowing report and reviewers consider it one of the best cars they’ve ever driven.

When the car goes on general release however a popular car enthusiast blog, lets for the sake of argument call them Carzomo, receives a you tube video from a reader showing that if you drive over nails the tyre bursts. Upon seeing this, other readers of the blog who have also just bought the car decide to try it for themselves, and sure enough, if you drive the car over some nails the tyres burst. Carzomo declares that this is a design flaw with the new sports car’s low profile tyre design and the story is quickly picked up by other blogs and media outlets. A newspaper contacts Ford for a comment and they respond that all cars run the risk of having their tyres burst if you drive over nails, and that customers should avoid driving over nails.

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Are So Many People Experiencing the iPhone Antenna Issue Because They’re Trying to Experience it ?

by thomasfitzgerald on 27. Jun, 2010 in Apple, iPhone

I know I’m going to get flamed for being a “fanboy” over this but anyway, here it goes. I was browsing through some of the videos of the alleged iPhone 4 “design flaw” last night and I noticed something very interesting. Before I get to that though, lets back up for a second. Before Gizmodo made this issue public all of the reviews of the phone noticed a marked improvement in call quality and reception. Then suddenly after Gizmodo posted the story, the notion of a deeply flawed antenna design it spread like wildfire. Lots of reports came in from people who were able to reproduce the problem, and quickly there were lots of videos on You Tube, which people were then using as evidence of this being a widespread design flaw. To be honest I have a hard time believing that Apple never tested the phone without a case on. Anyway, it occurred to me to check my own phone, a 3g which I did and I too was able to reproduce the exact same signal drop on my phone. Here’s the thing though, I was trying to. I was gripping the phone tightly in my hand. When I hold the phone normally like I’ve always done the reception drop is just not an issue.

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Not a Design Flaw: The Infamous Death Grip on my 3G

by thomasfitzgerald on 26. Jun, 2010 in Apple, iPhone

Here’s my two year old iPhone 3g showing the exact same reception drop as the iPhone 4. Hold it the same way people are holding the iPhone 4 and you get the exact same drop in reception. And, just like people are reporting, having slightly damp palms makes the issue worse, and putting it in a case alleviates it. I’ve had this phone for over 2 years and I’ve never noticed any problems with reception in daily use. It was only when people started posting about the iPhone 4′s problems that I decided to try it. Clearly then the iPhone 4 does not have a major design flaw, as much as Gizmodo would like everyone to think, as previous generation phones exhibit the EXACT SAME PROBLEM (as does the Nexus one and undoubtedly lots of others). Perhaps if “journalists” did a better job of doing a bit of research before jumping to conclusions we could have avoided some of the calamitous headlines over the past few days.

One caveat though. I couldn’t get my fiance’s 3g to do the same thing. She’s still running iOs 3.x so it’s possible it is a software issue. I didn’t try for very long though and I was in an area of good reception at the time.

p.s. Apologies for the shoddy camera work. I was trying to hand hold my 5D in one hand and do this in the other.

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Aaaahhhhhgggrrrrhhhhhh

by thomasfitzgerald on 27. Apr, 2010 in Apple

I’ve resisted the urge to comment on the whole Gizmodo / iPhone prototype thing that happened last week, but the story just won’t go away. There’s been a lot written about it so I won’t re-hash old news. Suffice it to say, I think John Gruber’s analysis of the situation has been bang on the money. Still, that doesn’t stop the usual round of mind numbing stupidity from doing the rounds. This is perhaps the stupidest comment I’ve heard yet: A commenter on a story on Tech Crunch about the police raid on Gizmodo Editor Brian Chen says:

“…police needs to investigate whether this was a trap laid out by Apple to catch Gizmodo/any other blog in a legal trouble??”

Really? Oh dear god that’s taking paranoia to a whole new level.

It never ceases to amaze me how people want to see corruption and conspiracy when the obvious is staring them in the face. Commenters are giving out that Apple tipped off the police. When someone questioned that it was Apple who tipped the cops off someone else claims “who else could it be”

Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps the DA actually watches TV or reads a newspaper. I mean the story was on every news channel. It even made headline news here in Ireland, and it was the butt of jokes on Letterman. But no, the police only got wind of it when Apple “tipped them off”. Aaaahhhhhgggrrrrhhhhhh.

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Flash to iPhone? Not so Fast

by thomasfitzgerald on 09. Apr, 2010 in Apple, iPhone

John Gruber points out that Apple’s new developer agreement appears to ban Adobe’s much publicised flash to iPhone compiler. I think you’d be a fool if you didn’t see this coming. I certainly had my suspicions. Here’s a little something I wrote back in October….

Still, there are a number of questions that need to be answered before one gets too excited. The biggest is of course, will Apple allow this. I know there are already a handful of Apps in the store developed with the beta version of CS5 but now that the cat is out of the bag as it were, will Apple continue to allow iPhone Apps that weren’t developed with its own developer software? There’s no reason why they shouldn’t so long as Flash generates code that doesn’t violate the developer agreement, but then this is Apple we’re talking about and anything can happen. Trying to publicly embarrass Apple into supporting flash on the iPhone is probably not the best way to win friends at Cupertino either. I’m just sayin’

If I was on the Flash team at Adobe right now, I’d be seriously pissed. Still, I can’t believe they ever thought they’d get away with it in the first place.

(Read the rest here.)

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