News - 700,000 Android activations each day

[HEXUS]

Meanwhile iPhone market share slipping in Europe.

Read more.

[Brewster0101]

'For Apple, prospects look likely to be steered by the world economy, as its premium products with their premium prices are appearing especially sensitive to economic wealth.'

Wonder how arrogant Apple will be to these facts and if they decide to cut their prices to compete.

In my office there is only one iphone user now, everyone else is on Android - most people choosing not a get another iphone because of the cost.

[kopite]

The thing is Android phones like the SAmsung Galaxy s2, motorola Razr and htc beats phones are all pretty close in price to the Price of the iphone`s and still sell by the bucket load.

[shaithis]

they are close-ish in price. The iPhone does seem to have come down recently (it's 500 from Apple direct....pretty sure it used to be 700).

BUT.....it's still more and does less then an Android phone and that's what people are starting to realise.

[Hicks12]

well on contract its hard to find an iphone 4s for less than £30, last time i looked it was £35 or 40 p/m with a free phone, also the fact there is no expansion slot... 16GB microsd costs £9 32GB costs £22 so cheap expansions for android!.

Currently can get SGS2 and Sensation at £20 - £23 p/m for the same as the iphone above... .

[crossy]

There's a clear correlation between market gain and the belated release of the iPhone 4S for markets where shares have increased, however, we wonder exactly what has led to the drop in market shares across other territories; suggestions are that during the economic crunch Europeans have become increasingly sensitive to price, whilst evidence also shows handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S II, have been extremely successful, with the device topping sales in Germany's mobile market.

Hmm, I remain to be convinced - whenever I've looked it would see that the SGSII etc are priced at around the same as the iPhone4S. E.g. on Three (my current provider) the Sammy and Apple devices on The One Plan are both £35/month, although I'll grant that they're also looking for an additional £99 for the Apple handset.

With Samsung expected to release the Galaxy S III in the first-half of next year, along with an exceptional line-up of devices from many Android OEMs, which will all be running the soon to roll-out Android 4.0, prospects are looking good for Google.

Is it just me or are Samsung perhaps setting themselves up for a major fall next year? After all, if the SGSIII isn't the tour de force that everyone's expecting then there's going to be major geek rage about. Although I'll admit to being very interesting in the SGSIII for a replacement for my current phone.

[Smudger]

Hang on - the 4S may be cheaper than it was, but Android phones have come down quite a bit as well. The Sensation is £325 on Amazon, and the Sensation XE is £385. That's quite a drop...

[Scribe]

All I can remember when I got my SGII on a 12 month contract was that the iPhone 4 at the time wasn't even available on a 12 month contract. To get equivalence I had to go 18 month and even then the price was higher at the time.

[keithwalton]

If the S3 is only a match for the galaxy nexus (it will likely trump it) it will get my upgrade (currently on an SGS running ics) if only because it'll get more carrier support than the nexus.

I do wonder how google are counting these activations, hopefully it is by unique imei numbers else those flashing custom roms and doing the initial install might be distorting this number slightly particularly with all the ics builds

[GoNz0]

my zte blades a £100 phone... would never pay £500 for something i would end up dropping down the loo.

[Funkstar]

I do wonder how google are counting these activations, hopefully it is by unique imei numbers else those flashing custom roms and doing the initial install might be distorting this number slightly particularly with all the ics builds

You haven't read the article have you? It's in the second paragraph!

Andy later clarified that each activation in this figure represents a completely new device, being activated for the first time, "...and for those wondering, we count each device only once (ie, we don't count re-sold devices), and 'activations' means you go into a store, buy a device, put it on the network by subscribing to a wireless service." he said.

This means there will be many thousands more new Android devices every day. If I go to Amazon and buy a Galaxy SII and stick my existing T-Mobile SIM in it, it won't be counted as that device won't be subscribing to a wireless service, my current Desire was the handset that was counted.

This makes me think that any figures Apple release are going to be far more accurate as they can tell exactly how many devices have been manufactured and sold. Googles figures will always be a gross underestimate however as they are not picking up wireless only devices, or SIM free handsets that use existing contracts or random PAYG SIMs.

[crossy]

This means there will be many thousands more new Android devices every day. If I go to Amazon and buy a Galaxy SII and stick my existing T-Mobile SIM in it, it won't be counted as that device won't be subscribing to a wireless service, my current Desire was the handset that was counted.

I was going to disagree if the SII was a new (i.e. not second-user) device, the fact that you're using an existing contract wasn't key - that's a new IMEI going online, so gets counted. Of course, if you then sold your Desire then the new owner of that wouldn't be counted as a "new" activation.

[shaithis]

But for every device sold on, there is probably another device that has been destroyed and replaced.....so it probably comes out in the wash.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

my zte blades a £100 phone... would never pay £500 for something i would end up dropping down the loo.

The Motorola Defy is around £100 from Orange ATM and is waterproof.