- Posts tagged iOS
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Android Sales Misleading Thanks to Massive Returns
Would you believe some Android phone models are showing return rates approaching 40%!!?? Well, that's what TechCrunch is reporting. The primary reason appears to be user dissatisfaction and/or confusion. People buy an Android to save money and "think differently" and then compare their purchase to their friends' iPhones and go back to the store disappointed.
Interestingly, the same piece says the return rate on iPhone 4's is an unbelievably low 1.7%.
Combine these return rates with the heavily fragmented platform story surrounding Android and it becomes a far less attractive development option than it first appears, and even that first appearance isn't all that hot.
I have to say that I have both an Android and an iPhone and as I compare them in side-by-side usage the Android almost always comes out on the short end of the stick. The things it excels at are of interest primarily to techies who, in case you missed it, aren't a huge market segment.
Facebook Aiming to Undermine AppStore With HTML5 Effort
MG Siegler at TechCrunch broke a story today that, if true, sends a strong signal that Facebook plans to attempt to subvert at least some of Apple's heavy-handed control of iOS (iPhone, iPad, etc.) apps through the AppStore. According to Siegler, who claims first-hand knowledge of Project Spartan at Facebook, the plan is to get a sizable number (80 or more) of current AppStore-successful developers to create apps in HTML5 rather than Flash and to make those apps available through Facebook as a medium/platform.
And therein lies the potential Achilles Heel for FB. Facebook apps, almost without exception, are time-wasters, mind-numbers and thumb-twiddlers. While they're popular among a big portion of the FB crowd, it remains to be seen if enough users of that social net service are ready to look to FB to be a provider or publisher of more serious business, productivity or utility apps that run in a browser and take advantage of iOS device attributes. I hope they do but I'm pretty skeptical about the potential here.
I've made no secret of my belief that Web apps, as contrasted with native iOS apps, are the real wave of the future in smartphone development. But it's been clear for some time that the biggest problem wasn't going to be development tools or platform access; rather, it was going to be the issue of how developers could get their Web apps into consumer hands easily and in large numbers. Facebook has the potential to play that pivotal role here. Apple won't. Google, with its Android plans, probably can't either. That really leaves Facebook to do this work and become solidified as the third player in the Big Time Dev Game for smart devices.
With its massive installed base of users, many if not most of whom are regular visitors to the Facebook space, these guys could provide a huge marketplace for the right kinds of apps.
And therein lies the potential Achilles Heel for FB. Facebook apps, almost without exception, are time-wasters, mind-numbers and thumb-twiddlers. While they're popular among a big portion of the FB crowd, it remains to be seen if enough users of that social net service are ready to look to FB to be a provider or publisher of more serious business, productivity or utility apps that run in a browser and take advantage of iOS device attributes. I hope they do but I'm pretty skeptical about the potential here.
Does Apple's iMessages Move Kill SMS?
At yesterday's Apple Worldwide Developer Conference, the company announced that the next major release of its iOS will include as part of its Messages framework a new feature called iMessages. This feature will allow owners of iOS-based devices to send rich media messages back and forth absolutely free. Not only that, these messages will have a number of advantages over the costly SMS traffic now offered as a premium service by all the major cellular carriers. As MG Siegler opines on TechCrunch, this may ultimately kill SMS and with it the stratospheric profit margins the carriers have been enjoying for lo these many years.
At the very least, again as Siegler points out, this move will force Google to implement a similar feature set within the Android OS, which in turn will relegate the outrageously expensive SMS messaging to cross-device traffic only. Given the affinity effect (which suggests that folks who are iOS device users tend to have friends who are also iOS users, and the same holds true for Android users), the ultimate effect could well be the death of SMS or a price reduction to zero or nearly so.
Among the cool features of iMessages over SMS are receipts and notifications when the other party is typing a message in an iMessages thread.
I just like the way Apple continues to innovate and to make their customers' user experience top of the line. I'm willing to pay extra for that consideration. Obviously I'm not alone; Apple says there are now 200 million iOS devices out there. That means at least 100 million iOS device users. That's a big family.
