Looks like the tablet discussion is still ongoing so better take it off-topic :

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24253413

The first hits you get on google all refer to the same study by IDC, one of the more know research firms on this sort of stuff. MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

Independently authenticated facts are; in the tablet market, Apple dominate and by a massive margin. This doesn't mean Apple make the best tablet (fanboy view) just quantifiable fact of measurement by a single metric.

In the tablet market, Samsung are also rans (as are all other non Apple tablet manufacturers).

On the Phone side of things, things are much different, the generally best received smartphone by review is the HTC one & One X. Samsung Galaxy range are not so well reviewed, however they & Apple outsell HTC by a ridiculous margins!

Straight one to one comparison of Samsung to Apple flagship phones are a no contest, Apple wins hands down in pure volume of sales. Again a single metric of measurement. On the other hand Samsung produce many versions of phones on multiple operating systems and catering to a much wider demographic, collectively outselling all other phone manufacturers on the planet.

The app market is heavily biased towards the IOS Ecosystem, largely because of Apple's sandboxed approach being monetised more successfully for developers. The downside is that the sheer volume of apps means it is increasingly hard to stand out and achieve sustaining volume and Apple take a large cut of all app sales.

Staying with apps, cloning is rampant in the Android market, taking valuable income away from developers, many app markets and fragmented hardware/ old Android versions make developing for android a difficult financial prospect and security is very, very weak.

Android is utterly dominant in the "emerging" markets, however monetising the app ecosystem in these markets is still a challenge for all concerned. Dosen't mean they won't succeed in the longer run though.

Microsoft is "buying" app developer commitment and is showing the fastest percentage growth of all app Ecosystems, a case of watch this space (as you also identify)?

I'm not a fan of any single vendor, instead I prefer to have choice, it maybe that I choose Samsung for one thing, HTC for the next and Apple for a third whatever... I really don't care who made it, only that it will deliver what I'm paying for....except for Microsoft, I hope they rot in hell for all the years of misery of battling with their bloatware crap!!!

If you think and or believe Samsung or whoever delivers the bang for buck your money deserves, that is perfectly all right, but please don't bend fact in an effort to evangelise such products. They are just like Apple, Microsoft or any other business, just out to part us from our ready cash

Personally I would automatically be sceptical of results showing a product is best (Google search to find the Results that show Googles biggest vendor of a Google product is best), but that maybe just cynical old me

The exception to all this is the FFRR, best vehicle on the planet bar none and no contradiction accepted:rolllaugh:  Should've been old enough to know better...doh!
Current 2010 5.0 SC Autobiography
Previous 2006 TD6 Vogue SE
Previous 1998 P38 4.6 Vogue Autobiography 50 (No 10)

Agreed FFRRs are the best but that is too obvious for it to ever become a discussion (even outside this forum ).

Ultimately it is all about user perception and part of it is getting used to an ecosystem. My first exposure was a company Windows HTC and it worked very well (for its time) including good integration with the office network.

Then Android started emerging and based on the perceived user friendliness (and my personal dislike for anything that is closed like Apple) of the Galaxy S, I went for that. To be honest, I never held an iPhone in my hand and doubt I ever will. We (SWMBO and myself) have agreed always have at least one alternative to Apple in the house and she is the Apple fan (with a Galaxy S4Zoom phone ) so I will stay with Windows (and going to play a bit with Ubuntu next year) and Android.

I also understand that part of the success of Samsung is there massive marketing budget, like Apple has their brilliant marketing philosophy as well. Ultimately that is what is selling their products and that the one is better at this and the other better at that is not relevant because ultimately all users can get used to either system and is likely to prefer that system hence forward.

Even the most unbiased reviewer can not get away from their own preferences as that is what smartphones and tablets are about, providing the most user friendly phone/tablet. The specs are one thing but don't tell the entire story, the user friendliness is a very very big part and that is user dependent and therefore reviewer dependent. So the better phone/tablet is no longer a "hard test" (i.e. just looking at the specs and testing them with a number of benchmark test), it is also a "soft test" on what "feels" better.

From my perspective and that is what was my point in the first place, accepting your premise that Apple has sold the most tablets and still has a big margin (haven't checked it myself and I accept your view on this), I feel they are slowly being overtaken. Maybe overtaken is not the right word, it is more the rest is catching up fast, the dominance of Apple is over and whether that results in a future decline of Apple or that Apple will become "just another player in the market". The iPad and iPhone are no longer the only big players in the market.

Purely my opinion or should I say perception . MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

Last edited by ebajema on 29th Oct 2013 9:56am. Edited 1 time in total

I think it's already happened with phones - iPhone was the first and got a decent market share - but Android has caught up and now overtaken.

Apple are not really after the mass market - they are really focussed on the premium market.

With tablets - the iPad still has a decent lead - but others will catch up and probably overtake in the next few years - but Apple will still target the premium market.

Apple will done exactly what they do with computers - charge a premium for something that just works like it's supposed to with no hassle.

Apple can't compete in emerging markets volumes - they want to own the whole technology stack - so can't compete on price.

That said - I still reckon the vast majority of buyers of new FFRR's will be Apple customers - even in China

the ipad is a great tablet, i had an ipad2 and it did everything very well but it did it the 'apple' way and me being the type of person that likes to personalise things i had to jailbreak it to achieve that..
sold that and brought a samsung tab2 10.1 which was much cheaper and now i can have it the way i want it.. ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
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All good points raised

I'm fascinated by this whole market and can't wait to see what tech these companies can bring to the market next week, month or year and I sincerely hope some of it will be good enough to buy.

I am genuinely curious as to why some people are so anti Apple, I have no major love for them but neither do I take a blanket ban on all their products, same with Samsung, HTC etc and even Microsoft. I'm typing this on a Windows equipped machine and even though I have little love for Microsoft's past garbage (Vista anyone?), this version (7) generally works as it should.

I tried using A Galaxy S2 phone when it came out but reverted back to my faithful iPhone 3GS after two months of frustration, and at 4 years old, the 3GS is still doing what it was designed to do. Battery life is getting to be an issue though, so may have to take the plunge and go for a new phone soon. At the moment seriously tempted by the HTC one or maybe even, god save my soul, a Nokia windows phone

Any advice or experience of the latest phones would be greatly appreciated, Oh and I don't want a "Phablet", to big for my taste, something that is easy to slip into a suit pocket  Should've been old enough to know better...doh!
Current 2010 5.0 SC Autobiography
Previous 2006 TD6 Vogue SE
Previous 1998 P38 4.6 Vogue Autobiography 50 (No 10)

I think that that is the most characteristic difference between Apple and Android. Apple is very good at making it work but only their way and Android is open but maybe not as slick/fault free as Apple. And there users that prefer the Apple way and others prefer the Android/et al. way.

I firmly believe it is more that philosophical difference that needs to be exploited in the future as they will be able to match/follow each other on the "hard specs".

And Alastair made a good point as well, the focus of Apple on the premium part of the market works well for them. I am not sure if that will continue, I still think they need (and they seem to slowly be moving a bit more "down market" as well) to broaden their market reach if they want to "survive" the onslaught of the alternatives. MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

I've spent the last few years with both Android and Apple kit - rolling out (3 years ago) about a thousand iPads to NHS community staff - at that time only Apple could meet the security requirements - that's long changed though and Android kit can easily surpass the requirements too.

I was a dedicated Apple fan with iPhone 3GS and 4 - but then that's about the time Android got serious - and my phone of choice is the Samsung S4, tablet is Galaxy Note 10.1 and laptop is Google Pixel (high quality Chromebook).

To me the benefit of Android is the flexibility of the system to be configured to meet the needs of the user - IOS (Apple) pretty much works out of the box, but the user has to work the Apple way - and I've found that's good for people who have little interest in technology (and perhaps more of an interest in fashion!) as they can happily just use what ever is dished up to them.

Android is better for me as I can do what I like with it, and I live my life in the Google cloud (hence the chromebook), but the wife still has an iPad (although it looks very dated these days - and if anything IOS 7 looks even more dated - like Android did about 4 years ago).

So it's still a matter of horses for courses - Apple if you aren't that interested in computing - just want something that works (maybe not perfectly but is OK) - Android - you can save shed loads of money on the hardware and install any version of the Android system you like - it's your device (unlike the Apple kit that is often treated by Apple as if it's not yours at all), and if you want to install a different ROM feel free - and it wont even invalidate your warranty in the UK (Thanks to the EU).

I, like B9er, am very interested in the developments going on (partly because of my current job but mainly out of pure interest in "the future").

I would love to have a play with other phones (apart from BB as I have been using a BB6 for quite some time now for work and the BB10s I hear too many issues). HTC, Sony, Nokia (on Windows).

I recently bought a Dell XPS 27 top spec that is running W8.1 and have to say I love it (it is very fast) and it is quite easy to get used to W8. At work I use W7 and no complaints there either. I am not a big Windows fan but I do like working with their products, partly because I am so used to them.

I have used my wifes Apples and I am pretty sure if I spent a bit more time on them so I get used to the way they work, I wouldn't mind using them. I just never liked "closed" ecosystems and that is actually the only issue I do have with Apple. I have no problem that she uses it, I just don't want to use it. Also I seem to have no big issues with Windows and Android and getting them to work for me. It allows for us to be very flexible in our family as there will always be a system that can do what we need

I am actually in the process of changing jobs and moving to Singapore where I may get a completely different smartphone (iPhone anyone ) so maybe I get to sample something else that my current favourite S3.

I did enjoy this discussion though  MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

Thanks for starting this - I quite like these debates - as long as they don't descend to simple tribal warfare between the users of the competing operating systems!

Yes I agree, Apple's premium approach is being eroded, 2013 turnover is up but profits are down. They are best at being market disrupters and need to have something new for the market to drool over and that no one else has succeeded at before.

Their free give away of software will be a disrupter (Mavericks, Ilife and IWorks) and will lock in some customer loyalty for a while, but is easy to replicate quickly. Should've been old enough to know better...doh!
Current 2010 5.0 SC Autobiography
Previous 2006 TD6 Vogue SE
Previous 1998 P38 4.6 Vogue Autobiography 50 (No 10)

That last pic is VERY disturbing!  Got - 2017 SDV8 Autobiography in Loire Blue
Had- 2008 TDV8 Vogue SE in Java black
Had - 2007 S/C in Stornoway Grey

Wishing you all the best for the new job Ebajema  Should've been old enough to know better...doh!
Current 2010 5.0 SC Autobiography
Previous 2006 TD6 Vogue SE
Previous 1998 P38 4.6 Vogue Autobiography 50 (No 10)

Thanks B9er, my only hope is that we get to live in Malaysia (depends on where we can find a school that will accept our eldest mid term) as the MM2H visa allows for a car to be imported tax free. If that is the case I can take the SC with despite it being LHD (Singapore doesn't allow LHD imports, besides cost of cars there is completely out of my league). Fingers crossed on that one please  MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

Is open going to remain open?

http://gigaom.com/2013/10/28/samsung-is-pu...en-bigger/

Answers on a postcard please  Should've been old enough to know better...doh!
Current 2010 5.0 SC Autobiography
Previous 2006 TD6 Vogue SE
Previous 1998 P38 4.6 Vogue Autobiography 50 (No 10)