Comments on: Android sales to outstrip iPhone by '12?

Apple's iPhone got a head start but Google's Android devices are set to take off, market researcher Informa says. The real loser, however, apparently will be Symbian.

[daedbird]

England is backwards anyway......when was the last time Symbian was tops in the US for smartphones? Android needs a better lineup of phones to make any headway, and I don't see that as happening here because carriers love exclusivity of a model - ATT made a killing with iPhone, Verizon has done well with the Storm despite its poor first gen OS (fixed now) and Sprint will jump with the Pre. HTC isn't inspiring anyone, and an open-source Symbian stinks of desperation.

[ColbertPutin2012]

Dear Commander ******-Nozzle,
the palm pre is a palm its nothing new. Other than the multi-tasking capability there is nothing unique about it, and let me know how much you enjoy that with you 30 seconds of battery life. Oh yah and by the way its going to be on Sprints network exclusively so for all of you AT&T loathers who think you couldn't possibly get worse coverage jump over to the palm pre on sprint and let me know how that works out for you.

P.S.

Sprint was so hard up for cash they actually had to sell their network towers to a different company and lease them back just to stay afloat. Good Luck =).

[cardfan1212]

LOL What an idiot.

[pando85]

Wait though, android is a platform/os in which many many phone manufacturing companies can start using, wouldn't it make sense for it to outstrip iphone since iphone is 1 phone, 1 company(apple?) I mean that is like saying more people have dells, hp's, ibms, and acer computers combined than the people that have apple computers, clearly that would be the case because more companies are allowed to use the engine, while nobody is allowed to use the iphone os accept iphone/apple themselves. Regardless naturally, that is the way it is, not saying anyone is better than the other. I could be wrong though... I dunno.

[crenelle]

I've looked for specific sales numbers on Android-based phones and haven't found any. We know iPhone sells in the millions. The market is bearing *very* conservative right now, people are more carefully adding up how much a two-year contract will at minimum cost 'em, for any PDA phone, to figure out if buying in is worth it to them. I have an iPhone, it is pretty darn expensive. Any one Android phone may sell pretty well, but Apple is doing well.

[ikramerica--2008]

By 2012 Apple will likely have multiple iPhone products, just as they started with 1 iPod and now have rwo different shuffles, the nano in 9 colors and 2 sizes, the classic in two colors, and the Touch in 3 colors. And by 2012, this LINE of phones should be available on more than ATT in the USA (though probably not Verizon).

Unless this market analyst takes that into account, the prediction is pretty empty. Which is not to say it won't come true, but projecting technology markets 3 years out is about as pointless as projecting the price of oil 3 years out...

[stockyjoe]

Yeah and I'm sure they thought Chrome would blow everyone away as well. (Ironically Chrome uses Apple's webkit). Even I have seen the light and I use to joke about the iphones touchscreen. The Iphone UI is awesome and Android reminds one of something from the 90's. All our execs where I work have gone through every iteration of smartphone. Each with their likes and dislikes. We gave em Iphones and they just love them. And even more, we hardly have to keep repeating to them how to do things with it.

[minhaajrehman]

Given the Google track record and Apple's restrictions, i do agree G might beat A to phones by 2012. Google didn't seem to catch up on Apple's aesthetics in hardware with HTC. Gotta come up with something more sleek to grasp the visual audience of today.