Ever since the iPhone launched back in June 2007 it has remained one of the most popular smartphones on the market due to the functionality of the device, but latest smartphone shipping reports say that they have raised their game and put themselves into second. Apple will say that this is down to the massive sales of the 3G device that was released in July 2008. In the last quarter 39.9 million smartphones were shipped around the world and Nokia was the leading vendor but Apple took a massive gain by taking 17.3% of the market which took them into second place replacing RIM (Research in Motion) who are most known for shipping the Blackberry devices but time will tell if Apple can keep that gain due to RIM shipping some new models of the Blackberry that could be very popular amongst the buying public. Microsoft themselves could say they had a positive quarter as their shipping increased by 42%.
If you were to take the shipping figures posted by Canalys and look at them by OS you would see that Symbian is still the most popular amongst the users and that Apple and RIM are challenging them for that top spot.
You do realize that he is right.
It's an opinion. Not fact.
Please. Have you used an iPhone? Because you'd think differently if you had.
You really should win the crap post of the month award for that.
Let me tell you a small tale about my friend (and boss!) at work. Devout Windows Mobile owner for a LONG time, he's religiously upgraded every 12/18 months to the latest and greatest Windows phone through Orange, and subsequently handed down his old handset to be his work handset. This time he managed to persuade work to get him a HTC Touch Pro - the hope being that it'd help reaffirm his decision on whether to go for a Touch Pro or a Diamond. The result? He's getting an iPhone. The un-elegant, lethargic and 3D UI which has been unceremoniously slapped on top of the dated Windows Mobile back-end is incomplete and frustrating to use - he's fed up with the gradual erosion of a product he loved so much and has decided to look else where.
People are ridiculously biased against Apple as they seem to think that the only POSSIBLE reason people want their products is for gloating purposes. Whilst there is an element of truth in that, I think frankly you need to broaden your horizons a little. Every person (and I mean EVERY) that I've shown the iPhone to has been blown away. Be it family members who are not too tech-savvy through to good friends who work in IT or who are just run of the mill geeks. The ONLY thing that holds them back from wanting to get one is the size of the device. The 2MP camera, the lack of MMS or cut-and-paste isn't a drawback for the sorts of people that Apple are targeting with the iPhone frankly and hasn't dissuaded any of my friends who are considering getting one.
Taking aside the cost of the brick alone and also the fact they tried (and largely failed) to restructure the way contract subsidies work in the uk I will admit they have made a fairly decent product.
However
The fact you have to hack the phone to get any decent use out as well as all the silly missing features such as mms and video recording (Yes I do use them and they are a must) makes the phone feel incomplete and is kind of a slap in the face when you consider the cost.
Apple have accelerated the UI within the mobile market (as only Apple can) however they still have a long way to go hardware and feature wise and with many of the other mobile os's going open source and catching up to Apple in leaps and bounds it will be interesting to see what they do when others have caught up.
Adding some basic hardware that has been around in a phone for the last 6 years and marketing it as New wont stick in the long run. Optical Zoom on a 4mp camera will no dount make the iphone "The best camera phone on the market" but it still wont be able to record video.
Most iPhone users are just kids, who use it for media..... the iphone can be used as smartphone but the media must distinguish between the possibility and the reality
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