Apple's Arrogance Stokes Android Gains

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Steve Jobs and company may be facing a backlash over recent behavior that comes across as mean-spirited and spiteful.

By Paul McDougall

InformationWeek

May 11, 2010 09:40 AM

Is Apple losing its cool?

News that Google Android-based devices are outselling the iPhone may be a sign that consumers are fed up with Apple's increasingly restrictive policies and behavior that, in the minds of many, could be characterized as nothing short of bullying.

Android phones leapfrogged the iPhone in the first quarter to grab a 28% share of the market, according to numbers released Monday by market watcher NPD Group.

The iPhone's share stood at 21%, while category leader Research In Motion, with its Blackberry, took a 36% stake.

Android has been on the market for less than a year, and the fact it's outselling the iPhone is surely troubling to Cupertino. The question is whether it's enough to convince Steve Jobs and company to change their behavior.

Apple in recent months has left a bad taste in many consumers' minds with a series of moves that came off as, at the very least, boorish.

For starters, the company's policies around what does and does not pass muster for sale on its Apps Store seem increasingly whimsical. Sports Illustrated gets by with an application that features its swimsuit models, but software that shows a scantily clad woman cleaning the touch screen is barred.

Worse may be Apple's response to an incident that saw tech blog Gizmodo get hold of the yet-to-be-released IPhone 4.

Apple summarily fired the engineer who supposedly left the device on a bar stool, and it filed criminal charges against the blogger who landed the story.

The incidents reveal a corporate persona that is more spiteful nerd than the cool hipster Apple portrays itself as in television commercials and marketing materials.

It also calls into question the sincerity behind a branding campaign in which the company urged consumers to "Think Different."

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224701492

[ValerieA 350]

I don't know. The Android OS is new, and I wonder how much is simply jumping on the bandwagon of the newest toy - and the fact that a lot of carriers are providing phones with the Android OS, rather than just one as with the iPhone. On the other hand, I have heard good things about them. I am going to reserve judgement until I see the stats on retention - how many customers stick with their current phone OS over the next year or two. And, I am going to get hold of my MIL's Droid and check it out for myself.

[Heracles 417]

I don't do restricted platforms period. I also don't like being played like a fool and made to pay three times the price for something, just because it's cool. Not to mention, it will be a cold day in hell before I am forced to use AT&T alone.

Win and android all the way for me.

[Nina~ 431]

I have managed to get by most of apple's restrictions by jail-breaking my iphone.. but my biggest gripe about the iphone is that they do not support flash.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Apple sucks and Mac users are gay.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

DIE Apple DIE!

[Ban Hammer 13,399]

Apple sucks and Mac users are gay.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

That's scary.