back to article 45% of Android users to upgrade to rival phone OSes

Call it the fanboy effect, call it the superior user experience the device offers, but research shows that iPhone owners are much more likely to stick with Apple than are folk who've bought handsets from other companies. The data comes from UBS and takes in conversations had with more than 500 smartphone owners globally. Some …

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  1. scifidale
    Happy

    My only problem with my HTC desire is the small amount of onboard memory and the number of apps that still cannot ber entirely moved to SD, so yes I wont be moving away from android but I will be paying attention to how much onboard memory the phone has on my next upgrade.

    1. <spez>
      Thumb Up

      i know you shouldnt have to but.....

      rooting the phone and getting a custom hBoot and ROM gives the HTC desire much more life.

      Imagine this.... I have 400MB+ of apps and the phone says I have 187MB free.

      Just a bad design of the desire which was fixed in all newer releases.

      Saying that...... i'll be trying a different android manufacturer, just to see how green the grass is.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Mushroom

      you forgot to mention BATTERY LIFE

      I love my HTC Desire , but it's permanently tethered to a charging point.

      Something my Nokia E71 only had to do every few days..... but then I couldn't play Angry Birds on that.

      Oh for the 2 week standby of a Nokia 6310i...... if only all I wanted to do was talk :)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I used an iPhone for a year

    counted every minute until the contract ended. One of the worst phones I've ever owned

    dropped calls, flaky reception, Apple deactivating Apps I'd paid for. Terrible

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      oh, and it completely missed the block call function

      1. Alex McKenna

        Your complaint is so unusual, given the satisfatcion figures we all see each time for Apple gear, that maybe you're just extremely unlucky, and live in a weird blank spot, or ...

    2. Steve Todd
      FAIL

      Not very good trolling there

      Apple have only ever been known to deactivate mallware. Once you've bought an app you keep it, even if it is pulled from the store.

      You haven't ACTUALY owned one have you?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Apple deactivating Apps

      Are you just trolling? I've never had an app removed from my iPhone by Apple. Even if I delete the app from my phone there's a backup of it in iTunes. If Apple decide to remove something from the App store they do not connect to people's devices and remove it from there as well.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        As with most iPhone users, you've probably never played with wifi sniffers?

        Apple took a dislike to them in March 2010

        1. Steve Todd
          FAIL

          @AC 18:02

          WiFi sniffers? Got one and it's still working just fine thanks. It even works on the iPad, which wasn't even announced when the app was removed from the store. Read what I wrote above: Apple may remove apps from the store for new buyers, but once an app is downloaded you can keep it.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Let me guess, was it on AT&T

      Droped calls are mostly a function of a shit network. Never had a droped call anywhere in Europe and only know of 2 place where i cant get a connection.

  3. King Edward I
    Stop

    Heh...

    "The data comes from UBS and takes in conversations had with more than 500 smartphone owners globally."

    Glad to see they went with a statistically significant sample size. Oh wait...

    1. Steve Evans

      Indeed...

      How can you survey only 500 people and call it a global study? That's only 2.5 people per country!

      You could have surveyed more people by standing at the UBS watercooler all day with a clipboard... Which is probably exactly what they did.

  4. technohead95
    FAIL

    Hardly worth paying attention to...

    ...with only 500 surveyed users, there's no point trying to work out patterns or %. Until you look at stats from 10,000s of people, it has now value at all. I bet if you surveyed a different 500 people, you'll get wildly different % and figures.

  5. LPF

    The problem with android...

    Is that unlike the iPphone for most of the handsets you have to make a blood sacrifice at the full moon to get an OS upgrade for most handsets, unless you are into hacking your phone. Whereas with the iPhone the upgrade is pretty painless, and even if you have an older phone, you are not left behind until you physically dont have the hardware to run the updated OS.

    How many prefectly good hardware wise android phones have been stiffed and left running old versions of the OS, it was only with OS 5 that I think the original and 3 vesions of the iphone were left behind.

    That kind of product support breeds loyalty.

    1. Steve Evans

      I agree that Apple do have the "We'll push out an upgrade to *our* customers when we want" attitude sorted. Carriers get no say, which sounds like heaven to me, and being a single supplier of hardware and software means control freak levels of control. It also means you don't get a choice in much at all. Want a Qwerty keyboard, no. Want a better camera, wait for next year. Want a bigger screen, sorry this is it. Want a smaller handset/screen, nope, sorry. It's swings and roundabouts.

      With Android you go out and look at the handsets and buy the one you want. With Apple you get what you're offered, or you stick with your current handset.

      Anyway, all that aside, I would hardly call Apple updates painless. Google the exact phrase "iphone update problems", including the quotes. 57000 hits. Lose the quotes and you're into the 150million marks.

    2. TeeCee Gold badge
      FAIL

      Hmm, 3 downvotes so far for the naked, unvarnished truth.

      Maybe the "fanboi" derogative is aimed at the wrong crowd these days?

  6. beirtipol
    Facepalm

    Methinks the conclusions be wrong

    iPhone users don't have another choice of vendor for iOS, they're stuck with whatever Jobsian nerdgasm comes out next. Android, on the other state-the-obvious-reversal-hand, can flick over to another vendor, and keep all their lovely googly-cached data. Except fot the apps, because not one android developer seems to use the damn backup mechanism.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Exactly

      I have an Android phone. That will not change in the forseeable future. If HTC drop the ball with the next release of handsets, I might look to another manufacturer but it'll be an Android phone.

      All of the news stories I have seen about this report are unclear - no-one has any links to the original report and the only thing I've found taken directly from it is this graph:

      http://vnsmartphone.com/news/ubs-iphones-89-retention-rate-crushes-competition-next-closest-is-htc-at-39.html

      Based on that information, this survey seems to have come up with the conclusion that 11% of iOS users are prepared to dump their OS completely and 45% of Android users will not stick to the same manufacturer. This is just meaningless as far as trying to make an OS comparison.

  7. cloudgazer
    Alert

    To be fair to Android here, this was a sample of affluent international types, not average consumers - so they are far less concerned about handset cost than most and also far less interested in 4G/LTE support.

  8. dotslash

    i'm looking at moving from android to windows phone, I'm fed up with clunky android, don't like the limitation of iOS and like the look of what windows phone can offer.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      'clunky Android' ?

      I'm running honeycombe on a Xoom, silky smooth and whateverversionitis on a Sensation, silky smooth

      sorry, genuinely interested in your substantiation?

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
        FAIL

        HTS Sensation

        Using it OOTB is indeed clunky.

        Many apps can't be removed

        Many apps can't be moved to the Memory card.

        If yours is smooth then you must be running a non standard OS build.

        Ask youself this question

        What percentage of the people who buy a Sensation will have the inclination or the skills to root the device and install a different ROM build?

        My take on that is very small, very small indeed.

        This phone is 'Sensationaly bad' (pun intended)

        1. Scott A. Brown

          I don't know what you've done to yours. I'm using a HTC Sensation. Done nothing to it other than fill it with the apps I use. Very smooth, no lag on anything I do, it's like one of those adverts that says 'sequence shortened' in the small print on the telly. I found what you've been finding with my HTC Magic after having it for two years but no such problems with this lovely bit of kit.

        2. Craigness

          Yes

          I've got an HTC Desire S and it's not clunky to use at all. From what I've seen of the Sensation all the differences are improvements.

          Undeletable apps: yep, that's annoying.

          Move to SD: this is mostly an app developer thing although there is a restriction for apps which come with widgets - they have to stay internal.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          I bet you can move all iPhone apps to the memory card huh?

          oh, oops

    2. sisk

      Clunky? What phone have you been using? My Droid is anything BUT clunky. A little out dated, sure, but not at all clunky.

    3. Shaun 1

      I was of a similar opinion

      I got myself a G1 from T-Mobile a few years ago and got so frustrated with not being able to upgrade past 1.6, regular crashes of core functionality (the phone "app" would occasionally crash when answering a call and would disconnect and lose the call details). I upgraded to Cyanogen 2.1 and it couldn't cope with all that.

      I finally came to upgrade and vowed not to get caught up as an early adopter again and decided to get an iPhone, but my (now ex) girlfriend wouldn't allow any apple software in the house so I ended up getting the Omnia 7 and I've not looked back.

      I do realise that all/most of my bad experience with Android was due to getting the first phone out there and not waiting for the first upgrade, but I'm happy with WP7 (despite the frustration of the NoDo upgrade, but considering I couldn't even upgrade my last phone to the latest version, it wasn't too bad). Roll on Mango!

      1. Russ Tarbox
        WTF?

        Should've got a new girlfriend instead

        Pussy whipped much?

    4. Ryan Clark

      I have a windows phone (work supplied) and the wife has a desire s. Both HTC. I would stick with Android.

      windows phone is more than acceptable, but has the same limitations that an iphone has, which would stop me buying either given the choice. Very impressed with the droid on HTC.

    5. Alex.Red
      Coat

      Five (5) Evo 4G on a family plan (all unlimited)

      And no complaints from any member of my family.

      Oops! Sorry, one of my sons recently upgraded his phone to Evo 3D.

      And for curious minds - no, I do not pay for my kids, we split it even.

      And one of my sons has iPhone, so everybody had a chance to play with it before we jumped the guns an abandoned AT&T :-)

      So, my survey shows that only 16% of population want to stick to the iPhone :-):-):-)

  9. Piro
    Pint

    So, behind only Apple in satisfaction..

    Are Android HTC devices? That's not really a surprise to anyone.

    Fine devices!

  10. tanj666

    Android all the way!

    I'll be sticking with Android thank you very much.

    I like the O/S, I'm on my third handset now and have loved all of them. Each has been a step-wise improvement over the previous, both in O/S version, screen size and functionality.

    Even my tablet is an Android (Older Samsung Galaxy Tab 7).

    As I simply cannot stand Job's and his over priced garbage and his overpriced, over-inflated attitude it will be a snowy day in hell before I own any of rancid fruit-branded rubbish.

    I've already told my kids, they can bring home their own fruit-branded nonesuch, but that's the day they leave home!

    1. Paul Naylor

      Meh

      You're assuming that someone actually cares...

    2. fuego
      FAIL

      For real? Jesus, get out the house more. It's a fucking brand of phone FFS.

      Amazed you found anyone to give you kids if you're that fking uptight.

      1. Raz
        Meh

        The Apple fans are as rabid as this guy. Just read above.

        1. Daniel 4

          The loud stand out

          "The Apple fans are as rabid as this guy. Just read above."

          No, it's just that the overzealous ones tend to be loud. If I went by what I read online, iPhone users and Android users should be having turf wars with violence to rival any L.A. gang, shiving each other with blades made from shattered phone displays. Most people I know in real life tend in the "eh, I like this one better" direction more than any sort of fanaticism, no matter what they use.

          -d

  11. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
    Stop

    Misleading conclusion

    What it says is that 55% Andriod users will definitely switch to another Android device. That does not automatically mean that 45% will definitely move from Android! There are no figures for "maybe" or "don't know", or even "I'll see what's out there when I'm ready".

    It also looks like the 55% is Andriod customers who will stay with Andriod, but definitely switch vendor. That may not include Android users who actually do decide to stay with vendor. Including that figure may change the overall picture for Android.

    When it comes to generic OSs, brand loyalty is not so significant. Most knowing people assuming that Android is very similar, will compare battery life, function, or reviews. With locked in customers with Apple and RIM, the only way they can maintain their user experience is to stick with brand.

    I probably will not stick with Samsung, but I will definitely be getting an Android phone, unless, that is, a WebOS device comes my way at a knock-down price.

    But this is all surveys and statistics anyway, and you know what they say about those....

    1. Craigness
      Thumb Up

      Good analysis

      The other thing that got me was the assumption that moving from android would be an "upgrade". From reading the article, their new phone might not even be a smartphone!

      IIRC, Samsumg and HTC are the market leaders in Android so it might be fair to assume that 30% of android owners are going to stay with their manufacturer (using a weighed average of the brand satisfaction numbers). If 55% are going to stay with the platform but change brand then it's 85% of android users who are staying with Android compared to 89% of iphone users who are staying with iOS. Given the tiny sample, I doubt the difference has any significance. Based on those numbers though, here's an alternative headline:

      "15% of Android users to downgrade to rival phone OSs; 11% of iPhoners will upgrade"

      Furthermore, who's to say that any of those 55% (keeping Android but changing brand) are pissed off with their current hardware? I'm happy with my HTC but if Samsung have a great phone when I want to upgrade then I'll move.

      The title refers to Peter, not the article author. That guy should be tied to a post in the car park until he learns to count.

    2. sprouty76

      Came here to say this

      Following the maths in the article, 55% of Android users will switch to an Android device from another manafacturer, and 45% will switch to a different OS. And therefore 0% will stay with an Android device from the same manafacturer?

      Surely the conclusion should be that (for example, in the HTC case) - 39% will stay with HTC, 55% * 61% = 33.55% will move to another Android manafacturer and 45% * 61% = 27.45% will move to another OS. And therefore, 72.55% of HTC users will stay with Android. The figures difer for different Android manafacturers. obviously.

  12. Flugal

    It's an OS issue

    I wonder how many Android users (of any manufacturer) say they will use another Android device.

    If you like Android and you use an HTC, when it's time to upgrade you'll just want the best handset you can get at the time, regardless of manufacturer, so long as it has Android.

    And - as has already been pointed out - a sample of 500 is pointless. Why use UBS, I could have done that kind of sample size myself.

  13. g e

    Walled gardens have no doors

    That's not consumer loyalty, it's the pain of moving away from a poor (imho) choice outweighing doing the moving.

    There's quite a few appleistas in my current client's co have have looked at my Desire HD and said, hey, actually, that's a pretty nice phone, how well do you get along with it ? And these are gfx designers, hardcore appleistas.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Only 500?

    So no chance of finding anyone with a Windows Phone then! Perhaps they would have found a WP7 user if the sample size had been closer to 10,000. Sorry, make that 100,000.

  15. Dirk Vandenheuvel
    Holmes

    As expected TBH.

    Most Android users probably want an iPhone but went for a copy-cat Android because of price.

    1. ArmanX
      Thumb Down

      Actually...

      Most Android users I know bought their phone because it had something the iPhone didn't; I bought mine because it had a keyboard, four dedicated buttons (home, back, menu, and search), could make calls that didn't sound like I was under water, and charged from a standard connection. When I bought my phone, iPhone didn't even have a flash for the camera. For $6, I bought a car charger and an extra USB charging cable to hook to my laptop; I can buy a second battery for $3. Oh, right, and I can replace the battery, too.

      No, the reason I didn't buy an iPhone wasn't price - it was because the iPhone just didn't have what I needed.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You can always rely on an Apple Fanbois to stifle an adult conversation

      1. IsJustabloke
        Thumb Up

        I CHOOSE to enoble a simple forum post!

        For the sake of balance it should be pointed out that Fruity fanbois don't have a monopoly on that...

        Er.. is anyone else having a problem entering text unless you've added an "optional" title?

    3. g e

      Two reasons I went Android

      1. Can buy another handset and all my stuff works so long as it's Android

      2. Really don't want to be associated with the demographic that buys apple stuff

    4. Steve Evans
      Trollface

      <--- Here, you dropped this.

    5. Craigness
      FAIL

      iTunes was my motive

      I got an Android so that I didn't have to connect it to a pc in order to sync it, and so that I can drag and drop songs from my Linux box. Money is no object.

    6. sisk

      Nope

      I don't know how you came up with that line of drivel, but there's no kernel of truth to it. A quick peek at Verizon's website lists the iPhone 4 at $199, the Droid Bionic at $299, and most of the rest of the Android phones at $199 (all with contracts of course). A few are less and some of the older Android models get below $100, but you can see that the top Android phones are actually more expensive than the iPhone. Unlike the iPhone, though, you get what you pay for with them. More memory, better processors, bigger screens, same price, better user experience (imho, of course)....

      Maybe things are different over in Britain, but here in the States the only reasons I can see for buying an iPhone are fanboism, market hype, and personal preference. I suspect that last one is the deciding factor for a vast minority of iPhone users.

    7. cloudgazer

      'Most Android users probably want an iPhone but went for a copy-cat Android because of price.'

      Not in this user population they didn't. UBS specifically stated that the sample was of high income consumers.

    8. Rattus Rattus

      Speaking for myself,

      I bought my Android phone so I didn't have to install the giant steaming pile of shit that is iTunes. Being able to use my device as I see fit without needing the manufacturer's blessing was a nice bonus.

  16. dogged
    Thumb Down

    Two words

    iTunes lockin.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      AAARGH

      I don't know whether to thumbs up or down this

      iTunes never really worked for me

      but this is a double negative voting hed asploshun

  17. Clive Galway

    Nothing of the sort

    "39 per cent, the number of HTC handset owners who will said they'll stay with that vendor when they upgrade"

    How does that mean that they will ditch Android? It just means that for 61% their next phone will not be HTC.

    "call it the superior user experience the device offers" - Sounds like personal opinion labelled as fact to me... One that I disagree with. "More consistent look and feel" - maybe. Superior - no.

  18. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Meh

    Let's see they only talked to 500 people in the poll so hardly a complete survey seeing as they activate 31.5 MILLION Android handsets per quarter.

    As for Apple users buying another Apple device, that is not because of a superior phone. It is the users fear of losing their $500 app investment if they change over to something else. The closed garden does trap the unwary. However, AT&T learned just how fast they can lose customers when they push hard enough.

    Down-votes courtesy of fanboi globally.

  19. jason 7
    Meh

    Hmmm make your minds up.

    I thought about this time last year I read a similar report that said the opposite, of about 45% of iPhone users wanting to switch to Android.

    Grass is always greener.......

    Me? I'm a WebOS and sticking with it for as long as I can.

    1. cloudgazer
      Thumb Down

      You didn't. Last year the biggest survey of this kind was by Nielsen - it showed about 19% of Apple users interested in switching, compared to 30% of Android users.

      http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/iphone-vs-android/

      Ancient history now of course, but broadly consistent with UBS.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    have I missed somthing here?

    as android users have a wide list of vendors to select phones from they are going to pick one with good custom GUI, or additional custom features etc, the whole point is choice.... you can get handsets fully featured or just the basics with price tags to match.

    once you get locked in to apple. your stuck with it.... same with RIM....

  21. Rovindi
    Windows

    @Dirk

    There are a variety of reasons people choose Android over iPhone and vice versa. A majority of us choose Android due to it´s far more open approach and ability to tweak our phones to how we (not Apple) want them to be. Whilst I can readily understand Apple`s approach, their "one size fits all" strategy is not appealing to everyone.

    Unlike yourself, many of us are technology agnostic and choose platforms, products and technology that fit our requirements, as opposed to purchasing something that GQ or shortlist.com tells us we must have.

    There is quite a difference

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wrong conclusion

    55% of Android users will stick with Android but try a phone from another manufacturer.

    The remaining 45% consists of (1) people who will move to a different OS and (2) people who will stay with Android with a phone from the same manufacturer.

    If we look at the retention rates of the main Android supplies (HTC, Samsung, Moto)- i.e. peopel who stay with Android with phone from same manufacturer (*) - these are 39%, 28% and 25% ... average is ~30% if equal market share .... so that probably means number of people sticking with Android is around the 85% mark which on sample sizes is a result which is probalbly described as a "statistical tie" (i.e. difference is probably within the error bounds of the data).

    (*) admittedly this doesn't account for Android users who switch to a WP7 phone from same manufacturer - but error from this is probably small!

    So, retention rates of both OSes looks similar but on Android there are multiple suppliers so you don't necessarily stick to the same manufacturer when you upgrade.

  23. defiler

    Apple's walled garden

    I see a couple of people have commented on this, with respect to paid-for apps, but of greater concern is their music library. That's what's killed the MP3 player market.

    You buy an iPod, you stick your music into iTunes, and then you keep buying iPods because all your music is in iTunes. And if you're an ordinary Joe and don't start your iTunes experience by looking into the advanced ripping settings, all your music files are AAC and therefore won't be played by virtually anything else.

    Same game, only with phones. If I've got all my music in a format that only works on an iPhone, I'll be stuck with an iPhone or a major pain-in-the-arse ripping my CDs again. I'd probably stick with the iPhone.

    As for myself, I have an Android handset nowadays after WM6.5. Rather like it. Still looking for a really good music player that'll handle FLAC files though. Until that day, the RockBox goes in the other pocket.

    1. Marcelo Rodrigues
      Angel

      AAC is pretty easy

      I had a Nokia 5310, a Nokia E66 and I´m now with a Sony-Ericsson Xperia Arc. All of them had no problems playing AAC.

      FLAC is another story. I believe the Arc would play it - at least with the music player I bought. Never tried, so don´t know.

      The rest is spot on in my opinion.

      1. defiler

        Using FLAC files

        Yeah - I accept that FLAC is a (bit) of a pain. I tend to play my music through either Squeezeboxes or Rockbox (both take FLAC no problem). For the car I use MP3FS to transcode it as I copy. Doesn't slow down all that much.

        But (and this is the critical bit to me) I can transcode my FLAC files to anything without any loss of quality (more than the destination container). Since the FLAC files are CD-perfect quality I don't lose quality from transcoding lossy->lossy.

        Of course, any time I try to explain this to people I realise that I seem to be the only person who cares, and who realises that storage is cheap and my time to re-rip is not. So that's fair enough.

        Cup of tea, anyone?

    2. twunt

      AAC files

      Are not only for Apple products - they'll play on ANY Android phone, any Windows Phone, Any Nokia, Samsung or anything else with an music player made in the last 5 years.

      Bell end.

    3. Rattus Rattus

      @defiler

      "Still looking for a really good music player that'll handle FLAC files though."

      Dude! You've already got an Android phone. Just put a nice big MicroSD card in there and buy some decent earphones. Your phone will happily play FLAC and then you don't need to carry two devices.

  24. Alan Denman

    Are factory shops to return?

    There is no walled garden here but I do wonder how many jobs are around where you get paid in iTunes vouchers?

    Its a strange future some look forward too.

  25. nichobe
    Holmes

    Its not surprising due to product breadth and lock-in

    Apple lock users in with more than just the phone. iPhone/iPad/OSX etc and now with iCloud you will see their numbers of "loyal" customers increase. Once you are in the Jobsian vortex it is hard to escape. Apple also make it very easy for users to stay.

    Farcebook also do a similar lock-in and offer little data liberation....

    Google product breadth is big but not all encompassing. If Google start offering a better alternative to iTunes then you will see a lot more people flock to Android. In my opinion it is the single place where the Android model falls down. Google Music is in beta but it needs a lot of work and a desktop client that people can install and sync their music to their devices.....can't wait for the Google "Import my iTunes library" option.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Better alternative to iTunes?

      Well I'd chose being infected with most viruses over installing that pile of shite.

      At least you expect a virus to make the machine unstable, leak memory like a sieve and force you to reboot.

      Any phone which forces me to install their company malware just to upload my tunes is a no go for me.

  26. heyrick Silver badge

    Unfair comparison

    If you like Apple, and you like iOS, then you have ONE choice.

    On the other hand, if you like Android, with a few hacks and tweaks (crap like Motoblur, for instance), you can pick a phone with the display you like, the features you like, and the price you're happy to pay.

    The article suggests, from the title, that 45% of Android users will bail on the system for something else. What is more likely is some of the people may go for RIM, iOS, Bada, etc, while the rest will go for Android in a different guise.

    Take me as an example. I'm very happy with the *HARDWARE* of my Motorola Defy, but I'm rather less enthusiastic that it is stuck with Android 2.1 (apparently 2.2 is available but Orange France haven't gotten around to it - this being one of The Most Annoying points of Android - the lethargy of updates due to the pile of crap it has to go through before it reaches the handset...).

    So, essentially, I will be one of the 45%, moving from Android to... um... Android.

    1. sisk

      I see a lot of people complaining about the time it takes to get updates on Android. Don't take this wrong as it's pure curiosity, but why don't you just grab the update from the web and update yourself? You don't have to have root for that. I haven't run a stock ROM since about a week after I got my Droid, so maybe my viewpoint's scewed a bit, but updating from a zip on a stock phone only takes about 5 minutes, and with decent bandwidth it only takes a couple more to download the zip yourself. If they're not pushing it out fast enough for you why not do it yourself?

      I could understand if it was my parents, but El Reg caters to a tech savy crowd. Surely holding a button while you power on the phone and then selecting 'update from zip' is well within the capability of 99% of the readers here.

      1. Steve Evans

        @sisk

        This isn't a delay from mobile networks, this is a delay from the mobile manufacturers.

        Google releases an update, but google doesn't release a ROM image for an HTC phone. HTC have to compile their bits and hardware drivers in with the google source. Only once HTC have done that can we grab a zip (the OTA generally turns up within a day of the zip appearing anyway).

        And HTC are slooooooow... To busy releasing 24 phones a month to support any phones from the end of last year.

  27. irneb
    WTF?

    Yep, again a useless, screwed up, and slanted survey

    The numbers simply make for a big screaming laugh! Apart from the infinitesimally small sample, here's a figure which proves that this survey is a farce:

    45% (of Android users) will switch to another OS.

    55% (of Android users) will stick with Android but change to another manufacturer.

    0% (of Android users) will stay with Android and the manufacturer they currently use.

    Uhhhmmm ... NO! That is DEFINITELY impossible! You seriously want to tell me there's not a single Android user anywhere who is happy with their manufacturer & the OS? You're kidding right? So I wasn't counted then! I'm sticking with Motorola - have a Milestone and still happy as a pig in s... Will definitely go with Moto again, especially since they're now part of Google - probab;ly get the updates a lot sooner than any other manufacturer.

    About the Samsung guys, doesn't it "look"as if they're going to push their Bada system instead? Just asking.

    1. cloudgazer
      Stop

      That's not a fault in the survey - that's a fault in the Reg's journalism. Look at GigaOMs coverage for a better idea of exactly what UBS had.

      http://gigaom.com/apple/iphone-owners-very-loyal-blackberry-not-so-much/

      Of course the survey is still fairly useless when it comes to Android, because it turns out they only had 51 respondents using Android - but it's not useless for the reason that you thought.

      Mostly what this survey says is that RIMM is truly hosed.

  28. GeorgeTuk
    Happy

    Uniformity

    Because all the different makers and then sometimes even the telcos put their branding and spin on the Android OS it makes it very difficult to work out whats good and what is not.

    Sure geeks chatter on the internet about which is better and how the next one will be bestest ever but the consumer and business buyer cba to look at it all.

    You know where you stand with Apples, two handsets that operate essentially the same but with some extra snazz on the 4. RIM is there with about 6 models that are variations of what came before but with good targets, low end, middle and flash.

    Android will never get that and even me as an IT Manager with Android device might look to Apple next time as cba to look up what is best from Androids.

    Oh and I think somebody said there was something called Windows Phone 7, but I think they might have been drunk!

  29. Peter 48
    FAIL

    lets try that again

    Not sure what happened to my post so here is another try:

    I guess the time for a new gospel from the church of fruit is nigh, as all of a sudden these apple sponsored puff piece surveys start popping up everywhere. To save everyone the bother of reading these articles for the next month, here is a conclusion of all these "realistic" surveys: iphone users are all smarter, richer, more satisfied, have bigger "hands", drive faster cars and are generally much more magical than everyone else.

    Can we now get back to some real statistical analysis of more credible data please?

    1. Steve Evans

      @Peter 48

      Blimee, and I thought I was cynical!

      Damn good point though!

      Now can we get El Reg to modify their search so we can put -iphone5 and have the site filtered by default?

  30. Wang N Staines

    Sorry

    How are iPhone users going to use other people's OSes again?

  31. chipxtreme
    FAIL

    My current phone is a Galaxy S II, my previous phone was a Galaxy S, had a Nokia N8 as well but sold that once I got the SGS II as I just loathed it more and more as every day went by. My phone before the Galaxy S was a Wave (which I got as an upgrade as the Galaxy S wasn't released yet), I had that for about 2 months. Before that I had Samsung Omnia HD and many Nokia Symbian phones before that.

    I also tried an iPhone 2G and gave crapple a second chance with the 3G, HATED them and sold them both within 2 weeks. I didn't like that my Symbian phone could do so much more than ios could and HATED that everything had to go through itunes.

    I'm now fully converted to Android and won't be switching any time soon, chances are my next phone will be the Galaxy S III unless another handset manufacturer brings out something better. I do like HTC phones but just prefer the Samsung Galaxy phones but come SGS3 time if HTC have something better then I might switch to that.

    The thing about Android is its just so customisable, as well as me I know 3 other people locally who have the same phone and looking at the screen not one look the same, we all have different custom roms and replacement apps that its as if they are different phones, now I look at friends that have iphone 4's and well you guessed it, they all look THE SAME.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    These are not the Droids your looking for.....

    I'm so happy with my Samsung Galaxy S that there is no doubt the next one will be the SGS2.

    Nobody surveyed me.

  33. Andy 97
    Boffin

    Actually, I'd give up all smart phones for a *decent* phone with a T9 keyboard, good camera and battery life that isn't obsolete or the size of a brick.

    The icon is ironic.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Andy 97

      Have a look for an N95 on ebay. Best camera I've had on a phone, stable symbian goodness (get 3.1 firmware) and days worth of battery. I still use it as my backup phone when I do things which could damage my 'droid.

      Just don't expect it to get a GPS lock within 5 minutes, or several days if you dare move!

  34. Jolyon Smith

    The one thing this tell us is...

    Some intelligent consideration of the variables here is called for.

    You cannot directly compare - nor draw conclusions on satisfaction with - hardware by asking people about *software*.

    With Apple the two are tied, but not so with Android.

    Someone may not feel so in love with Samsung that they intend only ever buying another Samsung phone in future... after all, the whole point of Android is that it's available from a number of manufacturers.

    So you may be perfectly happy with your Samsung 'droid, but equally remain open to the idea that your next Android phone may well be from Motorola. With Apple and iOS you have no such choice, and once you are locked in to the eco-system it can feel scary to face the prospect of leaving those walled gardens.

    So you may not be *happy* with your iPhone but might never-the-less feel that you have no practical choice but to stick with it.

    Lies, damned lies and statistics.

  35. ratfox
    FAIL

    How about some source with your article?

    The words "research shows" without precision on which research is another way to say "a guy at the pub told me".

  36. Peter 48
    FAIL

    sponsored by....

    I guess the time for a new gospel from the church of fruit is nigh, as all of a sudden these apple sponsored puff pieces start popping up everywhere. To save everyone the bother of reading these articles for the next month, here is a conclusion of all these "realistic" surveys: iphone users are all smarter, richer, more satisfied, have bigger todgers, drive faster cars and are generally much more magical than everyone else.

    Can we now get back to some real statistical analysis of more credible data please?

  37. ozor
    Facepalm

    Most fail articale I have ever seen here.

    Title - 45% of Android users to upgrade to rival phone OSes

    And then you go on saying that most Android users will not stick with there current vendor....

    What has vendor got to do with OS regarding Android?

    Most Android users will be like myself, maybe you will stick with same vendor or maybe at the time something else will catch your fancy because da da da "YOU ARE NOT TIED TO A SINGLE VENDOR"

    If the querstion was asked will you stick with android then its relevant, otherwise completely useless irrelevant artical

    /rage

  38. Arclight

    So?

    Bit of a non-story shirley?

    People will want to stay with an OS they know, if you want an iphone you have to buy apple there is no second option,if you want android you have a constantly updating list to choose from.

  39. Ami Ganguli
    WTF?

    Something amiss

    The article seems to conflate loyalty to Android with loyalty to a particular phone manufacturer.

    This line suggests we're talking about manufacturer loyalty:

    > The next highest figure was 39 per cent, the number of HTC handset owners who will said they'll stay with that vendor when they upgrade.

    But then it goes on to talk about Android vs. iOS:

    > But that still leaves nearly half of people currently owning an Android handset who will defect to iOS, BlackBerry or Windows Phone.

    Since there are several vendors of Android phones, these don't amount to the same thing at all.

  40. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    pointless...

    With countless millions of smartphone users (ok, so they may be able to count them), 500 users is hardly a conclusive study.

  41. I Like Heckling Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    Biased reporting?

    The entire article is flawed... so flawed that it's entire argument is utterly pointless.

  42. Dropper
    Thumb Down

    Huh?

    Not sure how a different OS can be considered an upgrade. The iPhone OS is okay, however Netflix support is no longer unique, it's browser is the worst I've ever experienced since the twin abortions Netscape 3.1 and IE 4.0, it still doesn't support flash, has no free turn-by-turn voice navigation and it's apps are just the same novelty shite your can find on every other platform, including Android. The only thing it has is iTunes, which isn't much of a consolation unless you intend to use it mostly as an iPod Touch with basic phone functionality bolted on. RIM's OS is passable for business use but not much else and the other operating systems are equally dated and lack features.

    So I'm puzzled why anyone would downgrade to a phone with a titchy screen and less features then consider that an upgrade..

  43. zyborski
    Thumb Down

    Moto Atrix

    And judging by the delays that the UK Motorola Atrix users have had in getting 2.3 - (https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/54635?start=120&tstart=0) its no wonder!

  44. The Grump
    FAIL

    Android fail

    Full disclosure. I am NOT an Info Tech expert. I am just a poor shlub who bought (literally) into the hype, and bought an original Droid phone to replace my Windows 6.5 Moto Q. It had lot of bugs in the OS, ranging from annoying to "must...kill...phone". The battery life was poor, many of the apps were crap (forcing the program to close repeatedly), the photo gallery opens ALL the photos at the same time (reducing the phone performance to a crawl or stop), the GPS function sent me in an infinite circle in a cul-de-sac (I saw the same dog walker 3 times before realizing this), and the greatest fail - the Droid had it's ringer volume control on the side (where you hold the phone), causing the ringer to mute without my knowledge. The Droid screen finally failed after being thrown at a brick wall (by me). I am back to my creaky old Moto Q again, and I will NEVER, EVER own any Android OS phone again. Maybe they improved the OS since the original Droid phone, but why take a chance on being contract-locked in phone hell for ANOTHER two years ? I'll wait on the new big screen Blackberry.

    Forget Windows - when they made the SD slot both internal and system-locked, they lost me. Clouds are for the birds, and so is cloud storage. I want a phone with an external SD slot - pop in the PC, copy files, pop into the phone - simple. Need I tell you what Bill Gates can do with his USB cable ?

  45. roy lovelock
    Mushroom

    one of the 0%

    these sorts of storys do make me laugh out loud.

    Im a loyal android user, i like some others started of with the tmobile G1 and was impressed with the OS - not so much the quality of the phone, htc made a poor quality phone with an excellent keyboard though.

    I then went to the moto milestone, and was disgusted with the way that motorola locked the phone down, you couldnt cook the roms and still cant, that phone lasted me 9 months before it went (and they lost a customer for life).

    Im currently using the desire hd and the thing is excellent. After putting a deacent rom on the machine its snappy, and half deacent battery life (best part of 2 days).

    Only a couple of days ago i was handed a ipod touch 3rd gen 64gb - this was suppose to be sold or binned but i was given the machine as ive always been a android fan. My friend on the other hand loves apple.

    Well i put on that damned awlful program itunes onto a old redundant pc and copyed over my music collection one of my external drives.

    I synced about 50gb of music which took around 2hrs, and about 5 or 6 freeze ups with itunes. Then had error after error about ipod service not running - only way around was reboot the whole system. Talk about banging your head agains a brick wall i only want to put a bit of music on the thing is that too much to ask!!!???

    Ive used the machine for the last couple of days and can quiet safetly say than android will spend many more happy years in this family, The os is horrible in comparison to android - i love to fiddle with widgets and move stuff about all the time, i cannot do this on the ipod, i like to listen to my audiobook collection - and have the mp3s in thier own folder so i can easily navigate to play them, on the ipod i have to jump though hoops to stop them appearing in my music folder - then bang itunes freezes.

    Another big thing over the ipony for me is - hmmm battery dies, how the hell do you change it!!! .

    Android i personally think is for people that dont mind getting thier hands dirty to reap the rewards at the end, apple on the other hand offer something thats semi functional albeit bloody irrating .

    No two android phones look the same, its a personal preferance to the look and feel each owner has on thier phone.

    I also own a samsung galaxy tab 7"

    But my next phone will be another htc so that makes me another one of the 0% that will stay with current manufactor and os

  46. Defiant
    Holmes

    Nokia next for me

    My next phone will be a Nokia (sorry I left you) using the Windows platform. The Android one is a pain in the backside, horrible.

    I'd never touch anything connected to Apple

  47. GrantB
    Boffin

    Stats

    Arrgh.. I am not really a stats geek, but there is a bunch of posts dismissing the study because the sample size was 500.

    I haven't read the details of the methodology and what confidence level they are working at but sufficient to say, that if the survey was done by professionals using a reasonable sample selection, then 500 respondents is enough to give a reasonable confidence in the result even given the number of cell-phone users

    http://stattrek.com/lesson6/samplesize.aspx

    1. irneb

      @GrantB : Stats

      Have you actually read the page you linked to?

      They state that for an error factor of 4% with a confidence level of 95% for a population of 100,000 you need 450 test subjects. I wonder what the error factor & confidence level is for a population of several million with only 500 tested.

      And also the page states: "using simple random sampling". That means the 450/500 or whatever you think is a significant enough test population, MUST be chosen as randomly as possible - no bias to any feature. That's where the word "simple" comes from, i.e. no finicky calculations to exclude these and count those double ... like you usually get with those stats from any government.

  48. DanM
    Holmes

    Why such a low retention rate for Samsung?

    Isn't the Galaxy S II supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread? I ask because my Desire is coming to the end of its contract and I've been eyeing one off.

    Are people buying Samsungs only to find the product doesn't live up to the reviews/hype? Seems odd that so few people with Samsungs say they'll get another one.

  49. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Android....

    I went for Android because of price, the iPhone was expensive and all Android handsets weren't. The Android user experience is far worse than any other platform of course, but it's probably because it's the cheapest. So there....some truth - Android because it's cheap.

  50. strum

    Mugs

    Brand loyalty is a mug's game

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