Android will ship more than ONE BILLION mobes+slabs in 2014

Android will break the one billion sales barrier this year as low-priced tabs become ever more popular while PC shipments continue to fall. Number-crunching house Gartner has predicted 1.1 billion Android devices will be sold during 2014, a 26 per cent increase over 2013. Android will continue to be the “OS of choice across …

[Anonymous Coward]

Android will ship more than ONE BILLION

you learn something new every day Apparently Android is now a company that can manufacture hardware rather than just being an OS. Is this the first step into Skynet? can Google pull the plug before it becomes self aware?

[Anonymous Coward]

KIA sell more cars than Ferrari, so what?

[Lottie]

So tyre manufacturers will shift more production resources to sizes typically used by Kia.

Knowing what is selling/ most popular is kind of important for any industry that relies on integrating their product in to a system already used by the customer.

[Anonymous Coward]

How long has Android had "80%" market share and yet Apple and iOS is still the first choice for many developers.

[Disintegrationnotallowed]

Complete Analogy fail - But Ill continue it

The analogy fails in so many ways!

"So tyre manufacturers will shift more production resources to sizes typically used by Kia.

Knowing what is selling/ most popular is kind of important for any industry that relies on integrating their product in to a system already used by the customer"

Unfortunately the analogy is so poor that even the counter doesnt work. Largely this is because the KIA owners in the analogy dont actually buy any tyres. They expect their tyres for free, but are willing to get Junk email for that privilege, or they will steal tyres that do cost money.

Unfortunately tyre makers make less money this way, and so only the big companies who can gain from the junk mail carry on,and even then they are selective. Most of the tyre makers in OSVille instead make specialist tyres for the Ferraris.

As a lover of both OSes I can say I love some of the capabilities of both systems, Android has meant I can give my kids a 60 quid 1400x900 display 7" tab, capable of videos and games, however it is, as a parent, a nightmare to use, especially if I want to download the same game for each device. Having to copy and drag movie files using the filenames is just awful in Android, or having to download a purchased movie twice to each device is just bloody painful. Most people hate iTunes but for ease of updating (only download once), easy of managing large libraries of music, Android has no comparison (I have tried Doubletwist, and a few other supposed copies of iTunes, and they have all proved to be flaky/slow, which when you are comparing to the tripe that is iTunes is a major feat of poor engineering).

I will say this may just be YMMV, but having to update those devices with new movies and games, means a night of pain.

[Rob]

Re: Complete Analogy fail - But Ill continue it

"Having to copy and drag movie files using the filenames is just awful in Android..." what are you using to achieve this?

I have a NAS which all the apps from all the devices get backed up too, so effectively creating an App library, I then use ES Explorer on all the devices to access the apk/movie file to download/install to the relevant device.

[Disintegrationnotallowed]

Re: Complete Analogy fail - But Ill continue it

I have a NAS with all my files on, but I am just using my tablet in USB mode to move files to it. The trouble with this, compared to iTunes is in the workflow really.

With my daughter's old iPod I would connect it to my laptop, using iTunes I could see what films, apps or games were on it, remove any that were no longer wanted, add new ones from an easy to view, easy to search catalogue (I had playlists of kids movies, cartoons, etc). It would prevent me from trying to add more than the available space, and tehn I would press sync and "magically" it worked.

Now with the Android tablet, which I and they love by the way, I have to connect my device. Turn on USB mode. Then browse to the device and remove the things i dont want by highlighting and removing. I then go to my files, and search for the first item I want, then drag and drop it, then search again drag and drop.

1) I cant just browse the catalog for a list of kids things (OK I accept I could move them in to folders, but that is not the same thing). Or I could get a cataloguing application, however then I would have to switch between multiple apps!

2) I have no idea at any point how full my device is or will be. Other than to check each time.

3) I cant gather albums together if I want a flat structure, so they have to be broken apart.

I will be honest the games apk issue I suspected could be resolved, but again it just isnt as neat. I suppose it is the price you pay for a more open environment.

I tried using another application/client but it was clunky, didnt always sync, was slow on startup (it seemed to want to reindex every time).

I will take a look at ES Explorer not sure it resolves the problem though. Maybe I need a new workflow to go with the Androids that works.

[Gordon861]

Re: Complete Analogy fail - But Ill continue it

Are you aware that you can remotely add/remove games etc from your devices via play.google.com without even having to plug them in?

Also if you use BitTorrentSync you could set up a master directory on your main PC/MAC and just copy/remove their movies/music there and again never have to touch their machines. Of course you could also do this on iPads too.

This may be a much better idea rather than having to hand over their machines to Mum/Dad every time something needs changing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple isn't the first choice for developers. Too many plebs still look to Apple for an app and then see if Android has it yet. That will give you a VERY skewed picture, one that appears like Android is always equal or last.

Take a look at Android apps and then see if there are Apple counterparts, and you get the opposite picture.

Sadly some people can't see that picking a platform and seeing if that app is available on another platform has a pre-baked outcome.

[Disintegrationnotallowed]

Yawn

Still around going on about android Barry? Still blindly defending the beloved Google and hated Apple? You missed the point completely, who said anybody was approaching it from the angle of looking for particular apps in Apple and then not finding in Play? The original article stated that most developers will primarily target Apple. Are you telling me that they are wrong, there are lots of surveys that show the majority of developers have tried Android but not had success. There seem to be a variety of reasons for this but primarily:

1) Google have positioned it such that giving your stuff away and using ads to make money is really the main model.

2) a poor experience with Play. Again iTunes is pish, Play is somehow worse.

3) Number of actual buyers in the market place is low (possibly due to 1). You may claim this is a good thing, stuff that is "good enough" and free, being better than full featured paid apps. It is certainly a model and some people can make it work.

4) Reported instances and tracking of app usage shows a higher level of piracy of paid for applications.

5) I have noticed a lot of apps that I used to have on my Galaxy 2 no longer exist in Play, and this appears to be because the developers have stopped supporting them on Android.

6) Number of people who own an Android device, compared to number who actually use them for much beyond a phone and contacts (maybe facebook/email) is pretty disparate.

Whilst I have no doubt there are good apps for Android, as I have said I own three devices, that was not the articles point at all.

Downvote all you want fandroids, pretending that your beloved OS is flawless and competes from a integration perspective is head burying. I like it for many things, hate it for others, same goes for iOS. They are tools not a religion.

[Richard Plinston]

Re: Yawn

> 6) Number of people who own an Android device, compared to number who actually use them for much beyond a phone and contacts (maybe facebook/email) is pretty disparate.

Many people buy a phone because they want ... a phone.

They choose between a dumbphone and a low end Android at around the same price level. They don't want to do anything else with it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh Barry. I use an Android device along side an iOS device. I can assure you you that you are spouting unmitigated horseshit. But you already know that. The chasm in quality between iOS and Android is startling, with iOS simply being better. The only area where there is parity is devs who chose iOS first.

[Darryl]

Congratulations, you win the coveted "First to trot out a tired, old, wildly inaccurate analogy" award!

[Eponymous Cowherd]

Kias are a damn site more reliable than Ferraris.

So your point is?

[Fair Dinkum]

Billion?

That's a septic billion, isn't it?

[gerryg]

Re: Billion?

If it were not, then there would be approximately 130 tablets/mobs sold for each person on the planet rather than the still faintly astonishing 1 for every 7

[wikkity]

Re: 1 for every 7

Sounds realistic if you don't assume that you are limited to one per person. There are seven phones/slabs in my household of three people. If you also include dongles we have twelve android devices, thats an average of three per person.

(Excluding the phones, the total cost of the devices is less than 1.5 iPads)

[JDX]

Re: That's a septic billion, isn't it?

Yes that's right, the official standard billion.

[Ken Hagan]

Re: official standard billion

At least for economic purposes since Dennis Healey's decision in 1975. Naturally, the fact that everyone reading this thread knows what a septic billion refers to is evidence that the old usage persists, both here and in many other countries.

To be honest, I think everyone would be better off if we stopped using the word altogether and referred to thousands of millions. It would make it harder for politicians to boast about the millions they are spending on X in (by implication, proportionate) compensation for the billions wasted on Y. (To judge from the quality of public debate, most people, including the politicians themselves, only hear "illions".)

For extra brownie points, economic data should be quoted per capita. Each wasted billion in the UK is then about £15 and GDP is about £22500.

[Anonymous Coward]

all we need now

is for some bright spark to find the (or many?) backdoors in the Android system that sends data to the NSA.

Could we all be(or most of us) be putting our eggs in one basket.

Then there is that lawsuit Oracle vs Google that is nowhere near finished yet.

could it be that all is not as rosy in the Android chocolate Factory as it might at first appear?

(not an android, iPhone or windows phone user so I really don't have an axe to grind one way or another)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: all we need now

Go ahead, tuck in.

https://android.googlesource.com

Don't you think it's already been done? If you really don't trust Google to not add extra NSA sauce in their precompiled binaries, then compile that source and load it onto a Nexus phone. Job done (apart from a quick trip to the shop to get a tinfoil hat).

iPhone, and he 5 Windows Phone users aren't so lucky....

[38292757]

Re: all we need now

Purchasing a pre-made tinfoil hat really defeats the purpose. . . you should really make your own.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you take that as a basis

Just because a thousand billion flies eat sh*t, it don't mean that fish and chip shops will go out of business!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: If you take that as a basis

No, but it will definitely affect the shops that sell shit and claim loudly that it's fish and chips because of the shiny logo on the package.

[Anonymous Coward]

Quality not quantity.

[wikkity]

RE: Quality not quantity

Sigh, why does everyone claim apple devices are better quality? You can cheap and nasty android devices and you can also buy top of the ragne ones which are specced better (ok, no finger print reader and nothing yet really needs 64 bit cpus), but more choice. Choice is important to many people, if anyone can seriously not understand that then you are a genuine fanboy.

[JDX]

Re: RE: Quality not quantity

Apple devices are better quality than cheap tablets by other manufacturers. They are not (for argument's sake) higher quality than top-end tablets from other manufacturers. However the bulk of android tablets sold are cheap tablets therefore apple tablets are higher quality than most android tablets.

[JP19]

and

Google gets a billion more sets of personal information to 'not be evil' with - lol.

[Mikel]

By year's end over 2B in use

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: By year's end over 2B in use

3bn actually. They are almost at 2bn, with another 1bn for 2014. This was mentioned in the original article, but skipped over here.

Google passed 1bn devices middle of last year sometime.

[W. Anderson]

These predictions by Gartner are borne out by official statements from both Huawei and ZTE of China, and several other large and small manufacturers in paces like India and South America of plans to ship “many hundreds of millions” more Android based devices in 2014 and beyond.

These announcements do not bode well, especially for Microsoft, particularly since Apple has just agreed with China Mobile, the largest Wireless provider in Asia for iPhone and iPAD distribution of additional hundreds of millions, as well as the recent FirefoxOS mobile agreements and the pending power house venture of Samsung/Intel Tizen Linux mobile devices shipments to start in 2014.

One can only guess the frustration, anger and bewilderment being experienced by the dozens of loyal Microsoft supporters on the TheRegister channels, ZDNet forums, TechTarget and other Microsoft focused and preferred media, who long for and dream hopefully of the reversal of Windows desktop PC sales from steep declines and advance to dominance of Microsoft in the mobile marketplace.

I just hope suicide is not in their thoughts.

[Richard Plinston]

> How long has Android had "80%" market share and yet Apple and iOS is still the first choice for many developers.

It is possible that 'many' is roughly 20%.

[JDX]

No it isn't. Apple users are far more willing to hand over cash... the article itself says the bulk of these tablets are cheap models and those don't always even have access to the official app store let alone support running many of the top apps.

If you want to make money, write it for iOS.

[Anonymous Coward]

Says Apple.... and their funded surveys...

[ben_myers]

Fun(ded) Surveys

I wonder who pays the funds for a the fun we have with funded surveys? Apple pays for them. Microsoft pays for them. But both of them readily acknowledge that they fund the surveys when they fund the surveys. Who funded this Gartner Group survey? Gartner is not so altruistic that they would pay for it themselves. A little transparency would go a long way here, Gartner.

Well, no matter whose numbers oen believes, most of us believe that Microsoft's future includes some pretty deep doo-doo. It does them no good to continue the arrogant behavior with which they have gotten away when they had a 90% OS market share.

I never had so much fun writing about funding... Ben Myers

[Mikel]

Re: Fun(ded) Surveys

Court documents, particularly the Plamondon documents, show a cynical approach to manipulating these analyst reports, the press and the comments in the name of "evangelism". One player in tech is notorious for this.