The Android (smartphone) Conspiracy, Part I.

It was only a matter of time, not a matter of if, Google's Android operating system would become the dominate mobile platform. That time is now. According to the very latest data from Nielsen, Android now commands a 29% market share of smartphone users in the US. While that isn't even close to being a majority, it is a plurality that topples all of its competitors.

Link HERE.

The Android operating system may soon own nearly 50 percent of the smartphone market, Gartner said today. According to the market researcher, more than 296 million smartphones shipped last year. Out of that, Symbian secured 37.6 percent market share, followed by Android's 22.7 percent share, and BlackBerry OS with 16 percent of the market. In 2011, the number of smartphone shipments around the world will explode to nearly 468 million units. That growth will help Android snag 38.5 percent market share by the end of the year, followed by Apple's iOS at 19.4 percent, and Symbian at 19.2 percent, Gartner said. But it's next year that might just be the most eye-opening find in Gartner's analysis. According to the company, more than 630 million smartphones will ship worldwide in 2012, and Android will own 49.2 percent of the market, easily dominating its second-place competitor, iOS, with 18.9 percent share. Research In Motion's BlackBerry operating system will nab the third spot with 12.6 percent share of the smartphone space.

Link HERE.

New numbers released by Comscore show that Android-based smartphones are continuing to take a chunk out of the market share of competing devices, eating up 33 percent of the U.S. market, or one out of every three smartphones sold. RIM was the hardest hit in this latest batch of metrics, dropping 4.6 percent of its market share between November 2010 and February 2011. The company still controls 28.9 percent of the U.S. market, however, which is a far stronger position than its similarly decreasing competitors: Microsoft shed 1.3 percent of its market share to drop to 7.7 percent in total, and Palm went down 1.1 percent to a total of 2.8 percent market share for February 2011. To note, the indicated numbers are three-month averages, not indications of how well a particular manufacturer did in just one month. Nevertheless, February alone provided strong support for Apple–specifically, Apple's iPhone 4. According to comScore, the Verizon iPhone 4 was the most-acquired handset in February, and these killer sales helped Apple dig its heels in the sand against the Android advance. The company even improved its market share by 0.2 percent between November 2010 and February 2011.

Link HERE.

Why is this happening? Here are a few facts:

1. Android is based on Linux.
2. Android is fully open source. It's free, and completely customizable.
3. Android is evolving. 2.1 was Eclair. 2.2 is Froyo, 2.3 is Gingerbread. ALL Android smartphones run one of those OS's.
4. I can boot into a LIVE Android CD on my laptop or PC and tinker with things.
5. I have a 2.2 Android smartphone, rooted after two weeks, and I'm leery of the GPS tracking stuff. I do however, tinker with it's features.
6. Android runs from flash memory, no harddrives, no cd-roms.
7. Android's basic I/O is touchscreen. It's easy to use with no moving parts. It's simple.
8. Android has basically the same features as iOS and the rest, and has all the same basic functions. It's merely a different platform.

Why would something that is free, based on open-source, easily modified, completely customizable, does everything the competitor does plus more, and I repeat free, do so well in a capitalistic society where everything has a cost, and nothing is free?

Google promoted it. Google produces it. Hackers drool over it, and modify it. For FREE. There is NO copyright infringement. You can upgrade your Android to any flavor of Android OS you want. I run the Azreal 3.1 ROM, and no complaints. Battery life is astounding. However, you void your warranty. However, you can flash your smartphone back to stock, so as long as you made back-ups, no worries.

Google also bought out YouTube a while back. Youtube didn't make money, (you can't when you host that much bandwidth for free) yet it is a huge success.

Who is winning this strategy? How can you let anyone upload to your video hosting branch without charging them?

How is it that companies like Google produce viable, and popular, mobile OS's, remaining open source, while others stick to closed source development?

The numbers say open source is more popular, and people want control over their devices. I turn off GPS. Yeah, it's a setting, not required. If I don't want people tracking me, I don't let them.

Why does Google know all this already? Why let free software into the hands of people that can manipulate it? Why can't TPTB do it too?

Because it's free. The conspiracy is about giving us our freedom back. I'm more than willing to take it.

Google, and subsequently youtube and android, make all of their money from advertising

Advertisement, that’s how Google is making its money. Every time you do a search on Google, you’ve probably noticed that there was a section called “Sponsored Links”. Every time you click on one of those links, Google charge a certain amount of money to the website for the click. When you go on a website you’ll notice advertising from Google too. Daily Common Sense has ads from Google. Same thing happens here, when you click, Google charge a certain amount of money to the website you clicked on and part of that money is given to the webmaster publishing the ads. This is called AdSense and is an enormous source of income for Google.

How does google make money?

google is an advertising company with a search engine on their "website"..thats it...advertising...every word you typ into google is data and data is money...same is FB...their stock price is a calculation on "users X amount of data they produce (data FB can use) x cent"...

dont use FB (its just a hype, no one is really "networking" and every real friend has a phone....

and dont use "google"...use ssl.scroogle.org... or www.ixquick.com...

At least Google are honest about their methods though. For example, when I opened my gmail account, Google told me they were going to scan my emails to give me targeted ads. I don't mind this, they are honest about it, the email service is perfectly reliable anf I have around 42 Quadrillion Terrabytes of email storage (might be a slight exaggeration) that I can search through easily.

I love my Android. I had the G1, then the MyTouch and now the EVO. I also rooted my MyTouch and I rooted my EVO the day I got it. Im super bummed to hear that the new EVO 3D is locked down super tight. Locked bootloaded, kernel, etc. I'm a huge fan of being able to customize everything about the phone. I REALLY got in to it for a bit....maybe a little too much, haha. My wife kept saying "are you flashing a new ROM?" She thought she was hilarious

Originally posted by arriana
At least Google are honest about their methods though. For example, when I opened my gmail account, Google told me they were going to scan my emails to give me targeted ads.

ymmd - yes, target ads...like "we just take pictures of the streets"....2 weeks later "and scanned your wifi"....4 weeks later "and saved every data transmitted like passwords, emails.."

dude, dont get fooled - you get the same quadrillion space on every major provider...

reply to post by MJZoo


We can do that, (ROM flashing), but iphone users can't.

reply to post by Druid42


I know. I love it. A few of my friends have iPhones and I WILL say, they are very aesthetic....as is most of what Apple puts out. But I LOVE showing them the simple things like moving icons around or the fact that I can wireless tether for free. I saw a quote once that was something along the lines of...

Google = Science
Apple = Religion

Most of the people I know that use Android like its versatility. Most of the people I know with iPhones like that it's an iPhone. Either way, it's just a phone...but I'm still partial to mine.

reply to post by MJZoo


Youre in luck, HTC decided not to lock bootloaders, and from what ive heard, the EVO 3D will ship with an unlocked bootloader, and therefore will be rootable.

Russian firm claims to have cracked iPhone encryption


iphone.appmobilize.com...

www.computing.co.uk...

www.pcworld.com...

What is a "rooted" phone exactley?

reply to post by showintail


A rooted phone has SuperUser access. If you were a hacker, and gained root to say, the pentagon's network, you'd be able to see and change anything. Root is the most powerful access mode, and it's a standard on Unix, or Linux. Once you have root, you are in. To change anything, or not. Most hackers don't leave a trace. They leave everything as it was, they just copy files and backup access routes.

And why am I saying this? Is there really a conspiracy to get everyone to switch to Android?

I am in the market for a new phone, i've had my LG Rumor 2 for more years than I can remember, but then again I don't upgrade every year. I was looking to invest my money into one of the android phones because it seems to me to be the superior product, both in functionality and actual phone usage; the Iphone falls a distant last.

Just as Xbox 360 has surpassed PS3 like PS2 surpassed the original Xbox, it's all about new and efficient features, and superior product. Right now the Android phones are number one, but they will be replaced by the next best thing before you know it, and sometime around another 6-7 years I will worry about upgrading my phone again.

I don't hack my phone, and I think that the reason that the androids are so popular is that they actually work as phones, easy to use for any skill level, and great functionality; unlike Iphones which have horrible service. (not really fault of the phone, but a definite downfall) The applications are where it's at for making money, so I can see why they would let loose a little on the system. Why charge outrageous amounts for the core system when you can make ten times as much on applications of virtual data that can be downloaded and be stored in cyberspace without the need for hardware backup?

Peronally I think that all of the hype over the smart phones is nothing more than what happened with Compact Disc players at $500 a pop when they were new. Something will come along bigger and better, and we will all eventually look silly for fussing over our Ipads, Iphones, Androids and mobile apps, just as we did Zubaz pants and Walkmans.

I have been a Linux user for years and I totally love the open source and GNU public license concept. I find it rather upsetting that Microsoft in particular (and Apple) expect huge sums of money to be shelled out for software that becomes outdated so regularly. All of these ridiculous virus programs that you need constipate a computer that is capable of running quite well when it is turned off are just plain irritating. I mean, why on earth does it take 7 minutes for my computer to completely boot up and run properly in Windows, when in under 2 I am on the net surfing with Linux?

All in all I find Win-doze is an utterly frustrating waste of time and space that costs a lot of money for very little benefit over Linux.

My iPhone was great when it first came out, but it has gone too much down the path of Microsoft and is too restrictive on letting the owner be in charge of their own phone - way too many updates, and then there is the issue of all of my data being tracked by someone in Apple's head office.....

I naturally leaped at the chance to own an Android o/s tablet phone. It's the utter freedom to do what you want with your own belongings and the enjoyment of owning a device that can be customised to my tastes, not what some person in Beijing or New York thinks I might like.