Android and iOS activation numbers have been steadily creeping up over the past 18 months or so. Andy Rubin loves updating the Android fanbase with his tweets stating daily activations; most recently, Rubin presented a 3.7 million figure for the holiday weekend (December 24 and 25). With a total of 6.8 million activations between Android and iOS on Christmas alone, smartphone adoption is rapidly accelerating. The holidays aren’t indicative of a normal rate of purchasing, but even the most recent daily figure from Rubin (700,000 Androids per day) represents the stratospheric gain of smartphones in the mobile arena.
From the infancy of smartphones, when they were reserved for businessmen and geeks alone, we have progressed to a time when everyone who is somebody has an Android or iPhone in their pocket. A holster on every belt has given way to a smartphone for every mom and teen, constantly downloading apps. This past weekend, a breaking-record number of applications were downloaded with almost 400 million apps sucked down from the interwebs.
We’ve entered a new era that started with the dawn of the iPhone and continued with the introduction of Android and their competing app stores: the age of the smartphone. Feature phones have already become a lost cause, with OEMs putting no effort into creating them anymore. Smartphones are for anyone at any price point, and data, especially with the advent of LTE, has rendered feature phones obsolete with their clunky browsers and dearth of apps. As iOS and Android continue to grow and overtake what is left of the feature-phone market share, app downloads will continue to grow as we rise higher into the age of the smartphone.
I still use a normal cell.
And on a pay-as-you-go plan which has me putting twenty or so bucks on
the average year. It’s held together with mailing tape at the moment.
Much as I would like to play with one, a smarty phone is a real expense,
both in activation and as a time sink.
My smart phone and service is paid for by my company. Otherwise I would have a “normal” cell phone, because I do not value the data plan that much.
Problem with the conclusion here is that those numbers (6.8 Million) refer to global sales, so you can’t just look at the US market. Globally, this is a drop in the bucket. Counter-article is up:
https://techcitement.comhardware/smartphone-activations-lets-not-get-over-techcited/#.TvygTdRSS5I
Too bad no one’s willing to make a smartphone that doesn’t require a data plan. I would love to have something like that. I don’t need access to data all the time but when I’m around WiFi it’s nice to have access to smartphone apps. I doubt carriers like the idea of smartphones that don’t reel them in an extra $30 a month. Until then, I’ll carry my feature phone and an Ipod Touch it takes up a little more space in my pocket but also keeps a little bit more in my wallet.
WTF is a “feature phone?”
A non-smartphone.