iPhone 5c Broadens Apple's Customer Base, but Android Continues to Lead in Smartphones

I have long left the iPhone for android and will never go back. I own several macs at home but I am very tired of the closed in nature of IOS products. My Note II is better than the iPhone is pretty much every way. I have 64gb storage, complete file access, googlemaps, customization, changeable battery, the build quality is great (sure it is not aluminum, but I have dropped it several times and no cracked screen, I see so many cracked iPhones it is ridiculous.

I love the large screen and the true multitasking. I have converted several of my friends to android and it is almost like there eyes were opened. I still love my iPad, but only because it is jailbroken. You can't even upload a file natively other than photos to your email or on a website on an IOS device!!

Once I find an android tablet that has a complete smooth UI and the build quality of the iPad I am leaving it behind. If only apple would design a tablet that is suited more for the power user that includes a stylus, but I guess they don't want to stick to steve's vision. Too bad.

I recently switched from iPhone to Android. I don't know why I waited so long - lots more innovation and choice on this side of the fence. Moved my parents over this weekend as well - they are also thrilled

I used to be 100% in the Apple ecosystem with laptop, phone, and tablet. Apple's lack of innovation (ever-thinner is no longer a suitable upgrade feature) is going to start to see the loss of a lot more people.

The strategy outside of the USA needs work, Apple.

Try reading MacRumors once in a while, we have all the answers.

The strategy outside of the USA needs work, Apple.

iOS devices are priced at least double that of their Android competitors. In the US, this price difference is masked by carrier subsidies, which aren't given in Europe.

Either Apple can come down significantly on price to compete in volume, or they can continue to let iOS marketshare dwindle away and be happy being a premium brand. It's Mac vs. Windows again.

$550, $650, $750 price points can't compete with a $200 Android with an SD card slot.

This pretty much covers it. The iPhone is more expensive with no real benefit when Android and Windows Phone can do exactly the same stuff for less and more expandability.

Android leads because there are more different models from more different companies, which has the big negative of creating a fragmented user base.

Apple had a nice monopoly on modern smartphones that gave them an edge early on but that's over. Apple's two or three iPhones can not compete with the massive amounts of phones produced, and sold at several price points, by the Android vendors or even just the variety of phones produced by Samsung.

That's just the truth. Not saying that's a bad thing, Apple can still make "record profits" or whatever and be the wealthiest tech corporation in the world, but I think the market share war is over (if there ever really was one). They're eventually going to be the Macintosh of the mobile world and sell goods with a high profit margin to 10-20% of the population.

All my opinion of course, this is a forum after all :p

Why do so many people feel the need to defensively explain these stats away, e.g. saying there are far more different/cheaper Android devices than there are iOS ones? The reason isn't the point - the point is that Apple are losing smartphone OS dominance and with it goes their influence and that's a bad thing for those of us who are staying with our iPhones, for a couple of reasons:

A couple of years ago, the big developers were focussed on iOS, and iPhones got the killer apps that maybe made it onto Android months later, if even at all. But that's changing, developers are going to develop for the largest, most lucrative market first and foremost. I reckon that within the next 1-2 years we're going to be seeing people switching from iOS to Android driven by availability of must-have apps.

Previously, Apple could call the shots. If it introduced a new technology with the latest iPhone it soon became the defacto standard by default; everyone would clamber to embrace it as they couldn't afford not to. But times have changed and developers are no longer seeing iOS technology integration as a "must-have". Take Passbook for example - if iOS was still the dominant mobile OS then we'd have every man and his dog supporting it and it would potentially have become an industry standard across the travel and entertainment sectors. Instead, developers are not seeing the point of incorporating a legacy system that's unique to an OS with a reducing penetration.

Sadly with Android not being as joined up and thus not being in as good a position to exert its influence, I think innovation loses out, even if before hand it could only be Apple's choice of innovation.

One where the numbers are not distorted by the transition from feature phones to smart phones. "Total phone sales" would be a good one, because that market has stayed unchanged since 2007 when the iPhone was introduced. "Total phone revenues" would be a good one, because it doesn't count one $600 sale and one $100 sale and one $20 identically.

So numbers only count if Apple is ahead? Otherwise they are meaningless?

Really? What Innovations does Android have that iOS lacks? Cause one of my coworkers was showing off his Nexus 5 and there wasn't anything that my iPhone 4S can't do.... And some things my 4S can do that his Nexus can't.

I did the Android thing and it was such a poor experience I doubt I'll ever go back. And that was on a new, great, hot Android phone.

How about the ability to send someone a file other than a photo natively, without the aid of an app? Or true multitasking, or external storage, or better maps or nicer screen size, customization, better sharing features, better keyboard choices, visible file system, better notifications, (apple realized this and copied) google now, (Siri is a joke), more free apps, unlock options, shall I go on.....