Let the phone technology rise
iPhone 3GS
6 ways iPhone and Android users differ
Feb 25th
Posted by Philip Elmer-DeWitt
What smartphone click rates tell use about the people who own them
Android users are mostly guys. iPod touch owners are overwhelmingly young. And people who carry iPhones are way more likely to lust after an iPad.
Those are a few of differences that emerged from a opt-in survey of 963 smartphone and iPod touch owners conducted in February by AdMob, the mobile advertising company that Google snapped up in November for $750 million.
In a report issued Thursday morning, AdMob highlights six differences between owners of devices running Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone OS, Google’s (GOOG) Android OS and Palm’s (PALM) WebOS, each nicely illustrated with a color-coded bar chart. See below.
1. Guys and Droids. Maybe it’s the appeal of open source; maybe it was the whiff of homophobiain those Motorola Droid ads. For whatever reason, 73% of Android users are male, compared with 58% of webOS users, 57% of iPhone users and 54% iPod touch users.
2. Kids with iPods. The iPod touch is a hit with the student crowd, which make sense given that Apple hands them out for free with the purchase of a Mac in its back-to-school promos. Based on the survey, 78% of iPod touch users are younger than 25, compared with 25% of iPhone users and 24% of Android and webOS users.
3. Bring on the apps. iPod touch users love their applications — especially the free ones. They download an average of 12 apps a month, 37% more apps than iPhone and Android users. They also spend a lot more time using them: 100 minutes a day, 25% more time than iPhone and Android users.
4. Paying the piper. When it comes to paid apps, iPhone users lead the pack. Half of them buy at least one paid app a month, compared with 21% of Android users, 24% of webOS users and 35% of iPod touch users.
5. Happy campers. Smartphone owners tend to favor their own brand, but some favor it more than others. 91% of iPhone users and 88% of iPod touch users would recommend their device, compared with 84% of Android users and 69% of webOS users. webOS users are nearly three and a half times more likely to not recommend their device than iPhone OS users.
6. Kindle vs. iPad. Steve Jobs may have been on to something when suggested last month that there was a ready market for the iPad in the 75 million people who already own iPhones or iPod touches. In the AdMob survey, 16% of iPhone users said they intend to purchase an iPad, compared with 11% of webOS users and only 6% of Android users. Android owners tended to favor — or perhaps they already owned — Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle.
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Apple iPhone 3GS review: Same clothes, new feel
Oct 13th
Introduction
The Apple iPhone 3GS is probably not the next revolutionary iPhone as you might have expected it. But the performance boost, the sharper camera with video and the purportedly improved battery life certainly make of the current iPhone (3GS or whatever it is called this year) a much more balanced smartphone, one that you could probably wave in front your geeky friends more proudly. Well, you’d still get the chilling disapproving look, but at least you won’t feel as embarrassed as you used to.
The truth about the iPhone is this – perhaps about 20 million people around the globe are quoted as having given in to the iPhone temptation ever since the frenzy started. Now, 2 years later, the rest of the modern world is already sick to death of hearing all about it.
Once ground-breaking, but still as controversial and inspiring as ever, the iPhone lineup has just received its latest offspring. Meet the iPhone 3GS, where “S” can mean a lot of things, but without a doubt covers all that’s needed for “Speed”.
Using last year’s design but boasting some extra powerful hardware, the iPhone 3GS is supposed to, and indeed is, running up to 2 times better than what Apple have offered us so far. This speed boost doesn’t bring substantial new capabilities to the table. Instead it’s more like the hardware catching up with what we can still call one of the most advanced and user-friendly touch user interfaces to-date (in the realm of GSM mobile phones, of course).
While the iPhone 3GS and the 3G are most obviously cut from the same cloth, you’d be glad to know that there are some differentiating factors that can perhaps be worth your cash:
iPhone 3GS advantages over iPhone 3G:
* A faster 600MHz CPU and double the RAM at 256MB
* Noticeably faster performance
* Faster network speeds of HSDPA 7.2Mbps
* 3.2 megapixel auto focus camera with VGA@30fps video recording, touch focus with subject tracking, macro mode from as close as 10 cm
* Double the storage space – 3GS is selling in 16GB and 32GB versions
* Digital compass with automatic map orientation in Maps app
* Better audio quality (as recorded and analyzed in our office)
* Louder loudspeaker results (with performance gains primarily in music playback)
* Purportedly better battery life
* Oleophobic display coating supposed to make fingerprints easier to clean
* Voice Control, speaker independent. Can be use to call a phone number, play music by song/album/artist name, shuffle music
* Built-in support for Nike+ jogging system
* TV-out outputs 480p instead 480i resolution
* Text-to-speech feature called VoiceOver is included in the new Accessibility menu
* System-wide Screen Zoom is also included in the Accessibility menu
Main disadvantages of iPhone 3GS (OS disadvantages not counted here):
* The new iPhone 3GS lacks the same novelty factor as its predecessors – the lack of design changes is a turn-down
* 3 megapixel camera with limited feature set hardly cuts it for a high-end device
* There’s still no flash or hardware shutter key for the camera
* Despite the upgrade, battery life is still generally poor (2-year old iPhone 2G are still doing way better)
* No videocalls functionality
* No FM radio
* No stereo speakers (or are we pushing it too far already?)
Since the iPhone 3GS is the first iPhone to come with the iPhone OS 3.0 factory preinstalled, we’ll most definitely have a detailed look in this review at the changes it brings about – no matter that iPhone 2G and 3G have both received the update for free.
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The Apple iPhone 3GS
Where it stands today, the iPhone OS 3.0 is much more mature version of itself back in the day. Honestly, when we look at where it’s at now, we can only be amazed how limited in features it was when it all started a couple of years ago.
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Apple iPhone 3GS held in hand
But there’s a lot to cover today, so let’s not waste any more time. Join us as we go through the well known hardware and design and bear with us as we cover the iPhone OS 3.0, because it will get interesting, we promise.number of view: 8
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