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168 points okeumeni | 3 comments | 16 Oct 10 16:38 UTC | HN request time: 0.655s | source
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thought_alarm ◴[16 Oct 10 19:26 UTC] No.1798654[source]▶
But the iPhone and iPad aren't priced at a premium.

Anyway, it's a mistake pit Google against Apple. The real battle will be between Google and Microsoft for the exact same hardware manufacturers and sales channels. (Meanwhile, you can buy an iPad from an Apple Store or from Walmart without any carrier involvement).

Google hasn't managed the fragmentation problem very well, they haven't done enough to control the quality the Android OS between carriers and manufacturers, and they've utterly mismanaged the Android Market. I'm no fan of Microsoft or WinMo 7, but I expect Microsoft to do a much better job at addressing all of those issues.

Microsoft can also leverage their Zune desktop software.

And Microsoft's development tools are generally very popular with developers. I've done some work with WPF and I found it very impressive and I would expect their Phone SDK to be of similar quality. On the other hand, even though I generally like Java I'm finding the move from iPhone development to Android development to be a depressing step backwards both in terms of the dev tools and especially the SDK.

Then again, it is Microsoft we're talking about. It may take them another 3 or 6 years to get it right.

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billmcneale ◴[17 Oct 10 00:54 UTC] No.1799286[source]▶
Actually, the real battle will be between Apple and Microsoft for spots #3 and #4 in the mobile market, as explained here:

http://beust.com/weblog/2010/05/22/more-on-android-and-the-i...

Android is already #2 and poised to become #1 in the next three years. Apple and Microsoft will soon not even be in the same league.

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1. evgen ◴[17 Oct 10 04:30 UTC] No.1799663[source]▶
They will definitely lag in number of handsets, but will also completely destroy the Android players in terms of profit. If you consider the ecosystem as a whole, I am betting that Microsoft will also knock Android down into third-place in terms of third-party developer profit as well.
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2. billmcneale ◴[17 Oct 10 07:34 UTC] No.1799873[source]▶
The profit argument stopped being true a few days ago, when Google announced their earnings including the mobile break down.
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3. evgen ◴[17 Oct 10 18:57 UTC] No.1801086[source]▶
Google does not profit from Android, they profit through mobile advertising which has very little to do with a specific phone OS. The profit argument simply points out that the people who are producing Android phones have the lowest profit/handset in the industry and having a "sell more regardless of the low profit levels" strategy such as what Nokia used for the past decade is a recipe for disaster.