Gentlemen Prefer Androids, Ladies iOS 483
Ponca City writes "PC World reports that women are more likely to buy an iPhone for their next smartphone purchase, while men prefer Android devices. According to data collected in October 2010, 31 percent of women wanted to buy an Apple iOS device next, followed by 22.8 percent interested in a Google Android device while among men preferences were reversed with 32.6 percent of men interested in an Android purchase and 28.6 desired an iOS phone. 'So where is the extra appeal of Android to men coming from?' asks Tracey E. Schelmetic. 'More male-targeted commercials that emphasize cool gadgetry versus usability? More techno-macho phone brand names like "Droid"? Extra advertising on the Spike channel by phone makers using the Android platform?'"
No no no... (Score:4, Interesting)
Think of the naming conventions used
"i"Phone, about the individual (although one could easily argue it is a controlled environment brought on by monopolistic practices)
Droid, autonomous device that empowers the user through its open architecture.
Of course I could be one sided, as (DISCLAIMER) I have a Droid.
Re:Or... (Score:2, Interesting)
Leaving the gender distinction alone, more people want an iPhone next than want an Android. Yet right now, Android is selling more than iPhone. The reason for that that distinction is obvious. Price. Some people settle for second best.
fake stats (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Or... (Score:5, Interesting)
If you actually pivot the data, though, you see that while Android preferers are vastly on the male side, iOS preferers are split pretty much 50/50. In other words, it's not that "women prefer iOS" so much as it's that Android only seems to appeal to males while iOS is balanced closer to what would be expected from a random sample.
I prefer Symbian (Score:5, Interesting)
I loved Symbian on my N95, I hated it on the N97, I am now back in love with Symbian^3 on the N8. I am willing to say this is the best cell phone I have ever had bar none. I have an N900, but don't consider it a cell phone. The N900 is a linux tablet with a phone app.
Back to cell phones. The US press seems to forget Symbian exists, is rock solid stable, ans is very clean and fast. Symbian was fast on a 60 mhz processor, and literally screams on the N8. For once I would like to see a review written by some one that is used to Symbian instead of an iPhone user complaining how it is different than his beloved Apple product, or some such similar from and Android Fanboi.
Nokia has made some very bad management decisions in the last few years, but their engineer elves have been busy. The N8 really is the best cell phone, both hardware and software that Nokia has ever produced and deserves a close look.
I am glad I didn't listen to "Symbian is dead" and bought an N8.
I love it.
Re:No no no... (Score:4, Interesting)
Not what I see... (Score:3, Interesting)
When I commute every morning, I'm always surprised at how much men have iPhones and ladies have Blackberries. This may very well be a local thing (I live in Paris, France), but from my own casual observations, this is a firm trend here.
In my humble opinion, it's because iPhones are very expensive even tied to an operator contract, while BBs have been marketed aggressively at quite low prices. It seems men are more likely to shell out money on nice toys, women are more responsible with the family budget.
Now, I shouldn't make any generality out of it, but I think this study isn't to be taken as absolute truth either.
Re:I prefer Symbian (Score:5, Interesting)
I like symbian devices, particularly Nokias. They make some of the nicest handsets around. I love my 5800, and S60 v5. I liked my previous S60s phones and my Psion EPOC devices before those.
That said, I hate the development environment, it is absolutely and consistently dreadful. It's a wonder anyone develops for this platform. The Wiki is full of out-of-date examples, and contradictory advice. The compilers are terrible - two completely different free compilers used for the emulator and phone (with different bugs), or a third commercial one which can actually generate decent ARM code - all WIN32 only, of course.
The Symbian C++ API is just awful. OpenC made it bearable, python makes it usable. Nokia's focus is, however (like an ADHD sufferer) shifting once again - this time to Qt. They are currently shipping a 5-600MB Qt SDK for Linux, which can *only* produce code for an emulator!
Re:My wife will have what I'm willing to support (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh really? Why can I name at least two friends who's iPhone's stopped working until they had a clean OS restored? On one of the phones the WI-FI broke, and the other the voice calls entirely stopped working.