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?'"
I'd suspect... (Score:5, Insightful)
More likely ... (Score:5, Insightful)
31 vs 32.6 falls within the unspecified margin of error for that "survey".
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Re:More likely ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:More likely ... (Score:4, Insightful)
This could be for a lot of reasons, but the idea that Android marketing is aimed at men sounds reasonable.
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Hmmmm.... Having said that, i think everyone i know who has Apple computers are women (almost entirely notebooks). But i do know one man who owns an iPhone.
He must be gay
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Why do I still use a completely closed system? Investment (paid apps--none of which are games) and it still works for what it needs to do. I don't need tethering (wifi is pretty ubiquitous) and I don't need root access--I simply need a phone that happens to have most of the functions of a small computer.
In other words, you allowed yourself to be successfully locked in.
Re:Nah (Score:5, Funny)
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The battery(basically the only source of energy sufficient to do any damage to the phone or its surroundings, none of the caps in that thing are other than tiny-size tantalum units,) is enclosed at the back of the phone only by a little plastic battery door. Were it to blow, it'd be totally plausible for that door to be melted/deformed/pop off and the user to suffer burns on their hand, wrist, possibly neck/shoulder, de
Duh! (Score:5, Funny)
So where is the extra appeal of Android to men coming from?
Uh, its right there in the name - android as in greek for man.
If they wanted chicks to buy them they should have called then gynoids.
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I'd buy that for a dollar.
If that's their market... (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe naming it the "iPad" wasn't so dumb after all....
Re:If that's their market... (Score:5, Funny)
Well it is rumored to turn blue when exposed to moisture [macrumors.com].
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And yes, indeed, a droid in the shape of a woman would be called gynoid [wikipedia.org] (even I'd prefer gyndroid).
If Google would think to address the market segments for both sexes, it should have called the OS "androgynoid" (just kiddingly accusing Google of sexism here).
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"Gyndroid" would be wrong, though. "Android" comes from "Andros," which as you say means "man," and "oid," meaning "looking like" - so an "android" is something that looks like a man. The Greek for woman is "gyna," not "gyndra," so there's no "dr" to make "gyndroid." The word "droid" is a shortened form of "android."
Greek actually does have a gender-neutral word meaning human being, "anthropos"; so you could have "anthropoid" to mean a robot in human form.
Re:Duh! (Score:4, Informative)
As a native Greek speaker I have to insist and correct your correction: Andros is just an island in Greece, while the correct term for (male) man is "andras" as c0lo above noted. Also, the correct (ancient) Greek term for woman is "gyni' and not "gyna"
It might be noteworthy in this context that the neutral term "antrhopos" derives from ancient Greek "ano"+"throskon" literally meaning "who is looking up", i.e. an animal that looks up and not down as most do.
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You are half right that the iPad+keyboard and the MacBook are not serving the same market. The same as a eeePC and an Alienware M17
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.
Re:My wife will have what I'm willing to support (Score:5, Informative)
If she get's an iPhone she knows she can be on her own. It's not a fucking PC, it doesn't need a fucking support department. Android might need a factory reset and restore [tested.com] every once in a while. iPhone doesn't.
If you like iPhones that's your perorgative, but if you honestly believe the marketing slogan "it just works", you're brain dead.
Re:My wife will have what I'm willing to support (Score:4, Informative)
FUD. My Nexus is loaded up with apps and isn't sluggish at all.
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That's what we call in the trade an embedded device, not a PC.
The definition of an embedded device would disagree with you:
An embedded system is a computer system designed to perform one or a few dedicated functions often with real-time computing constraints.
As opposed to:
By contrast, a general-purpose computer, such as a personal computer (PC), is designed to be flexible and meet a wide range of end-user needs.
Which one sounds more like a smartphone? Embedded Device [wikipedia.org]
guys love porn (Score:5, Funny)
android is for porn remember????
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The android is for using porn
I fail to see how this makes android phones only for man.
I mean, what?... do androids (phones) lack vibrating mode?
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.
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What about the myTouch? It's 100% you!
</cheesiemarketing>
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If this trend continues with Motorola, I will be getting another Motorola Droid in about 1.5 years.
Of course your experience is correct, because the Android is so open, multiple companies have tried to implement the Android software. This leads to crappy phones and their implementation, n
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I agree, I'd only recommend the N900 to people with some techie inclination. The OS doesn't serve you everything on a silver platter like iOS. Maybe later versions of the OS will be more n00b-friendly.
There are lots of Android phones with better specs than the N900 BTW (except for internal storage capacity). The N900's pretty dated now hardware-wise, but it still has the best software by far.
Re:No no no... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Sure other cellphones are limited in comparison, but what they do usually works as intended.
Re:No no no... (Score:4, Insightful)
The more technical folks realise that when performance starts to suffer, its probably because of something they did to their phone, so they go and look for something using stupid amounts of memory...
The people who are less technical blame the phone...
If your having problems and you dont know how to fix them, then reflash your phone to factory, and dont enable testing/development
If you actually know what your doing look for the memory hogs ( and yes one of the flashlight apps is a know memory hog )
Nokia sold you a phone that works great! it runs a standard linux system and isnt locked down!!!
its not their fault if you modify it to the point it runs like crap
if you need to be protected from yourself go buy an iphone ( or get someone who knows what they are doing to lock down your n900 for you )
End Rant
Also (Score:3, Insightful)
Males tend to be more tech-savvy.
Oh, before you mod me flamebait, correlation != causation.
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In addition, male iPhone users tend to be homosexual.
Oh, before you mod me flamebait, correlation != causation.
Re:Also (Score:5, Insightful)
Males tend to be more tech-savvy.
I'll agree with your generalization and offer you another. Women tend to be marketed to for purposes of fashion more than men. iPhones are "cool", "hip", and "trendy". Android phones have a larger feature list which is inherently none of those three things.
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What I'm wondering is why we spend so much time learning things in school. The curriculum is obviously flawed, because otherwise we'd already know it.
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But it boils down to the question: Is computer technology inherently hard to use?
No. It's the metaphors, like files and folders, GUI and cursor, icons, etc. that are hard to comprehend.
Lack of comprehension impedes understanding.
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For them, that was the grandest feature.
I bought my phone [motorola.com] 'cause the case was rubber and it came with a carbuncle, so I don't see what's wrong with buying a phone based on it having some random feature built into the design that's highly useful for the person buying it? Especially when just a few years ago most phones had comparable features as far as the buyer is concerned.
The classic joke (Score:5, Funny)
Q: What's the hardest part about using an iPhone?
A: Coming out to your parents
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Reminds me of a video I saw a while back on Java vs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM2P8wcBPWc [youtube.com]
Re:The classic joke (Score:5, Funny)
Q: How do you know if someone has an iPhone?
A: They tell you.
More masculine hardware design? (Score:2)
Because well, you know, I like to look badass...
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I've never found Apple products terribly visually appealing, a little too "pretty" in a feminine way. I prefer harder edge more badass looking gadgets,
You might be on to something. I prefer my blocky steel Milestone over the slippery sleek iPhone I used to have.
It just works. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It just works. (Score:5, Informative)
And exactly what type of "configuration settings, tweaking this, adjusting that and so on" would have to be done to get an Android or WP7 or a Palm Pre working?
My wife uses the Epic 4g and she bought it on her own, only once entered her Gmail account details and from there on she hasn't needed to do any tweaking at all apart from arranging the App shortcuts the way she likes and that was as easy as it can get. When it gets the 2.2.1 update - it will be a single click for her. If the phone needs replacement - all she needs to do is again reenter her GMail password and all apps, contacts etc. will be right there automagically. It doesn't get any easier than that.
Heck I have seen so many iPhone users - male and females - that did not know that iPhone OS software needs updated because they don't deal with iTunes. The Android ones on the other hand tend to be up2date as the update process is one click on the notification followed by hitting OK.
Re:It just works. (Score:5, Informative)
What is ironic is that Android is more standalone and can fend for itself. The only times I need to connect an Android device to a PC for stuff other than charging is when I am copying nandroid and Titanium Backup backup files from the SD card to the PC for safekeeping, or loading MP3/AAC files onto the device for music. Android phones take care of app updates, OS updates, essentially everything by themselves. To boot, the PC the Android device connects to can be *any* OS that can handle USB drives. I can hook the phone to a USB port on an IBM Power Systems 795, then use AIX to mount and copy the files from it.
iOS devices not just have to have a desktop box to sync to, it has to be either OS X or Windows, and an OS that is in constant connection to the Internet, especially come OS updates for SHSH validation. iOS devices are also designed to be attached and synced often to iTunes.
So, in this respect, Android is a lot better.
Re:It just works. (Score:5, Insightful)
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I'm the same way. I don't even want to tweak the machines I use on a daily basis hence why I buy Apple products. Although I had to laugh the first time I heard one of my engineering friends talk about "Jail breaking" his android phone to do something he wanted.
I wonder if the iPhone was available for Verizon or Sprint, how many of my friends currently with Android phones would have iPhones instead.
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Oh, so she got a Nokia symbian based phone then?
fake stats (Score:5, Interesting)
definitely fake stats! (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly.
To repeat what TFA said, 31% of women want an iPhone and 22.8% want an Android. In order to determine if this difference is statistically significant (alpha = 0.05, beta = 0.2) they'd have needed to ask 508 women.
Did they really? Who knows. There's no confidence interval. Maybe they asked everybody.
What about... (Score:3)
What about males who aren't gentlemen and females who aren't ladies?
(you insensitive clod)
I said to the salesman... (Score:2, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:3)
Re:Android's privacy questionable (Score:5, Insightful)
In the "settings" of android, there's an entire section where you can get the privacy information from Google et al. It tells you exactly what it's recording. Maybe you think they're violating that? I find that unlikely, as they would be breaking the law pretty blatantly.
Not exactly directly related but.. People seem to forget that android isn't "just google's", it's the OHA. So you should, if you're going to worry about them stealing your privacy, worry about more than just google.
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Would you use a cell phone OS made by an advertising company? I only have a lowly call-and-text phone, but if I were buying a smartphone I'd avoid Android like the plague. I don't care how open their app development is; I want to know they're not mining my text messages and emails....
The entire OS source is open, so you're free to flip through and find out exactly what sort of mining might be baked into the device. But the platform is pretty irrelevant in this case. All your transmissions are being forwarded via your carrier. What makes you think your current carrier isn't mining your text messages and emails?
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Would you use a cell phone OS made by an advertising company? I only have a lowly call-and-text phone, but if I were buying a smartphone I'd avoid Android like the plague.
So which smartphone would you buy that doesn't come from an advertising company?
Apple? No, they're an advertising company. [apple.com]
Rim? No, they're an advertising company. [rim.com]
Nokia? No, they're an advertising company. [pcauthority.com.au]
Looks like no smartphone for you.
Also the huge phones (Score:2)
The Android phones are huge, they barely fit in a typical male hand. To most women, they seem that much larger.
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I thought women liked them bigger?
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.
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+1
I wanted a phone that could take calls and text, I wanted to be able to use it for music and a little web browsing and required 802.11. Everyone said "get an Iphone". I then said I didn't want to pay more than $300 outright for the thing and they all laughed and told me no phone exists that can do all that for that price.
My little, slightly older model, Nokia Extreme music 5800 is built for this purpose, throw in a copy of SymSMB and it can now talk windows networking over the wireless lan.
I have looked a
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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:I prefer Symbian (Score:4, Insightful)
I am from Joliet, Illinois. So yes, I am in the "Third World".
Some times herd mentality just makes people run to Android or iOS like sheep to the slaughter.
Symbian^3 on the N8 is totally awesome, and incredibly fast, and totally stable. It does a great job of managing internet connections. has wonderful power management, and, since Comcast is down right now, allows me to tether via HSPA modem from my MacbookPro to Slashdot to write this.
Don't iPhone users get more sex? (Score:2)
Re:Don't iPhone users get more sex? (Score:4, Funny)
Having more sexual partners doesn't mean more sex.
It just means if you have an Iphone you have a greater chance of getting STDs :)
What about Palm and others? (Score:2)
What about those devices and OS?
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Shh, don't ruin their fragile little world, I said something about Symbian based phones a few threads up and got three death threats and someone threw a brick through my front window... A bricked Iphone that is.
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Ha. Poor you. :)
makes me wonder... (Score:2)
about all the men carrying iphones around...
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.
Nice (Score:2)
Oh, great. More labels.
I think they got the headline swtiched around... (Score:3)
Gentlemen prefer Ladies, Androids prefer iOS
There, that looks much better.
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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.
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So why do men prefer Androids while women prefer iPhones? Do women have more money to waste?
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The only gender data is the survey, and that's about what people want. Not what they end up buying. So financial considerations are irrelevant.
It's only when we consider the figures that are not split by gender that we can compare with what's actually bought. And that's when price comes in.
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That's nice, but that's not really what this article is about. It is about the gender difference.
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The reason for that that distinction is obvious. Price. Some people settle for second best.
Rarely. They settle for the best for their particular definition of best. That can include economic factors. To them the Android is best because it does everything they need at the price they're willing to pay.
Personally I wouldn't take an iPhone if you gave it to me.
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The 'Droid platform doesn't accuse you of being a moron that can't judge useful content for yourself, unlike the JoBS.
There's a vast gulf between the ability to do something, and the desire to spend a lot of time doing it ;-)
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More male-targeted commercials emphasize cool gadgetry versus usability?".
Clearly, males are total saps for falling for the Droids cool gadgets and widgets that provide little in the way of useful features...oh wait.
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.
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I'm glad that there are one or two people around here who can actually look at statistics with a bit of sense.
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You might be on to something there. Men hate being told what to do, or that they can't do something because it's dangerous.
For women, however, it's a familiar concept.
Re:Or... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see how you need much more common sense to be able to operate a Droid in comparison to an iPhone. They're nearly identical.
I think part of the draw for Android is that you can tweak and customize it more. And I don't just mean installing a custom OS. Also just customizing it with widgets and other stuff. Even just the stock "customizations" of manufacturers, like SenseUI and all those others. Android is pretty powerful and flexible there. And I suspect men are on average slightly more likely to tinker with their phones than women.
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I like my Android phone. But one thing the iOS does really well is languages. It even does Chinese input. That's pretty impressive. My phone only does Spanish, French, and English.
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Re:So wassup! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So wassup! (Score:5, Funny)
Real men just shout loud enough that whoever they want to reach, can hear them.
And they don't get lost, so they don't need no stinking GPS either.
Re:Mac suit women and gays (Score:4, Insightful)
My guess is, that it is for the same reasons Macs suit women, gays, and/or artists.
Sorry if it is a cliché, statistically bound, by the way.
And those man who are not that insecure that they need to announce their manhood by their choice of "masculine" gadgets...
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mid thirties and just average users -- average meaning they have actual normal lives and would never ever be inclined to look at slashdot.
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Logic is overrated. (Score:4, Insightful)
Any logical argument is only as good as the assumptions which went into it. I'm not saying that logic and quantitative analysis are useless, but they are never perfect or complete. A reasonable person must take emotions when making decisions. And if you are a human being, your emotions influence your decisions, so if you don't realize that you are in denial (which is highly illogical). You are every bit as guilty of making snap judgements as any woman if you don't realize that.
As a side note, I've never seen an iPhone user change their mind about their purchase. Ever. I don't believe that everyone I know who has an iPhone (inculding myself, and my entire immediate family) is an overly emotional nutcase.
Yes, but... (Score:2)
How does your boyfriend/husband feel about that?