Perhaps as a rational Apple Fanboi I can be of some help....

One of the key features of iPhone is that when a carrier comes in to see Steve J and presents their list of things they need to change - you know the sort of thing, branding, replace the email app, remove the Maps app and replace it with their now, that sort of thing, well Steve nods, smiles, takes out his iPhone, and launches the app that releases the rabid wolverines.

So, you gotta get one that the carriers haven't crapped on. Not only is it not nice to have a phone full of bloatware, but every time Google put out a new version of Android the carrier has to re-do the blaotware before they cans end you the patch, if they can be bothered. Sure, you can root and reflash, but what a pain that's going to be.

So, that helps a lot, because it narrows the choice to... er ... Nexus S or Nexus One.

http://www.google.com/phone/compare/?phone=nexus-one&phone=nexus-s

And HTC using Apple patents without a license...

You know I love you, right? And this is painful for me to say... but if you think shipping a tablet without an email client, or shipping one with a broken SD slot is the sign of a potentially serious competitor...

Well, a) I don't know what it's like where you are but here in the UK you can walk into Argos with £100 or so and come out with a droid on Pay As you Go - i.e. no contract - and b) you are on Slashdot and so know more about phones than everyone in every phone store in your neighbourhood so of course you made your buyind decision on features. I'm being a bit generous on b) of course, since iPhone is GSM and so works in as many countries that you can hope for.

Try this: find a local phone store that doesn't stock IPhone, walk in, and say you are interested in buying an iPhone. Be sure to give no sign that you've even heard of slashdot.

Now, if the saleslady tells you to get out, I'll accept that you are right and I'm wrong.
But if she says something along the lines of "Oh, we don;t have that, but take a look at this Galaxy S, it's just like an iPhone"....

Well, Gartner respectfully disagree with you. They don't think it's the only reason for the 4% year on year decline, but they believe it's part of the reason.

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2024918/pc-market-decline-2010

Oh come on now, they must both be shitting themselves about Canonical's 0.0075 billion quarterly revenue.

Man, I loved my Sendo X. Lovely phone.

Unusable broken radio, of course, and the delay of getting the OS updates through the carrier meant Microsoft had bankrupted them before they fixed it, but still...

I'd say it's also pretty interesting on a engineering level how hard they found it to do.

Unless, being someone who cared about the data on your phone, you checked the box labeled "encrypt my backups".

... what do you think Apple want to be the market leading phone?

iPhone, for sure, but they know that's never going to happen because they'd have to cut their margins too much. Hell, it's questionable whether they could even make enough to get to number one. So it has to be something else, right?

So, do they want something innovative, like WM7? (I may be an Apple Fanboi but I'm a rational fanboi, and WM7 is really good.)

Or something well established and proven to be rock solid, like BB? (Ok, so the company has gone mad, but you can't beat an old-school BB for messaging)

Or do they want something that's a cheap iPhone knock off?

Because if someone says "this cheap iPhone knock off sucks", there's a pretty obvious response isn't there? "Have you thought of upgrading to the real thing?"

Shocking as it may be to hear an Apple Fanboi say this - good point RazzleFrog! Because, you see, you're right: Android IS trouncing iOS in smartphone marketshare. And Apple don't care!

They're making all the profit. They're selling every iOS device they can build. They're seeing Mac sales go up while PC sales go down because of iPad. They're watching RIM go insane and Nokia sell out to Microsoft. They're welcoming all the developers to iOS, who come there first because that's where the money is.

Hell, it's Apple that's driving Android sales. How many Android phones get sold in response to a customer query of "I want something like an iPhone only cheap" or "I want something like an iPhone but don't want to change networks."

Mac sales are increasing by very large numbers - 28% year on year growth of Macs in March, for example.

Of course, you can make huge gains without it saying anything about market share... except that the PC market is currently shrinking, in part due to iPad sales.

Good to be Apple, dontcha think? :-)

Must be nice being the only one in your circle of friends who isn't crazy/stupid/weak.

Heh, you know, I just spent a whole two dollars on Wolfram Alpha for my iPad just so I can laugh at you.

Obviously it would have been even funnier to buy CP/M for my iPad instead, but I can't. Because it's available for free.