Ah, the marketing sleight-of-hand, it’s something to behold. On one hand, Android sales are thundering past the iPhone. Yet, on the other hand, buyers are finding Android isn’t as easy-to-use as iPhone, resulting in returns of 30-40 percent.
By comparison, Apple’s iPhone 4 had a 1.7 percent return rate during the height of last year’s “Antennagate” fiasco. Why the difference? Essentially, geeks love the Android’s tech speak, but when your average consumer gets hold of a handset powered by the Google operating system, they get lost.
“For the ‘average’ phone user, Android is a maze,” according to TechCrunch. That’s something Apple has fine-tuned, down to one button. So, millions of Android-based phones are selling, but nearly half that many are being returned. Meanwhile, around 98 percent of iPhone owners are happy. You have to wonder if that difference will make it into a promo for the next Android phone?
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
66 responses to “Android Phones Sell Well, But Up To 40% Of Users Return Them Because It’s No iPhone”
I just paid $22.87 for an iPad2-64GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $675 which only cost me $62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, GrabPenny.com
The original article is complete B.S.
All the guy says is that /SOME/ android phones have a 30 to 40% return rate. Nothing more and nothing less. What android phones? These could be the cheap, crappy ones all we know. Matter of fact, he could be making up these numbers because /NOWHERE/ does he give us which models these are and where he is getting is information.
Funny, I was unimpressed with the iPhone. No 4G (yet), no Sprint, and you have to jailbreak it to do a lot of what Android does out of the box. (And jailbreak it again every time an OS update came out.) My wife was able to get a slide-out keyboard with her Android, something Apple doesn’t offer.
I also got tired of the missing plug in for any flash enabled content.
As for ease of use, the only real difference I have noticed is the Android menu key, which I find makes things easier than trying to figure out where the developer put the settings on iPhone apps. Trust me, if my wife can figure it out without help, it’s easy enough.
This is not to say the Android system is perfect. Every so often, my Evo gets sluggish and needs a good reboot. The App Store is superior to the Android market. Android still hasn’t caught up with iOS for quantity and quality of Apps. Android has a lot of crapware that Apple has kept out of the App store. This extends to the quality of the phone itself. Like the computer market, Apple has no low-end products. Compare an “entry level” $49.95 Android to an iPhone and guess which one is going to win.
More importantly, the iPhone is also an iPod Touch, while the Android is, well, a crappy off-brand media player that tries to pass itself off as one. (I thought I would sell my Touch after getting the Android, but I ended up keeping it because the Android completely sucks as an iPod replacement.) Yes, there is AirSync, but AirSync is no iTunes–not even iTunes for Windows.
The Android is a better phone, but the iPhone is a better media device. This and the fact that Apple products are “cooler” than anything offered by the competition and doesn’t sell junk phones is why more iPhone customers are satisfied.
Dear Internet Websites,
Is it really so hard to block GrabPenny.com spam?
android is android, or not?
Yes. and the point is..?
My wife and I have iPhones on AT&T. Dissatisfied with their network, we were hoping Apple would do a deal with Verizon, which came months later than when we needed the upgrade. On the other hand, my daughter and son didn’t want to wait and settled for EVOs with Verizon. I have to say I was pretty open to that idea until I started fiddling more with the EVOs. As the writer indicates, “Android is a maze” and I definitely concur with him. I also hate the fact that there is so much proprietary software that you cannot remove, which in turn, uses up storage space, not to mention it feels like I am putting a Pop Tart to my ear, due to the huge size of the EVO.
I know everything about tearing a PC down and building it back up again, making PCs from scratch as well. I am a Geek by heart and love technology. Just over five years ago, I couldn’t understand who the hell would pay so much for a Mac when you can make a PC for half the price. Fast-forward a year later and I now own two MacBook Pros and two iPhones.
Needless to say, America is much for the “underdog”, which is why everyone routed for Apple before they became more mainstream (not quite, but a lot more than twenty years ago!). Now that Apple has taken the Top Dog spot, some Americans are now bashing Apple, despite their innovation and how well they can make technology look “pretty” and “just work”. Apple has always been first in pioneering technology – think about how many “me too” products you now see now following the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Where was the innovation and marriage of form and function from the other manufacturers? It took some serious changes to get the other manufacturers to step up to the plate, which they are still trying to do, albeit unsuccessfully.
Sorry, Android and PC lovers, but after being a loyal PC fan, Apple products make sense and you definitely get what you pay for – a beautiful-looking product that functions well, and very easy to use and navigate through. I will take a Mac over PC, an iPad over a Tablet, and will definitely take an iPhone over an Android-based smartphone any day. Sorry Android – nice try, but not quite there yet.
whats the point of 4G if most people can’t get it? It makes no sense.
and android is not a phone, its an OS so name an android phone that can go head to head with the 1 year old iPhone 4
#1, There is no EVO on Verizon. The Evo is only on Sprint.
#2, Have you looked at the Nexus S? Its pure android, meaning no crapware and skins on it. I thought android was always crap until I stumbled across the Nexus One. Also with Nexus devices you don’t have the problems other Android devices have, so no fragmentation and such.
I being a “geek” like yourself, have both iPhones and EVOs in our household. EVOs don’t fall in the line of the crap phones as you mention, so it is safe to say you can compare it next to an iPhone. Bottom line – iPhone wins hands-down for form, functionality, and ease of use. As Apple is gaining marketshare by offering the iPhone on Verizon, and rumor has it – with Sprint in the future, it will all come down to the end-user/consumers. I guarantee that more folks will be going the route of the iPhone over an Android-based smartphone.
It’s okay techgeek01. I was once preaching PC and anything-but-Apple, but later succumbed to common sense, swallowing my pride and going to a Mac and iPhone. Android-based phones still have a ways to go, taking a Silver Medal here. Too bad there are only two competitors…oh yeah, and then there’s that Windows phone…not.
Oops – my bad…Sprint, not Verizon. I fiddled with the Nexus S, as my colleague has one. Still I have to say I am not at all impressed. Again, playing on an iPhone, the UI/UX is so much better.
Seriously, techgeek01…aside from this public forum – would you REALLY take an EVO or Nexus S over an iPhone? If yes, then that’s fine…by the way – I have some refreshing “kool-aid” for you to sip down! ;P Yes, the grass really is greener in Cupertino along with their share price, too.
That’s like saying “name a PC model that can go up against the MacBook Pro.” One advantage of a PC is that you can get a zillion different configurations of one at all different price points. One of the disadvantages is that some of them are junk. Same thing with Android vs. iOS/iPhone.
But if you want individual phones, I personally would take a HTC Thunderbolt/Inspire/Evo over an iPhone any day. Samsung, LG, and Motorola’s high end models compare favorably to an iPhone. I’m sure there are others. Hardware aside, having the iPhone limited to AT&T and Verizon was the dealbreaker for me.
I can get Sprint 4G in Raleigh and Verizon is coming soon. 4G is noticeably faster, even Sprint’s “slower” WIMAX.
Google measures Android activations, but do they also measure deactivations?
Get a life!
So is iphone4, I returned 4times : top on/off button stopped, heat waring came up, yellow lines and spots on screen, low volume and wifi connection issue.
30-40% is not “nearly half”. (I have never used an Android phone btw.)
if a ‘veteran technology journalist’ as Ed Sutherland proclaims himself does not or chooses not to realize the complete nonsense that TC article is, I wonder what lesser journos would do.
The TC article quotes ‘someone familiar with sales of mobile phones’ as the source? Whos that?
Ed
Sutherland you are bias. And it is obvious; your major lack is knowledge. Please
stay away from making articles that have no foundation
What kind of a moron quotes an article without a source ? I get it that you have an orgasm everytime someone says that the i-phone is better than Android. But this kind of idiocy I would not expect with someone who knows how to write a blog. Clearly, I have to lower my standards.
I would have loved to have had an iPhone, but when I switched to Verizon from AT&T, it was not an option. After having tried the Android phone, I can say I will be switching to an iPhone as soon as I can. The Android works, but it is quite frustrating to use at times. It does not have the smoothness of the iPhone. It runs programs at random, sometimes all of them at the same time. And sometimes it takes several attempts to dial a number and make a call. I am not a fan of Linux at all and consider it more of a “toy”. It is too bad Android is based on Linux. The Android could possibly be a viable competitor to the iphone in a few years. But right now, it is just a “toy”, and not a very good one at that.
the article tells exactly what i’m thinking about Android. you just have to learned too much thing with Android.
you touch here to reach A, you touch there to reach B. compare it with only ONE system preferences where you can get all of the settings there in iOS. and yet still be able to re-allocate its position wherever you want.
Android is pretty decent for OS and i like how it can be customize of your own things, but for me the silver medal is still the best they can get for now.
anyone’s with me?
I’m a Mac fan, let’s be clear about that, but…
What’s your source on this?
I understand that your post is not a scientific paper, but without proper reference it’s totally insignificant.
The funny thing is that the guys at MacTrast are shamelessly copying your post without any verification of your data.
Good job!
Don’t know, but ComScore measures platform use, and Android is still well ahead of iOS, even if some users (not really clear from this article how many) are returning their Android phones
http://www.comscore.com/Press_…
Android still has a devoted following. One big compelling reason to buy android is that you hate anything Apple. The technology, ease of use, TCO, logic…etc. go out of the picture when blind hate takes over. Divorce lawyers make a fortune taking advantage of this type of logic.
Just a point of observation, but if 30-40% of people that buy Android phones are returning them, are they just going phone-free then? I mean, if they were returning those Android phones to get iPhones, wouldn’t this “source” be screaming it from the roof top and the title of this article be “40% of Android users return they’re phones for iPhones”? So, isn’t the most likely case that those folks returning all those Android phones are exchanging them for a different model of Android phone or reverting to non-smart phones?
Don’t confuse return rate with satisfaction. Just because the return rate is less than 2% doesn’t automatically equate to 98% satisfaction rate. iPhone satisfaction is the highest among smartphones, but there have been many, many surveys and none of them come anywhere near 98%.
If people were returning 30-40% of Android phones “because they aren’t as good as iPhones”, then iOS would by far be the dominant smartphone platform. It’s not.
What this article fails to point out:
1. If you want to be on the Android platform, you have MANY choices, so it’s natural with an item like a phone that people may return it and try a different one if they aren’t happy with the first one(which could be for dozens of reasons that have nothing to do with the OS ).
If you are buying into iOS, you pretty much have 2 obvious choices. The one with the front camera or the one without it. There’s nothing else to try out.
2. The article(and similiar ones that have popped up the past few days) paint lack of choice and flexibility as a positive thing. It’s not.
3. Too complicated for average users? Maybe if they abandon it after an hour. Give them a day and there’s really nothing baffling about it at all. In fact, it’s more like using the pc’s that they’re probably already used to than the iPhone is.
4. “some” phones being returned 30-40% of the time doesn’t equal all 30-40% of android phones being returned
..but of course the author realizes this and the article was written to maximize page views.
It must be nice in that garden.
Come see the world.
“wins hands down for blah blah blah”
I disagree, you are not automatically correct in your assumptions.
God damn, your smugness is thick.
I’d take either of those phones over an iPhone 4.
Wow. This doesn’t even pass a smell test. And then it gets to equating 30-40% as “nearly half”? Come on Mr. Sutherland, you are claiming that 50% of folks buying $99 no contract Android phones are returning them for iPhones?
If they were all underpowered, slow and had a crap screen like the samsung galaxy 5 i5503 I have, then I could understand it, bt it was about 15% the cost of an iPhone when I got it (subsidy has ended so they are up to NZ$300 now)
Its still a workable phone and a viable upgrade from a similar prices stoner phone, but I can see how they could be overpromised and under deliver by retailers.
Just consider yourself lucky over there that you can return a phone that you dont like, look on the brightside that these people have been able to try it and find they didnt like it rather than being stuck with an underperforming phone etc.
If users were to return the phones at a rate of 40% then the carriers would lose a hell of a lot of money and no longer stock them. These statistics are impossible.
The usual idea is that you would use NFC to set up the link between the two devices and then do an automatic hand over to a different protocol for doing the actual transfer of data – eg Bluetooth,iphone 5