Ok, we’re making it clear, this is a rant post. So if you’re not into this kind of thing, it might be best that you scroll down to the next post.
While scouring the web for the hottest mobile tech stories, we can’t believe the number of factual errors we spotted in this article from the StarOnline.
The article titled — iPhone and BlackBerry likely to remain M’sian favourites — talks about the state of the smartphone market in Malaysia. The article, which gets its motivation from the report on Android being the top selling smartphone OS in the US right now, elaborates on the current and upcoming trends of the various smartphones available in Malaysia.
You can read the article in full here if you want but let us spare you some time and read below on some of the glaring factual errors made by the writer.
First up:
Analysts said the mighty iPhone and Blackberry would continue to sell like hot cakes in Malaysia as choices for the Android were still limited locally.
We can’t but feel that the analysts that made this statement plucked it from their nostrils. Everyone knows that there’s currently more choices of Android devices across the low, mid and high-end than Apple and RIM devices combined.
Ok here’s a breakdown of Android devices available officially in the market right now versus devices from Apple and RIM.
Android (Total: six devices from three manufacturers)
HTC Desire
HTC Legend
HTC Wildfire
Samsung Galaxy S
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini
Apple (Total: three devices from one manufacturer)
iPhone 3G 8GB
iPhone 3GS 16GB
iPhone 3GS 32GB
RIM (two devices from one manufacturer)
BlackBerry Curve 8520
BlackBerry Bold 9700
As you can see, just from the telcos, there are more Android devices from more manufacturers than Apple and RIM combined. If you factor in the the many other Android devices that are avaialbe here but not offered by the telcos (from Motorola and LG for example) then there are at least 10 Android devices in the market right now..
So what’s the analysts on about?
Choice is not the issue here, the reason why the BlackBerry and the iPhone is successful here is because of the power of the brand and immense desire that the brands have created. The analysts (and the writer) also fail to take into account that the telcos we’re more receptive of the iPhone and BlackBerry earlier on, making the devices cheaper to acquire by more people. Also, local telcos have only recently warmed up to Android devices, in fact Android devices only start making it big in Malaysia in this year while iPhone had at least a year’s head start and the BlackBerry even longer.
The point is that, there are plenty of Android devices in the market and choice is not to be blamed. Instead, what is crutial to Android’s success is timing, marketing and brand building. These are all essential in creating the desire to have an Android device and boost the takeup rate for Android stays healthy. If telcos get behind Android devices like the do iPhone and BlackBerry, and they are, then we will eventually seen a big market share of the device.
And there’s the paragraph that said this
Both Maxis and DiGi have pre-registered their users for the soon-to-be-launched iPhone 4.
and this
However, analysts said the number of pre-orders for iPhone 4 that Maxis and DiGi received showed there was a huge market for smartphones.
What does this even mean? There is no such thing. The two operators have not pre-registered their users for the iPhone 4. Both have merely started a registration of interest for the device, and there has not yet been any pre-orders for the iPhone 4 launched by either telcos. Its in deed a shock to see how little the writer knows about the subject matter. Even more alarming, it gets published.
The writer needs to triple check his facts and look for better analysts, also find a main idea in his articles. In this one we fail, to find what it is that he is trying to say.
