The poll is not asking which phone OS is the most profitable, so what's your point? Guyjin makes a valid point, as Apple makes only one phone: you'll be taking your money elsewhere if you want longer battery life, more durability, a network other than AT&T, improved reception, a better built-in camera, an integrated cheese grater, or flash support.
I was responding to him, not the poll. He said,
you may be right, at least short term. But Apple has learned nothing from its history; a single format from a single manufacturer, no matter how good, can ever compete against choice
They are "competing" just fine. In fact, totally dominating, might be a better way to put it. They sold, what 1 million iPhone 4s per week for the first three weeks? It sounds like they are doing OK.
The reason why I mention this is because the logical inconstancy that people have when it comes to system wars in general. The Cube was considered a total failure, and obviously it was on many levels, but it did actually make money, as opposed to the XBox1 which put MS
billions (no exaggeration) in the hole. Being #1 in sales is the goal of a shortsighted company. General Motors was #1 in sales and went bankrupt. Were they still "winning" during that time, when they were beating their own world record for largest corporate loss every other quarter?
Apple has "learned nothing"? It seems like they learned how to make shitloads of money while setting the standard to beat on a regular basis. Where the f*ck did all these (quasi-useful) tablet devices come from? I don't remember seeing any of them until the iPad rumors went to full steam. I also don't remember very many phones out there that were basically a buttonless touchscreen. Apple could start selling human feces in a white box tomorrow and even before the sales numbers would come in, MS, Dell, Toshiba, HP, and Sony would have their iPoop competitors half way through development.
Sometimes I wonder if that was the whole idea behind the iPad in the first place. You know that companies like Sony and MS just created entire design departments to ape that gadget as soon as it was announced (before, really) and while its clear that people like the actual iPad, people might not actually give a shit about any cell phone OS based tablet that isn't an actual iPad, so these devisions, in most of these companies, are likely to lose money. Could this have been Apple's plan all along? They create markets all the time, would they intentionally created a useless one just so that their competitors would lose money when they tried to get into it? That would be pretty hilarious, IMO.
Personally, what I want is a tablet Mac, not a giant iPhone.