Topic: [ANN] BitcoinSpinner - page 12. (Read 45089 times)

Fixed that for you.

EDIT: reference http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/12/ios-revenues-vs-android/

thanks mike, nice overview! also, for my country AT it shows quite the opposite. however, i think there is still room for surprises … android will really become dominant, once all non-smartphones have vanished and very cheap models with probably older 2.X versions (or then, 3.x) are what users get if they want a new 0 €/$ phone. That will also the type of model you will see in developing countries. And don't forget, mobile data is in some of those 3rd world countries cheaper than in the US!

I wouldn't worry too much about "seeing Apple everywhere". Every iPhone looks nearly the same and they all have very prominent branding so it's easy to spot them quickly.

And besides, I agree that data can provide insight. Bitcoin is a long term project. The state of the mobile market today is not relevant because Bitcoin itself is not relevant today. What should interest us is how things might look in two or three years, and how it breaks down amongst different demographics.

Apple long ago stopped announcing activation figures for the iPhone specifically (tablets aren't so relevant for mobile payments), it's likely they are a long way behind. The last announced Android figure was ~700k per day. I think Apple stopped announcing at 250k per day (for both tablets and phones).

But we can try and extrapolate from other sources. Clicky is a newish web tracking firm with half a million sites. StatCounter has about 3 million. The mix of sites is of course NOT a random sample of all websites mobile users visit, so we use two sources to try and discern general trends rather than absolute figures.

Firstly, we can see that a lot of this varies by region. For instance in South Korea Android utterly crushes iOS. I didn't include Clicky because their graph for Korea is wildly oscillating noise and I doubt it's reliable. StatCounters data matches recent news reports where lack of LTE is cited as a common concern.

  http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-KR-monthly-201012-201112

In Germany the iPhone is more popular but it's changing quickly and soon the positions will reverse:

  http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-DE-monthly-201012-201112
  http://getclicky.com/marketshare/de/operating-systems/mobile/

Switzerland:

  http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-CH-monthly-201012-201112
  http://getclicky.com/marketshare/ch/operating-systems/mobile/

Clickys results are a bit dodgy looking again, but they both agree on the general trends, iOS is way ahead but Android is growing, market share changed permanently in August.

The iPhone launched first in the USA, it's made by a US company, and it's a fiercely fought market with huge marketing budgets. So it's not surprising that the situation there is not changing so fast:

  http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-US-monthly-201012-201112
  http://getclicky.com/marketshare/us/operating-systems/mobile/

Instead both Android and iOS are selling enough to keep pace with each other in a rapidly growing market, and Blackberry is dropping like a stone (as a fraction of overall web traffic).

The situation is more interesting in the developing world, which I think is somewhere Bitcoin could be of more impact than in the west - flaky inflation-prone currencies and lack of good credit card systems are common issues there.

Brazil:

  http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-BR-monthly-201012-201112
  http://getclicky.com/marketshare/br/operating-systems/mobile/

The stats are harder to read here, probably due to lack of sufficient data and different mix of sites with the tracking code installed. Clicky shows iOS keeping stable and Android growing steadily until a massive jump at the end. But the numbers are questionable - is iOS really more popular than "other"? I doubt it, more likely Clicky, being newer, is installed on sites that are more modern/web2.0/tailored for smartphone users. Also there's no volume counts, it's probably low. StatCounter shows a slightly more believable graph in which both iOS and Android are behind Symbian (cheap nokias), but this time Android is ahead. The derivative changes changes in September which is the sort of thing you'd associate with a new device launch.

Estonia (does it still count as 'developing' these days I wonder?)

  http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-EE-monthly-201012-201112
  http://getclicky.com/marketshare/ee/operating-systems/mobile/

Clicky shows the exact opposite of StatCounter here, but the graph is so noisy I suspect it's being drawn from hardly any data at all. Clicky isn't even translated into Estonian. StatCounter, with a large number of quite old sites, is more likely to have good coverage in smaller geographies, and they show Android clearly dominating.

Russia is an important market for Bitcoin:

  http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-RU-monthly-201012-201112
  http://getclicky.com/marketshare/ru/operating-systems/mobile/

Again, divergent data. Clicky shows Android growing and iOS leading. StatCounter shows Symbian way ahead and Android growing, iOS shrinking.

So the general conclusions are:

• Source selection can change your results completely.
• Interesting longer-term markets for Bitcoin are showing a consistent trend towards Android, which is good for us.
• The situation today in mature markets like the UK and USA is Apples to lose, but unless they change the game again it seems likely they will do so - mostly their sales are keeping pace with market growth but Android sales are outpacing it, often at the expense of older devices.

I've lately been enjoying an Android 4 phone. The new GUI closes the gap with iOS in responsiveness/frame rate and slick looks, which was one of Apples key advantages. So I think these trends will become even more pronounced over the next couple of years. This is good for Bitcoin because Apples policies are very inconsistent and it's unclear if BitPak and friends will be allowed on the platform long term. Also, NFC makes for very nice mobile payments and Apple doesn't seem in a rush to support it.

Great job. Very well done. +1 for an iPhone client.

Fortunately I have good news. Just before Christmas I joined the BitcoinSpinner dev team. Previously I was (just) making the BCCAPI, and during the holidays I gave BitcoinSpinner a major swing. This should greatly improve user experience with no or poor network connectivity.
Please upgrade to the latest version (0.4b) on the Android Market place.
More details on new features here: BitcoinSpinner in the Alternative Clients section

Ah, okay. Sending 6 BTC. The app crashed on first start attempt when I tried to send the coins, so I only tipped 1 BTC on top. Expensive crash.

This is awesome, I got it to work on my android modded HP touchpad, unfortunately the camera doesn't work with android installed, so I can't scan qr codes

But on the plus side I can make HUGE qr codes, heres a photo with a floppy disk for comparison

Thank you for the 15 BTC!

Not having the donation address as a QR-code is a blunder on my behalf. The BCCAPI page has been updated with one.

The BitcoinSpinner developer is not very active on this forum, but he has included a donation in his signature. Here is a sample: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.644862

An update (v0.4) is in the pipe, which changes BitcoinSpinner's backend communication to the server. This should remove crash issues. I expect the update to go out tomorrow. I also experience that it takes long time to initialize at times, especially when my device has been idle for some time. I think the reason is that the device has to fire up its wi-fi, and this takes time. The good news is that the next version allows you to start up without a network connection, and see your "old" balance. This also means that you can backup/restore/export your private key when in off-line mode.


The reason why it sometimes takes long time to initialize something I also experience if

This is my experience too.

BitcoinSpinner (BCCAPI) works for me, so I have the ancient 20 BTC Android bounty to pay. The client program crashes frequently, and takes long to initialize at times, but it serves its purpose and I've not had any serious issues.

That said, 15 BTC are going to BCCAPI. It's funny the donation address is not shown as QR code on the page, I had to mail it to myself and paste it into BitcoinSpinner.

That means I should send at least 5 BTC to the BitcoinSpinner developers, but I didn't find a donation address. Do they have one?

+1


Agree mostly. Sales stats are misleading. I've sold/repaired phones for 7 years. Free and cheap (price wise) phones like many Android models are damaged and lost more often, and replaced, adding to sales numbers.  More expensive (not necessarily better) models like iPhones are usually better kept and repaired vs replaced.  Usage data like Bit-pays are generally more accurate.  Either way iOS needs an app and Bitpak is not it.  And don't forget Apple users tend to spend more per device on phones/apps/rate plans - though Apple does take a nice cut of that.  It would be great to have the same app on both OS's and see sales/use data.

ah, yeah you got a point there...

I imagine Apple users are desperately looking for an alternative way to pay to avoid exorbitant fees.

yeah, but the types of ppl you walk around and visiting your website are all Hotties    they all use iPhones.

the statistic i posted was sales, not phones in existence.
even if iphones are still much more common in the usa, i am pretty sure this will change over the next few years. anyway, i agree that it would be good to have an iphone version of bitcoinspinner. its clearly the best application for mobile devices right now. bitpak is absolutely no alternative.
 

fornit I've seen the charts but I honestly don't believe it.  I see Apple everywhere when I walk around.  When I look at the site statistics of people visiting my website from their mobile phone, here's exactly the stats we see:

dont let your personal experience fool you.
market share by OS q2 2011:



doesnt mean iphones are not important, but the priority should clearly be android. since in general android phones are cheaper they will continue to spread faster.

You are right and I totally agree.
Apple accepting Bitcoin clients apps is really big news. However, I have no experience with iPhone apps. My domain is more Java'ish and crypto stuff. My hope is that someone in our community with iPhone dev experience takes up the challenge of porting BitcoinSpinner to iPhone. I am willing to help in any way I can.

Jan, it would be awesome to have the BitcoinSpinner as a native iPhone app.  Apple has now opened the door to bitcoin wallets with Bitpak, but that app sucks.  I can tell you that from what I see here in the US, everyone (and i mean everyone) has an iPhone.  Androids are rare amongst the non-hacker crowd.

Yes. Whenever there is an update it will be available on the Android Market, so you just have to update the app on your device. I'll also post on this topic: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitcoinspinner-53353