This Techcrunch article is claiming a 40% return rate for Android phones:
However, on the ground, many return rates are approaching 40% said a person familiar with handset sales for multiple manufacturers.
This is an incredibly high number, especially considering that the return rate for the iPhone appears to be 1.7%.
Several things bother me about this article:
- The author links to the source for the iPhone 1.7% number but provides absolutely no source for the main subject of the article. Where exactly does this data come from? A single person? Who happens to know the numbers for multiple manufacturers (emphasis on “multiple”, it’s important for the credibility of the article)? Who is that person? Where did they get this information from?
- The article is implying that this return rate is for Android, not just a single handset. Seriously, can you imagine that every single Android handset has a return rate of 30%? Really?
- No single company could come close to surviving such a high return rate, but hinting that every single manufacturer of an Android phone is seeing such a phenomenon? Absurd.
- Guess where the numbers for the iPhone return rate come from? Well, Apple of course. To be fair, I don’t doubt that this number is probably accurate since I’ve seen nothing but very high satisfaction for the iPhone, but come on, Jason Biggs, show some professionalism: if you’re going to use Apple to support a side of your article, the least you can do is ask Google for their own numbers for Android phones.
Filed as “link bait”.
#1 by pwb on July 26, 2011 - 5:38 pm
Not sure if they edited it but when I read it it said: “the return rate on some Android devices is between 30 and 40 percent”
Ans “some” was italicized.
#2 by Guillaume Laurent on July 26, 2011 - 11:25 pm
“ask Google for their own numbers for Android phones” : how could Google ever know that ? I doubt that an Android phone manufacturer is required to release any sales data to Google.
Likewise, can you really be sure that some android phones aren’t so crappy that their return rate will reach 30-40% ?
#3 by Yannick Menager on July 29, 2011 - 12:47 am
I’m pretty sure there must be at least one android phone that is so crappy the return rates are 30-40%, however Cedric’s point is that it’s a completely deceiving statistic, as it’s being said to make it sound like *all* android phones are that crappy, when in reality that 30-40% is probably referring to some 5$ phone made in china, that you would never even be able to buy in any western main street shop.
#4 by Vishaan on August 15, 2011 - 8:43 am
Cedric, did you ever get a reply or reference about the Android statistics? I’m so tired of seeing such slanted articles all over the tech press that I’m skeptical about anything those guys/gals write.
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#5 by Dan Ritthaler on September 4, 2011 - 4:40 am
@Yannick Menager : What phone costs $5? The point that everyone seems to miss is that they are not user friendly. The interest in them is all hype. In other words, the advertising and promotion and the supposedly advanced features like 4G and apps is really just a load of steamy hogwash. The technology is moving forward, but it is not being managed in a way that makes sense to the average person. Maybe if you’re a geek who likes playing toys it’s a great thing, but most people just want to communicate, not scroll through endless screens to read a text or email. Like I said, they’re “stupid” phones because you feel like an idiot after you’ve bought one.