Android - male dominated?

PiKe · 14 Dec 2011 at 01:16

Just wondered why you don't seem to see Android phones available in multiple colour combinations, it appears the only other colour than black, is white. Girl's like their phones to be a bit of a fashion accessory and with there being only 2 colours available might this put the Toco owners and the like off them?

You know what women can be like, no amount of 'its better than... ' will wash with them unless it's a nice colour!

Zefan · 14 Dec 2011 at 01:23

The insane popularity of iPhones with women destroys your point really!

Black and white (as well as shades/other dark/light neutral colours) go with anything. Phone manufacturers are beginning to realise that a phone is something you have with you all the time, so it needs to be fashionable with all the time.

DBT85 · 14 Dec 2011 at 02:09

Since pretty much everyone puts a cover on the phone to protect it anyway there isn't much point in the original colour.

Wife has a purple one on her Desire Z. Sisters in law have purple and pink on their iPhones.

Robbo · 14 Dec 2011 at 08:10

Todge said:
Since pretty much everyone puts a cover on the phone to protect it anyway there isn't much point in the original colour.

Do they?

I certainly see loads of people with no cover on their phone every day.

Skepticx · 14 Dec 2011 at 08:44

The problem is every girl has a Blackberry now. (or an iphone)
BBM is a little bit popular amongst girls.

krooton · 14 Dec 2011 at 09:30

Funnily enough, I saw some analysis not that long ago showing sale types by gender, and females make around 70% of Blackberry sales. Also, the limited edition pink variants of phones released over the years, whilst selling almost exclusively to females, sold lower volumes. This probably accounts for the limited colour schemes in more expensive phones, they leave it to cheap pay as you go phones that kids/teens get (where pink crap sells the best).

muon · 14 Dec 2011 at 10:27

Robbo said:
Do they?

I certainly see loads of people with no cover on their phone every day.

Exactly, I very rarely see a cover. Especially on Android phones.

Myshra · 14 Dec 2011 at 10:45

The bigger problem is stocking extra SKU's and then flogging them in a timely manner. Universally Black and white will sell to both genders fairly equally (at tops a few % out) but pink? You'll be lucky to get 4% male.

This brings about the issue of "is it worth it?" - they have to make cases of a different colour, get the networks to stock them, agree they will repurchase anything that doesn't shift if it's a complete dud etc... it's a risk game. Historically pink has been the oddball colour of choice on Orange and I always resented it, so cliche (we gave makeup bags away with one pink phone, shop assistants had to give these to men who brought the phone, I'm sure you can imagine the faces).

I'd much rather a decent spectrum of colours a la Nokia's of old (and now new) on a personal note and even perhaps some of the replacement cases of old that were actually a decent quality. The 3210 for example came in.... 8 colours and then they had 8 "art" covers if I remember rightly, maybe I just hark for the old days but I thought this was a really good approach.

DBT85 · 14 Dec 2011 at 21:45

Robbo said:
Do they?

I certainly see loads of people with no cover on their phone every day.

Odd. I don't think there are more than 20% of people in this office that don't have a cover of some kind on their smartphone.

mrgubby · 14 Dec 2011 at 21:53

Robbo said:
Do they?

I certainly see loads of people with no cover on their phone every day.

I travel extensively on the London Underground and I'd say that about 90% of Iphones are covered, less than 20% of other "touchscreen smartphones" are covered and I can't remember seing a BB with a cover.

*obviously doesn't include pouches left in pockets
** this is just a rough poll, I've not been stalking phone users

4T5 · 14 Dec 2011 at 21:57

PiKe said:
Android - male dominated?

I would say No with the amount of women I know that swear by there Blackberry & BBM.

Owenb · 14 Dec 2011 at 22:27

4T5 said:
I would say No with the amount of women I know that swear by there Blackberry & BBM.

I had to do some research into this for work and BB still extremely popular in the UK especially with teenage girls. I would assume a lot of it is down to free messaging with BBM- if a few of your friends are constantly sending group msg's then there is a lot of pressure to get a BB to not be left out. Outside of the UK BB is on it's last legs.

From what I remember Android has more male users- something like 60/40. I do agree with the OP that it has been strange to see hardware makers not try and make different coloured handsets- they did it with dump phones but seem to have forgotten about it for the last few years.

Bloomfield · 14 Dec 2011 at 22:28

4T5 said:
I would say No with the amount of women I know that swear by there Blackberry & BBM.

Your post confuses me

.

wellibob · 14 Dec 2011 at 22:29

I agree that the iPhone is a girls phone. It's simple to use and is small ;-)

Alpherah · 15 Dec 2011 at 00:12

The split is down to more then just colour, the marketing is just completely wrong.

Psycho Sonny · 15 Dec 2011 at 03:23

Robbo said:
Do they?

I certainly see loads of people with no cover on their phone every day.

anyone with a decent phone will have a cover, especially women.

some guy on here even paid mega bucks for a wooden cover for an iphone

Cupra · 15 Dec 2011 at 03:48

wellibob said:
I agree that the iPhone is a girls phone. It's simple to use and is small

how is the iphone small?

its not small at all its just samsung phones are silly big

DBT85 · 15 Dec 2011 at 05:56

Cupra said:
how is the iphone small?

its not small at all its just samsung phones are silly big

4" to 4.5" phones are normal as far as I am concerned, iPhone is small. I have quite large hands which may have some bearing on that though.

Robbo · 15 Dec 2011 at 08:32

Psycho Sonny said:
anyone with a decent phone will have a cover, especially women.

some guy on here even paid mega bucks for a wooden cover for an iphone

No, some will, some won't. The most common 'cover' for the iPhone 4/4S seem to be the bumpers, which I don't really class as a case, more of an accessory. Even there, 50% of iPhones that I see aren't in cases/bumpers.

Android phones generally don't tend to be in cases in my experience, and BlackBerry's don't either.

That wooden cover is £25~, hardly 'mega bucks'.

Cupra said:
how is the iphone small?

its not small at all its just samsung phones are silly big

He's just trolling (hence the wink).

wellibob · 15 Dec 2011 at 09:11

I'm sorry but the iphones are small in todays smartphone world. It's logical most amdroids are bigger because a 3. 5 inch display is as old as the original iPhone itself. I don't see many 21 inch tvs in peoples houses because its deemed by some corporate as the ideal size and refuse to change or go with the times. Men usually like bigger smarter gadgets, and that's what Android is offering. Merry Christmas ;-)