While iPhone5 basks in spotlight, I got myself a new Android. For reasons that’s not obvious to those who marveled over Siri’s eerie life-like response, the brighter than real display, the mega-pixels in built-in camera, the openness of Android ecology, or even the price. This phone I bought can accommodate 2 SIM cards.
International roaming calls cost $3 per minutes or more in Asia. It is drastically more economical to use a local phone. And I hated that. I must bulk up my pocket to carry another phone, I need to worry about the battery charging for two phones, the address books are not the same, and my fingers must re-learn the other phone. With a dual-card phone, all these problems disappear. I get to enjoy low local rates calling at the country. I don’t miss calls from home. I can dial from the same address book.
The economy of Apple prevents it from pursuing every niches of the market. If you happen to fit their primary customer segment, everything works out great. Otherwise, you are out of luck. Android market-place allows profitability even for very small or regional plays. Dual-card phones are a phenomenon for pretty much only the Chinese-speaking markets land-lines are much less prevalent, even for work. Having multiple cell phones becomes common and a niche was born.
Many predict the iPhone v. Android evolution to follow Mac v. PC. We will see.