Why upgrade when what you have is good enough? One used to check out gizmodo/engadget when a new phone came out but seems not anymore as "the new" is only incremental.
It does make me wonder, however, what's next for Samsung and Apple? Is it that there are still more than enough people upgrading to make plenty of money? Or will they have to come up with new non-smartphone products in the future?
I would have kept using the old phone in every case, but: they each became too slow with os updates.
In the case of the 6 I think it was exacerbated by battery issued. So probably you've taken better care of your battery? (Or stayed off ios 11)
But, if you look at that record, it is:
1. Not an upgrade every to every model
2. Still a fair number of sales for apple
So I am really consider getting iPhone SE as my next phone when the current 2 years old Nexus 5 breaks or will not be supported...
I mean even a $50 phone today is extremely powerful for its price, but developers have no consideration for mobile constraints (then blame web techs...).
I've also noticed that low-end android phones tend cheap out on storage since most people only care about the size of storage not the speed.
Cache. Phones have limited storage, but they're also limited by bandwidth, latency and power. If the Facebook app did no caching it'd run slower, consume more battery and eat up the data allowance of people on limited plans.
Then again, many companies will probably just give up without even trying.
Smart users get a case to make up for the inherent fragility of glass.
Chinese carriers offer minimal subsidies, so most customers are paying close to full retail for their phones and aren't tightly coupled to a two-year upgrade cycle. Used phones are a popular choice for value-oriented customers.
Repair is the norm rather than the exception, so most customers will replace a cracked screen or a weak battery rather than just disposing of their phone. Labor costs are relatively low and parts and documentation are widely available. Broken phones (especially iPhones) are frequently bought by dealers, repaired and resold.
The big Chinese brands offer relatively good long-term OS support, but that isn't hugely important for Chinese users. WeChat is the app in China (for many users, it's the only app they ever use) and it's extremely well optimised for older devices. The APK is a mere 60MB and it'll run smoothly on devices with a dual-core SoC and 1GB of RAM.
The US market has historically been the polar opposite of China, but it's creeping closer. Chinese manufacturers are making a push for the US market and consumers are starting to wise-up to the benefits of paying cash for a mid-range device rather than taking the "free" upgrade when their contract expires. The used market is flooded with two-year-old flagship handsets that will perform admirably for another few years with nothing more than a new battery.
What "free phones" they are all leased now. There might not be a monthly fee but at the end of the lease their is a buy out to be paid. My wife's Essential phone (SHE HATES IT) is $6 a month for 24 months and then $430 if she want to keep this crash prone phone.
Regardless, all the networks offer their customers a new device with no money up front and the same monthly payment as soon as their contract expires. It's good for retention, but it means that a lot of customers are largely oblivious to the actual cost of their phone.
your wife should break such contract
So the OP's point of people in China mainly needing WeChat is 100% relevant. While your side comment about what a single user doesn't like about wechat is 100% irrelevant.
On my iPhone WeChat starts fine without having the location services permission.
iMessage on the Mac however, is utter unmaintained garbage.
Don't know where you get that 60MB number.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_3650
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_SX1
These days they all seems to be some variant of a glass slab.
Damn it, the most used apps are "variants" of SMS and MMS in HD...
That and Sony Ericssons crazy "transparent" phone https://i2.wp.com/techpatio.com/wp-content/uploads/sony_eric...
The mobile market back then was just so much more interesting than now
Pedantically, the Samsung flagships are the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series; there are a lot of other Galaxy series.
A flagship Samsung is say $700. That is $500 more which is more than a couple bucks a month. Clearly well worth for you but probably not for a good portion of society.
If you’re talking about global markets then of course, $200 phones have always been more common. That’s why Android has 80% market share.
It was once driven over by a car and I swapped the innards. The motherboard died and I swapped that out. Then I replaced the battery. I've a backup nexus 5 and spare battery waiting. I want to get my money's worth. Upgrading every 2/3 yrs is nuts with how much these cost. I'm pushing for every 6 yrs unless a device truly revolutionary is released. No such device has been released.
I bought the replacement components before realising that I'd have to go 'through the back' to replace the screen - I'm assuming that's going to add on at least an hour to the task!
I'm only replacing the screen now as the digitizer suddenly stopped working the other week - I'd been 'happy' to tolerate its [again, heavily] cracked screen for a good 4 years already!
- ed
I'm back using an old Nokia soapbar phone in the meantime. If it weren't for the lousy camera and mp3 as well as a lack of practical email and the tedious text-inputting, I'm not really missing much else from my 'smart'phone.
I had OPO too. The camera was perhaps better than some of the current new phone cameras. In today's terms the camera is really, really bad though, and clearly loses to most new models.
While it doesn't have biometric unlock, I would avoid any new phone that did like the plague regardless - I like having a minimal amount of security, thank you very much.
Out of all the Phone I tried, including latest Android, only the iPhone X came close to being fast enough, as in super responsive. I think iOS 11 actually slows things down for everyone, the whole OS is slower then iOS 10, even on iPhone X, which we can't test with iOS 10.
I really wish we could start to focus on Latency Computing. I want things to have a responsive output, or reaction to my input in less then 16ms.