As Smartphone Industry Sputters, the iPhone Expands Its Dominance
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Appreciating these are older phones compared to those newer models of today but I quickly went straight back to the iPhone (3, 5, 6 plus, 7, X, 11). I now don't buy them every year, usually now only once the wheels have fallen off.
Looking back I don't even obsess over new mobile phones as they're hardly that much better year on year across any brand.
I think a lot of people would nod along with the idea that Android phones eventually have more issues. Certainly, between myself (iPhone user) and my wife (Android) it's her that has to change her phone every 2-3 years with escalating issues toward the end, and me that keeps using the same one for 5-6 with no issue.
Actually I'd say the same thing used to apply to Mac vs PC, especially laptops -- the Mac would be the one that keeps ticking basically forever while Windows laptops would encounter some kind of issue. But right now I'm on a 5 year old Windows laptop that works just fine (minus a few minor maintenance issues over the years), and I think that's not terribly uncommon. So it's not like Apple has some unattainable super-power, it's just the current situation in phone land.
You make a valid point regarding the validity of both of our experiences, but it's just that, one person's experience and shouldn't be taken as gospel. I think most people understand that.
It just makes it less likely.
That's a fair question. In my experience, I choose to type on a mac because it sucks less than the alternative (used to be alternatives but really there's only two choices any more). On the server side linux for the same reason, but it's still, and presumably never, suitable for a lay audience without significant support.
But on the phone side I think apple has moved in recent years to "better" over "less bad". Not incredibly so, but to a significant degree. I tried using a bunch of android (Andy Rubin kept giving me phones to try) and the best of them were adequate -- I would have been satisfied using them had I not had an iphone to go back to.
Frankly though Apple has failed to meet the level of fit-for-function of the Palm Pilot. I don't at all mean it would be worth using these days! But at its time it really had a well honed and tuned experience, a testament to Jeff Hawkins' obsession with convenience and usability. Even before they had working hardware he would carry a piece of wood around and walk through the use cases, insisting that nothing should take more than three button presses to accomplish. The iphone is far from there, and getting farther away all the time.
It was a manufacturer agnostic telco where the overwhelming majority of phones in store weren't Apple, as naturally the store also had Sony, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Huawei etc. At the time Apple only really had two flagship phones.
Of course you can't take what I say as gospel for many of the reasons you mentioned, but it's my experience.
So seemingly they can still use them as a personal device but they can't use it for work or bring it into the office.
>the teenager told his father that he wanted an iPhone or no phone at all.
I knew the kids thought iPhones were more desirable, I didn't realise it was quite this bad.
They get whatever their parents had 1/2 years ago (and loads of people get the most expensive models)
> because their cameras are so freakishly large
But those freakishly large cameras are what makes the tradeoff of a larger device worthwhile for me personally.
This phone’s size is nothing compared to my photography gear. The quality of photo/video I can get means I spend less time lugging the heavy stuff. It’s not a small phone by any means. But then again, I very rarely use it as a phone.
I like to think of it more like a Tricorder/universal computing device than a phone. But that’s just me.
OK I don’t really take issue with it but still. I have a small child, I want photos of said child to be good. I care more about that than a little extra weight in my pocket.
It seems like Apple is sleeping on this and I genuinely think it might end up contributing heavily to their downfall. They've bet it all on hardware and services and if hardware sales decline, which is looking likely through China's recent moves, I don't think the current services offering is going to cover the shortfall.
Microsoft is looking very strong atm and has made some very savvy investments. They've already got the gaming market, which is now a bigger industry than music and film combined. Between VSCode and Github they're starting to corner the dev market. I've been exploring Azure the past week and I'm quite impressed with it, seems much easier to learn than AWS. They've had the business market cornered for years. And to top it all off they've got a huge stake in the biggest AI company. I really think we might see Microsoft becoming dominant again within the next ten years.
I also am not convinced Apple is sleeping on this - they have been investing more into removing seams in integration between devices (iPhone as MacBook camera, watch as phone, tablet as monitor, MacBook as compute/desktop for vision pro). I think their vision of the cloud is a tangible, product-driven one, and despite how effectively you could move compute to the cloud, people still love buying shiny devices, and Apple has that down to an art. I also would not doubt Apple has something interesting for cloud-like integration up their sleeve in the next few years. As with anything, they won’t be first to market, but they’ll probably be the instant premium default when they do enter.
For those watching closely, Apple has been pushing more focus on gaming in their devices (Apple Arcade, BG3 expos in WWDC/product launch keynotes, Hideo Kohima partnership for Silicon native ports, Unity partnership, etc). I think they are testing the waters here, but I would not be surprised if they open the floodgates some day soon. Historical gaming on Macs hasn’t been great, but Windows certainly is not entrenched here. The latest M processors are more than capable enough to run most modern games at fairly impressive settings, and this will only improve as more devs target builds for the platform.
Wow. Thanks. I dont read Android news but if that is true I will definitely be getting one.
If you want to make and sell phones and you're not Apple, Android is it, take it or leave it, for better or worse.
Google sabotaged that by refusing to support YouTube on windows mobile and actively blocking Microsoft’s native app. Honestly surprised they didn’t get destroyed by anti-trust laws.
As for licensing, they absolutely offered to license it to vendors, they were all in bed with google already though. That’s why they bought Nokia, realizing the only way it would work was to build their own phones. I wish they had stuck it out longer or RIM hadn’t imploded, we really need a third player IMO.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Windows_10_Mobile_de...
They didn't even have a notification shade until Windows Phone 8.1 in 2014. And no, as cool as the live tiles were, they were not a replacement for a notifications shade which shows you only your notifications, rather than scrolling your entire list of apps and scanning your eyes around for relevant information as shit's appearing and disappearing cause all your apps are constantly animating. It was an absolutely bizarre UX.
And if we really want to talk about the YouTube thing, I have a hard time blaming Google for what they did. They didn't want to put the resources into making an app for a platform that nobody was using and likely wouldn't have broken even on resources/money spent, and they weren't going to let Microsoft handle creating and distributing a fake "official" app that represents their brand.
Google didn't kill Windows Phone, Microsoft did.
Microsoft sabotaged it first by not letting Google (and others) leverage the native apps they built for WM 6.5 on WP7. Having a terrible browser and not letting established browsers into the store (Mozilla was interested in porting to WP, but Microsoft rebuffed them) was sabotage too.
But that's in the past anyway. Manufacturers could have licensed WP/WM, and several did, but it's not available anymore.
Edit: must’ve been my wifi. Switched to cellular and it’s all gravy.
Note: running pihole. Probably triggered some type of forward.