Seems the 2 biggest trends in phones are satellites and AI.
To me at least, everything else is just noise when a new phone comes out.
To me at least, everything else is just noise when a new phone comes out.
And sats for mobile aren't really a big thing. Qualcomm worked on it and killed it, Samsung did for a while and killed it, Bullitt had it and it was a fringe thing before they collapsed. Only Apple really stood by it. And it's really only their moat, they're still not selling subscriptions.
Starlink direct to cell is only available on a fraction of sats, even those launched now. They won't be able to launch a full direct to cell fleet until starship comes online due to the added size and weight of the sats.
As an android user I still don't have any replacement for my Garmin inreach which is really a pain because Garmin put the prices up considerably. I was hoping to be able to replace it by now. Also, Bullitt's service is kinda a no go for emergencies because it uses a geostationary network so it won't work from valleys with mountains to the south (in the Northern hemisphere that is). Starlink, globalstar (apple) and Iridium (qualcomm, until they killed the deal) don't have this issue being low earth orbit.
I guess the emergency service isn't the big selling point everyone thought it was and the capacity isn't there yet for much more than text messaging yet.
The product and service itself is pretty reliable though. I've taken my Inreach in all sorts of places and had only rare issues with it.
This is changing soon. They will now charge a keepalive fee per month. Previously you could pay 40 per year and just activate it for the months you needed it (the freedom plans). Those are gone unfortunately. For an irregular user it now goes from 40 to 120$ per year to keep it active.
And yeah I wish there was a bit more competition here. Right now inreach is still the best for me even compared to PLBs though. Because inreach can do 10-minute breadcrumbs. So even when you have a bad fall the homefront can see where you were last.
A PLB requires the user to be conscious to turn it on and unfold the antenna. And Apple's solution requires aiming at the satellite.
The support is standards based and while they are all wetting their feet with a preferred partner, with minimal messaging support focused on emergency use cases, there is enough traction to flush out major use cases across all carriers, with out of the box enablement at the mobile platform layer integrated on supported newer devices with the requisite radio HW.
Seriously, I am fascinated by all the advanced in AI, but man, I don't need an AI assistant in my Adobe PDF reader.
Sadly there's been zero investment it seems in better user interfaces, settings screens have become a joke, cameras seem to have stagnated