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Comment by mibbitier | Hacker News Reader

Name a feature the iPhone has, that say a Samsung S3 doesn't have.

There are several the S3 has that aren't there on an iPhone.

There are many. The easiest answer is being able to run iOS apps -- which for many overrides almost anything else. Another is deep integration with Macs and AppleTV -- that solves real problems for me that (for example) wireless charging does not -- it's better, but not along a vector I care about (i.e. would make a decision on or pay for).

Even just counting hardware, a giant battery and a much better processor enable a lot of use cases. Does the S3 have three mics, equivalent WIFI speed, as good a camera?

Cmon man, besides the fact that it's thinner, lighter, sturdier, has a higher density screen, a better screen technology, better graphics performance, better phone quality, a better camera, better media ecosystem, better apps, and will get timely & regular OS updates for several years what else have the Cupertinians done for us lately?

A list of barely perceptible (and some unproven) differences won't help Apple as the market share steadily trends away from them.

I like to keep it simple. Larger screen, faster processor, expandable storage, Flash, Google Navigation, freedom to from Apple's draconian grip...take my money Samsung!

It's no wonder Apple is suing. They know they're playing catch-up.

Sorry.. Flash? I think the market pretty much gave its opinion on that one.

I hate Apple (as a company) with the passion of 10,000 suns, but I gotta agree, I hate flash even more.

The value judgement on Flash wasn't the point. The point is that I can do what I want to regardless of someone else's value judgement.

And I'm far from alone. Over a half million people downloaded it from Google's app store and I'm sure that just as many have put it onto their phone without going through the store. - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adobe.flas...

They are getting all of the profit share (and actually increasing market share slightly). In the long term, if you take all the profits, others can't compete unless they do so asymmetrically (make profit some other way). No one has shown that they are doing this yet -- Google and Amazon have plays, but I don't see how Samsung can do this -- they need to make profit from the phone, and they don't make enough to compete long-term.

You're comparing brands and not features here.

1) iOS apps vs. Android apps is subjective

2) My Android has seamless integration to my Samsung TV and home media as well as laptop and PC via OSS apps and software. Again, we're debating branding at this point whether you want to say your AppleTV is better than my media solution, subjective.

Objectively your points about speed and camera are true though. I'm wont deny its a quick phone but I have to agree with others saying it didn't bring anything innovative or new.

"iOS apps vs. Android apps is subjective"

True but saying The Dark Knight is better then Clooney Batman is also a subjective judgement. Despite being a subjective judgement, if an overwhelming number of reasonable people agree with something you can comfortably assert it.

"didn't bring anything innovative or new"

Well console quality graphics will certainly be new if they deliver on this.

Wideband audio + beamforming promises superior telephone performance which the iphone has always been sort of meh at. I'm only aware of one phone each that brings either of those (latest evo has HD audio and HTC one has beamforming) and none that have both

> if an overwhelming number of reasonable people agree with something you can comfortably assert it

So you're saying even if the majority is wrong, they're always right?

"majority" =/= "overwhelming number"

"always right" =/= "comfortably assert"

Nice demonstration of how to construct a straw man though.

It's the same principle and you're using it to suppport your subjective claims as fact.

Being able to run an app I want is a feature of my phone.

It's all subjective. Even if you have an objective, measurable difference (processor speed), that only matters if I value the difference (subjective) -- which I don't. The iPhone 4S is fast enough for me -- I can't make use of an improvement in speed.

I can make use of new iOS apps (and do on almost a daily basis). If there were apps I wanted that needed the iPhone 5 to run, that might persuade me. If a Samsung phone could run iOS apps, then I would choose based on price (probably).

If you don't agree, then of course, the iPhone isn't interesting. It's just a glass box with components without the apps. I wouldn't even have a smart phone at all without the App Store.

I'm not sure about real-life speeds, but the iPhone's 802.11n is the bare-minimum 1 antenna, 1 channel version. Even my 3-year old laptop has a 300 Mbps chip built in.

Features are a quantitative measure, until we invent some qualitative measures, these comparisons are worthless.

Airplay

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