In Asia's trend-setting cities, iPhone fatigue sets in
reuters.com
reuters.com
"I bought an Android phone to differentiate myself from the superficial drones carrying iPhones."
"Nobody wants an iPhone any more, because everyone has an iPhone."
Too many anecdotes, not enough data.
If they really wanted to be different, they should buy a Windows Phone...
Its hard to say where the truth is. There should be some fatigue over iPhone, but the Android alternatives aren't "good", who wants a second rate phone even if everyone else has the first rate one? Will people start wearing offbrand northpeak jackets because northface jackets are too popular?
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> If they really wanted to be different, they should buy a Windows Phone...
A phone shouldn't be something that defines you as an individual.
Most of my Chinese friends that have bought Android phones have done so solely for price reasons. All the fashionistas I know still use iPhones, I haven't seen one with an Android yet, and this is in Beijing.
Yeah, I did.
That may be true in some things, but it wasn't true of iPhone adoption. How about some good examples where Singapore and Hong Kong lead trends that became big in Western Europe and North America?
America's global cultural hegemony is pretty much guaranteed to diminish over time too. As more and more of the Asian middle and upper classes emerge they're going to drive demand for Asian cultural products. You can already see this happening with the global appeal of Korean pop music and Hong Kong cinema, for example.
I think it is for a couple reasons. One is that a lot of consumer electronics devices are content oriented, and domestic content has shaped the ecosystem (e.g., music -> itunes -> ipod). The other is scale. Japan has been the biggest influencer in the past (Walkman, Nintendo). It was a big enough economy to have its own whole healthy video game industry that it could export over to the US. I think the growing influence of Korea correlates to the healthy growth of the size of economy since the 1997 asian fiscal crisis.
If you're asking for localized sales figures even those could lag behind by several months of the fashion trend. Which can start off in small trend setting circles and expand as word of mouth spreads on what is in. So, I think data this early would not be as pertinent to the conversation as it would be several months down the line to see if this articles thesis is justified.
But I'm not sure how much of a signal Asia's fashion trends are towards western markets, I mean the Turbo Engine, X68000, MSX and VCDs and MiniDiscs (among others) were all very popular in various parts of Asia, but DOA pretty much everywhere else.
1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Multimedia_Broadcasting
2 - this is more or less the solution http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/koreas-iphones-become-more-powerf...
I really think this year is going to be pivotal for Apple. They can recover their momentum if they broaden their product line and demonstrate some vision in UI. If they continue to stubbornly cling to the tactics that brought them their recent successes they're going to continue to slide. They are, to some extent, a victim of their own success. Android 2.x was so rough that Google didn't stand to lose much in a bold redesign and they leapfrogged iOS with ICS. Apple has a huge userbase used to iOS as it looks and works today and they risk alienating them if they make the changes they need to make to stay relevant for another product generation.
As much as I criticize some of their decisions I hope they do show some new life because iOS is currently the only mobile platform that enables the kind of real-time multimedia apps I want to write.
I think they need to work harder on making iOS more customizable, that should help satisfy everyone.
And yet they only have 1 for iPhone. I dont agree with different product line either. But Just 1 more, 1 more larger screen size. There are a world of people who NEEDS to use their both hand anyway. ( As the article points out, those who actually needs to write their languages instead of typing it. )
Why aren't such apps (not sure exactly what you mean) "enabled" in Android etc?
There's some hope that the audio issue at least might be fixed in 4.2 but even if it is it will be a while before developers can comfortably require that API level.
I think the iPhone 5 is still a physically nicer device than any current Android phone but that's more than offset by the larger screen and superior flexibility and efficiency of the Android OS.
Apple, in particular, imposes a 30% cut in profits on everything that is run on their devices and decide what users are allowed to run or not!
Although the general population aren't necessarily aware of this, it has a huge impact on the trend setting enthusiasts and early adopters.
The masses are not that clueless either. Just the other day I was talking to an non techy parametric, someone pulled out an iPhone and he went on a rant about how Apple controls their devices and takes away freedoms.
I don't understand why this isn't ever mentioned in the media.
Trend setting enthusiasts are not necessarily the same as early adopting technical people.
Not to get too snarky here, but piracy is so rampant on Android that it's practically unprofitable to target as a platform unless you already have a well-known product or get extremely lucky. Granted, one could argue that those things are required to see a profit on iOS as well, but at least you have a reasonable enough guarantee that the vast majority of people using your app have paid you for it.
> Although the general population aren't necessarily aware of this, it has a huge impact on the trend setting enthusiasts and early adopters.
In what way is Apple's 30% profit cut having a huge impact on users and what is your source? I don't see how such a developer issue has any relevance to the general public. If you're referring to the control over what users install, I think you're greatly overestimating the technical prowess of the general public and their desire to install custom software on their cell phones. These are things only techies care about, and they are outnumbered by the people who just make phone calls and post to Facebook.
> The masses are not that clueless either. Just the other day I was talking to an non techy parametric, someone pulled out an iPhone and he went on a rant about how Apple controls their devices and takes away freedoms.
With all due respect, one person random about freedoms on their smartphone is hardly "the masses".
Doomed, Apple doomed. Sell sell sell. Steve Jobs dead. Flop doom flop sell doom.
In my mind the elephant in the room (or the emperor's lack of clothes) is the screen size of the iPhone. Clearly there is demand for and utility in larger screens. Yet Apple has argued that the smaller screen is a feature not a bug. They changed the size in a way that didn't obsolete existing apps (which was sensible).
But they have also made a big deal about the hi res retina screens.
I've wondered if the simplest way for them to up the size of the screen is to go with lower resolution, keeping the same number of larger pixels. This could maintain backwards compatibility on apps. Since the resolution is already so high, it seems to me this would be a fine solution (would love to hear some engineers perspective on this).
But this would force them to back track on two claims of technical superiority: smaller screen and higher resolution.
After using devices with larger screens, the iPhone screen feels tiny, harder to read on, and harder to do things on the web with. (I agree that it's fine for making calls and texting.)
It feels like a situation that could turn quickly against the iPhone and all of a sudden nobody wants a phone phone whose form factor was determined by the state of the art five years ago.
Again, I'm just observing it as a fascinating case of strategy and tactics among two giants engaged in fierce competition.
The point is not that the iphone isn't popular, it's that with popularity come changes in the way it's perceived, and that will affect its future momentum in some places.
When the iphone came out, it was very much an exclusive fashion item; when everybody has them, it's not exclusive. Whether it's still viewed as a "luxury" good is probably more complex—some brands have been surprisingly successful at retaining their luxury image despite widespread adoption—but given carriers offering completely subsidized iphones, it may be an uphill battle.
Not everybody cares about such perceptions, but there are definitely cultures where many people do.
None of this seems surprising, or particularly controversial to me...
In my opinion, the original Galaxy Note illustrates this perfectly. When it launched in the US last year, I remember the parade of terrible reviews (it's too big, too awkward to use, you'll look stupid talking on the phone, who wants a stylus, etc.) and the piles of mockery from Apple fans. But from my vantage point I knew they were missing something. The Note had launched a few months earlier in Singapore and I had seen Singaporean consumers "get it" almost instantly. In retrospect, it's clear Samsung had seen something about Asian consumers that made the Note worth trying - and they were right.
2. The Point about Chinese Writing and Video are mostly true. As a Phone, and purely as a phone it is rather hard to argue about the quality iPhone offers. Indeed Single Handed operation is important if not the most important factor. However these days they aren't using it as a phone anymore. Phone has neglect into a relatively 2nd class function. The region ( I mention the region as CJK, and some other countries close by; ) uses Whatsapp, ( or other type of IM that most of US and EU users never heard of ) more to communicate then calling. While it is extremely popular to use iMessage in US and EU. This isn't the case there. Writing, ( Specific to Chinese, since Japaness and Korean has a comparatively simpler and default input method ) is harder on a iPhone with a smaller screen. Since IM is used more often then Calls this create another barrier for users compared to a larger screen, and much better selection of input method on Android devices.
The Video Part as well. Compared to US and EU users. CJK regions are very used to Subtitle. ( Yes even the video is in their own languages. And of coz all the Hollowood movies will have subtitle as well ) Now imagining watching Video on iPhone compared to a Wider devices with Subtitle. The Subitle would have taken significant amount of space.
3. It is hard to explain the Korea Pop to everyone. KARA, Super Junior or Girls Generation. If you dont know them dont worry. You properly know Psy from Gangnam Style. The pop culture, mixing in the 10 times more advertising budget from Samsung compared to Apple. It is not hard to understand why these are more popular region where K-POPs are hot.
But knowing Apple. Chances of Releasing a bigger iPhone is slim or next to zero. I was hoping they release a 3.8" and 4.34" with iPhone 5. But Since they took the 4" size that is likely to be the case in the foreseeable future. And even if they did release a bigger screen size version. It properly wont be called an iPhone then.
If Apple has any problem, it's that the iPhone 4 is good enough for many people.
Overall, a very weak article lacking convincing evidence of any sort of trend.