So okay, two year old iPhones still sell for a lot. Does that really show that Apple makes the best phones today? Or does it show that they used to make the best phones two years ago? If people are almost as happy with a two year old iPhone as a new one, is that really an argument against Apple having had a "lost year"?
Samsung provides it's own version of everything, on top of the default apps. So what you get is:
* AOSP, OS and Open Source default apps. * Google Play stuff. Google requires devices with Google Play store to also include all Google apps. (Eg Gmail) * Samsung's apps. Samsung provides apps and includes all of them on full feature phones. Along with the Samsung phones.
If you try a Nexus 4 or a MotoG you will get something much closer to what should be on Android no Samsung bloated package.
Example: the SMS app is actually Google+ Hangouts. Had to dig for the AOSP SMS app.
Another example: he complains about Google automatically uploading photos to a G+ account that he doesn't care about.
Even "vanilla Android" is getting bloated. Why are users being forced into G+? Why is the default Android SMS app linked to a social network by default?
If you don't include Samsung, then you are ignoring the Android market leader.
Why should someone else "admit" to feeling the same way as you when they obviously do not?
> Why should someone else "admit" to feeling the same way as you when they obviously do not?
What? They shouldn't. They should admit it at the point where it is obviously true. I'm asking what it would take to get to that point. If the next HTC phone cures cancer and the next iPhone can't make phone calls, would we still articles like this from daringfireball? I think the answer is clearly yes. This site consistently reads like it is ghostwritten by Apple's marketing team. Whether my personal preferences align with this stopped clock at this particular moment is utterly irrelevant.
Fair enough. It sounded more like you disagreed with his opinion when I read your original post than a criticism of his thinking.
I can see how I misinterpreted that.
> This site consistently reads like it is ghostwritten by Apple's marketing team.
Except when Apple does something he disagrees with, then he complains about it.
He does expend a lot of energy arguing against Apple criticism, but he has also shown there is quite a bit of bad writing about Apple out there (usually because it attracts clicks). And he has owned up when his own predictions fall flat.
I usually find myself agreeing with about 70% of what he writes, which is more than I can say for other tech authors.
Apple makes plenty of bad products — I find their web services uniformly terrible — an area where Google excels. I like to think that if Apple produced similarly bad devices, Daring fireball would call them out on it.
Personally I think they still make the best overall phone. There are better phones out there for certain people but the iPhone is the best all rounder. However:
iPhones have been my only smartphones. Every time I tried an alternative I didn't like it. I recently got a Nexus 4 and was impressed but the iPhone 5 still beat it in a few key areas for me (camera, microphone - I use voice memos a lot -, and screen). A few days ago I upgraded to the iPhone 5S. I'm not impressed. Touch ID is nice but I could live with out it. Slow motion camera for me is a gimmick. Speed improvements aren't really noticeable. The only real innovation is the M7. Overall there was very little reason to upgrade. It certainly wasn't worth the cost.
It got me thinking that next time round, if Apple continues at it's current pace, I'll probably be purchasing an Android device. As a full time iOS developer, a Mac user, and someone deeply ingrained in the Apple ecosystem that's a pretty big statement I think.
I expect we'll see more of a difference when the next iPhone is released.
This comment suggests you had both a Nexus 4 and an iPhone 5. Did you upgrade from a 5 to a 5S? Or something else?
FWIW, my last iPhone was a 4, and the 5S blows it out of the water.
I upgraded from the 5 to the 5s and honestly can barely notice the difference. I've upgraded from a 4S to a 5 (another incremental update) previously and that seemed like a much more visible improvement in day-to-day use. I don't expect too much change in an 's' version but this year was particularly underwhelming.
Actually, the screen size and Swype would be enough since I mainly use my phone for web browsing and composing email.
While i understand and respect that for a lot of people, these are compelling features that differentiates high end Android Phones from iPhones, it also seems to me that most of these are simply manifestations of the different priorities and compromises made by Apple and Google, Samsung et al. I mean, it's not like it's not within Apple's power to add each of these to the iPhone. It's just that they choose not to, because each of these come with some kind of compromise that is not acceptable to Apple. Which is cool and only goes to show that it's good that we have competition.
The reason I write though, is because I think it's disingenous to assert that Apple has somehow fallen behind, technologically, when they are very clearly keeping up and at the top of their game (look no further than the A7 chip). You may prefer a Samsung to an iPhone, because you find that you prefer the particular compromises made by Samsung/Google to those made by Apple. But understand that this has everything to do with what subjectively appeals to you and nothing to do with the actual technologically capabilities of each of these companies.
I didn't assert this. He asked what phone I personally prefer, so I answered. I said that if I had to use an iPhone, I would be bummed.
The fact that Apple has "lost a year" (which they obviously have) doesn't necessarily mean they've "fallen behind". It means that others have caught up.
Here's a link to Anandtech, where the 5S is tied with the Nexus in most (not "most") tests, and beats it in more than a few: