I think the problem is far worse for high end Android manufactures. Apple at least has a unique ecosystem that serves as a point of differentiation. What does Samsung have to differentiate itself? A logo?
Apple is a luxury brand and people are willing to pay for luxury goods. If you amortize the additional cost of an iPhone over a year or two it's really not that expensive from a luxury/status good standpoint. Less expensive than visiting Starbucks 5 days a week.
People need to be able to justify that cost though and with Apple they can because it is a substantively different product and integrates well into the entire Apple product line. What can premium brand Android purchasers say?
Android has reached a level of maturity that makes comparison with Apple ecosystem neglectable nowadays; simply its no longer a selling point compared to previous years.
Also, high end Android phones were able to introduce new technologies to the mobile market much faster that Apple (in example: VR).
Just anecdotical, Im a Windows Phone user, but due to R&D work I use Apple and Android devices regularly. That unique, luxury feeling of Apple phones is no longer that visible as it was a couple of years ago.
I think the point is that there's less to differentiate any given Android phone from another one, compared to differentiating an iPhone from an Android phone. You can argue about maturity or other types of "better-ness" but for many people they are still sufficiently different to not be fungible, which is less true within the Android ecosystem.
> Android has reached a level of maturity that makes comparison with Apple ecosystem neglectable nowadays; simply its no longer a selling point compared to previous years.
This spirit of this comment has been replicated verbatim every year for the last 5 years by some random HN commenter.
Samsung S-series appear to have an actually quality edge. Camera -- particular to me; screen; etc.
As for the others... yes. I have concern with China re backdoors, but otherwise, I'm done with the U.S. market and carrier channels, except for Nexus.
I just bought a Xiaomi fitness band directly from Shenzhen. Shipping was a bit ridiculous, percentage-wise, but the band itself was so inexpensive compared to U.S. competition, and it shipped the day it was release to the domestic Chinese market.
Based on that experience, I have no concern with returning to that Shenzhen retailer for a phone, tablet, or whatever else I may want from the Chinese domestic market. And with those items, the air freight cost will be a reasonable percentage of the total purchase cost.
U.S. big business is benefiting from Chinese production costs. Why shouldn't I cut them out of the loop and do so directly, myself?
I don't need their useless mark-up. Nor, in the case of phones and U.S. carriers, their mostly useless and problematic skinning.
> What does Samsung have to differentiate itself? A logo?
As a practical matter, I like that models from Samsung/LG/Mot/etc have a large installed base of users (vs no-name or lower tier Android manufacturers). I think a corollary to Linus' Law should be "Given enough users, all bugs are easily discovered." If there were a low-end brand of Android phones that had a large amount of share, I'd probably consider them instead. (or is there one already?)
I'm currently looking for a new smartphone. Requirements: Cyanogen Mod support, changeable battery, close to 200€, at least 2GB RAM. Only the Samsung Galaxy S4 seems to qualify.
Well Samsung has Super Amoled which is in everything, including precious lifestyle iphones. Frankly I find Androids ui much nicer than Apples which feels child like. So there's that!
you are aware that Samsung Edge by itself is out selling Applier iphone? Seems that when Samsung concentrates on just hardware it does better than Apple...not to say Ive doesn't do good work..but Apple has some obstacles to risk taking that Samsung does not via hardware design due to the fact that Samsung's phone division is just one small part of Samsung...ie they can take a slightly larger planned risk than apple at the moment on hardware design.
> Samsung Edge by itself is out selling Applier iphone ... does better than Apple
Cmon, that's highly misleading when one model is six months older than the other. Samsung flagships are blown out of the water in any sort of 12 month comparison with the iPhone.
The cheaper phones are really good now. And if you are asking a premium you need to be significant better.
As I see it iPhone 4 was a lot better than the competition where as the current lineup is not.
Simply relying on expanding the market (selling more in China + other emerging markets) won't do the trick as they are not going to sell with their old big margins unless they are a lot better than the competition.
People have been saying that about the Mac since the 1980s. Consistently high quality and premium features and services sell product.
Apple doesn't need to 'rely' on selling more into China. If they end up locked out of the China market completely, they'll still do fine. As it is, they have a I've premium niche over there and will do just fine.
xiaomi phone is capable to block mobile data (and wifi) on app level. Say, gmail can access data on wifi only, chrome on mobile only and whatsapp on both mobile and wifi. It's a finer control than disabling background data.
Before xiaomi, I used asus and it eats mobile data like crazy with no control other than airplane mode.
bonus is that xiami has finer permission control too on app level. I can disallow whatsapp to access my contact and camera, for example. whatsapp can still function; however, it shows phone numbers instead of names in chats.
so even though xiaomi is cheaper, it's more powerful to use. definitely great user experience, easily beats any, more expensive android devices i ever use: motorolla, asus, samsung, etc
I had motorolla, asus, and more high end phones but i'm a happy $120 xiaomi redmi owner here.
the problem with iphone (&ipad) is that apple forces some limitations, like say... no sd card. my sister -- who has ipad -- always have trouble moving files to non-apple devices
i used to say "i don't own iphone, i can't help you", just like when someone asks for general computer problem, equivalently as saying "i don't use windows, sorry"
now i don't get apple related questions because everyone i know uses android, either as primary or secondary phone.
In another 10 years the iPhone will be about as exciting as a refrigerator, even in the US. Innovation has slowed greatly on the phone product such that they need to start focusing more and more on vendor lock-in to maintain their monopoly.
Both Apple and Samsung really need something to differentiate premium beyond color finishes and brand.
Either add some premium service like some sort of concierge on call, or I dunno some premium UI interface that is definitely measurably better then there is no reason to buy a more expensive phone. App's are all starting to look the same and it doesn't matter anymore. I'm a long time iOS user because I started that way and while
I love the platform it's only because of all the apps i've bought that keeps me on it. While I hate using android I'd probably learn to deal with it's nuisances for a difference of $200.
> premium UI interface that is definitely measurably better
Samsung has tried that to death. It has had the opposite effect, instead of people seeing the additional functionality as a benefit, it is criticised as clutter (and in fairness some of it does slow the device).
Worse still Samsung turns around and blames their "premium features" for why their phones lose software updates sooner. And then people see more benefit in a cheap phone with virgin Android then a premium phone with supposed premium features, since updates last longer and the phones are borderline disposable.
Unfortunately, Samsung didn't wind up designing a better UI, they wound up designing a complicated one with dozens of features that no one wanted or used instead of taking the standard Android UI and adding a handful of premium features really well (like split screen multi-tasking pre-Android 7). The mess of features and objectively poor design made for an annoying UI for users along with a long, long time for Samsung to get updates out if they got them out at all. I had a Galaxy S4 and won't be buying Samsung again.
As an Android user for 4 years, I've noticed the increasing quality of cheaper phones, and with the developer interest that phones like the OnePlus 3 draw, it becomes very hard to justify spending more.
> While I hate using android I'd probably learn to deal with it's nuisances for a difference of $200.
Give it a shot. I tried Android for 3 years going through 4 different phones because each one sucked (except the Z3 Compact which was incredible but I accidentally broke) and gave up. Back to iPhone now.
This is a problem for other manufacturers too. Medium range phones are marginally worse than flagships to the everyday user. Things like 1080p vs 2K screen make little difference to users but increase the cost substantially.
You know how in parodies 15 years ago, they made fun of how cell phones were getting smaller and smaller? They stopped that trend about 5 or 6 years ago and started getting bigger and bigger.
I only looked on from the outside as an observer, since I don't have the money to throw away on replacing my phone ever 2 years like everyone else seems to.
But now, with the iPhone SE, they're reversing that trend again.
It reminds me of that scene in Wall-E, where they say "red is the new blue" on all the screens, and suddenly everyone presses the button to change all their personal possessions (including clothing) to blue!
I hate the word sheeple, I really do, but seriously guys, what the hell? It's a fucking phone.
the iPhone SE not existing at the time was the reason I went with Android (I could have gone with an iPhone 5 but I didn't want a past model - and price was a factor as well)
I guess it's not much a reversal of the trend rather as a "return to normal"
Pockets and hands are still the same size as always
I've heard pundits say the reason for bigger phones popularity is amongst people who don't have tablets and PCs as well. Essentially if you have to pick one size of screen for all your needs, then something a bit larger is a good idea.
I've found I definitely use my iPad less now I have a 5.5" iPhone. Is still wouldn't be without an iPad, I love it, but for many tasks I used to switch to the iPad for, now the larger phone is fine.
Not reading the article yet since Bloomberg is blocked by the GFW and my VPN is down again, but isn't this what we should expect anyways? As smartphones become more mature and slow down in innovation, everyone else who are value players can more easily catch up, destroying apple's previous leading edge advantage. Basically, when/if smartphones become a commodity, Apple has to move into something else that isn't or join a race to the bottom.
I bought a Huawei(P8 Lite) for a girlfriend of mine and we both fell in love with the phone. She use to make fun of my Nexus 6 as a result and called it a tablet.
Chinese companies are getting it right where it comes to affordable phones
As long as software quality and synergy with hardware at Apple side there is no problem, For example Android video capture still nowhere close to iOS. In phones made for Chinese market its even worse right now, but getting better.
I used a china phone and it was a way better phone than any american phone i ever used, and i couldn't even use it very good because it was in CHINESE.
The OS? The software ecosystem? The App store? 99.999% of the apps? The brand? The industrial design? Just because something is manufactured somewhere, doesn't mean it originates from that place.
Is there even a homegrown Chinese mobile OS? Re-skinning android doesn't count.
Linux is just a kernel. Android is an entire ecosystem made by an American company. I think its a stretch to call Android an international product.
Its probably also a stretch to call Linux international considering its founder is an American citizen now and the vast majority of contributors are Americans and American companies. Not to mention its essentially a clone of an American proprietary product.
Apple is a luxury brand and people are willing to pay for luxury goods. If you amortize the additional cost of an iPhone over a year or two it's really not that expensive from a luxury/status good standpoint. Less expensive than visiting Starbucks 5 days a week.
People need to be able to justify that cost though and with Apple they can because it is a substantively different product and integrates well into the entire Apple product line. What can premium brand Android purchasers say?