[nimos]

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?

[randiantech]

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.

[rebeccaskinner]

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.

[erichocean]

> 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.

I guess, eventually, it might be true.

[bgroins]

Rather than dismiss the comment outright, could you elaborate on what part of it is untrue?

[bitwize]

UI jank, or lack thereof on iOS.

Security, or lack thereof on Android.

Relative size of app ecosystems.

Whether devs can make money selling apps (hint: it's much harder on Android).

Fragmentation.

Etc.

[eonw]

saying android is much harder is not factually correct, it varies greatly by the niche of the app/game. some do much better on android then ios store.

[dntrkv]

It is factually correct, just because there might be some niche apps that perform better on Android does not negate the fact that, overall, the App Store generates far more revenue than the Play Store.

http://9to5mac.com/2016/01/20/app-store-ios-downloads-vs-and...

[solipsism]

How do you replicate the _spirit_ of something verbatim?

[pasbesoin]

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.

[wyldfire]

> 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?)

[lazerpants]

Yes, there is one, though it is unlikely to be available in your market:

http://www.mi.com/en/mi5/

[qznc]

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.

[PascalW]

The Wileyfox Swift [1] meets your requirements and is pretty decent and very affordable.

[1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wileyfox-Swift-Dual-SIM-Free-Smartp...

[qznc]

Thanks, I did not see that one before.

[qznc]

I really like the philosophy of Wileyfox. Good hardware, latest Cyanogen Mod, and cheap on the rest.

The battery situations is strange, though. The battery is replaceable, but you cannot get a battery?

[wlesieutre]

Didn't Cyanogen just discontinue their OS development?

[qznc]

Cyanogen Inc the company did. There is still Cyanogen Mod the Open Source project.

http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/cyanogen-inc-and-cyanogenmod

[wlesieutre]

Gotcha. It has an active enough community of developers to keep going?

[pickettd]

I got a LG G3 (3GB RAM model) earlier this year and it meets those requirements. I've really enjoyed using it so far.

[qznc]

Thanks for the suggestion. 3GB RAM is great.

[qznc]

Ok, I noticed I forgot another requirement. 5" at most. This is 5.5" though. :(

[smrtinsert]

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!

[fredgrott]

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.

[Steko]

> 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.

[digi_owl]

Never mind that Samsung has marketed their Galaxy brand so hard that people think is Android...