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Well, they had a good run. I wonder what's next. I don't think anyone was surprised though, around 2014 we saw the writing on the wall. I mean take the Nexus 5
by IkmoIkmo 11y ago
Well, they had a good run. I wonder what's next.
I don't think anyone was surprised though, around 2014 we saw the writing on the wall. I mean take the Nexus 5, I have plenty of friends who have one and it's basically like they bought a microwave. It just works, it's fine, and they're expressing 0, and I really mean 0 interest in upgrading their microwave. They'll keep it for as long as the battery lasts and they don't break it. And that's really a last-generation phenomenon, before two years ago I was looking forward to new mobile tech. Now the changes aren't meaningful anymore.
And now people are openly expressing it, too. Like the CEO of sony, who spoke about the end of innovation in smartphones a few months ago. I mean take my dad, he just bought an LG G3 for $8 a month on a 2 year contract. Now this phone is 2 years old, not top of the line... but it's $8 a month and it comes with a nice screen that's almost double the PPI of the latest iphone, 3gb of ram, a nice snapdragon 801 chip, 3000 mAh battery, it just works fine and it's just really cheap. In two years, the latest G5 will be $200 too, and you'll buy G3 like phones for $100. What can we innovate in smartphones that's worth $700 to most people? That used to buy you a magical device that could do things nothing else could, in your pocket just a few years ago.
Anyway, I wonder what's next for Apple. There's no rumours of anything happening except its car. Wearables will expand. But they're all late or super late to market in these product categories. That's not a bad thing, they'll obviously make money, but it's not comparable to creating a real smartphone industry.
- mattmanser 11y agoNexus 5 was phenomenally good though for the price point/no-crapware bundle. Coupled with Android finally being good enough to at least rival iOS, it was the start of a new era. Certainly in the UK, since buying my Nexus 5, android has gone from like 6% to 40% of mobiles hitting the websites I manage (the EU market has always been heavily iOS skewed compared to America). My battery crapped out rather quickly, but a replacement has extended its life.
- IkmoIkmo 11y ago> The EU market has always been heavily iOS skewed compared to America On the contrary! iOS relative to Android is more popular in the US than in the EU.
- eldavido 11y agoI have a Nexus 5 and I emphatically agree. Call quality, screen resolution, responsiveness of the UI, material design, size, lack of crapware...Google really got it right. I've had this phone for 2 years and I have zero interest in upgrading to iOS. Sure, the display is nicer, the battery life is marginally better, but really, I just don't care.
- dharma1 11y agoSmartphone VR with positional tracking will come this year I reckon (on Android)
- Corrado 11y agoActually, Apple's pattern is to be late to market. They let other companies feel out the market, inform the consumers, work with pricing, etc. and then they come in with a great product and dominate the domain completely. Apple does this over and over again. Computers, MP3 players, cell phones, etc.
- rsync 11y ago"Like the CEO of sony, who spoke about the end of innovation in smartphones a few months ago." The only innovation was the original iphone. There has been zero innovation in the smartphone space since then. Every single smartphone is just a touchscreen slab. They are, in terms of design, indistinguishable from the original iphone. Sure - thinner, a curved edge, a different button ... but those are just trivial details. The original iphone was a different thing than, say, a moto razr or a candybar phone or a treo. That was innovation. I haven't seen any since...