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The problem is that explicit customer feedback doesn't line up with reality. Many companies have tried making slightly thicker phones with bigger batteries (wh

The problem is that explicit customer feedback doesn't line up with reality. Many companies have tried making slightly thicker phones with bigger batteries (which many people claim is what they want), no-one buys them. Companies make thinner phones, lots of them get sold. These companies (mostly) aren't idiots, they do huge amounts of measurements on what people say they want to buy, and what they actually buy.

cmurphycode 10y ago
The main reason I bought my Galaxy S7 is because they made it thicker and with a bigger battery than the S6.
- tehrei 10y ago
  That is incorrect, citizen. The S7 has always been thinner than the S6. Source: I am a Minitrue officer.
- rplst8 10y ago
  Same reason I went with the Droid Turbo over other choices.
- Fuxy 10y ago
  I went for the Samsung Galaxy Note for the same reason. I don't know about any other customers but I for one would buy a long battery life phone in a heartbeat regardless how thick it may be.
  - t3ra 10y ago
    I have thick amzer case on my note to keep it safe. Who cares about paper thin phones!? Not like the phone is always in my pocket ; but actually thicker phones are usually better to grip on to
  - seanp2k2 10y ago
    Same with the iPhone 6 Plus. I did want a bigger screen, but the battery was the main draw for me. Paper thin phones never appealed to me. I used to use an HTC Apache (Verizon XV6700) with a bulge battery. That thing was over an inch thick and it barely lasted a whole day, but it still fit easily into the front pocket of jeans. Phones were rugged enough back then to not require cases. I think manufacturers realize this more than we give them credit for and consider cases a personalization option, but IMO the best phone design would be a back-plate-less design where the case provides some of the structure as well. This would allow a choice: thin backplate only if you want that, or more protection without tons of thickness, or bigger battery as part of the case without some hacky battery-charging-the-other-battery-and-blocking-the-charging-port ugly super thick case like we've seen for e.g. iPhones.
  - agret 10y ago
    You might want to checkout the Elephone P5000
cm2187 10y ago
They don't need to make it thicker. Just not thinner and with a better battery.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  Battery chemistry gets in the way. You can only pack so much Wh into lithium with a given weight and volume.
  - hdctambien 10y ago
    If you could make the phone smaller from shrinking components, don't. Instead keep it the same size and fill the extra space with a bigger battery. Or, if you could remove battery because of lowered power consumption of components (and then make the phone smaller) just Keep the battery the same size.
kdamken 10y ago
No one buys them because they're Android phones. If Apple were to do it, people would buy them. EDIT: Should have clarified: Because they're obscure Android phones that you don't really see when you walk into a Verizon store. If more prominent ones like Samsung focus on this, as well as Apple, people would eat them up. See the positive reviews of the s7 vs the s6 for example.
blisterpeanuts 10y ago
Could you name a few of the many "slightly thicker phones with bigger batteries" that no one bought? I must have missed them somehow.
- jackhack 10y ago
  aka "last year's model"
- dsr_ 10y ago
  The Droid MAXX comes to mind... except that everyone who bought them loved them. 5.86oz, 2.8 x 5.41", 5" 720P super AMOLED, 3500 mAH battery. The worst thing about them was that they were Verizon-exclusive.
  - Laforet 10y ago
    Typing on one right now and cannot agree more. Great hardware ruined by Verizon exclusivity. Moto and Verizon teased the us with an upcoming lollipop update for a whole year before cancelling it and tried to make us pay more for the newer models with a discount, thank you but no. Before that I owned every Droid qwerty slider including the elusive Droid 3. I love the form factor mainly because once extended the phone becomes a very natural reading/typing device not unlike some of the early PDAs. The keyboard was getting better with each iteration and Droid 4 was probably the best phone I have ever used for remote management with the row of dedicated numbers keys. We have all lost something when qwerty sliders faded out of the mainstream.
- inyorgroove 10y ago
  The LG G4 was slightly thicker than the others, has a 3000 mAh battery. I can go two days unheard of before I had this phone.
- WildUtah 10y ago
  The iPhone 6 Plus is selling huge volumes with a bigger battery and a heavier phone for $100 more.
marcosdumay 10y ago
Phones have a huge set of features for consumers to choose. I would not bet anything on phone companies marketeers ability to run multi-dimensional hypothesis tests on the market. And I do actively doubt they have any intention to, given the opportunity cost they'll pay at the beginning of such test, and how long the test results will probably stay valid. The idea that the Market is an all knowing beast always operating at maximum efficiency is hilarious.
- coredog64 10y ago
  If that was a real $100 bill someone would have picked it up already.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Not only that, another hilarious idea is that customers actually influence much in a market like this. People don't choose the closest phone to the hypothetical most perfect one for them - they choose out of what's available to buy, and the decision which one in particular is mostly driven by a) price, and b) marketing. I'm yet to see a person who'd say "You know what? It would be cool if the new phones had heart-rate sensors.". It's always "oh, they put a heart-rate sensor in that phone, cool.". Driven by what manufacturers do, not what the consumers want.
  - jpetso 10y ago
    People come up with all kinds of stuff they'd like to see, all the time. It's just that, for the most part, those ideas are not: * feasible for current mainstream tech * compatible with manufacturer's business models * forwarded to decision makers and prioritized. Also the fact that people end up buying something different than they were initially requesting doesn't help to put more weight on their suggestions. But if you don't hear people asking for features, you're not listening all too closely.
gcb0 10y ago
it fails not because of what you think. I always claimed I wanted qwerty keyboard. now blackberry finally has a phone with it that is not selling. the priv. well, while id kill for a keyboard on android, I'd also need a non-phalet size and open firmware. so I continue to use my keboardless motoX developer edition first gen. nobody buys phones for one feature. you cant add a thick battery but sel a device with 300x200 screen, which was the case I think you're talking.
- marssaxman 10y ago
  Yes! I hate hate HATE trying to type on a glass keyboard, and I really wish I could have a plain old QWERTY button keyboard back. I'm delighted to see Blackberry offering one with the Priv. And yet - a phone also needs to fit in my pocket, and it is difficult to imagine how one could do that with a Priv. I don't really need a huge screen because I don't find the web very useful on a phone, but writing text messages and emails is my phone's primary function. The device I actually want is something the size of my Moto X equipped with an actual keyboard. Make it twice as thick, I don't care, just let me type without stumbling constantly.
  - nix0n 10y ago
    You might enjoy the Kyocera Rise (but it is CDMA only AFAICT, so only if you are in USA). It's slow and outdated but it's the best emailing phone I've ever used.
  - b0p1x 10y ago
    I have a Priv, you will like it. You don't sacrifice any Android features (or security updates), and the keyboard is there. I have had it since December and only typed on the touchscreen about 3 times. It is a bit big, but it is the same as any other phone manufacturer makes. I find it is fine in my front pants pocket and it also fits nicely in a shirt pocket.
- TylerE 10y ago
  I had a Moto droid. It has a physical keyboard. It was fking terrible. Keys are so small as to be nearly unuseable. The onscreen keyboard was so much better... error rate was about the same but correction made it much better in practice.
fefifofu 10y ago
Same thing with the airline industry. People often say they'd pay more for extra few inches of leg room, but when they shop online, it's the cheapest price that wins.
- tracker1 10y ago
  Speak for yourself... I almost always try to get a first class seat, unfortunately when I travel by plane, it's usually on short notice, and I'm generally stuck with whatever is available... worst yet is when the seat you select when buying your ticket isn't the one you're assigned when you checkin. First class is usually 3x the price, and yet I always look... as a fairly tall fat guy, comfort is something that I probably value more than someone who weighs in under 180# at 5'9 though.
  - allemagne 10y ago
    Most consider flying first class a luxury reserved for the wealthy or those who don't fly very often. The majority of flyers could never consider a first class ticket a responsible purchase.
    - kylec 10y ago
      Usually because it's ridiculously expensive. Would I pay 20-50% more for a first class seat? Probably. Would I spend 2-3x more? No. I'm still going to be miserable, the flight is still going to take just as long, and once it's over I'll be out all that extra money.
    - jsprogrammer 10y ago
      Those who fly a lot may get frequent upgrades through an airline's loyalty program. Some programs will upgrade you automatically if there are any seats available.
  - stuaxo 10y ago
    Last long distance flight I did we took economy premium, considering the amount of luggage we had, it was actually cheaper, and the leg room was very reasonable.
ucaetano 10y ago
Agreed, also, customers value different things at different times: when buying a plan ticket, they value money more than comfort, but when actually flying, they usually regret that decision. Also, when buying a smartphone, they rarely think "I should go for the uglier one, with a bigger battery", but after they notice how often they run out of battery, they'll buy an external one.
michaelbuckbee 10y ago
Something similar happens with TVs. If you ask people what they want, they say: "good color reproduction" but if you let them loose in a big box store they all gravitate to the brightest most blown out sets.
- throwanem 10y ago
  Most big box stores I've been in the last few years, all the TVs on display are configured for maximum brightness and contrast anyway, I guess so they don't look washed-out next to all the other TVs that are configured the same way. It's impossible to tell what's good and what's not.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > If you ask people what they want, they say: "good color reproduction" but if you let them loose in a big box store they all gravitate to the brightest most blown out sets. Big box stores are usually brightly lit (which is usually compounded by having all the light-emitting TVs next to each other, whatever their brightness setting is); human perception of color is strongly influenced by background, and in that environment not having a set configured at the brightest makes it looked dull and washed out rather than seeming like accurate reproduction of color. This is, of course, very different from what looks good in typical use conditions.
- kylec 10y ago
  I'm thinking about getting a new TV soon, and I plan to order one online sight-unseen based solely on reviews. I don't want to sway myself by what they look like in a bright showroom with the brightness and contrast cranked up to the max.
dv_dt 10y ago
Maybe, but I think one can only really test if customers are willing to pay for battery-life if there are two otherwise identical models with different battery life available. Otherwise it's the thinner model with all the latest engineering built into it vs a high-battery life model that was implemented by a low-resource team because it's an experiment. (do you want a iphone 6 or iphone 6 w/ extra battery life...)
kylec 10y ago
There are also cases, like with larger phones, where every manufacturer starts making bigger and bigger phones because "that's what customers want", without providing any options for customers that would prefer smaller phones. Customers then buy the big phones but are unhappy with them because that's all that was available. I'm glad Apple didn't go in the same direction and released the iPhone SE, but even they were surprised by the demand for it: http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/04/26/apple-faces-constrained-iphone-se-supply-on-surprise-demand http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/04/26/apple-faces-constr...
- digi_owl 10y ago
  There is also Sony's Compact models. Same internals as their namesake, but physically smaller. That said, i wonder how much the "big phone" issue comes from the paradox of wanting slim phones (needs to fit those jeans after all) longer battery life (Wh pr volume is largely a fixed value based on battery chemistry). Stretching the phones on the X and Y then allows a bigger (Wh) battery to be installed. Never mind that they can also then market it with a higher screen inch number...
  - kylec 10y ago
    You're right, there are lots of reasons why manufacturers want to make larger phones, and there are lots of reasons why some people want to buy larger phones. I don't think that these reasons are wrong, but I also think it's fallacious on the part of the manufacturers to assume that just because a lot of people like large phones doesn't mean that everyone does, and that they shouldn't make smaller ones to cater to that market.
    - digi_owl 10y ago
      May be an ROI thing. A smaller model means additional design, testing, retooling the production line, etc etc etc. On top of that you have things like store commissions, carrier subsidies, and who knows what else, going on between the OEM and the end user that affects the choice of model. One relative of mind went from a small featurephone to a large smartphone, because another relative had gotten the same one. This with the idea that said other relative would be "tech support".
km3k 10y ago
Where are the phones with similar specs to the current flagship phones, but that are thicker and have a bigger battery? All the big battery phones have slower hardware and poorer screens. That's why they don't sell. The closest thing I've seen is the S7 Active. It looks good, but I'm on T-Mobile, so it wouldn't be a great idea to get one.
rk06 10y ago
I bought gionee marathon m4 because it has the best battery. so some people do buy phones with better battery.
kagamine 10y ago
It's the coffee question. Ask people if they like coffee and look at coffee marketing and it's all about "rich, dark roasts". Marketing focuses on deeply aromatic black espresso. Work as a barista for 5 mins and most of the 'coffee lovers' are ordering single shot lattes with syrup.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  And I wonder if the barista's opinion takes into the account that a) coffee at Starbucks is a different experience than coffee at home, and most importantly b) they probably price those single shot lattes better.
TeMPOraL 10y ago
I wonder if they work hard to eliminate effects of their own sales & marketing from that "research". People don't really give back much of a feedback about mobile phones - most average folks get whatever seems hot (i.e. mostly what the operator markets the most) or whatever the operator gives them as a cheap option to extend the contract. I haven't seen a market that's more driven by what is being put for sale than mobile phones. People don't choose shit, they pick from the few somewhat cost-effective options that are available any given year.
touristtam 10y ago
It's about what companies can afford and are willing to purchase as well. I doubt the technology to have higher density and more energy efficient battery is far off, but I fail to see any report of mass manufacturing of these, only article about new technology advancement in labs. And if there is no incentive from buyers (the device manufacturer) for better parts (in this case the battery), then the alternative is just have something that is good enough and that won't be dwarfed by the competition.

cmurphycode 10y ago

The main reason I bought my Galaxy S7 is because they made it thicker and with a bigger battery than the S6.

tehrei 10y ago
That is incorrect, citizen. The S7 has always been thinner than the S6. Source: I am a Minitrue officer.
rplst8 10y ago
Same reason I went with the Droid Turbo over other choices.
Fuxy 10y ago
I went for the Samsung Galaxy Note for the same reason. I don't know about any other customers but I for one would buy a long battery life phone in a heartbeat regardless how thick it may be.
- t3ra 10y ago
  I have thick amzer case on my note to keep it safe. Who cares about paper thin phones!? Not like the phone is always in my pocket ; but actually thicker phones are usually better to grip on to
- seanp2k2 10y ago
  Same with the iPhone 6 Plus. I did want a bigger screen, but the battery was the main draw for me. Paper thin phones never appealed to me. I used to use an HTC Apache (Verizon XV6700) with a bulge battery. That thing was over an inch thick and it barely lasted a whole day, but it still fit easily into the front pocket of jeans. Phones were rugged enough back then to not require cases. I think manufacturers realize this more than we give them credit for and consider cases a personalization option, but IMO the best phone design would be a back-plate-less design where the case provides some of the structure as well. This would allow a choice: thin backplate only if you want that, or more protection without tons of thickness, or bigger battery as part of the case without some hacky battery-charging-the-other-battery-and-blocking-the-charging-port ugly super thick case like we've seen for e.g. iPhones.
- agret 10y ago
  You might want to checkout the Elephone P5000

cm2187 10y ago

They don't need to make it thicker. Just not thinner and with a better battery.

digi_owl 10y ago
Battery chemistry gets in the way. You can only pack so much Wh into lithium with a given weight and volume.
- hdctambien 10y ago
  If you could make the phone smaller from shrinking components, don't. Instead keep it the same size and fill the extra space with a bigger battery. Or, if you could remove battery because of lowered power consumption of components (and then make the phone smaller) just Keep the battery the same size.

kdamken 10y ago

No one buys them because they're Android phones. If Apple were to do it, people would buy them. EDIT: Should have clarified: Because they're obscure Android phones that you don't really see when you walk into a Verizon store. If more prominent ones like Samsung focus on this, as well as Apple, people would eat them up. See the positive reviews of the s7 vs the s6 for example.

blisterpeanuts 10y ago

Could you name a few of the many "slightly thicker phones with bigger batteries" that no one bought? I must have missed them somehow.

jackhack 10y ago
aka "last year's model"
dsr_ 10y ago
The Droid MAXX comes to mind... except that everyone who bought them loved them. 5.86oz, 2.8 x 5.41", 5" 720P super AMOLED, 3500 mAH battery. The worst thing about them was that they were Verizon-exclusive.
- Laforet 10y ago
  Typing on one right now and cannot agree more. Great hardware ruined by Verizon exclusivity. Moto and Verizon teased the us with an upcoming lollipop update for a whole year before cancelling it and tried to make us pay more for the newer models with a discount, thank you but no. Before that I owned every Droid qwerty slider including the elusive Droid 3. I love the form factor mainly because once extended the phone becomes a very natural reading/typing device not unlike some of the early PDAs. The keyboard was getting better with each iteration and Droid 4 was probably the best phone I have ever used for remote management with the row of dedicated numbers keys. We have all lost something when qwerty sliders faded out of the mainstream.
inyorgroove 10y ago
The LG G4 was slightly thicker than the others, has a 3000 mAh battery. I can go two days unheard of before I had this phone.
WildUtah 10y ago
The iPhone 6 Plus is selling huge volumes with a bigger battery and a heavier phone for $100 more.

marcosdumay 10y ago

Phones have a huge set of features for consumers to choose. I would not bet anything on phone companies marketeers ability to run multi-dimensional hypothesis tests on the market. And I do actively doubt they have any intention to, given the opportunity cost they'll pay at the beginning of such test, and how long the test results will probably stay valid. The idea that the Market is an all knowing beast always operating at maximum efficiency is hilarious.

coredog64 10y ago
If that was a real $100 bill someone would have picked it up already.
TeMPOraL 10y ago
Not only that, another hilarious idea is that customers actually influence much in a market like this. People don't choose the closest phone to the hypothetical most perfect one for them - they choose out of what's available to buy, and the decision which one in particular is mostly driven by a) price, and b) marketing. I'm yet to see a person who'd say "You know what? It would be cool if the new phones had heart-rate sensors.". It's always "oh, they put a heart-rate sensor in that phone, cool.". Driven by what manufacturers do, not what the consumers want.
- jpetso 10y ago
  People come up with all kinds of stuff they'd like to see, all the time. It's just that, for the most part, those ideas are not: * feasible for current mainstream tech * compatible with manufacturer's business models * forwarded to decision makers and prioritized. Also the fact that people end up buying something different than they were initially requesting doesn't help to put more weight on their suggestions. But if you don't hear people asking for features, you're not listening all too closely.

gcb0 10y ago

it fails not because of what you think. I always claimed I wanted qwerty keyboard. now blackberry finally has a phone with it that is not selling. the priv. well, while id kill for a keyboard on android, I'd also need a non-phalet size and open firmware. so I continue to use my keboardless motoX developer edition first gen. nobody buys phones for one feature. you cant add a thick battery but sel a device with 300x200 screen, which was the case I think you're talking.

marssaxman 10y ago
Yes! I hate hate HATE trying to type on a glass keyboard, and I really wish I could have a plain old QWERTY button keyboard back. I'm delighted to see Blackberry offering one with the Priv. And yet - a phone also needs to fit in my pocket, and it is difficult to imagine how one could do that with a Priv. I don't really need a huge screen because I don't find the web very useful on a phone, but writing text messages and emails is my phone's primary function. The device I actually want is something the size of my Moto X equipped with an actual keyboard. Make it twice as thick, I don't care, just let me type without stumbling constantly.
- nix0n 10y ago
  You might enjoy the Kyocera Rise (but it is CDMA only AFAICT, so only if you are in USA). It's slow and outdated but it's the best emailing phone I've ever used.
- b0p1x 10y ago
  I have a Priv, you will like it. You don't sacrifice any Android features (or security updates), and the keyboard is there. I have had it since December and only typed on the touchscreen about 3 times. It is a bit big, but it is the same as any other phone manufacturer makes. I find it is fine in my front pants pocket and it also fits nicely in a shirt pocket.
TylerE 10y ago
I had a Moto droid. It has a physical keyboard. It was fking terrible. Keys are so small as to be nearly unuseable. The onscreen keyboard was so much better... error rate was about the same but correction made it much better in practice.

fefifofu 10y ago

Same thing with the airline industry. People often say they'd pay more for extra few inches of leg room, but when they shop online, it's the cheapest price that wins.

tracker1 10y ago
Speak for yourself... I almost always try to get a first class seat, unfortunately when I travel by plane, it's usually on short notice, and I'm generally stuck with whatever is available... worst yet is when the seat you select when buying your ticket isn't the one you're assigned when you checkin. First class is usually 3x the price, and yet I always look... as a fairly tall fat guy, comfort is something that I probably value more than someone who weighs in under 180# at 5'9 though.
- allemagne 10y ago
  Most consider flying first class a luxury reserved for the wealthy or those who don't fly very often. The majority of flyers could never consider a first class ticket a responsible purchase.
  - kylec 10y ago
    Usually because it's ridiculously expensive. Would I pay 20-50% more for a first class seat? Probably. Would I spend 2-3x more? No. I'm still going to be miserable, the flight is still going to take just as long, and once it's over I'll be out all that extra money.
  - jsprogrammer 10y ago
    Those who fly a lot may get frequent upgrades through an airline's loyalty program. Some programs will upgrade you automatically if there are any seats available.
- stuaxo 10y ago
  Last long distance flight I did we took economy premium, considering the amount of luggage we had, it was actually cheaper, and the leg room was very reasonable.

ucaetano 10y ago

Agreed, also, customers value different things at different times: when buying a plan ticket, they value money more than comfort, but when actually flying, they usually regret that decision. Also, when buying a smartphone, they rarely think "I should go for the uglier one, with a bigger battery", but after they notice how often they run out of battery, they'll buy an external one.

michaelbuckbee 10y ago

Something similar happens with TVs. If you ask people what they want, they say: "good color reproduction" but if you let them loose in a big box store they all gravitate to the brightest most blown out sets.

throwanem 10y ago
Most big box stores I've been in the last few years, all the TVs on display are configured for maximum brightness and contrast anyway, I guess so they don't look washed-out next to all the other TVs that are configured the same way. It's impossible to tell what's good and what's not.
dragonwriter 10y ago
> If you ask people what they want, they say: "good color reproduction" but if you let them loose in a big box store they all gravitate to the brightest most blown out sets. Big box stores are usually brightly lit (which is usually compounded by having all the light-emitting TVs next to each other, whatever their brightness setting is); human perception of color is strongly influenced by background, and in that environment not having a set configured at the brightest makes it looked dull and washed out rather than seeming like accurate reproduction of color. This is, of course, very different from what looks good in typical use conditions.
kylec 10y ago
I'm thinking about getting a new TV soon, and I plan to order one online sight-unseen based solely on reviews. I don't want to sway myself by what they look like in a bright showroom with the brightness and contrast cranked up to the max.

dv_dt 10y ago

Maybe, but I think one can only really test if customers are willing to pay for battery-life if there are two otherwise identical models with different battery life available. Otherwise it's the thinner model with all the latest engineering built into it vs a high-battery life model that was implemented by a low-resource team because it's an experiment. (do you want a iphone 6 or iphone 6 w/ extra battery life...)

kylec 10y ago

There are also cases, like with larger phones, where every manufacturer starts making bigger and bigger phones because "that's what customers want", without providing any options for customers that would prefer smaller phones. Customers then buy the big phones but are unhappy with them because that's all that was available. I'm glad Apple didn't go in the same direction and released the iPhone SE, but even they were surprised by the demand for it: http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/04/26/apple-faces-constrained-iphone-se-supply-on-surprise-demand http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/04/26/apple-faces-constr...

digi_owl 10y ago
There is also Sony's Compact models. Same internals as their namesake, but physically smaller. That said, i wonder how much the "big phone" issue comes from the paradox of wanting slim phones (needs to fit those jeans after all) longer battery life (Wh pr volume is largely a fixed value based on battery chemistry). Stretching the phones on the X and Y then allows a bigger (Wh) battery to be installed. Never mind that they can also then market it with a higher screen inch number...
- kylec 10y ago
  You're right, there are lots of reasons why manufacturers want to make larger phones, and there are lots of reasons why some people want to buy larger phones. I don't think that these reasons are wrong, but I also think it's fallacious on the part of the manufacturers to assume that just because a lot of people like large phones doesn't mean that everyone does, and that they shouldn't make smaller ones to cater to that market.
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    May be an ROI thing. A smaller model means additional design, testing, retooling the production line, etc etc etc. On top of that you have things like store commissions, carrier subsidies, and who knows what else, going on between the OEM and the end user that affects the choice of model. One relative of mind went from a small featurephone to a large smartphone, because another relative had gotten the same one. This with the idea that said other relative would be "tech support".

km3k 10y ago

Where are the phones with similar specs to the current flagship phones, but that are thicker and have a bigger battery? All the big battery phones have slower hardware and poorer screens. That's why they don't sell. The closest thing I've seen is the S7 Active. It looks good, but I'm on T-Mobile, so it wouldn't be a great idea to get one.

rk06 10y ago

I bought gionee marathon m4 because it has the best battery. so some people do buy phones with better battery.

kagamine 10y ago

It's the coffee question. Ask people if they like coffee and look at coffee marketing and it's all about "rich, dark roasts". Marketing focuses on deeply aromatic black espresso. Work as a barista for 5 mins and most of the 'coffee lovers' are ordering single shot lattes with syrup.

TeMPOraL 10y ago
And I wonder if the barista's opinion takes into the account that a) coffee at Starbucks is a different experience than coffee at home, and most importantly b) they probably price those single shot lattes better.

TeMPOraL 10y ago

I wonder if they work hard to eliminate effects of their own sales & marketing from that "research". People don't really give back much of a feedback about mobile phones - most average folks get whatever seems hot (i.e. mostly what the operator markets the most) or whatever the operator gives them as a cheap option to extend the contract. I haven't seen a market that's more driven by what is being put for sale than mobile phones. People don't choose shit, they pick from the few somewhat cost-effective options that are available any given year.

touristtam 10y ago

It's about what companies can afford and are willing to purchase as well. I doubt the technology to have higher density and more energy efficient battery is far off, but I fail to see any report of mass manufacturing of these, only article about new technology advancement in labs. And if there is no incentive from buyers (the device manufacturer) for better parts (in this case the battery), then the alternative is just have something that is good enough and that won't be dwarfed by the competition.