4 ms·

I understand your point of view, but from a market standpoint you're a niche of a niche of a niche. I feel you, because I have the same feeling about many mass

I understand your point of view, but from a market standpoint you're a niche of a niche of a niche. I feel you, because I have the same feeling about many mass produced products. I find that the real problem with phone and electronics is that their nature prevents the development of "artisanal" alternatives, which, market-wise, are the only option that can takle the need of a small pool of users like in your case.

iguy 8y ago
I remain surprised that such niches don't get filled. Apple is weird, but what percentage of the market does the 100th most popular Android phone capture?
- camillomiller 8y ago
  I don't, considering the amount of resources needed to concieve, develop and market even the smallest peripheral at a company like Apple. Plus (although it might be less so nowadays due to their size) Apple still has a culture of saying "no" to a lot of things that "could" make sense. Some chinese companies that tend to throw shit at the wall to see what sticks are better positioned to do that, but chances are that you'll get a subpar product you won't probably like using, let alone buy in the first place. Last but not least, the existence of a niche of consumers is no direct indication that such niche will actually buy the product they think they want. This is why a lot of startups fail despite the fact their product should theoretically sell like hot cakes.
- Arnt 8y ago
  I think this niche doesn't get filled because of the gap between what you want and what you buy. The gap between what you (ought to) want and that which makes a good first impression on you. I have, use and like a small android phone called "unihertz jelly pro", small enough to fit in any pocket and good for my use. After a while with that phone, using a phablet one evening was an absolute eureka moment. I was looking for some sort of product, and on the phablet all the photos looked good. Inviting. Desirable. The whole phablet was fun in a way the small phone wasn't. After that experience, I can understand that people reach for the big phones in the shop, even if some of them may really want something different in the long term. And I can understand why retailers stock the phones they do. The phone where instagram looks good is the phone with the right first impression, and one has to optimise for getting the goods out the door. (http://rant.gulbrandsen.priv.no/unihertz http://rant.gulbrandsen.priv.no/unihertz has blah about how I tweaked the phone, if anyone cares.)
  - iguy 8y ago
    Yea this is true, call it sexual selection? Also, even if a smart car would be more convenient for almost everything you do, it won't work for some weekend trips, so you buy something bigger -- there's a bit of that going on too, I think.
  - adetrest 8y ago
    How ironic is it that unihertz's website looks so bad on a smartphone (one with a larger display at that). Their design isn't optimized for mobile at all.
  - peteri 8y ago
    Definitely tempted to give one a try, screen resolution might drive me a bit nuts though. The Lumia 640 I'm currently using is starting to show it's age these days. To be honest, I'm finding most phones very underwhelming these days.
    - Arnt 8y ago
      If you fear that... don't buy one. It's a nice phone to have in your pocket with the screen off, so you can run instant-message apps, can phone your ex or optionally other people, can run 2FA apps, and so on and so forth. It's not a nice phone if you want to have the screen on. Unobtrusive and within reach: Yes. Use very much: No.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
user812 8y ago
Iphone SE users aren't a small pool of users. The decision by Apple is either based solely on making more money short-term/mid-term while ignoring a part of their customer base, or waiting for the right entry point with introduing a new bigger full screen but overall smaller model. Many things Apple did in the early days weren't making sense from a market standpoint, like giving away software for free. At least that's what MS would have told you at that time. That's why it's hard even for Apple to really price in the economic long-term cost of not supporting high-income and higly influental niche groups - there isn't only monocausality to consider when calculating ROI.
- graeme 8y ago
  A lot of iphone SE users just bought it because it was cheap though. That's the "niche of a niche" comment above. I like smaller phones, so we'll see how much people care about them now that the iphone 8 is the smallest good phone apple sells. Am hoping they do make a smaller iphone X style phone, but....we'll see. Btw, for anyone reading this, popsockets go a long way to making larger phones more comfortable.
  - blattimwind 8y ago
    > A lot of iphone SE users just bought it because it was cheap though. That's the "niche of a niche" comment above. The SE was not a cheap phone. It might be considered so in some high-income bubbles, but for most people it isn't/wasn't.
    - wilsonnb3 8y ago
      The SE was a cheap phone. $399 or ~$16 a month. In the US, that’s a cheap phone.
      - mgkimsal 8y ago
        It started at $499, IIRC, then was downpriced in its second incarnation(?) There was a period where storage was doubled, but IIRC it seemed that options went down again in the SE (maybe when the price dropped)?

iguy 8y ago

I remain surprised that such niches don't get filled. Apple is weird, but what percentage of the market does the 100th most popular Android phone capture?

camillomiller 8y ago
I don't, considering the amount of resources needed to concieve, develop and market even the smallest peripheral at a company like Apple. Plus (although it might be less so nowadays due to their size) Apple still has a culture of saying "no" to a lot of things that "could" make sense. Some chinese companies that tend to throw shit at the wall to see what sticks are better positioned to do that, but chances are that you'll get a subpar product you won't probably like using, let alone buy in the first place. Last but not least, the existence of a niche of consumers is no direct indication that such niche will actually buy the product they think they want. This is why a lot of startups fail despite the fact their product should theoretically sell like hot cakes.
Arnt 8y ago
I think this niche doesn't get filled because of the gap between what you want and what you buy. The gap between what you (ought to) want and that which makes a good first impression on you. I have, use and like a small android phone called "unihertz jelly pro", small enough to fit in any pocket and good for my use. After a while with that phone, using a phablet one evening was an absolute eureka moment. I was looking for some sort of product, and on the phablet all the photos looked good. Inviting. Desirable. The whole phablet was fun in a way the small phone wasn't. After that experience, I can understand that people reach for the big phones in the shop, even if some of them may really want something different in the long term. And I can understand why retailers stock the phones they do. The phone where instagram looks good is the phone with the right first impression, and one has to optimise for getting the goods out the door. (http://rant.gulbrandsen.priv.no/unihertz http://rant.gulbrandsen.priv.no/unihertz has blah about how I tweaked the phone, if anyone cares.)
- iguy 8y ago
  Yea this is true, call it sexual selection? Also, even if a smart car would be more convenient for almost everything you do, it won't work for some weekend trips, so you buy something bigger -- there's a bit of that going on too, I think.
- adetrest 8y ago
  How ironic is it that unihertz's website looks so bad on a smartphone (one with a larger display at that). Their design isn't optimized for mobile at all.
- peteri 8y ago
  Definitely tempted to give one a try, screen resolution might drive me a bit nuts though. The Lumia 640 I'm currently using is starting to show it's age these days. To be honest, I'm finding most phones very underwhelming these days.
  - Arnt 8y ago
    If you fear that... don't buy one. It's a nice phone to have in your pocket with the screen off, so you can run instant-message apps, can phone your ex or optionally other people, can run 2FA apps, and so on and so forth. It's not a nice phone if you want to have the screen on. Unobtrusive and within reach: Yes. Use very much: No.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

user812 8y ago

Iphone SE users aren't a small pool of users. The decision by Apple is either based solely on making more money short-term/mid-term while ignoring a part of their customer base, or waiting for the right entry point with introduing a new bigger full screen but overall smaller model. Many things Apple did in the early days weren't making sense from a market standpoint, like giving away software for free. At least that's what MS would have told you at that time. That's why it's hard even for Apple to really price in the economic long-term cost of not supporting high-income and higly influental niche groups - there isn't only monocausality to consider when calculating ROI.

graeme 8y ago
A lot of iphone SE users just bought it because it was cheap though. That's the "niche of a niche" comment above. I like smaller phones, so we'll see how much people care about them now that the iphone 8 is the smallest good phone apple sells. Am hoping they do make a smaller iphone X style phone, but....we'll see. Btw, for anyone reading this, popsockets go a long way to making larger phones more comfortable.
- blattimwind 8y ago
  > A lot of iphone SE users just bought it because it was cheap though. That's the "niche of a niche" comment above. The SE was not a cheap phone. It might be considered so in some high-income bubbles, but for most people it isn't/wasn't.
  - wilsonnb3 8y ago
    The SE was a cheap phone. $399 or ~$16 a month. In the US, that’s a cheap phone.
    - mgkimsal 8y ago
      It started at $499, IIRC, then was downpriced in its second incarnation(?) There was a period where storage was doubled, but IIRC it seemed that options went down again in the SE (maybe when the price dropped)?