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With the iPhone X Apple put serious R&D into a display that folds back on itself for the sole reason that a phone is more ascetically pleasing when the boarders
by valine 7y ago
With the iPhone X Apple put serious R&D into a display that folds back on itself for the sole reason that a phone is more ascetically pleasing when the boarders are symmetrical. Even after a year and a half every phone except the iPhone has an asymmetrical chin. Will Apple still be able to make decisions like that without Ive in a leadership position? For Apple's sake I really hope so.
- wahnfrieden 7y agoCouldn’t figure out what you’re referring to with the notch. Can you show some illustration of this or something to read?
- valine 7y agoHere's a good explanation: https://www.redmondpie.com/why-most-2018-smartphones-have-chin-bezel-while-2017-iphone-x-doesnt/ https://www.redmondpie.com/why-most-2018-smartphones-have-ch...
- scarejunba 7y agoBloody hell, that's amazing. I had no idea.
- Grumbledour 7y agoThat's fascinating, I had no idea. I commend them on their willingness to see this design decision through, yet I wonder if it is actually good design. The article already mentions it makes the phone more expensive and I do wonder, if it does not make the phone also harder to use? At least on my android, I already find the chin on the smaller side and with big hands it gets harder to grasp the phone at a part where I don't accidentally trigger something on the display. I would guess it would also strain my thumb even more when trying to tap stuff at the bottom of the screen. From looks alone, more display is always gorgeous, but from a usability standpoint, I am not so sure.
- kalleboo 7y agoI've never accidentally activated anything with my palm on my iPhone X or XS. I think Apple just has superior palm rejection (see also their massive laptop trackpads)
- Analemma_ 7y agoI don't think Ive departing from Apple would be entirely a bad thing, though. Most of Apple's really great designs are thanks to Jony, but some of their really stupid ones (e.g the horrible butterfly keyboards) have his fingerprint on them too.
- PunksATawnyFill 7y agoHow about decisions like removing the headphone jacks from the company's most popular music players, the very devices with which people are supposed consume the media-centric services that Tim Cook and analysts say are the future of Apple? For Apple's and consumers' sake, I hope NOT.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Bud 7y agoThis decision was promptly copied by every other major phone manufacturer, for the same reasons Apple made the decision. The 3.5mm jack is obsolete and getting rid of it enables a better, tougher device which is more waterproof.
- steve19 7y agoIts not obselete when 100s of millions of people use it everyday and the replacement is expensive, needs replacing because the batteries die and has poorer sound quality. No phone is more waterproof with it than without (they all have complex data ports with many connection vs three or four in a jack). No phone has a bigger battery. No phone is tougher. It allows Apple and others to sell expensice Bluetooth ear buds. And yes, I do own a pair of airpods.
- novok 7y agoI think the reason why now only the iphone has symmetry is patents.
- anbop 7y agoSymmetry is not patentable.
- novok 7y agoDoing the fold under the oled screen is. https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/5/16/15646918/apple-patents-iphone-8-rumors-bezel-free-touch-id-screen https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/5/16/15646918/a... https://www.cultofmac.com/266383/apples-wrap-around-display-tech-kill-pesky-bezels-patent/ https://www.cultofmac.com/266383/apples-wrap-around-display-... Which lets apple create a symmetrical bezel, while I think almost every other manufacturer has some sort of asymmetrical chin in their phones.
- fnord77 7y agogiven their recent focus on being a services/media company, it wouldn't surprise me if they moved out of hardware entirely at some point in the future.
- cududa 7y agoI bet you $100 that’s wrong
- toxik 7y agoThis is mistaken, Apple sells devices and the software comes with; it’s a key selling point. Yes they expanded their services sector, because product is getting hard to push — but it will always be the core business.
- randomvectors 7y agoIt's unlikely they will move out of the market which gives them the most recognition as a brand and accounts for a disproportionately high % of their revenue.
- zild3d 7y agoThe services are to sell more to the people in their hardware ecosystem. Their "focus" in services/media is because the # of iphone customers has plateaud, so now they are now growing by selling more to the same customers, not selling the same to more customers.
- enneff 7y agoThey became the most valuable company in the world by selling hardware. What on earth would possess them to get out of that incredibly lucrative market in which they have an unparalleled privileged position??
- OldSchoolJohnny 7y agoI think you're more right than people are giving credit for. They clearly haven't cared much about their hardware with any true innovation for a long time.
- mevile 7y agoI have never heard of nor noticed the chin difference of iPhones before. I don't see how the loss of attention to detail at that expense would materially impact Apple, except maybe for the better.
- noir_lord 7y agoI often think with apple people either get what they care about or they don’t. I own the most recent iPad and iPad mini (on that now) and I like both but neither more than my Nokia 6.1. All three are functional devices that do what I need with little to no fuss. The tiny aesthetic differences between them are lost on me or more accurately are irrelevant to me. Which is why I don’t have an iPhone, for tablets apple are hands down the best but for my phone needs a Nokia running stock android at one fifth the price does 99% of what I care about. I have zero loyalty to a brand or a platform, I use whatever works for me at the time I guess.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- zild3d 7y agoI'd take asymmetric borders over having a large notch anyday. See S10+ next to an iphone XS Max [0]. It's subjective of course, but strictly looking at display & bezels the "which is more aesthetically pleasing" question is not even close [0] https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NG5Wd9Px40o/maxresdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NG5Wd9Px40o/maxresdefault.jpg
- dpkonofa 7y agoI don't know that I agree with that considering the S10+ has what amounts to a hole in the top right corner. The notch isn't great but I actually think I prefer seeing those 2 options side by side.
- CydeWeys 7y agoI prefer the hole, for two reasons: A lot less total space of the display is missing, and the part that is missing is one side rather than the middle, so you still have room for a mostly full width uninterrupted status bar.
- simonh 7y agoAnd if you have no interest in Face ID that's reasonable preference.
- sgc 7y agoAre you saying face ID is so fragile moving the camera 1 inch or less than an inch to the right kills all functionality? You manage to line your phone up so precisely each time you use it?
- 7Z7 7y agoBut it isn't just a camera, its an array of stuff
- kevinslashslash 7y ago
- artursapek 7y agoI got one of these fucking things, and I noticed my thumb feels strained when I use my phone. It's because my thumb has to bend down a lot further to reach the bottom of the "chin" all the time. So much for "design is how it works", huh Steve?
- jjtheblunt 7y agoaesthetically, i think you meant, as ascetically means something very different.
- alberto_ol 7y agoI thought it was a nice pun
- sytelus 7y agoPersonally, I think focus should be on battery life improvement, app management UX, privacy (for example, to this day I can't turn off ALL notifications) etc. I would take 20% thicker iPhone for 20% better battery life and headphone jack any day. Cosmetic changes and thinness-for-thinness sake are worthless.
- yoz-y 7y agoYou would but vast majority of Apple customers would not. There are often calls to "vote with your wallet" and that's what people do. This is why we have no jack and thin phones.
- DocTomoe 7y agoGiven that Apple doesn't offer superior phones (with better battery life and headphone jacks), voting with your wallets essentially comes down to getting a Apple one or a non-Apple one. In other news, the iPhone's market share is dropping like a stone. http://fortune.com/2019/02/21/apple-iphone-sales-2018/ http://fortune.com/2019/02/21/apple-iphone-sales-2018/
- yoz-y 7y agoIt is important to note that it is dropping a lot _in China_. Chinese smartphone market is very different from the rest of the world as a smartphone is basically a WeChat machine. Chinese also value novelty and camera capabilities more (by camera capabilities I mean stuff like auto beautification).
- DocTomoe 7y agoNot only in China, though - I'm in Europe, and I see people making the switch in growing numbers - even for the teens, that 2000s "I need to have the newest iPhone" hype has waned and now Samsung & Co. are being considered more. iPhone omnipresence is pretty much an American phenomeon ... I've seen more iPhones in Vegas in one day than I see in Germany in six months.
- HeadsUpHigh 7y agoI have literally never noticed that. If this is what the differences between phones have come to today then to me it seems like there isn't really anything to write home about anymore and the market is completely saturated.
- 2muchcoffeeman 7y agoLove them of hate them, Apple has always spent a lot of attention to details in their products. I myself like them more just because of their manufacturing processes. It’s like those YouTube channels that have videos of industrial machinery showing how tomatoes are sorted or paper clips are bent.
- bookofjoe 7y agohere you go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQIYZ-iKuG4&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQIYZ-iKuG4&feature=youtu.be
- retardedGarbage 7y agoThis comment is such a fucking joke, I can barely find enough motivation to criticize it, knowing that it's so obviously laughable. The chin? The phone's fucking chin? You think the company hinges on phone chins? You think that's a leadership decision? The only reason they spent on the research was because they have money. The iPhone X isn't even their best phone. It has no headphone jack. It's too big. It's too expensive. The lack of a button sucks. The thin bezel means accidental touch events, that the operating system fails to discriminate against because there really is no way to know which ones are accidental... The iPhone X is shit design, and a step backwards. The reason he's gone is because he's botching design decisions and he's lost touch. The heave ho is the best choice. I could go on.
- maskros 7y agoascetic: n. A person who renounces material comforts and leads a life of austere self-discipline, especially as an act of religious devotion. boarder: n. One who pays a stipulated sum in return for regular meals or for meals and lodging.
- fabianmg 7y ago> With the iPhone X Apple put serious R&D into a display that folds back on itself ... You're kidding right?. Apple put so much serious R&D into the display that they asked Samsung to create it.
- andromeduck 7y agoSamsung is contracted for the manufacturing but that doesn't mean Apple didn't come up with large portions of the design or otherwise find and support the project
- webbrahmin 7y agoHow many can keep affording expensive phones line iPhone X and planned obsolescence?
- OldSchoolJohnny 7y agoJesus that's thin gruel to bring up..no? How about some actual innovation? Has anything truly innovative happened in smartphones for the last decade?