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Its difficult to think different if you're the world's largest company and dominate the phone market. In laptops it looks like they are differentiating themselv

Its difficult to think different if you're the world's largest company and dominate the phone market. In laptops it looks like they are differentiating themselves very well.

cpuguy83 6y ago
Apple has a small piece of the smartphone pie. That said, their CPU's are consistently in a class of their own.
- dmitriid 6y ago
  And this year they are creeping back to 90s era: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are essentially the same phone. So no reason why both exist, except to muddy up the product line.
  - jsinai 6y ago
    The key differentiator is the camera on the Pro, which significantly increases the cost. Some people will pay a premium for the privilege of owning the top model and yet others will go for the Pro precisely because of the more advanced camera. By having separate lines, Apple can sell the 12 for cheaper than the 12 Pro, and those who are willing to pay for the 12 Pro camera can do so. Don’t see any muddying here.
    - anonymouse008 6y ago
      The problem is as a “normal user” you can’t go to your ‘tech friend’ and get a straight answer — there are too many considerations now to direct someone to one phone over another. It’s not ‘yeah, the new iPhone is great! You gotta have it.’ It’s “so what do you want to do mostly?” — no one knows. That is what I believe the 90s curse really means — your evangelists are no longer as effective because they give potential customers an overwhelming amount of information that slows down, and sometimes prevents, a sale. —- Your point is exactly right - Apple has decided to harvest the demand curve over making something undeniably great. Edit: let me clarify, watch and homepod mini are currently in the category of 'just get it' products. This is only a critique of the iPhone line.
      - alexashka 6y ago
        > The problem is as a “normal user” you can’t go to your ‘tech friend’ and get a straight answer Uh, it's 3 options. Small size, best camera option, remaining option. I didn't know this - I just went to Apple's website, clicked iPhone and it has a single page that presents all this very clearly. So um, yeah. This is by the way how I do 'tech advice' to anyone who ever needs it - I open google, I type in the question and the first link has the answer 95% of the time. Phones haven't been in 'gotta have it' category since iPhone 6 when they released a bigger size that a lot of people wanted. Since then, it has been 'better camera' yearly releases, oh and 'better chip', as if anyone needs a supercomputer to browse Instagram.
        ghaff 6y ago
        Cameras (and the associated computational photography power) have the advantage (for Apple and other manufacturers) of simultaneously still being on a fairly rapid improvement curve and being something a lot of people really care about. It's no coincidence that Apple really hits hard on the photography angle. There is clearly a difference between my iPhone 6 and iPhone X but I've never been on a particularly frequent upgrade cadence. Under normal circumstances, I'd probably upgrade to this year's model but there's not a lot of point until I get out and about a lot again.
        dmitriid 6y ago
        It's four options. Two of them different: - iPhone 12 Mini, the small one - iPhone 12 Pro Max, the huge one And then there are these two: iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro. They are the exactly same phone in every regard that a "regular" user cares about. They are so identical that Gruber lumped them together in benchmarks in his review at Daring Fireball. The only difference is the difference in cameras which is important to a very small number of people. And even then it doesn't make sense to make two different models instead of one, with the new camera setup.
        ghaff 6y ago
        I think you underestimate how many people care about cameras a lot--or at least think they do. Personally, I'm inclined to give Apple the benefit of the doubt that it knows what it's doing by having a cheaper mid-size model and a more expensive one with a better camera.
- robin_reala 6y ago
  Small is relative. Some estimates claim 1b active iPhones: https://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2020/10/26/a-billion-iphone-users https://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2020/10/26/a-billion-iphon...
  - fouc 6y ago
    A lot of people are still using an iPhone 5S or an iPhone 6. From iPhone 6 to now, that's actually close to 1.7b iPhone sales. 1b active iPhones sounds very reasonable after accounting for breakage and the unused spares forgotten in a drawer. Apparently there's approx a total of 3.5 billion smartphone users today. https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-phones-are-in-the-world https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-phones-are-in-the-w... iPhones could be 30% of the market.
- qzw 6y ago
  Small in units shipped, but dominant in design, aesthetics, and, most importantly, profit margin.
  - oblio 6y ago
    > but dominant in design Debatable. If anything, modern Android designs are cleaner than iPhone looks. > aesthetics Again, debatable. > and, most importantly, profit margin This is the key factor, and it's tied to something you missed. Apple products and iPhones are ahead in profit margins because Apple consistently delivers reasonable quality goods, with few disappointments, so that users trust them. They've gained user trust despite obvious "design, aesthetics" mis-steps such as the notch or the touch bar. The key words are: consistent delivery, reasonable quality and few disappointments. That's how they hook users in. Apple mostly delivers on time something very close to what they promised and that thing doesn't have catastrophic flaws. That's a much taller bar than you'd think, in the tech sector.
    - lenwood 6y ago
      > modern Android designs are cleaner than iPhone looks Design is about more than the way apps & interface looks. I recently switched from Android and the thing that most struck me is that iPhone usability is more consistent. I was able to do everything I wanted with Android and honestly I loved it, but its not as intuitive as iOS.
      - fauigerzigerk 6y ago
        I use mostly Apple devices, both Mac and iOS, because I like the hardware. But I also have a cheap Android phone, and even though I'm not using it very often I find it more consistent/intuitive than iOS, mostly for two reasons: One is iOS's arbitrary separation of settings and other app functionality. It makes no sense. I'll never remember what goes where. Secondly, Android's back button is simple. I can use it without thinking even though you can probably find a lot of inconsistencies in its behaviour. iOS has multiple inconsistent one-off solutions for going back that cause a lot more mental friction.
- tpush 6y ago
  > Apple has a small piece of the smartphone pie. An iPhone is the single best-selling phone on pretty much any given year. iOS is also 50/50(or more) with Android in a number of countries.
  - pjmlp 6y ago
    Most of them are tier 1 countries.
    - tpush 6y ago
      So?
- izacus 6y ago
  Half of USA market is far from "small piece".
  - timbit42 6y ago
    The US is only 4.2% of the global population.
    - izacus 6y ago
      And that 4.2% of population created one of the richest corporations in the world. Pretending that Apple doesn't have an important world market share with their mobile products is really a bit facetious. Even if it reaches a low % of total world population, it does command important amount of profits and dictates trends.
- fouc 6y ago
  1b active iPhone users out of 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide. A quarter of the pie can't really be called a small piece.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

Its difficult to think different if you're the world's largest company and dominate the phone market. In laptops it looks like they are differentiating themselves very well.

cpuguy83 6y ago

Apple has a small piece of the smartphone pie. That said, their CPU's are consistently in a class of their own.

dmitriid 6y ago
And this year they are creeping back to 90s era: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are essentially the same phone. So no reason why both exist, except to muddy up the product line.
- jsinai 6y ago
  The key differentiator is the camera on the Pro, which significantly increases the cost. Some people will pay a premium for the privilege of owning the top model and yet others will go for the Pro precisely because of the more advanced camera. By having separate lines, Apple can sell the 12 for cheaper than the 12 Pro, and those who are willing to pay for the 12 Pro camera can do so. Don’t see any muddying here.
  - anonymouse008 6y ago
    The problem is as a “normal user” you can’t go to your ‘tech friend’ and get a straight answer — there are too many considerations now to direct someone to one phone over another. It’s not ‘yeah, the new iPhone is great! You gotta have it.’ It’s “so what do you want to do mostly?” — no one knows. That is what I believe the 90s curse really means — your evangelists are no longer as effective because they give potential customers an overwhelming amount of information that slows down, and sometimes prevents, a sale. —- Your point is exactly right - Apple has decided to harvest the demand curve over making something undeniably great. Edit: let me clarify, watch and homepod mini are currently in the category of 'just get it' products. This is only a critique of the iPhone line.
    - alexashka 6y ago
      > The problem is as a “normal user” you can’t go to your ‘tech friend’ and get a straight answer Uh, it's 3 options. Small size, best camera option, remaining option. I didn't know this - I just went to Apple's website, clicked iPhone and it has a single page that presents all this very clearly. So um, yeah. This is by the way how I do 'tech advice' to anyone who ever needs it - I open google, I type in the question and the first link has the answer 95% of the time. Phones haven't been in 'gotta have it' category since iPhone 6 when they released a bigger size that a lot of people wanted. Since then, it has been 'better camera' yearly releases, oh and 'better chip', as if anyone needs a supercomputer to browse Instagram.
      - ghaff 6y ago
        Cameras (and the associated computational photography power) have the advantage (for Apple and other manufacturers) of simultaneously still being on a fairly rapid improvement curve and being something a lot of people really care about. It's no coincidence that Apple really hits hard on the photography angle. There is clearly a difference between my iPhone 6 and iPhone X but I've never been on a particularly frequent upgrade cadence. Under normal circumstances, I'd probably upgrade to this year's model but there's not a lot of point until I get out and about a lot again.
      - dmitriid 6y ago
        It's four options. Two of them different: - iPhone 12 Mini, the small one - iPhone 12 Pro Max, the huge one And then there are these two: iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro. They are the exactly same phone in every regard that a "regular" user cares about. They are so identical that Gruber lumped them together in benchmarks in his review at Daring Fireball. The only difference is the difference in cameras which is important to a very small number of people. And even then it doesn't make sense to make two different models instead of one, with the new camera setup.
        ghaff 6y ago
        I think you underestimate how many people care about cameras a lot--or at least think they do. Personally, I'm inclined to give Apple the benefit of the doubt that it knows what it's doing by having a cheaper mid-size model and a more expensive one with a better camera.
robin_reala 6y ago
Small is relative. Some estimates claim 1b active iPhones: https://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2020/10/26/a-billion-iphone-users https://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2020/10/26/a-billion-iphon...
- fouc 6y ago
  A lot of people are still using an iPhone 5S or an iPhone 6. From iPhone 6 to now, that's actually close to 1.7b iPhone sales. 1b active iPhones sounds very reasonable after accounting for breakage and the unused spares forgotten in a drawer. Apparently there's approx a total of 3.5 billion smartphone users today. https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-phones-are-in-the-world https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-phones-are-in-the-w... iPhones could be 30% of the market.
qzw 6y ago
Small in units shipped, but dominant in design, aesthetics, and, most importantly, profit margin.
- oblio 6y ago
  > but dominant in design Debatable. If anything, modern Android designs are cleaner than iPhone looks. > aesthetics Again, debatable. > and, most importantly, profit margin This is the key factor, and it's tied to something you missed. Apple products and iPhones are ahead in profit margins because Apple consistently delivers reasonable quality goods, with few disappointments, so that users trust them. They've gained user trust despite obvious "design, aesthetics" mis-steps such as the notch or the touch bar. The key words are: consistent delivery, reasonable quality and few disappointments. That's how they hook users in. Apple mostly delivers on time something very close to what they promised and that thing doesn't have catastrophic flaws. That's a much taller bar than you'd think, in the tech sector.
  - lenwood 6y ago
    > modern Android designs are cleaner than iPhone looks Design is about more than the way apps & interface looks. I recently switched from Android and the thing that most struck me is that iPhone usability is more consistent. I was able to do everything I wanted with Android and honestly I loved it, but its not as intuitive as iOS.
    - fauigerzigerk 6y ago
      I use mostly Apple devices, both Mac and iOS, because I like the hardware. But I also have a cheap Android phone, and even though I'm not using it very often I find it more consistent/intuitive than iOS, mostly for two reasons: One is iOS's arbitrary separation of settings and other app functionality. It makes no sense. I'll never remember what goes where. Secondly, Android's back button is simple. I can use it without thinking even though you can probably find a lot of inconsistencies in its behaviour. iOS has multiple inconsistent one-off solutions for going back that cause a lot more mental friction.
tpush 6y ago
> Apple has a small piece of the smartphone pie. An iPhone is the single best-selling phone on pretty much any given year. iOS is also 50/50(or more) with Android in a number of countries.
- pjmlp 6y ago
  Most of them are tier 1 countries.
  - tpush 6y ago
    So?
izacus 6y ago
Half of USA market is far from "small piece".
- timbit42 6y ago
  The US is only 4.2% of the global population.
  - izacus 6y ago
    And that 4.2% of population created one of the richest corporations in the world. Pretending that Apple doesn't have an important world market share with their mobile products is really a bit facetious. Even if it reaches a low % of total world population, it does command important amount of profits and dictates trends.
fouc 6y ago
1b active iPhone users out of 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide. A quarter of the pie can't really be called a small piece.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]