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The easy answer is that buyers largely don't care. Most people get their phones from their ISP provider, so that's the main target. They get a data plan that co
by noirscape 3y ago
The easy answer is that buyers largely don't care. Most people get their phones from their ISP provider, so that's the main target. They get a data plan that comes bundled with a phone and pay it off for 2 years. After 2 years they get a new plan with a new phone.
Caring about long-term maintenance isn't what most buyers do. Going SIM-only on your data plan is out of the ordinary.
Also in my experience people largely pick their phones based on the surface level hardware rather than the long-term reliability. Hence why Apple keeps putting fancier cameras into every iPhone even though I'm pretty sure a good chunk of customers don't need a fancy camera. Heck, just getting a phone that fits in my hand was a struggle because buyers somehow got convinced that bigger phone = better phone and now most smartphones on the market are just half-size tablets.
That trend at least seems to be somewhat reversing though.
- vkoskiv 3y agoThe trend is sadly not reversing fast enough. Apple already discontinued their line of slightly too big phones (mini series), and now they only sell oversized phablets. I might not have viable iOS-based hardware options when I upgrade in 2-3 years, and I'm not comfortable switching to an operating system made by an adtech company. I do hope they go back to smaller sizes before then. Kind of baffling to me how Apple otherwise puts a lot of effort into accessibility, but their main line of phones are awkward and uncomfortable to hold even for a fully able-bodied person with average size hands.
- circuit10 3y agoI think by “buyer” they mean the phone manufacturer buying parts
- kelnos 3y agoI agree, but consider that the buyer must also consider what the end-customer cares about. The buyer is not going to pay the chip manufacturer extra for mainlined (or at least open source) drivers unless their end-customers are asking for that (since those costs will be passed on to the customer). And outside of niche products like Librem's, the vast majority of customers don't even know about chipset drivers, let alone care.