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US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade
- aNoob7000 3y agoI'm one of those individuals. My iPhone 12 Pro is working well. I can't see a reason to upgrade to the 15 Pro. My eyesight is going down the drain with age, so the only thing that might make me jump is getting a phone with a bigger screen.
- tacker2000 3y agoSame here! Although USB-C seems enticing, I think i will hold out one more year, since that alone is not really worth the € 1k upgrade. Other than that, I dont really see any innovations.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dutchCourage 3y agoI feel like 2020 has been a tipping point for smartphones. Since late 2020, most phones above $500 have nice display with a fast refresh rate and take decent photos in all conditions. The RAM and CPU are plenty good enough to check Google Maps or browse Reddit in bed. I guess power users can look into foldables, but for the rest of us upgrading a phone that's less than 3 yo is only a marginal update. The prices are relatively high too, so it's hardly worth it.
- anthomtb 3y agoI have an iPhone 12 and still can't bring myself to upgrade to a 14 or 15. I spend a decent amount of time in the backcountry and the satellite communication feature would at least bring some peace of mind, but even that is not enough to justify the cost of upgrading.
- nolongerthere 3y agoWhich iphone 12 pro do you have, I also have the 12 Pro and I'm ready to upgrade just based on the lack of storage and other oddities that I feel would be addressed by getting a faster phone. WhatsApp can become unusably slow for minutes at a time, apps I just used will close due to limited RAM; mind you I don't have a single game on my phone, I have bank apps, store apps, and messaging apps mostly, along with various utilities apps, like PW manager, smart home stuff, and various productivity apps (MS, Google suites). Nothing feels like it should be this terrible, and yet somehow its become a little too slow and jittery.
- gorjusborg 3y agohttps://archive.is/uknRX https://archive.is/uknRX
- hospitalJail 3y agoThis is why I continue to be bullish on Apple. Apple is the only company that has been able to turn a smartphone into 'Nike Jordans'. They had people waiting outside at midnight, they have people buying the phone for the logo, they have people buying the phone for the location of the cameras. In the short term, I only see Apple as the company that does well during this next bumpy economy. Everyone else is selling phones to be phones. Apple is selling phones to fill a social role among status seekers. One of the most brilliant marketing idea's I've seen in my lifetime. Not to mention, the vendor lock-in makes it incredibly difficult to leave. I only worry about anti-trust.
- kiba 3y agoSeems to me that you're praising Apple for the worst excess of capitalism, turning phones into status symbols, encouraging consumerism and vendor lock-in. Granted, I got a Pixel 8 this year, but mostly because my old phone was falling apart at the seam. I planned to design my own skin if only to incentivize me to not take off armoring from my phone.
- llm_nerd 3y agoThey aren't praising Apple. It's the incredibly lame, intellectually vapid "only silly people buy Apple devices, and for silly reasons!" noise that has been the tired retort of weird anti-Apple sorts of the past decade and a half. That people are still plying this rhetoric in 2023 is simply pathetic. Particularly weird given that a) Apple devices stay in service much longer than competitors, b) Apple sales swooned as well. It turns out that people are pretty satisfied with their devices.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tyingq 3y agoI see all that, but there is a sizable market that just can't afford an iPhone that's worth looking at. Though maybe if used iPhones are usable for longer time periods, that eats a little into Android's dominance of the low end?
- mikece 3y agoI'm also one of those individuals. While my iPhone 8 Plus is in need of replacement there is no way I will pay for the 15 Pro just to get proper high-speed USB-C... I'll wait for a 4th generation iPhone SE, the iPhone 16, or maybe just switch to Graphene OS (which would mean rejecting a lot of smartphone features and apps).
- xrisk 3y agoCurious: outside of people who take lots of high res video, what do people need high-speed USB C for?
- nicoburns 3y agoThe main benefit is that everything else also uses USB-C, so you can standardise on one type of cable.
- randomdata 3y agoWhat is special about high-speed USB-C cables that sees them not work with low-speed USB-C devices (i.e. the iPhone 15 non-Pro model)?
- ianburrell 3y agoHigh speed USB-C cables work fine with low speed devices. Just at lower speed.
- randomdata 3y agoSo why is the stated main benefit lost?
- ianburrell 3y agoThe benefit is that you can use any USB-C cable for charging. You can also use any USB-C cable for data transfer at low speed, which is what the iPhone supports. With iPhone Pro, you can transfer at low-speed with any cable or high speed with USB3 cable. But most people would rather carry a cheap, light, 6 ft charging cable than heavy, expensive, 3ft for the rare case of transferring data.
- ravenstine 3y agoNot surprising. Phone upgrades in the last 5 years have been barely worth it. I'll be to first to criticize and mock The Google, but I've been plenty happy with my refurbished Pixel 5 that I not only plan on running it into the ground but getting another one if it finally croaks or loses too much battery capacity. Yes, I could just get the latest Pixel when that happens, but why switch from a phone that I know intimately that does everything I need? Perhaps another contributor to the decline may be that the olds who didn't own a smartphone either have one by now or they're dead.
- jghn 3y agoI'm on Apple's yearly upgrade plan and still don't bother. I'm not interested in a device larger than their mini form factor, and they keep a) killing the mini and b) making their devices larger. At the moment the mini I have is better than their SE offering. So why bother updating my phone? And as you say, everything works fine enough for me, so there's no pressure for me to move off my stance.
- Abekkus 3y agoI deeply miss the iphone 5 form factor, their current "mini" and SE are noteiceably bigger than that size. I'm guessing smaller phones don't get people lost in content as well as the larger ones, and that's why they're not being made anymore.
- jghn 3y agoA number of years ago an observation I had was that people mostly binned into 2 clusters. One was people who tended to use their phone on the go & thus using it one handed, for instance while walking around. The other was people who tended to use their phone while sitting down and/or handing it off to their kids who were sitting down, so mostly 2 handed use. These two bins also corresponded with preference for smaller vs larger form factors. At least in the US there are a lot more people in the 2nd category than the first.
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- beretguy 3y agoI bought refurbished iPhone SE 2nd gen from eBay for ~$130 in July 2023. Looks brand new. I use Chargie to extend battery life and a magnetic charging port adapter to eliminate charging port wear. When battery will wear out I’ll replace it with the one from iFixit. Let’s see for how long I can make this device last. https://chargie.org/ https://chargie.org/
- reportingsjr 3y agoThat chargie device is interesting! The latest versions of Android and iOS have finally built in battery management that does basically the same thing (they will not rapid charge over night, and will sometimes limit charge below 100%). I'm curious to see long term how much these changes will help.
- InCityDreams 3y agoAndroid, Samsung lower mid-range phone: set to maximum 85% charge thru the OS was a nice find in the menu.
- HPsquared 3y agoYep, called "Protect battery" or similar. Lots of phones have it, even quite old ones.
- _huayra_ 3y agoThe Chargie is also useful if you want to set an arbitrary charge limit. iirc on Samsung you're stuck with 85%, can't change it. Another key thing for the Chargie is that it will cut power after reaching its requested charge, and only resume charging again if power falls to a certain level. This prevents the "trickle charge to maintain the precise percentage" thing that is a real killer for batteries.
- rcMgD2BwE72F 3y agoLatest version of LineageOS has a setting to limit charing up to a certain %, but also makes sure it hits the max when you wake up (based on your alarm).
- flextheruler 3y agoI just got the newest iPhone and I am struggling to notice any difference in capabilities from my old one. I know they exist on paper but when actually using the device it’s hard to tell. It feels like it’s been this way for a while. I have friends that have very old smartphones, like 3 or 5 years, but they don’t mind. If this was 10 years ago their smartphones would be practically unusable from a lack of processing power and battery life.
- lttlrck 3y agoMost advertising for iPhone 15 seems call out that it's made of titanium... there is nothing else of note. I have one and I do love it but the only innovations I'm interested in going forward are: - get rid of the camera hump, make it a true slab (even if that means smaller/fewer cameras) - engineer away Dynamic Island. Then it's really done with this form-factor, and I'll be waiting for holographic projection out of my watch.
- ronnier 3y agoPhones are feature complete. No huge compelling reason to upgrade. If you work for a living then it makes no sense to spend money on upgrading if you already have a relatively newish phone
- raisedbyninjas 3y agoThe last couple of times I upgraded, bloat in maps navigation was reason enough to upgrade to a faster phone. I don't want a sluggish UI while driving. Hoping Google doesn't cram much more ads or junk into the maps app or Waze.
- the-anarchist 3y agoTry OsmAnd, it's great!
- lallysingh 3y agoThe maps are fantastic but I've had real trouble finding places or street addresses there
- aqfamnzc 3y agoThe data is taken from OpenStreetMap, which is like Wikipedia for maps. You can improve coverage in your area!
- blackbear_ 3y agoActually, map rendering in OsmAnd embarrassingly slow, even on mosern-ish phones. Try organic maps instead
- e44858 3y agoIt's gotten a lot faster a few months ago when they started using OpenGL instead of CPU rendering.
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- VancouverMan 3y agoI know a number of people, myself included, who have been waiting for the return of decent mid-range phones before getting a new one. Right now, there are very few options for people who want a reasonably sized phone, offering reasonably good performance, at a reasonably low cost, with reasonably good durability, with reasonably long software support, from a reasonably trustworthy manufacturer.
- matwood 3y agoJust buy a new iPhone with a carrier subsidy, and use it for 4-6 years probably replacing the battery once during that time.
- beretguy 3y agoI’d say but refurbished from eBay.
- beretguy 3y agoWe desperately need 3.5-4 inch phones. My iPhone SE with 4.7 inch screen is too big to use comfortably (I can’t reach the opposite corner with thumb and I am a male with average size hands) and I also have Unihertz Jelly 2 which is 3 inch screen, which is smaller than you’d want, but not unusable. Where is the middle ground? The first iPhones with 3.5-4 inch screen were if a PERFECT size! Why can’t we make nice things anymore?
- Abekkus 3y agoI'd argue the 5S was a perfect size, but I would absolutely buy the original iphone size in a heartbeat.
- pbmonster 3y ago> want a reasonably sized phone I think that's the biggest problem. If you accept >6" screens, you'll find a phone that hits most of those criteria. But if you want a smaller phone? iPhone 13 mini from 2021 or Pixel 4a from 2020. And I still would call those large, one-handing those screens is uncomfortable even with large hands. You want an actual small phone, around 5", like the early iPhones? Fucking XZ2 Compact from early 2018. At least Linage still supports it...
- dotnet00 3y agoUpgrades these days have become so incremental that it doesn't make sense to upgrade as often. I got my current phone (S23 Ultra) for the stylus and due to a preorder sale, but otherwise it's just as usable as the previous one and even the camera improvements aren't that meaningful nowadays, with the existing quality mostly being squandered by compression in messaging apps (especially in WhatsApp). I don't see myself wanting a new phone unless this one's screen gets damaged enough. The only interesting development in phones to me is folding devices, but I think they're still a bit immature.
- mensetmanusman 3y agoI am a power user who notices every upgrade, but totally understand that majority are not working from their phone for the entire day. It’s a very interesting question, hardware wise, on what it would take to make a new device interesting…
- hanniabu 3y agoYeah, upgrades used to be worth it and the phone were $500 and not $1200
- xnorswap 3y agoI just "upgraded" my phone and for the first time my new phone is worse than my old one. I only upgraded because I noticed my old phone (Huawei P20 pro) was no longer getting android updates and I was concerned for the security of it. My new phone (pixel 8) feels worse in almost every regard. I can't even customise the home screen as much ( Literally cannot remove a link to Chrome and other google apps ). Given it's 5 years newer, it doesn't even feel any faster or snappier, the P20 pro did a remarkable job at remaining fast and having decent battery life. It's a lot lighter, but aside from that it feels like a downgrade. If a 5 year old phone can still hold up against a new phone, admittedly not the top of the range pixel 8 pro, but a new phone nonetheless, then why would you upgrade every 2-3 years?
- dmurray 3y agoI had two P20s, probably my favourite phone I owned. Both died from water damage after about a year, which never happened to me with any other phone - not sure if I got unlucky or they have a particular design flaw here.
- datameta 3y agoI was in a similar boat. My Galaxy S9+ was in its 5th year when I learned about the security update stoppage. I went for a midrange Pixel 6a that approximates the flagship of 2018. I'm not sure if this is due to getting used to the Samsung UX style after 9 years, but I find some choices Google made to be less intuitive or smooth, though I've gotten used to it. The only thing I maaay look for in my next phone which I don't currently haven't yet had is a 120hz refresh rate - but I might not want the extra power draw. So I'm satisfied. The extra battery life is a huge QoL improvement.
- jeffbee 3y agoLong press the chrome icon, drag it off the screen, it's gone. Tested on pixel 8 just now.
- kiba 3y agoI don't understand this issue. I also have a Pixel 8 but I don't use chrome, so it's not on my phone.
- bobmaxup 3y agoProbably because they are still paying off their other phones https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CCLACBW027SBOG https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CCLACBW027SBOG
- beretguy 3y agoThere were rumors of having smartphones be on subscription. https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-subscription-service https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-subscription-service
- kube-system 3y agoHaven't some carriers already done things like this? i.e.: https://www.sprint.com/en/support/sprint-flex-lease.html https://www.sprint.com/en/support/sprint-flex-lease.html
- mkenyon 3y agoFood bank usage is up ~30% year-over-year. Hardly surprising that people are delaying upgrades for smartphones. (Not a “grrr, smartphones” post, just a sad reality post)
- duxup 3y agoI’m stuck in my mini 13 until a new mini comes out or I get tired of it. I think that's where we're at now, there's no feature you NEED, just occasional upgrades that you can put off if you want for form factor alone.
- dimitrisnl 3y agoOn the same boat. 13 mini is just the perfect size. No feature missing, no need to upgrade until it dies.
- loeg 3y agoYeah, I'm pretty happy with the latest SE model. Absolutely do not want a phone the size of the new flagship models. Prefer touchid to PIN or faceid, which rules out the minis.
- izacus 3y agoNote the negative tone about having our phones actually work longer, last longer and be usable longer without draining our money just to keep the threadmill rolling. Imagine how pissed the car industry must be now since most people drive cars for 10-15 years instead of replacing them once per few years like iPhones.
- cabirum 3y agoThat is what EVs are for. Replace the battery every few years and replace your car whenever a new incompatible plug standard comes out.
- panick21_ 3y agoExcept in actual reality EV battereis are pretty damn reliable and plugs are pretty standardized and wont change much at all for at least a decade or more. In Europe is already standard. The US will switch to NACS but that's what most cars sold in the US already had and by 1-2 years from now all new cars will be NACS.
- jeffbee 3y agoCan we please not spread weird conspiracy theories? EV battery replacements are vanishingly rare and nobody is secretly pushing EVs as a way to punish the public.
- bongobingo1 3y agoI assume its much more likely your "extended range subscription" will expire or get hiked to oblivion vs a battery needing replacement.
- pjc50 3y agoManufacturers and especially dealers are having to be pushed into EVs.
- simmerup 3y agoSilly point when you consider that manufacturers love the fact that an ICE vehicle has to go into the garage for new parts every few months
- xyst 3y agoGood. Less e-waste filling the landfills. I’m still using a phone bought in 2018. Apple was handing out free battery replacements due to “battery gate” so that extended its use considerably.
- Ajay-p 3y agoI am unable to really afford an upgrade to my iPhone, still using the same model I bought at university ten years ago. It still works well, although it can be a little slow at times depending on the application that I am using. There is no value benefit to upgrading at this time. For Android there may be for those who enjoy that operating system, but I do not enjoy Android so it is not a solution for me.
- zie 3y agoIf you do anything where security might be a concern(like getting those 2fa SMS messages) you almost certainly want to upgrade to something that can still get security updates. Phones 10 yrs old will have so many security holes it's not even funny.
- constantly 3y agoI’m on the 13 Pro Max and this year and last year I said, “I’ll get the new one if there’s a killer feature that I can’t live without,” and while USB-C could theoretically be that, as pathetic as that sounds, I can’t find any reason whatsoever so upgrade. I like the titanium color, but my phone hasn’t seen the light of day in years because of the case so even that doesn’t matter. That USB-C though would be nice so I’d finally have only one cable needed.
- cwales95 3y agoThe upgrades these days are so minor or barely noticeable I can’t think of any reason why I’d upgrade. The only thing may be artery life or camera but that’s it.
- expertentipp 3y agoThey mean phablets? The shipments of smartphones likely plummeted above 90% because there is like 1 model available in total.
- lopis 3y agoThe term phablet has been pretty much obsolete since 2015 or so. Better accept that we're not going back.
- expertentipp 3y agoAll Android devices and all but one iPhones are phablets. Come at me.
- lopis 3y agoAll Smartphones are PDAs
- marcosdumay 3y agoWell, the phone manufacturers are not entitled into a sale for a product people do not want. They better accept those declines.
- nolongerthere 3y agoThe people have spoken they want big phones, I assure you that's not the reason they're not upgrading. Apple tried making a small phone, and there just wasn't enough interest to justify it. The trade offs, mainly battery life, just aren't worth the smaller screen, not to mention most OSs and apps are made with larger screens in mind.
- costanzaDynasty 3y agoI would've keep my last 2 phones for much longer than 5 years but it was not to be. Death by faulty lightning cable connection both times.
- elzbardico 3y agoMy 12 Pro Max is basically the first phone that I don't feel compelled to upgrade even almost 3 years later. Besides the performance and the good enough camera, it also has proven remarkably resistant to the inevitable falls from a pocket/table with no broken glass so far. I will wait for the next wave of edge-based AI applications that would take advantage of update Apple CPUs to upgrade. Probably in 12 to 24 months.
- koolba 3y agoA battery replacement gets a lot more bang for your buck vs. a phone replacement. Especially for non-power users (e.g., grandma).
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- blindriver 3y agoThis is the first year I haven't upgraded my phone in at least 2 years since the early 2000s. My iPhone 13 Pro is good enough and there's nothing compelling me to upgrade. Apple will have to do a lot better than that to convince me to upgrade my phone, and they haven't come up with a good reason yet.
- habosa 3y agoThe main advertised feature of the iPhone 15 is titanium … not surprising that people feel like they can keep their current phone
- bitshiffed 3y agoI'll upgrade if somebody ever makes a small phone again (small enough to use with one hand), that isn't underpowered/the budget model.
- AdmiralAsshat 3y agoIt's hard to feel positive about upgrading my phone when every new phone seems to remove things I want while adding stuff I don't care about. My S10e is a reasonable size in my pocket. It has a headphone jack. It has an SD card slot. Any new Samsung phone I buy will be missing these things, and I'll be forced to pay hundreds of dollars extra to increase the on-board storage that will still be far less than the 512GB sd card I've currently got in there. And I could try switching away from Samsung, but then I risk losing even more features I take to be standard, like wireless charging. The phone still works just fine, it's fast enough for my needs (although the battery is certainly worse than when I got it). I would be more than happy to pay like $100/yr for "extended" support on it to still get repairs and security patches, rather than having to chuck it in the bin.
- ThrowAwayChris 3y agoI bought my S10e for 450AUD ($300US) on clearance six months after it was released. I've replaced the factory rom, and the battery once. There's nothing on the android market like it, it's only slightly larger than the iphone 12/13 mini that's also discontinued. Small phones with all the bells and whistles aren't made anymore by anyone. I will be very sad when I can't get parts.
- kernelbugs 3y agoAlso a S10e user here. I've been eyeing the Asus Zenfone 10, but it's unfortunately not available in the US for most mobile networks here. Truly a shame that not many are making small phones, and those that are are not paying attention to the US market.
- parl_match 3y agoI have an iPhone 13 mini, the last <5" flagship phone you can buy. I'm not particularly tied to the iPhone ecosystem, but when this dies, I don't know what I'm going to do.
- timeon 3y agoI'm starting to think about combination smart watches + dumb phone. But I have no clue how the smart watches actually are. But smartphone seems to be targeted for people that do not use laptop/desktop that much.
- samsolomon 3y agoI upgraded from an iPhone 12 Pro to an iPhone 15 Pro for the camera. I've got some large upcoming trips and felt the improvement was worth it. I love that now I only need a USB-C cable—that simplifies things a lot. Day-to-day it doesn't feel that different. Slightly faster and slightly longer battery life. If it wasn't for the camera improvements I probably would have stayed with the 12 Pro for another few years. Apple really does make spectacular products. They easily last a decade—I've got an original iPad Mini (2014) and a Macbook Air (2012) that have had batteries replaced once or twice, but are still functional. The longevity is just another reason I'll keep buying Apple products.
- whalesalad 3y agoThe Pro iPhones are in a different league. I can't go back now.
- samsolomon 3y agoThe main thing is the camera. I've got a Sony mirrorless that I've only taken out a handful of times since I got the 12 Pro. I'm planning to sell or give the Sony away now. The workflow from my iPhone to Darkroom/Photomator on my computer via icloud is so much easier than dealing with transferring photos from the camera. Plus I'm not carrying around a bulky camera.
- whalesalad 3y agoCamera for sure, but the promotion 120hz display is also pretty important to me now. Going back to a lower refresh rate feels like lag.
- qzw 3y agoIn the enthusiast car world there's a growing trend called restomodding, where you take a beloved classic car such as Porsche 964 and rebuild it with completely modern guts. Singer, which is probably the most famous restomodder, charges 6-7 figures for their cars and has a years long waiting list. Someone should start a restomodding business for classic phones. Just don't charge 6-7 figures for them, please.
- datadrivenangel 3y agoWe want smaller cheaper phones! Paying $1-2k for a tablet sized phone is painful in the hands and on the wallet.
- jghn 3y agoI 100% agree with you but the market does not. For instance Apple's latest mini did not sell well at all.
- josefresco 3y agoI watch a lot of American Football (NFL) on TV and I've seen a ton of iPhone 15 commercials. Not a single one talks about a new feature. The only thing I hear/see and retain is that it's made from "titanium". They don't say it's lighter, they don't say it's stronger or better in any way. Since America is an "iPhone country", maybe that's why? Just terrible marketing.
- caleblloyd 3y agoHow much of this is due to the carriers moving device contract lengths from 2 years to 3 years? Been at AT&T forever, they moved their upgrade cycles on iPhones from 24 months, to 30 months, and now to 36 months. Presumably because an iPhone costs more than it did 5 years ago but I'm still paying the same monthly that I was 5 years ago.
- _ea1k 3y agoThat's my thought as well. Although probably part of the reason for them extending the cycle is that consumers are more comfortable with the idea of keeping the devices longer. And, tbh, that makes sense too. Three year old phones can still run the latest software and still have pretty good performance. The newest are better and will certainly have better cameras, but the drive to upgrade every other year feels excessive now.
- Dritzzka 3y agoMaybe this has something with the norm being +1000$ flagship-phones? Maybe it has something to do with state of the world and the recent price hikes? Maybe it is the lack of new features or wow factor? I feel like most techs keep our phone a bit longer. Me personally, I tend to upgrade every 3 generations.
- NikolaNovak 3y agoI know I'm an old grouchy cranky so-and-so :), but the case for upgrade is really not compelling. All the majors have followed Apple's lead and create crippled Flagship phones with no 3.5mm, no MicroSD card, and compromised usability. Meanwhile, they don't bring me anything I don't already have on my Samsung Note 8. On the Apple side, my wife still uses iPhone XR. It's fine. It surfs, it banks, it calls, it messages. Photography is the one area new phones excel at, but jeebus - For $1500+, I can (and will) get a nice real camera instead :).
- asimpleusecase 3y agoIf Apple with get their act together on an AI agent that lives on the IPhone and gives you privacy but can really do stuff - but that capacity would only work on new hardware - everyone would upgrade and Apple would be work 4 Trillion
- SantalBlush 3y agoI don't want an AI agent, I want simplicity. My phone should make my life less complicated. It seems like every new feature achieves the opposite.
- QuarterReptile 3y agoThe best AI tool in most places would be to drive you toward APIs or functionality that you haven't discovered yet. The best (non-AI) example of this is the Microsoft Office ribbon, which you can drive almost entirely by keyboard, and which makes for incredibly easy hotkey discovery.
- ChumpGPT 3y agoI was using a Oneplus 3T that was a handmedown, about a year ago I upgraded to a iPhone XSMax which was another handmedown. I intend on using it at least another another 2-3 years until my next handmedown will be a iPhone Max Pro 13. One thing I have noticed, if you buy a top of the line phone, it will typically last 5 plus years with no problems and incredibly little difference from the newer models. I have no idea how they can innovate the physical phone anymore, everything they do now is mostly cosmetic and the software side gets more attention, the camera does improve but not enough to warrant an upgrade every year. Perhaps this is it for the phone market?
- ulfw 3y agoI mean with all due respect, there is zero innovation in Mobile left. None. Absolutely nothing is changing from Apple, Google, Samsung year over year. The updates are so incredibly tiny you have to look at it with a loupe. And the price is $1000.
- pyrophane 3y ago> "Improved durability with stronger build quality, less impressive upgrades among new smartphone releases, and an uncertain macroeconomic environment have all contributed to the malaise we are seeing in the US smartphone market." Seems about right. The value prop for phone upgrades hasn't felt great for a while. Prices are higher but what was the last killer new smartphone feature? Feels like we are waiting for some new technology to make phones exciting again (or change the category in a big way).
- mydriasis 3y agoNot only will I not be upgrading to another smartphone, I'm two months in on my dumb phone. It's been an incredible and liberating experience. Not only am I not glued to the smartphone anymore, my phone bill is now $15 / month, haha. If you're thinking about ditching your smartphone, now is a great time. There are lots of options out there.
- coldpie 3y agoIt's tempting, but I don't think I can give up Google Maps and the various chat apps I use.
- itishappy 3y agoIf you have the willpower, an acceptable middle ground might be dropping your data plan. I've got a Pixel, but my plan is also ~~$15/mo~~ $25/mo. This covers more than enough for maps and music, but I've had to remove social media to stop auto-playing videos. I find it's the best of both worlds! (Edit: Checked my invoice, and I'm not receiving one of the discounts I was expecting.)
- hollerith 3y agoIf this $15/mo plan you have is available to US residents, can you please share details?
- minkzilla 3y agoI am on mint mobile (an MVNO of t-mobile) for 5gb a month for $15. I think you have to do 6 months at a time to get the $15 a month but that isn't a big deal. My service is good but does suffers when I go places that are really crowded but that doesn't bother me.
- itishappy 3y agoI'm on the smallest Verizon prepaid plan. Just checked, and I'm misreading the specifics, as it's actually $25/mo for 15GB. Sorry! Starts at $35/mo, and includes a $10 discount for autopay. I was expecting an addition $10 rebate, but apparently I'd need to add an extra line for that.
- Longlius 3y agoThere's almost no reason to buy a new one. I don't game or do anything particularly demanding on my phone (that's what my desktop or Steam Deck is for), my phone mainly just exists to rent-seek for the myriad of essential services we've decided need to be phone-only experiences. Aside: I absolutely loathe how much stuff these days requires a phone to use.
- karmakaze 3y agoFor me phones are a utility, computers are where I spend most of my attention. What I do value about my phone is the audio quality. I haven't found anything as good as the Quad DAC on the LG G8. (LG has gone out of the phone business) I'm considering picking up any remaining stock with the only concern being security updates. Even if I use it as a iPod, it's not that bad a deal since it has a memory card slot.
- ge96 3y agoI smashed the screen on my phone, $30 in parts or $400 new phone? I went with former since I'm broke. One day I'd be interested in a folding phone, the ones that fold out into a large square vs. razor but I'm not dropping $1K on it. I like buying my phones outright/one time price. In a similar vein I won't buy like a MBP that's $3K granted they do last a long time eg. I still have a 2015 MBP going strong.
- benjaminwootton 3y agoI just upgraded from a base model iPhone 13 (I think) to a 15 pro max. I cannot see a single difference apart from the strange pill like thing at the top of the screen. Even the battery life was fine on the old one. It really feels like an “emperors new clothes” upgrade.
- TechSquidTV 3y agoI was planning on maybe upgrading my Pixel 6 Pro for the 8, but then it came out with a smaller screen, more money.. and.. a thermometer? Who the hell asked for a thermometer? Give me Lidar.
- jcadam 3y agoI don't think I've ever upgraded my phone while the previous one was still operable :) That said, Apple is pretty good about making sure their phones fail on a predictable timeline (2 years? Oh, time for the battery to stop retaining charge, or the touchscreen to stop responding, etc).
- COGlory 3y agoWhat upgrade? There's not a phone on the market that's meaningfully more compelling than my Pixel 5a. Maybe if I gamed on my phone or something, it would matter? But my camera is already better than I could ever reasonably need. My processor is fast enough to do everything I need without skipping a beat. I don't really watch movies on my phone but the screen is still probably the best screen of any device I own. The only things that could upgrade would be I/O and battery, both of which modern phone companies refuse to upgrade.
- twisteriffic 3y agoThis is absolutely it for me. I could upgrade my personal Pixel 5, but for the ~$1000 layout I'd be getting a device whose fingerprint sensor works maybe 20% of the time vs 98% currently. There's absolutely nothing compelling to me about a newer Pixel - it's only downside.
- freedomben 3y agoSame. Pixel 5a will be my primary until it's unusable. It's the most perfect phone there is right now, and I've tried a lot of them. Rear fingerprint sensor is amazing, especially with the case. I don't even have to think about it because my finger naturally lands there and it unlocks quickly and accurately while I'm lifting the phone. The in-screen fingerprint sensors are a giant pain in the ass that I have to think about and work for. The camera notch is in the perfect spot all the way to the left so it doesn't interrupt the top bar. It has a headphone jack. The camera is pretty good and the phone size is good. It would very much so be a downgrade for me to move to a newer phone.
- saltcured 3y agoMe too, but I'll probably move on when updates end. This was my first pixel after being frustrated by even shorter update lifecycles from other brands. Beware though, there are lots of posts about sudden death of Pixel 5a phones over on the XDA forum. Just a "black screen" failure to start. They even extended the warranty by 1 year for this particular issue, so it seems like a real hardware failure mode. So maybe this will not be a phone with staying power even for those not bothered by the lack of OEM updates.
- adocomplete 3y agoSince 2019 I've done an upgrade every 2 years, and even that is becoming hard to justify. Not from a financial perspective, but from a technology/innovation perspective. Recently I upgraded from an iPhone 13 Pro Max to an iPhone 15 Pro Max. The day to day difference is almost indistinguishable. Dynamic Island is cool I guess and USB-C is great. But for 99% of my day to day use, the 13 would have worked just fine.
- NickC25 3y agoI have an iPhone 11. I've had it for a while. I have no need to upgrade. Every feature I want in a phone, I have in my current phone. I miss the days of old, when phone lifecycles were similar to video game consoles - a new model was released every 3-4 years, with a massive leap in technological power. Even if you factor in Moore's law, there's little reason to release a new slew of phones every year, especially since the differences under the hood seem to be less and less significant. Rather than giving everyone a significant reason to switch every few years, the industry seems to think that releasing new models with incremental differences every 9-14 months is the best way forward. It's dumb IMO. What's also dumb is Apple switching form factors every few years, going from curved edges to hard edges and back again, yet calling each switch "innovative" or whatever bullshit their marketing team comes up with.
- addcommitpush 3y agoIf the company releases every year, you can always buy the lastest tech when you decide to buy. If it only releases every four year, unless you just happen to be in need of a new phone the exact year of the release, you're buying (slightly) older tech. > Rather than giving everyone a significant reason to switch every few years, the industry seems to think that releasing new models with incremental differences every 9-14 months is the best way forward. It's dumb IMO. There's a significant reason to switch every few years because (current model vs model of a few years ago) are quite different, even if (current model vs last yeast model) are not.
- shrubble 3y agoOlder ZTE phone ($100) on earlier Android - I can install an SSH/rsync app and pull files down to my desktop easily. Newer cheap Samsung phone ($100 but lower quality) - can no longer install any such app due to new Android policy, and it has a cheap band of plastic holding the screen in - after 1 drop I had to use tape to keep the screen from flopping out of the "tray" it is nestled into.
- Axsuul 3y agoApple needs to make the upgrade experience better, still. Having all the apps and settings transferred is one thing, but having to re-login to all my apps and add all my Apple Pay cards again is extremely tedious and painful. I get why it's like that due to security implications but there should be a happy medium or opt-in at least. Making it more seamless should get more upgrade adoption.
- spicyusername 3y agoIts an absolutely insane culture we have that we expect to replace these kinds of devices so often. Growth at all costs.
- manishsharan 3y agoI bought an Apple watch cellular for my son, just to give him the ability to text us or call in emergency and a watch cellular subscription is cheaper than a new cell phone line. But this watch does not work with my wife's Iphone 6S and it seems that we have no choice but to buy a new iphone even though the 6S is doing fine. edit: typo
- freedomben 3y agoIf you want to sell phones, give people a reason. Have your phones do things that others cannot (and not just adding differential features with Tesla-style arbitrary software limitations). Nobody is addressing the market that One Plus used to target. I'd be genuinely excited for: 1. Premium specs at a good price. Indulge on the CPU & RAM, save money on the physical materials. I'm adding a case anyway, I don't need expensive aluminum. 2. A rootable device (i.e. unlocked bootloader and downloadable factory images to restore if needed). Root friendly would be even better. This is even more important now that Google is removing features and cracking down on legitimate things. Try recording your phone calls in 2023, even though this was trivial to do 10 years ago. 3. Rear fingerpint sensor 4. Left-aligned camera notch 5. Headphone jack 6. SD card slot 7. Modularity, or at least a replaceable battery 8. First party support for Graphene OS and/or third party ROMs would be killer 9. External display support. 10 years ago I could plug in an adapter and get HDMI and it worked wonderfully. Now Pixel phones won't do that at all without special crappy hardware. Samsung is at least working on this with Dex, but even simple display mirroring would be great.
- lkramer 3y agoMy Motorola G7 from 2018ish had not received a security update since 2021, and was feeling a bit sluggish. I considered upgrading, but I'm not keen on throwing away ~£2-300 when there is nothing technically wrong with the device, so I finally made the effort to wipe the stock android and install Lineage OS last week, and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The only key thing which I almost messed up was to properly backup my OTO app (Aegis) and make sure I am able to recover it and doing a full backup to my Linux laptop. Unless my phone breaks, I doubt I will get a new model in the next few years, there is nothing I need from a newer model.
- warner25 3y agoInteresting. I had a Moto G7 and I was happy with it for a year until I broke the screen and couldn't find anyone to repair it. I replaced it with a similar Moto G Power since the G7 was discontinued and I ended up in the same boat as you: Android security updates ended but it still works perfectly for my limited purposes. I can't stomach the idea of paying several hundred dollars for a new device when this one works and I use it so little. I started an "Ask HN" thread about it last year (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33197291 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33197291). I was looking at the LineageOS route but I don't think it supports this device. I'm still just hanging onto this thing and trying not to worry about it.
- lkramer 3y agoActually mine is G7 Power, it's perfectly supported by Lineage OS: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ocean/ https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ocean/ Only thing that was a little tricky was that you needed to go to Motorola's website to unlock it, but once I grokked it, it took around 10 minutes.
- lkramer 3y agoI also realise I must have bought it in 2019, since that's the year it came out.
- DrThunder 3y ago[dead]
- jbluepolarbear 3y agoThe new phones aren’t more compelling than the one I already have. I have an iPhone 11 Max Pro and it’s been great since 2019, the newest iPhones just aren’t compelling to upgrade, and I’m also not wanting to make that usb-c leap because all my accessories are currently lightning based.
- boppo1 3y agoUntil I can get a phone with better specs than my moto z3 play, with the same or smaller size, for $150 new (what I paid for the z3p), I'm not upgrading.
- Tommstein 3y agoWhy would anyone get a new phone anymore unless they have to (I refuse to use the incorrect term "upgrade"), given that the main "innovations" the last few years are the removal of features and stratospheric prices?
- iteratethis 3y agoMost smartphone users heavily use about 5 apps, and then some more for incidental usage. That's it. Both hardware and software upgrades do not really land.