4 ms·

A large portion of your points don't matter to a majority of consumers: sales channel, distribution, manufacturing channel, carrier support, re-up rates, retent

A large portion of your points don't matter to a majority of consumers: sales channel, distribution, manufacturing channel, carrier support, re-up rates, retention rates (difference?), ARPU, dev support, ASP, margin, packaging, perceived status. Some are duplicates (service/support, re-up/retention, deepest/widest content, status/brand). Another portion are purely opinion... cloud, dev support, "pack ins" (?), voice assistant (google now often performce better), performance (its a wash), UX (many people prefer customizable UX). Some are even negative to certain people such as their brand, ARPU (high margins), and their cloud (not supporting alternatives). And of course that doesn't count the many, many categories they do poorly in that are important to people. Off the top of my head are customizability, open technologies, keyboard (software), screen size, choice in hardware features and software features (default browsers, default apps, etc), extensibility, tech standards/ports, 3rd part extensibility, navigation (seems like IO6 maps are getting bad reviews thus far), and richer apps that can integrate beyond the strict sandbox, etc. Finally, their marketing is one of their strongest traits and so of course marketing is a huge driver of sales. Not that I agree with calling anyone "sheeple", so not really sure what your point was.

jpxxx 14y ago
Re-up is staying on the same phone. Retention is staying on the same carrier. Performance is not a wash, even comparing flagship phones. My greater point is that without excelling in all of those things I mentioned, people wouldn't be lining up. An iPhone launch would have all the public excitement of a crate of HTC Wonkadoodles being dumped out on the floor of some Verizon kiosk. Nativist zealotry and jealousy is blinding a lot of otherwise thoughtful people to how well Apple is executing and just preposterously powerful they're becoming. I'm not cheering it, I'm just pointing it out. Their products are competitive, they are desirable, and their current profit share and market share strongly argues that they're choosing the right areas to optimize.
- nwienert 14y ago
  I'd like to see some real-world metrics on performance. Apps or features that open/run significant more quickly in a side-by-side. From what I read here (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4530188 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4530188 see first two comments and http://browser.primatelabs.com/android-benchmarks http://browser.primatelabs.com/android-benchmarks) it seems like they are pretty identical. Software-wise perhaps the buttery scrolling is still a very slight advantage, but not to be a selling point anymore. But I do agree, as far as selling phones they win on key areas that other companies can't touch, mostly... brand, store experience, customer service in store, packaging, hardware design and tight software integration. Still doesn't rationalize waiting for 8 days or even 2 days for a phone!
  - ghshephard 14y ago
    The article made it clear that the people waiting in line had motivations other than a phone. They were leveraging the marketing opportunities associated with such a high profile event.

jpxxx 14y ago

Re-up is staying on the same phone. Retention is staying on the same carrier. Performance is not a wash, even comparing flagship phones. My greater point is that without excelling in all of those things I mentioned, people wouldn't be lining up. An iPhone launch would have all the public excitement of a crate of HTC Wonkadoodles being dumped out on the floor of some Verizon kiosk. Nativist zealotry and jealousy is blinding a lot of otherwise thoughtful people to how well Apple is executing and just preposterously powerful they're becoming. I'm not cheering it, I'm just pointing it out. Their products are competitive, they are desirable, and their current profit share and market share strongly argues that they're choosing the right areas to optimize.

nwienert 14y ago
I'd like to see some real-world metrics on performance. Apps or features that open/run significant more quickly in a side-by-side. From what I read here (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4530188 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4530188 see first two comments and http://browser.primatelabs.com/android-benchmarks http://browser.primatelabs.com/android-benchmarks) it seems like they are pretty identical. Software-wise perhaps the buttery scrolling is still a very slight advantage, but not to be a selling point anymore. But I do agree, as far as selling phones they win on key areas that other companies can't touch, mostly... brand, store experience, customer service in store, packaging, hardware design and tight software integration. Still doesn't rationalize waiting for 8 days or even 2 days for a phone!
- ghshephard 14y ago
  The article made it clear that the people waiting in line had motivations other than a phone. They were leveraging the marketing opportunities associated with such a high profile event.