4 ms·

Perhaps, but the difference here is that Macs are still better machines in most respects. Macs endure as a niche product because they're higher quality products

Perhaps, but the difference here is that Macs are still better machines in most respects. Macs endure as a niche product because they're higher quality products. Premium Android phones, on the other hand, provide a user experience that a lot of people consider superior.

philwelch 13y ago
Some people prefer Windows to Mac OS, too, so I really don't see your point.
- cageface 13y ago
  Not really sure how I can make this point more simply. In order to survive as a niche product you have to offer a significantly better or at least different experience. I'm sitting here right now in a coworking space in Vietnam full of developers. Ratio of MacBooks to PCs is about 15:1, which is pretty typical for any group of technical people I've been around.
  - mkr-hn 13y ago
    > In order to survive as a niche product you have to offer a significantly better or at least different experience Like Gentoo I always saw Apple products as a niche for people who like Apple's aesthetic. This turf war was tiring when Apple had an almost credible claim to technical superiority and I had to listen to Apple PC users rant and rave. Nowadays it's a lot more fun with Google, Microsoft, and their partners making Apple and its supporters wince.
  - chris_mahan 13y ago
    I develop on google's CR-48, by using ssh and remoting into linux servers. (trick: use ctrl+alt+o to save buffer in nano in ssh, because ctrl+o launches chrome open file dialog) The CR-48 has 8-9 hours of battery life. Also, if someone steals my laptop, I can replace it with this ( https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=chromebook_acer_c710_snbssd https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=chromebook_... ) and lose nothing, since the passwords/ip addresses/etc are not stored on the machines, and no code is stored on the machine.
gnaffle 13y ago
Actually, it's very similar to the laptop market. A lot of people prefer Windows or Linux on Lenovo laptops, because they have some features that Macs don't have. Likewise, if you compare the hardware (build quality etc) I think most people would agree that Apple still is has the best devices compared to Samsung, which still uses the same plastic frame even on high end phones.
- likeclockwork 13y ago
  I'm not sure that "plastic" is as bad as popular opinion thinks it is in the case of something the size of a phone. If we say "polymer" does it sound any better? I mean there's plastic.. and then there's plastic.
  - pm90 13y ago
    I agree. I don't see any good reason for this worship of metal. I have a phone with a colored polycarbonate body: so if it scratches, its still the same color. And it looks much better and feels better than the Iphone
    - gnaffle 13y ago
      The only iPhone that really show scratches is the black iPhone 5. That said, I agree that hard polycarbonate plastic also has a good quality feel. Unfortunately, most phones made with plastic don't use hard polycarbonate, but soft plastic with sqeaking, bending battery covers etc.
  - gnaffle 13y ago
    Of course, it's not necessarily bad, and there's different types of plastic. Some kinds are very rugged. However, most plastic phones are made of plastic because it's a cheap material that doesn't require much in the way of precision to fit together, and it just doesn't have the same kind of quality (or even quality feel) as a phone made with a different material.
    - 13y ago
mynameisvlad 13y ago
That argument is stupid. Please give a source for "a lot of people" considering it superior. A lot of people I know consider the iPhone/Apple ecosystem superior. And no, you can't use market share to back this up, as much as you might want to. Because that doesn't measure user experiences being considered superior. There's a lot more factors that go into market share; that's just one of them.
- pisarzp 13y ago
  It's not stupid. He just said what he knows anectodically, and I can confirm from many discussions I had. As a data point just take the number of people who chose Samsung Galaxy S4 or HTC One over iPhone, even though they cost more less the same.
  - mynameisvlad 13y ago
    As I said, market share is not an appropriate measure of a user experience people consider superior. People's choices of a Galaxy S4/HTC One over an iPhone could be caused by liking the Android UX more, but there's also many other reasons for it (friends like it more, already in Google ecosystem, upgrading from previous phone, etc). There's many possible reasons for one person choosing one phone over the other, and, while UX could be one of them, it's not the only one. And anecdotes shouldn't be purported as facts.
    - cageface 13y ago
      Samsung now rates higher than iPhone for user satisfaction: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422525,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422525,00.asp http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241257/Samsung_smartphones_beat_last_three_iPhones_in_user_satisfaction http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241257/Samsung_smart...
      - ZeroGravitas 13y ago
        Motorola and HTC too: http://fr.slideshare.net/OnDevice/us-uk-device-satisfaction http://fr.slideshare.net/OnDevice/us-uk-device-satisfaction Slides 6 (for US) and 9 for (UK)

philwelch 13y ago

Some people prefer Windows to Mac OS, too, so I really don't see your point.

cageface 13y ago
Not really sure how I can make this point more simply. In order to survive as a niche product you have to offer a significantly better or at least different experience. I'm sitting here right now in a coworking space in Vietnam full of developers. Ratio of MacBooks to PCs is about 15:1, which is pretty typical for any group of technical people I've been around.
- mkr-hn 13y ago
  > In order to survive as a niche product you have to offer a significantly better or at least different experience Like Gentoo I always saw Apple products as a niche for people who like Apple's aesthetic. This turf war was tiring when Apple had an almost credible claim to technical superiority and I had to listen to Apple PC users rant and rave. Nowadays it's a lot more fun with Google, Microsoft, and their partners making Apple and its supporters wince.
- chris_mahan 13y ago
  I develop on google's CR-48, by using ssh and remoting into linux servers. (trick: use ctrl+alt+o to save buffer in nano in ssh, because ctrl+o launches chrome open file dialog) The CR-48 has 8-9 hours of battery life. Also, if someone steals my laptop, I can replace it with this ( https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=chromebook_acer_c710_snbssd https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=chromebook_... ) and lose nothing, since the passwords/ip addresses/etc are not stored on the machines, and no code is stored on the machine.

gnaffle 13y ago

Actually, it's very similar to the laptop market. A lot of people prefer Windows or Linux on Lenovo laptops, because they have some features that Macs don't have. Likewise, if you compare the hardware (build quality etc) I think most people would agree that Apple still is has the best devices compared to Samsung, which still uses the same plastic frame even on high end phones.

likeclockwork 13y ago
I'm not sure that "plastic" is as bad as popular opinion thinks it is in the case of something the size of a phone. If we say "polymer" does it sound any better? I mean there's plastic.. and then there's plastic.
- pm90 13y ago
  I agree. I don't see any good reason for this worship of metal. I have a phone with a colored polycarbonate body: so if it scratches, its still the same color. And it looks much better and feels better than the Iphone
  - gnaffle 13y ago
    The only iPhone that really show scratches is the black iPhone 5. That said, I agree that hard polycarbonate plastic also has a good quality feel. Unfortunately, most phones made with plastic don't use hard polycarbonate, but soft plastic with sqeaking, bending battery covers etc.
- gnaffle 13y ago
  Of course, it's not necessarily bad, and there's different types of plastic. Some kinds are very rugged. However, most plastic phones are made of plastic because it's a cheap material that doesn't require much in the way of precision to fit together, and it just doesn't have the same kind of quality (or even quality feel) as a phone made with a different material.
  - 13y ago

mynameisvlad 13y ago

That argument is stupid. Please give a source for "a lot of people" considering it superior. A lot of people I know consider the iPhone/Apple ecosystem superior. And no, you can't use market share to back this up, as much as you might want to. Because that doesn't measure user experiences being considered superior. There's a lot more factors that go into market share; that's just one of them.

pisarzp 13y ago
It's not stupid. He just said what he knows anectodically, and I can confirm from many discussions I had. As a data point just take the number of people who chose Samsung Galaxy S4 or HTC One over iPhone, even though they cost more less the same.
- mynameisvlad 13y ago
  As I said, market share is not an appropriate measure of a user experience people consider superior. People's choices of a Galaxy S4/HTC One over an iPhone could be caused by liking the Android UX more, but there's also many other reasons for it (friends like it more, already in Google ecosystem, upgrading from previous phone, etc). There's many possible reasons for one person choosing one phone over the other, and, while UX could be one of them, it's not the only one. And anecdotes shouldn't be purported as facts.
  - cageface 13y ago
    Samsung now rates higher than iPhone for user satisfaction: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422525,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422525,00.asp http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241257/Samsung_smartphones_beat_last_three_iPhones_in_user_satisfaction http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241257/Samsung_smart...
    - ZeroGravitas 13y ago
      Motorola and HTC too: http://fr.slideshare.net/OnDevice/us-uk-device-satisfaction http://fr.slideshare.net/OnDevice/us-uk-device-satisfaction Slides 6 (for US) and 9 for (UK)