5 ms·

> This thing (whatever it is) will just be a mess of connectors and other supporting hardware- a monolith of extendability that will never be used by an end us

> This thing (whatever it is) will just be a mess of connectors and other supporting hardware- a monolith of extendability that will never be used by an end user. Yes, it probably would be a mess compared to an iPhone - just like the PC vs Mac. I wouldn't be so fast to dismiss this, you might be surprised how many users would prefer the ability to customize their devices over one-size-fits-all solutions. Just ask yourself why there are so many people buying all those high end Android devices.

thedrbrian 13y ago
They aren't all buying android to run a nightly build of x. People are buying them because the screen is so big, it looks nice , my mum bought the same one , the salesman said this was the best phone. Tech sites overestimate how many people want to mess with the innards of anything.
- idm 13y ago
  That's the thought process for purchasing a phone. Think about purchasing a general purpose computer. Think about replacing your game console. Motorola may have been a phone company, but this thing isn't a phone by any stretch of the imagination. A true convergence technology could stand to support a little modularity.
GFischer 13y ago
"Just ask yourself why there are so many people buying all those high end Android devices." Over here (Uruguay), it's the network effect, and Android being cheaper (both perceived and in app availability). Apple makes no efforts to cater to some particulars of Third World countries (like, no credit card even having enough income, and a strong dislike to tying it to anything). I wonder how they manage to be apparently strong in China. Android dominates in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East App availability is much better for Android here. Microsoft made many of Apple's screw-ups as well. So, if you plan to buy a high end phone in Uruguay, 97% will end up buying an Android (and most of those will end up with a Samsung Galaxy, which is what the official carrier pushes). Apple does have a lot of signalling value though :) and and iPhone is perceived as a luxury product too, but it's way more impractical here.
- nikoftime 13y ago
  Hi - Really appreciate your comment. My startup, Nulu, is servicing Latin America with an English learning product with daily news content. Something you mentioned is that Apple makes no effort to cater to those who have no credit cards. Can you tell me a little more about how you and others would prefer to purchase devices and apps? How about products and services over the web? I'm really quite interested as we're facing the same challenges you're speaking about.
  - GFischer 13y ago
    Hi, I don't think there's a Latin-America wide answer to that unfortunately. Here in Uruguay, the most popular method for payments is through a nationwide payments network, the two biggest being Abitab and RedPagos: "Abitab and Red Pagos, channel some 49% transactions of the retail payment system, with credit cards (39%) and cheques (9%)" https://twitter.com/marslombas/status/302521188939358209 https://twitter.com/marslombas/status/302521188939358209 The local Groupon clone, wOOw (www.woow.com.uy , which vastly outperforms Groupon here) uses mainly Abitab, as well as credit cards, with the important distinction of accepting locally issued credit cards which do not exist outside of Uruguay or Argentina. In Argentina there exist similar payment networks (RapiPago and PagoFacil I think) http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapipago http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapipago I'm not sure what the situation is in Brazil or Chile (I think they have ServiPag) or the rest of the Latin American countries. There must be services to integrate with those payment methods easily, here in Uruguay we have CobrosYa https://www.cobrosya.com/sitio/ https://www.cobrosya.com/sitio/ It seems very primitive and it introduces a huge friction, especially for impulse purchases like apps. Apple buyers here in Uruguay are usually wealthy and do have credit cards. The problem is Android users (the vast majority), which don't have a culture of paying for apps (and most have the attitude of just looking for the free equivalent). I investigated starting a micropayments platform based on the cell phone, but I gave up due to the extreme complexity involved, but there's certainly a lot of opportunities to disrupt - and some are doing it like former coworkers who started Paganza: http://www.paganza.com http://www.paganza.com
    - nikoftime 13y ago
madoublet 13y ago
Agreed. To me at least, the iPhones are beautiful, fast, reliable...and really, frickin boring. I would much rather have an fat, ugly phone if that meant I could customize it.

thedrbrian 13y ago

They aren't all buying android to run a nightly build of x. People are buying them because the screen is so big, it looks nice , my mum bought the same one , the salesman said this was the best phone. Tech sites overestimate how many people want to mess with the innards of anything.

idm 13y ago
That's the thought process for purchasing a phone. Think about purchasing a general purpose computer. Think about replacing your game console. Motorola may have been a phone company, but this thing isn't a phone by any stretch of the imagination. A true convergence technology could stand to support a little modularity.

GFischer 13y ago

"Just ask yourself why there are so many people buying all those high end Android devices." Over here (Uruguay), it's the network effect, and Android being cheaper (both perceived and in app availability). Apple makes no efforts to cater to some particulars of Third World countries (like, no credit card even having enough income, and a strong dislike to tying it to anything). I wonder how they manage to be apparently strong in China. Android dominates in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East App availability is much better for Android here. Microsoft made many of Apple's screw-ups as well. So, if you plan to buy a high end phone in Uruguay, 97% will end up buying an Android (and most of those will end up with a Samsung Galaxy, which is what the official carrier pushes). Apple does have a lot of signalling value though :) and and iPhone is perceived as a luxury product too, but it's way more impractical here.

nikoftime 13y ago
Hi - Really appreciate your comment. My startup, Nulu, is servicing Latin America with an English learning product with daily news content. Something you mentioned is that Apple makes no effort to cater to those who have no credit cards. Can you tell me a little more about how you and others would prefer to purchase devices and apps? How about products and services over the web? I'm really quite interested as we're facing the same challenges you're speaking about.
- GFischer 13y ago
  Hi, I don't think there's a Latin-America wide answer to that unfortunately. Here in Uruguay, the most popular method for payments is through a nationwide payments network, the two biggest being Abitab and RedPagos: "Abitab and Red Pagos, channel some 49% transactions of the retail payment system, with credit cards (39%) and cheques (9%)" https://twitter.com/marslombas/status/302521188939358209 https://twitter.com/marslombas/status/302521188939358209 The local Groupon clone, wOOw (www.woow.com.uy , which vastly outperforms Groupon here) uses mainly Abitab, as well as credit cards, with the important distinction of accepting locally issued credit cards which do not exist outside of Uruguay or Argentina. In Argentina there exist similar payment networks (RapiPago and PagoFacil I think) http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapipago http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapipago I'm not sure what the situation is in Brazil or Chile (I think they have ServiPag) or the rest of the Latin American countries. There must be services to integrate with those payment methods easily, here in Uruguay we have CobrosYa https://www.cobrosya.com/sitio/ https://www.cobrosya.com/sitio/ It seems very primitive and it introduces a huge friction, especially for impulse purchases like apps. Apple buyers here in Uruguay are usually wealthy and do have credit cards. The problem is Android users (the vast majority), which don't have a culture of paying for apps (and most have the attitude of just looking for the free equivalent). I investigated starting a micropayments platform based on the cell phone, but I gave up due to the extreme complexity involved, but there's certainly a lot of opportunities to disrupt - and some are doing it like former coworkers who started Paganza: http://www.paganza.com http://www.paganza.com
  - nikoftime 13y ago

madoublet 13y ago

Agreed. To me at least, the iPhones are beautiful, fast, reliable...and really, frickin boring. I would much rather have an fat, ugly phone if that meant I could customize it.