I told iKnockoff morons years ago to expect companies to shut down Apple knockoff arms.
Also, why would anyone buy that arm? It’s legal to just make your own knockoff iPhones. Even KFC (yes, that one) has a knockoff iPhone.
I predict Sony to be next to shut down their knockoff iPhone arm. (If they already haven’t)
Actually, it’s Sony who can prevail.. if they will go courageous and decide to build up their own platform. I mean their store, their OS and Dev tools, entire eco-system. As we can see, Samsung is going to be winner as “Android sole hardware” - only profitable one. Because for third player to exist, it must be exclusive marketplace for developers (no android), and such can get any devs attention with it’s brand. I see Sony more oconic like Apple, than fridge maker Samsung.
Sony hasn’t shown any appetite for that though, and their mobile unit is haemorrhaging money. They’re probably on a countdown timer, it really doesn’t matter how iconic past products were.
It really boils down to two, Apple and Samsung. The others are totally irrelevant, including Google’s Pixel which isn't even a blip on the sales rankings. So it wouldn’t surprise me to see some bureaucrat decide that government subsidies are needed to keep ‘competition’ alive, or to force iPhone clones into being.
Well, really it doesn't.
BBK, Honor, Xiaomi and Huawei are far from irrevelant.
If Apple and Samsung have 99.5% of the profits, where does these far from irrelevant others have? .5% basically?? So how can they survive if they only have .5% of the profits?? I must be out of this world thinking ߤ䦡mp;nbsp;
What does the fact that they do survive, and have survived and continue to pump out some of the most cutting edge phones on the market tell you?
What does it tell you that Apple had to totally reconstruct its two-phone per cycle at high prices business model due to years of flat sales and lagging behind on hardware?
Obviously something relevant was happening in the wider industry.
And amazingly, Apple (sitting in the world's second largest handset market) was shielded from the likes of Huawei because they didn't have access to that market.
So, even with severe limitations they still raked in billions in net profit.
I don't believe your meme wrt to Apple's "flat sales and lagging behind on hardware" has ever been valid, but I have to agree with you that Apple's broader sales model looks unstoppable today, with some expectations that FY2020 iPhone sales will exceed 240M units, and may approach 250M units. More to the point, I expect that Apple will increase its profit share back to and beyond the 70% range for the year.
Lagging behind on hardware? Seems like buyers don't agree with you, voting with their wallets, and purses, for Apple's broad ecosystem. Probably why Apple keeps building that iPhone user base, every single year.
Feel free to believe what you want but don't try to skimp over years of lagging behind on hardware.
If things appear to be picking up now, it is precisely due to much needed and welcome improvements in hardware being implemented just a few months ago along with other, more business model related issues.
There was a time (long ago) when speed was a key selling point for smartphones. Today, speed isn't even an issue for non-flagship phones and other factors have taken its place.
For years now, photography has been one of those factors and Apple completely blew it when pitted against the best of the Android world. When photographic quality reached good enough for the majority of users, photographic versatility became important. I have literally lost count of the amount of the times Apple has been found lacking here. So many presentations with Android manufacturers comparing with other Android manufacturers and slipping in 'we couldn't compare to the iPhone because the iPhone can't do this' tagline.
Even when Portrait mode was 'released' (it spent a year in Beta) it wouldn't even let you take the photo if it thought there wasn't enough light. Then, later on it only worked on humans.
Low light photography was another ship that sailed without Apple. They were so far behind here that when it finally arrived people were already very used to it. To the point that it hadn't been necessary for a dedicated handheld Night Mode at all.
Zoom? More of the same! Woefully lacking here.
Tri-cameras, noise, sensors, free form lenses... Late or non-existent.
You may not like DX0 Mark but it's definitely a valid stop for comparisons and Apple has been way off the top there for years.
Computational photography? Dual ISPs? That was being done on Android phones long before the term started to get used. DX0 Mark even delayed its full iPhone review specifically for Deep Fusion to be released in an update. It still wasn't enough.
Let's not even talk about other areas like batteries (chemistry and charging - including wireless charging), third gen, on-SoC 5G, full screen designs, screen refresh rates, folding screens, USB-C, dual frequency GPS...
Apple has made up for some of the shortcomings and was always good in video and raw CPU speed but please don't try to claim it hasn't lagged for the last four years.
It really boils down to two, Apple and Samsung. The others are totally irrelevant, including Google’s Pixel which isn't even a blip on the sales rankings. So it wouldn’t surprise me to see some bureaucrat decide that government subsidies are needed to keep ‘competition’ alive, or to force iPhone clones into being.
Well, really it doesn't.
BBK, Honor, Xiaomi and Huawei are far from irrevelant.
If Apple and Samsung have 99.5% of the profits, where does these far from irrelevant others have? .5% basically?? So how can they survive if they only have .5% of the profits?? I must be out of this world thinking ߤ䦡mp;nbsp;
What does the fact that they do survive, and have survived and continue to pump out some of the most cutting edge phones on the market tell you?
What does it tell you that Apple had to totally reconstruct its two-phone per cycle at high prices business model due to years of flat sales and lagging behind on hardware?
Obviously something relevant was happening in the wider industry.
And amazingly, Apple (sitting in the world's second largest handset market) was shielded from the likes of Huawei because they didn't have access to that market.
So, even with severe limitations they still raked in billions in net profit.
I don't believe your meme wrt to Apple's "flat sales and lagging behind on hardware" has ever been valid, but I have to agree with you that Apple's broader sales model looks unstoppable today, with some expectations that FY2020 iPhone sales will exceed 240M units, and may approach 250M units. More to the point, I expect that Apple will increase its profit share back to and beyond the 70% range for the year.
Lagging behind on hardware? Seems like buyers don't agree with you, voting with their wallets, and purses, for Apple's broad ecosystem. Probably why Apple keeps building that iPhone user base, every single year.
Feel free to believe what you want but don't try to skimp over years of lagging behind on hardware.
If things appear to be picking up now, it is precisely due to much needed and welcome improvements in hardware being implemented just a few months ago along with other, more business model related issues.
There was a time (long ago) when speed was a key selling point for smartphones. Today, speed isn't even an issue for non-flagship phones and other factors have taken its place.
For years now, photography has been one of those factors and Apple completely blew it when pitted against the best of the Android world. When photographic quality reached good enough for the majority of users, photographic versatility became important. I have literally lost count of the amount of the times Apple has been found lacking here. So many presentations with Android manufacturers comparing with other Android manufacturers and slipping in 'we couldn't compare to the iPhone because the iPhone can't do this' tagline.
Even when Portrait mode was 'released' (it spent a year in Beta) it wouldn't even let you take the photo if it thought there wasn't enough light. Then, later on it only worked on humans.
Low light photography was another ship that sailed without Apple. They were so far behind here that when it finally arrived people were already very used to it. To the point that it hadn't been necessary for a dedicated handheld Night Mode at all.
Zoom? More of the same! Woefully lacking here.
Tri-cameras, noise, sensors, free form lenses... Late or non-existent.
You may not like DX0 Mark but it's definitely a valid stop for comparisons and Apple has been way off the top there for years.
Computational photography? Dual ISPs? That was being done on Android phones long before the term started to get used. DX0 Mark even delayed its full iPhone review specifically for Deep Fusion to be released in an update. It still wasn't enough.
Let's not even talk about other areas like batteries (chemistry and charging - including wireless charging), third gen, on-SoC 5G, full screen designs, screen refresh rates, folding screens, USB-C, dual frequency GPS...
Apple has made up for some of the shortcomings and was always good in video and raw CPU speed but please don't try to claim it hasn't lagged for the last four years.
Reading your post, one would think that Apple would be getting its ass handed to them due to their "hardware limitations", yet Apple is able to shift something on the order of 175 million iPhone 12 models, approaching a total sales of 250 m iPhones this year, and that's magnitudes more flagships than any other company sells. Every year, Apple builds its iPhone user base, and the most telling reason that so many iPhones will be sold this year, is that users that have been keeping their iPhones for near to a four year average age, and are now upgrading.
Maybe very few smartphone buyers are even influenced by hardware specs anymore, but I'm guessing that iPhone buyers prefer the consistently user friendly interface, especially for all of those photographic and video functions. Throw in the broad, curated ecosystem of iPhone, and its no wonder Apple scoops up more than 2/3 of the profits. Funny, but Apple seems to be the only company shipping LIDAR dTofF, (direct time of flight), vs indirect, which is found in some Android OS devices, trading lower cost for reduced utility.
Based on the market, I'm thinking that Android OS devices will always have an advantage of selling small numbers of bleeding edge flagships, but the truth is, they just aren't selling enough to make any real profits.
It really boils down to two, Apple and Samsung. The others are totally irrelevant, including Google’s Pixel which isn't even a blip on the sales rankings. So it wouldn’t surprise me to see some bureaucrat decide that government subsidies are needed to keep ‘competition’ alive, or to force iPhone clones into being.
Well, really it doesn't.
BBK, Honor, Xiaomi and Huawei are far from irrevelant.
If Apple and Samsung have 99.5% of the profits, where does these far from irrelevant others have? .5% basically?? So how can they survive if they only have .5% of the profits?? I must be out of this world thinking ߤ䦡mp;nbsp;
What does the fact that they do survive, and have survived and continue to pump out some of the most cutting edge phones on the market tell you?
What does it tell you that Apple had to totally reconstruct its two-phone per cycle at high prices business model due to years of flat sales and lagging behind on hardware?
Obviously something relevant was happening in the wider industry.
And amazingly, Apple (sitting in the world's second largest handset market) was shielded from the likes of Huawei because they didn't have access to that market.
So, even with severe limitations they still raked in billions in net profit.
I don't believe your meme wrt to Apple's "flat sales and lagging behind on hardware" has ever been valid, but I have to agree with you that Apple's broader sales model looks unstoppable today, with some expectations that FY2020 iPhone sales will exceed 240M units, and may approach 250M units. More to the point, I expect that Apple will increase its profit share back to and beyond the 70% range for the year.
Lagging behind on hardware? Seems like buyers don't agree with you, voting with their wallets, and purses, for Apple's broad ecosystem. Probably why Apple keeps building that iPhone user base, every single year.
Feel free to believe what you want but don't try to skimp over years of lagging behind on hardware.
If things appear to be picking up now, it is precisely due to much needed and welcome improvements in hardware being implemented just a few months ago along with other, more business model related issues.
There was a time (long ago) when speed was a key selling point for smartphones. Today, speed isn't even an issue for non-flagship phones and other factors have taken its place.
For years now, photography has been one of those factors and Apple completely blew it when pitted against the best of the Android world. When photographic quality reached good enough for the majority of users, photographic versatility became important. I have literally lost count of the amount of the times Apple has been found lacking here. So many presentations with Android manufacturers comparing with other Android manufacturers and slipping in 'we couldn't compare to the iPhone because the iPhone can't do this' tagline.
Even when Portrait mode was 'released' (it spent a year in Beta) it wouldn't even let you take the photo if it thought there wasn't enough light. Then, later on it only worked on humans.
Low light photography was another ship that sailed without Apple. They were so far behind here that when it finally arrived people were already very used to it. To the point that it hadn't been necessary for a dedicated handheld Night Mode at all.
Zoom? More of the same! Woefully lacking here.
Tri-cameras, noise, sensors, free form lenses... Late or non-existent.
You may not like DX0 Mark but it's definitely a valid stop for comparisons and Apple has been way off the top there for years.
Computational photography? Dual ISPs? That was being done on Android phones long before the term started to get used. DX0 Mark even delayed its full iPhone review specifically for Deep Fusion to be released in an update. It still wasn't enough.
Let's not even talk about other areas like batteries (chemistry and charging - including wireless charging), third gen, on-SoC 5G, full screen designs, screen refresh rates, folding screens, USB-C, dual frequency GPS...
Apple has made up for some of the shortcomings and was always good in video and raw CPU speed but please don't try to claim it hasn't lagged for the last four years.
Reading your post, one would think that Apple would be getting its ass handed to them due to their "hardware limitations", yet Apple is able to shift something on the order of 175 million iPhone 12 models, approaching a total sales of 250 m iPhones this year, and that's magnitudes more flagships than any other company sells. Every year, Apple builds its iPhone user base, and the most telling reason that so many iPhones will be sold this year, is that users that have been keeping their iPhones for near to a four year average age, and are now upgrading.
Maybe very few smartphone buyers are even influenced by hardware specs anymore, but I'm guessing that iPhone buyers prefer the consistently user friendly interface, especially for all of those photographic and video functions. Throw in the broad, curated ecosystem of iPhone, and its no wonder Apple scoops up more than 2/3 of the profits. Funny, but Apple seems to be the only company shipping LIDAR dTofF, (direct time of flight), vs indirect, which is found in some Android OS devices, trading lower cost for reduced utility.
Based on the market, I'm thinking that Android OS devices will always have an advantage of selling small numbers of bleeding edge flagships, but the truth is, they just aren't selling enough to make any real profits.
So, we will assume that you agree with me and admit Apple has lagged in hardware for years. That is quite a turnaround, even from you.
I gave you a ton of examples and they go from bleeding edge technology like folding phones down to fast charging which is basically on all phones, passing through everything else which is somewhere in the middle. That's the entire Android market covered and the bleeding edge technologies always filter down to become commonplace across price bands anyway.
Throwing LiDAR in won't help your case. My vacuum cleaner has that, along with a ton of other devices. And it has only just arrived on an iPhone anyway. LiDAR on mobile devices isn't so much about the technology itself but what to do with it. Not much at present. And weren't there Lenovo and Asus phones with LiDAR years ago? I don't remember now. Either way, it is a technology waiting for something great to do in a wider real world sense. The market (Apple included as they didn't put in onto everything new 2020 phone) is simply waiting for the pieces to fall into place. That will happen but it isn't really happening now.
Here's an example. If you gave someone the choice of Bluetooth 5.2 or LiDAR but not both, most users would opt for the Bluetooth option as it offers far more real world benefits. And so do the examples I gave further up (battery, wireless, screen refresh,...)
Apple's biggest potential competitor (Huawei) hasn't even been able to do business in the world's second largest handset market for the last four years, the US government is literally trying to destroy it with extraterritorial sanctions but it still pulled in billions in massive net profits. Yes, that's real profit.
So Apple has the US market shored up and sealed off all to itself with just one major competitor (Samsung). That is some advantage and also 100% protectionist.
Now, in spite of all this there are rumours that Huawei's 2020 revenues may have actually increased and net profits could be in the region of 10 billion dollars. We will see any day now.
By anyone's accounting, that is 'real' profit. Whatever the final number is.
"Reading your post, one would think that Apple would be getting its ass handed to them"
In many, but obviously not all, ways that was the case. There is no getting around that.
It really boils down to two, Apple and Samsung. The others are totally irrelevant, including Google’s Pixel which isn't even a blip on the sales rankings. So it wouldn’t surprise me to see some bureaucrat decide that government subsidies are needed to keep ‘competition’ alive, or to force iPhone clones into being.
Well, really it doesn't.
BBK, Honor, Xiaomi and Huawei are far from irrevelant.
If Apple and Samsung have 99.5% of the profits, where does these far from irrelevant others have? .5% basically?? So how can they survive if they only have .5% of the profits?? I must be out of this world thinking ߤ䦡mp;nbsp;
What does the fact that they do survive, and have survived and continue to pump out some of the most cutting edge phones on the market tell you?
What does it tell you that Apple had to totally reconstruct its two-phone per cycle at high prices business model due to years of flat sales and lagging behind on hardware?
Obviously something relevant was happening in the wider industry.
And amazingly, Apple (sitting in the world's second largest handset market) was shielded from the likes of Huawei because they didn't have access to that market.
So, even with severe limitations they still raked in billions in net profit.
I don't believe your meme wrt to Apple's "flat sales and lagging behind on hardware" has ever been valid, but I have to agree with you that Apple's broader sales model looks unstoppable today, with some expectations that FY2020 iPhone sales will exceed 240M units, and may approach 250M units. More to the point, I expect that Apple will increase its profit share back to and beyond the 70% range for the year.
Lagging behind on hardware? Seems like buyers don't agree with you, voting with their wallets, and purses, for Apple's broad ecosystem. Probably why Apple keeps building that iPhone user base, every single year.
Feel free to believe what you want but don't try to skimp over years of lagging behind on hardware.
If things appear to be picking up now, it is precisely due to much needed and welcome improvements in hardware being implemented just a few months ago along with other, more business model related issues.
There was a time (long ago) when speed was a key selling point for smartphones. Today, speed isn't even an issue for non-flagship phones and other factors have taken its place.
For years now, photography has been one of those factors and Apple completely blew it when pitted against the best of the Android world. When photographic quality reached good enough for the majority of users, photographic versatility became important. I have literally lost count of the amount of the times Apple has been found lacking here. So many presentations with Android manufacturers comparing with other Android manufacturers and slipping in 'we couldn't compare to the iPhone because the iPhone can't do this' tagline.
Even when Portrait mode was 'released' (it spent a year in Beta) it wouldn't even let you take the photo if it thought there wasn't enough light. Then, later on it only worked on humans.
Low light photography was another ship that sailed without Apple. They were so far behind here that when it finally arrived people were already very used to it. To the point that it hadn't been necessary for a dedicated handheld Night Mode at all.
Zoom? More of the same! Woefully lacking here.
Tri-cameras, noise, sensors, free form lenses... Late or non-existent.
You may not like DX0 Mark but it's definitely a valid stop for comparisons and Apple has been way off the top there for years.
Computational photography? Dual ISPs? That was being done on Android phones long before the term started to get used. DX0 Mark even delayed its full iPhone review specifically for Deep Fusion to be released in an update. It still wasn't enough.
Let's not even talk about other areas like batteries (chemistry and charging - including wireless charging), third gen, on-SoC 5G, full screen designs, screen refresh rates, folding screens, USB-C, dual frequency GPS...
Apple has made up for some of the shortcomings and was always good in video and raw CPU speed but please don't try to claim it hasn't lagged for the last four years.
Reading your post, one would think that Apple would be getting its ass handed to them due to their "hardware limitations", yet Apple is able to shift something on the order of 175 million iPhone 12 models, approaching a total sales of 250 m iPhones this year, and that's magnitudes more flagships than any other company sells. Every year, Apple builds its iPhone user base, and the most telling reason that so many iPhones will be sold this year, is that users that have been keeping their iPhones for near to a four year average age, and are now upgrading.
Maybe very few smartphone buyers are even influenced by hardware specs anymore, but I'm guessing that iPhone buyers prefer the consistently user friendly interface, especially for all of those photographic and video functions. Throw in the broad, curated ecosystem of iPhone, and its no wonder Apple scoops up more than 2/3 of the profits. Funny, but Apple seems to be the only company shipping LIDAR dTofF, (direct time of flight), vs indirect, which is found in some Android OS devices, trading lower cost for reduced utility.
Based on the market, I'm thinking that Android OS devices will always have an advantage of selling small numbers of bleeding edge flagships, but the truth is, they just aren't selling enough to make any real profits.
So, we will assume that you agree with me and admit Apple has lagged in hardware for years. That is quite a turnaround, even from you.
I gave you a ton of examples and they go from bleeding edge technology like folding phones down to fast charging which is basically on all phones, passing through everything else which is somewhere in the middle. That's the entire Android market covered and the bleeding edge technologies always filter down to become commonplace across price bands anyway.
Throwing LiDAR in won't help your case. My vacuum cleaner has that, along with a ton of other devices. And it has only just arrived on an iPhone anyway. LiDAR on mobile devices isn't so much about the technology itself but what to do with it. Not much at present. And weren't there Lenovo and Asus phones with LiDAR years ago? I don't remember now. Either way, it is a technology waiting for something great to do in a wider real world sense. The market (Apple included as they didn't put in onto everything new 2020 phone) is simply waiting for the pieces to fall into place. That will happen but it isn't really happening now.
Here's an example. If you gave someone the choice of Bluetooth 5.2 or LiDAR but not both, most users would opt for the Bluetooth option as it offers far more real world benefits. And so do the examples I gave further up (battery, wireless, screen refresh,...)
Apple's biggest potential competitor (Huawei) hasn't even been able to do business in the world's second largest handset market for the last four years, the US government is literally trying to destroy it with extraterritorial sanctions but it still pulled in billions in massive net profits. Yes, that's real profit.
So Apple has the US market shored up and sealed off all to itself with just one major competitor (Samsung). That is some advantage and also 100% protectionist.
Now, in spite of all this there are rumours that Huawei's 2020 revenues may have actually increased and net profits could be in the region of 10 billion dollars. We will see any day now.
By anyone's accounting, that is 'real' profit. Whatever the final number is.
"Reading your post, one would think that Apple would be getting its ass handed to them"
In many, but obviously not all, ways that was the case. There is no getting around that.
There is doing something, and then there is doing something well. Androids are good at just doing something for the sake of doing it. Doing it in such a way that it enhances the user experience is what Apple is always good at. That is the reason Androids always lag behind, they run after spec sheets.
You really think apple doesn't include the latest tech gimmicks in all its features because it is incapable of doing so? It is a choice, not an inability to do so. The places where android lags behind is because they are incapable, it is not a choice. That is the difference between Apple and the rest.
It really boils down to two, Apple and Samsung. The others are totally irrelevant, including Google’s Pixel which isn't even a blip on the sales rankings. So it wouldn’t surprise me to see some bureaucrat decide that government subsidies are needed to keep ‘competition’ alive, or to force iPhone clones into being.
Well, really it doesn't.
BBK, Honor, Xiaomi and Huawei are far from irrevelant.
If Apple and Samsung have 99.5% of the profits, where does these far from irrelevant others have? .5% basically?? So how can they survive if they only have .5% of the profits?? I must be out of this world thinking ߤ䦡mp;nbsp;
What does the fact that they do survive, and have survived and continue to pump out some of the most cutting edge phones on the market tell you?
What does it tell you that Apple had to totally reconstruct its two-phone per cycle at high prices business model due to years of flat sales and lagging behind on hardware?
Obviously something relevant was happening in the wider industry.
And amazingly, Apple (sitting in the world's second largest handset market) was shielded from the likes of Huawei because they didn't have access to that market.
So, even with severe limitations they still raked in billions in net profit.
I don't believe your meme wrt to Apple's "flat sales and lagging behind on hardware" has ever been valid, but I have to agree with you that Apple's broader sales model looks unstoppable today, with some expectations that FY2020 iPhone sales will exceed 240M units, and may approach 250M units. More to the point, I expect that Apple will increase its profit share back to and beyond the 70% range for the year.
Lagging behind on hardware? Seems like buyers don't agree with you, voting with their wallets, and purses, for Apple's broad ecosystem. Probably why Apple keeps building that iPhone user base, every single year.
Feel free to believe what you want but don't try to skimp over years of lagging behind on hardware.
If things appear to be picking up now, it is precisely due to much needed and welcome improvements in hardware being implemented just a few months ago along with other, more business model related issues.
There was a time (long ago) when speed was a key selling point for smartphones. Today, speed isn't even an issue for non-flagship phones and other factors have taken its place.
For years now, photography has been one of those factors and Apple completely blew it when pitted against the best of the Android world. When photographic quality reached good enough for the majority of users, photographic versatility became important. I have literally lost count of the amount of the times Apple has been found lacking here. So many presentations with Android manufacturers comparing with other Android manufacturers and slipping in 'we couldn't compare to the iPhone because the iPhone can't do this' tagline.
Even when Portrait mode was 'released' (it spent a year in Beta) it wouldn't even let you take the photo if it thought there wasn't enough light. Then, later on it only worked on humans.
Low light photography was another ship that sailed without Apple. They were so far behind here that when it finally arrived people were already very used to it. To the point that it hadn't been necessary for a dedicated handheld Night Mode at all.
Zoom? More of the same! Woefully lacking here.
Tri-cameras, noise, sensors, free form lenses... Late or non-existent.
You may not like DX0 Mark but it's definitely a valid stop for comparisons and Apple has been way off the top there for years.
Computational photography? Dual ISPs? That was being done on Android phones long before the term started to get used. DX0 Mark even delayed its full iPhone review specifically for Deep Fusion to be released in an update. It still wasn't enough.
Let's not even talk about other areas like batteries (chemistry and charging - including wireless charging), third gen, on-SoC 5G, full screen designs, screen refresh rates, folding screens, USB-C, dual frequency GPS...
Apple has made up for some of the shortcomings and was always good in video and raw CPU speed but please don't try to claim it hasn't lagged for the last four years.
Reading your post, one would think that Apple would be getting its ass handed to them due to their "hardware limitations", yet Apple is able to shift something on the order of 175 million iPhone 12 models, approaching a total sales of 250 m iPhones this year, and that's magnitudes more flagships than any other company sells. Every year, Apple builds its iPhone user base, and the most telling reason that so many iPhones will be sold this year, is that users that have been keeping their iPhones for near to a four year average age, and are now upgrading.
Maybe very few smartphone buyers are even influenced by hardware specs anymore, but I'm guessing that iPhone buyers prefer the consistently user friendly interface, especially for all of those photographic and video functions. Throw in the broad, curated ecosystem of iPhone, and its no wonder Apple scoops up more than 2/3 of the profits. Funny, but Apple seems to be the only company shipping LIDAR dTofF, (direct time of flight), vs indirect, which is found in some Android OS devices, trading lower cost for reduced utility.
Based on the market, I'm thinking that Android OS devices will always have an advantage of selling small numbers of bleeding edge flagships, but the truth is, they just aren't selling enough to make any real profits.
So, we will assume that you agree with me and admit Apple has lagged in hardware for years. That is quite a turnaround, even from you.
I gave you a ton of examples and they go from bleeding edge technology like folding phones down to fast charging which is basically on all phones, passing through everything else which is somewhere in the middle. That's the entire Android market covered and the bleeding edge technologies always filter down to become commonplace across price bands anyway.
Throwing LiDAR in won't help your case. My vacuum cleaner has that, along with a ton of other devices. And it has only just arrived on an iPhone anyway. LiDAR on mobile devices isn't so much about the technology itself but what to do with it. Not much at present. And weren't there Lenovo and Asus phones with LiDAR years ago? I don't remember now. Either way, it is a technology waiting for something great to do in a wider real world sense. The market (Apple included as they didn't put in onto everything new 2020 phone) is simply waiting for the pieces to fall into place. That will happen but it isn't really happening now.
Here's an example. If you gave someone the choice of Bluetooth 5.2 or LiDAR but not both, most users would opt for the Bluetooth option as it offers far more real world benefits. And so do the examples I gave further up (battery, wireless, screen refresh,...)
Apple's biggest potential competitor (Huawei) hasn't even been able to do business in the world's second largest handset market for the last four years, the US government is literally trying to destroy it with extraterritorial sanctions but it still pulled in billions in massive net profits. Yes, that's real profit.
So Apple has the US market shored up and sealed off all to itself with just one major competitor (Samsung). That is some advantage and also 100% protectionist.
Now, in spite of all this there are rumours that Huawei's 2020 revenues may have actually increased and net profits could be in the region of 10 billion dollars. We will see any day now.
By anyone's accounting, that is 'real' profit. Whatever the final number is.
"Reading your post, one would think that Apple would be getting its ass handed to them"
In many, but obviously not all, ways that was the case. There is no getting around that.
There is doing something, and then there is doing something well. Androids are good at just doing something for the sake of doing it. Doing it in such a way that it enhances the user experience is what Apple is always good at. That is the reason Androids always lag behind, they run after spec sheets.
You really think apple doesn't include the latest tech gimmicks in all its features because it is incapable of doing so? It is a choice, not an inability to do so. The places where android lags behind is because they are incapable, it is not a choice. That is the difference between Apple and the rest.
It's not about being capable or being incapable.
I'm not sure why you think Android flagships don't do things well. That isn't true as a general statement. In fact it's very far from true.
iPhones could have a higher screen refresh rate couldn't they? Technically speaking, why not? They can't really do that though because it would kill the battery life more than on competing Android phones which can choose that option because one of the main problems for iPhones is using an old 5G modem which isn't on the SoC. Android Flagships are using latest generation 5G modems which are on the SoC.
It's about having the best on offer and competing. Apple has lagged in MANY areas.
10 years shipping a 5W charger is not competing. In photography there have been a string of features that were simply not possible on iPhones because the hardware simply wasn't there. It's as simple as that.
Huawei started the photography presentation of the Mate 10 Pro in 2017 by pointing out that they couldn't compare it to the iPhone X because the iPhone kept turning itself off due to the cold. The shoot had been in Alaska.
Portrait Mode? If there wasn't enough light (camera, not user decision) the iPhone wouldn't even let you take the photo when it was released.
Night Mode? By the time Apple brought that to the iPhone it was even considered 'new' anymore. Almost two years late with that.
Ultra wide camera? Tri Camera? Periscope lens? Free form lens? Noise? Pixel binning?
That's just photography.
As for the user experience. Have you used a modern mid-range or flagship Android phone recently? Didn't you notice the slew of features that got borrowed from Android for the latest iOS?
If you want want to know why Apple made its users wait for a lot of this stuff, ask Apple. Don't try to claim Android is lagging because, to put it bluntly, it isn't. Android is also doing a lot well.
Apple has got some stuff done well and other stuff not so well.
It took decisions and some of them worked out and others didn't.
The same thing happens on Android but over the last few years Apple has really lagged in some key areas.
Apple is slowly bringing a lot of these features to iPhones. That's good for users and great for competition.
In that same Mate 10 Pro presentation from 2017 the iPhone X lost its connection for satnav guidance when passing through common trouble spots for GPS (tunnels etc) while the Mate 10 didn't. That's not about doing something 'better'. It's about having the hardware or not. In that case, dual frequency GPS and stellar cell performance, which was another area where the iPhone didn't perform well. Huawei ensured that cell tower handover was rock solid by testing on thousands of kilometres of high speed trains in China and Germany. The Mate line is a business phone after all.
What you are trying to boil down to just 'specs' is actually more important than you think it is when certain features cannot be implemented well (or at all) if the hardware simply isn't there.
Other decisions such as only having one biometric option, are a bit of a lottery but with the pandemic Apple has come up a bit short by not having an second biometric option.
You win some you lose some, in these cases. Just like the situation for the 5G modem.
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If things appear to be picking up now, it is precisely due to much needed and welcome improvements in hardware being implemented just a few months ago along with other, more business model related issues.
There was a time (long ago) when speed was a key selling point for smartphones. Today, speed isn't even an issue for non-flagship phones and other factors have taken its place.
For years now, photography has been one of those factors and Apple completely blew it when pitted against the best of the Android world. When photographic quality reached good enough for the majority of users, photographic versatility became important. I have literally lost count of the amount of the times Apple has been found lacking here. So many presentations with Android manufacturers comparing with other Android manufacturers and slipping in 'we couldn't compare to the iPhone because the iPhone can't do this' tagline.
Even when Portrait mode was 'released' (it spent a year in Beta) it wouldn't even let you take the photo if it thought there wasn't enough light. Then, later on it only worked on humans.
Low light photography was another ship that sailed without Apple. They were so far behind here that when it finally arrived people were already very used to it. To the point that it hadn't been necessary for a dedicated handheld Night Mode at all.
Zoom? More of the same! Woefully lacking here.
Tri-cameras, noise, sensors, free form lenses... Late or non-existent.
You may not like DX0 Mark but it's definitely a valid stop for comparisons and Apple has been way off the top there for years.
Computational photography? Dual ISPs? That was being done on Android phones long before the term started to get used. DX0 Mark even delayed its full iPhone review specifically for Deep Fusion to be released in an update. It still wasn't enough.
Let's not even talk about other areas like batteries (chemistry and charging - including wireless charging), third gen, on-SoC 5G, full screen designs, screen refresh rates, folding screens, USB-C, dual frequency GPS...
Apple has made up for some of the shortcomings and was always good in video and raw CPU speed but please don't try to claim it hasn't lagged for the last four years.
Maybe very few smartphone buyers are even influenced by hardware specs anymore, but I'm guessing that iPhone buyers prefer the consistently user friendly interface, especially for all of those photographic and video functions. Throw in the broad, curated ecosystem of iPhone, and its no wonder Apple scoops up more than 2/3 of the profits. Funny, but Apple seems to be the only company shipping LIDAR dTofF, (direct time of flight), vs indirect, which is found in some Android OS devices, trading lower cost for reduced utility.
Based on the market, I'm thinking that Android OS devices will always have an advantage of selling small numbers of bleeding edge flagships, but the truth is, they just aren't selling enough to make any real profits.
I gave you a ton of examples and they go from bleeding edge technology like folding phones down to fast charging which is basically on all phones, passing through everything else which is somewhere in the middle. That's the entire Android market covered and the bleeding edge technologies always filter down to become commonplace across price bands anyway.
Throwing LiDAR in won't help your case. My vacuum cleaner has that, along with a ton of other devices. And it has only just arrived on an iPhone anyway. LiDAR on mobile devices isn't so much about the technology itself but what to do with it. Not much at present. And weren't there Lenovo and Asus phones with LiDAR years ago? I don't remember now. Either way, it is a technology waiting for something great to do in a wider real world sense. The market (Apple included as they didn't put in onto everything new 2020 phone) is simply waiting for the pieces to fall into place. That will happen but it isn't really happening now.
Here's an example. If you gave someone the choice of Bluetooth 5.2 or LiDAR but not both, most users would opt for the Bluetooth option as it offers far more real world benefits. And so do the examples I gave further up (battery, wireless, screen refresh,...)
Apple's biggest potential competitor (Huawei) hasn't even been able to do business in the world's second largest handset market for the last four years, the US government is literally trying to destroy it with extraterritorial sanctions but it still pulled in billions in massive net profits. Yes, that's real profit.
So Apple has the US market shored up and sealed off all to itself with just one major competitor (Samsung). That is some advantage and also 100% protectionist.
Now, in spite of all this there are rumours that Huawei's 2020 revenues may have actually increased and net profits could be in the region of 10 billion dollars. We will see any day now.
By anyone's accounting, that is 'real' profit. Whatever the final number is.
"Reading your post, one would think that Apple would be getting its ass handed to them"
In many, but obviously not all, ways that was the case. There is no getting around that.
You really think apple doesn't include the latest tech gimmicks in all its features because it is incapable of doing so? It is a choice, not an inability to do so. The places where android lags behind is because they are incapable, it is not a choice. That is the difference between Apple and the rest.
I'm not sure why you think Android flagships don't do things well. That isn't true as a general statement. In fact it's very far from true.
iPhones could have a higher screen refresh rate couldn't they? Technically speaking, why not? They can't really do that though because it would kill the battery life more than on competing Android phones which can choose that option because one of the main problems for iPhones is using an old 5G modem which isn't on the SoC. Android Flagships are using latest generation 5G modems which are on the SoC.
It's about having the best on offer and competing. Apple has lagged in MANY areas.
10 years shipping a 5W charger is not competing. In photography there have been a string of features that were simply not possible on iPhones because the hardware simply wasn't there. It's as simple as that.
Huawei started the photography presentation of the Mate 10 Pro in 2017 by pointing out that they couldn't compare it to the iPhone X because the iPhone kept turning itself off due to the cold. The shoot had been in Alaska.
Portrait Mode? If there wasn't enough light (camera, not user decision) the iPhone wouldn't even let you take the photo when it was released.
Night Mode? By the time Apple brought that to the iPhone it was even considered 'new' anymore. Almost two years late with that.
Ultra wide camera? Tri Camera? Periscope lens? Free form lens? Noise? Pixel binning?
That's just photography.
As for the user experience. Have you used a modern mid-range or flagship Android phone recently? Didn't you notice the slew of features that got borrowed from Android for the latest iOS?
If you want want to know why Apple made its users wait for a lot of this stuff, ask Apple. Don't try to claim Android is lagging because, to put it bluntly, it isn't. Android is also doing a lot well.
Apple has got some stuff done well and other stuff not so well.
It took decisions and some of them worked out and others didn't.
The same thing happens on Android but over the last few years Apple has really lagged in some key areas.
Apple is slowly bringing a lot of these features to iPhones. That's good for users and great for competition.
In that same Mate 10 Pro presentation from 2017 the iPhone X lost its connection for satnav guidance when passing through common trouble spots for GPS (tunnels etc) while the Mate 10 didn't. That's not about doing something 'better'. It's about having the hardware or not. In that case, dual frequency GPS and stellar cell performance, which was another area where the iPhone didn't perform well. Huawei ensured that cell tower handover was rock solid by testing on thousands of kilometres of high speed trains in China and Germany. The Mate line is a business phone after all.
What you are trying to boil down to just 'specs' is actually more important than you think it is when certain features cannot be implemented well (or at all) if the hardware simply isn't there.
Other decisions such as only having one biometric option, are a bit of a lottery but with the pandemic Apple has come up a bit short by not having an second biometric option.
You win some you lose some, in these cases. Just like the situation for the 5G modem.