Not these stupid articles. Every time some OEM comes out with a novel “cool” form factor for some reason every reason is brought up why Apple needs to jump on the bandwagon. I honestly couldn’t care less whether Apple makes a foldable phone or not, but just because others are doesn’t mean Apple needs to as well.
I would bet money that at some point Apple will release a foldable device if they determine there’s a practical use for it. Like I don’t know, a small computer where the screen folds down over the keyboard to make it more portable? Seriously though… a foldable iPad could be nice.
I loved my Motorola Razr from decades ago, and the idea of a flip phone from Apple genuinely excites me. Additionally, several of my pants pockets would benefit from such a phone. My guess: It will debut in the fall of 2024.
If you were to follow Steve Jobs’s quote of a Canadian hockeyplayer of “skating to where the puck will be”
Does a flip phone sound like “it”
Innovation, surely. But is it a significant game-changing innovation really? a flip phone or a curved screen?
I think you are right on the money that smartphones are no longer cool. And also that it is a problem for not only Apple, but every other smartphone manufacturer.
I think the puck is AR and smartglasses. Who else can make actually usefull and cool smartglasses?
Apple can, and they are. So I believe you are wrong in that apple should pursue a million variants in physical design just to satisfy every customers specific “cool” design preference.
They need to deliver beyond “cool” And beyond cool is taking a tech that has been maturing now for half a century, but with no homerun product, and break the AR market wide open.
Apple can take AR and VR to the masses, and start a new cycle that will have every player chasing apple on having a mature and superbly performant wearable computer to pair with AR glasses, which the iphone is.
You just need to imagine a couple killer apps, namely maps in AR. And Pokemon GO in AR, just to mention one surefire blockbuster.
AR glasses check both “cool” and a new tech that is going to change humanity. Both of which apple cares about.
You know what company is laser-focused on "cool" and "interesting" design in their products? Swatch. While every other company is aspiring to be like Apple, some idiots here think Apple should aspire to be like Swatch and offer "cool" and "interesting" products.
iPhones would be extremely cool if Apple could find a way to allow creativity back into the app ecosystem. The iPhone was exciting in the first few years because every day there would be new amazing apps that did things no one had expected a smart device to do. There were apps that could listen to music and tell you what song it was. Another app looked at signs in different languages and turned them into English. There were highly addictive new games to play. Now all of that creative explosion is pretty much dead. The reason is that as soon as some new and exciting app becomes popular, like iDos for example, Apple kills it. Never mind that it had been in the App Store for years and got popular because it could run an extremely early version of Windows, it had violated the rules that Apple made up out of thin air and so had to die. Who is going to risk wasting years of their lives to produce an exciting new app in an ecosystem like that? No one that's who.
If Apple could carve out a space on the iPhone for risky apps to do risky things without access to the rest of the phone's data or iCloud, excitement could return to iOS. Oculus does this with the Quest. It has a separate app store for apps that are not quite ready to appear on the main app store or do things that Facebook is not yet comfortable with. The user takes the risk but the apps are there and some of them are wonderful. This will not happen on the iPhone because Apple's rules have very little to do with user safety. They are almost all about preserving Apple's control over the iPhone. The need for control is a kind of addiction for Apple's executives. Like other addictions, they are very harmful for both the addict and anyone around them. In this case, it is systematically killing the iPhone platform. Yes the new iPhones have nice new hardware features but when was the last time you bought an iPhone to get access to some amazing new app?
You lost all credibility when you praised Facebook.
I loved my Motorola Razr from decades ago, and the idea of a flip phone from Apple genuinely excites me. Additionally, several of my pants pockets would benefit from such a phone. My guess: It will debut in the fall of 2024.
Nostalgia and pockets are prob not reasons to make a flip phone.
What's not cool about the Samsung flip phones is how thick they are when they're folded. Also, the price.
Reliability/durability of the folding "glass" is a concern too. The argument could be made that people tend to trade in phones every 2-4 years, so maybe doesn't matter as much, but trade-in value would be next-to-nothing if they're shown to fail after a few years.
Almost all flips I see in stores other than Samsungs own stores have a crack on the fold of the display. The tone in the screen is all crazy, very uneven lighting.
Flip phones just scream “we don’t know what else to do so we are doing something old.”
no thanks. Been there, done that. Old hat.
The folding phones just suck. No thanks. Nothing cool about sucking.
The iPhone single handed lay created the modern smartphone standard in industrial design. Everyone copied and that’s why you have so many similar looking phones now.
It’s still “cool” and never won’t be.
You can get too used to a great thing. Dating a supermodel? Cool. In two years, you’ll take her for granted. Drive a Ferrari? Cool. In two years, you’ll want to trade it for a lambo.
It’s not the product. It’s the familiarity.
It’s not that it’s not cool. It’s that it’s not different.
But most consumers don’t want different. They want what works and looks best.
That’s iPhone.
So yes, even with relatively few new and different things this year, the iPhone is still the fastest, easiest to use, and yes, “coolest” phone you can buy.
I don’t see the use of a flip phone. It folds and therefore is a weak link. Doesn’t feel durable at all. It might be smaller in your pocket but when folded is also thicker. Above all a foldable phone doesn’t feel “Apple” to me. I don’t think the company likes them.
Phones matured. They are inherently boring. iPads too. I feel the same with every brand though. A foldable phone is just another gimmick.
They are “post design”; a minimalist shell where the software is front and central. It’s completely fine.
True revolutionary products will probably have a completely new form factor, and may be powered by phones wirelessly.
Apple has chosen to be late to the party in many areas simply because it has made good business sense to them.
As long as people are willing to purchase iPhones in sufficient numbers, this is very unlikely to change and even if change is provoked by a reality check in the shape of something like a profit warning, the most probable change would be to pricing first and, only as a last resort, features.
In terms of where the puck might be at any given time, Apple has mostly missed it many times in recent years. By accident, strategic planning, strategic misplanning or by simply failing to see what users actually want or need.
Apple is a 'play safe' company in many regards today, and there isn't much room for 'cool' on the roadmap. There will be occasional moments along the way for some great innovation but that isn't where the company is at.
Margins and revenues are what really count. That cannot be criticised from a business perspective but it comes at a price for users.
The latest iPhone offerings are really a prime example of the drip, drop attitude to features.
I haven't seen a single review that hasn't carried a tone of an 'S' series review. Of course that is exactly what they are. 'S' series phones without the 'S' in the name because Apple marketing knows full well that users are onto the 'S' labelling and what it represents.
Android manufacturers could band together for a branding campaign and really destabilise the entire iPhone ecosystem by attacking the notion that Apple is actually cool and pointing out the bare truth. That would really do some damage but I feel Android manufacturers just don't feel a need for that.
Apple is fine with the current scenario because it knows that most buyers won't be asking about things like refresh rates at purchase time, but if purchasers knew that the asking price is underdelivering with regards to the competition that would probably have an impact on sales.
Although Apple has had no option but to progressively expand its model offerings (an essential move IMO) adjust pricing and slowly add the most glaring feature omissions (tri-cameras, better low light photography, more camera versatility, better and faster charging options, longer battery life, smaller notch, 5G, higher base storage...) there is still a huge amount of damage that a concerted Android branding campaign could do (both from a hardware and software perspective).
However, in the case of flip phones specifically, from a business perspective for Apple, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Unlike Samsung or any top Chinese vendor) they are a 'mainstream' company with no 'non-mainstream' product outlets.
Everything has to be mass market. That makes it virtually impossible to bring a nascent form factor to market.
Apple probably has a flip/folding phone prototype in its labs, and it’s probably been worked on for some time. But as we know, Apple doesn’t release products based on immature technology as that is a major cause of user dissatisfaction. Apple will release this when the technology is mature AND if it thinks there’s a market for it. Personally I’m skeptical about use in a phone, but say in a iPad that folds to the size of an iPad Mini. Yes, I could see a market there.
iPhones would be extremely cool if Apple could find a way to allow creativity back into the app ecosystem. The iPhone was exciting in the first few years because every day there would be new amazing apps that did things no one had expected a smart device to do. There were apps that could listen to music and tell you what song it was. Another app looked at signs in different languages and turned them into English. There were highly addictive new games to play. Now all of that creative explosion is pretty much dead. The reason is that as soon as some new and exciting app becomes popular, like iDos for example, Apple kills it. Never mind that it had been in the App Store for years and got popular because it could run an extremely early version of Windows, it had violated the rules that Apple made up out of thin air and so had to die. Who is going to risk wasting years of their lives to produce an exciting new app in an ecosystem like that? No one that's who.
If Apple could carve out a space on the iPhone for risky apps to do risky things without access to the rest of the phone's data or iCloud, excitement could return to iOS. Oculus does this with the Quest. It has a separate app store for apps that are not quite ready to appear on the main app store or do things that Facebook is not yet comfortable with. The user takes the risk but the apps are there and some of them are wonderful. This will not happen on the iPhone because Apple's rules have very little to do with user safety. They are almost all about preserving Apple's control over the iPhone. The need for control is a kind of addiction for Apple's executives. Like other addictions, they are very harmful for both the addict and anyone around them. In this case, it is systematically killing the iPhone platform. Yes the new iPhones have nice new hardware features but when was the last time you bought an iPhone to get access to some amazing new app?
tl;dr Nonsense
If you didn’t read it, how do you know it’s nonsense?
I believe he is summarizing for us. “TLDR: more nonsense”. I know I skipped right over it based on my opinion value score for the username.
iPhones would be extremely cool if Apple could find a way to allow creativity back into the app ecosystem. The iPhone was exciting in the first few years because every day there would be new amazing apps that did things no one had expected a smart device to do. There were apps that could listen to music and tell you what song it was. Another app looked at signs in different languages and turned them into English. There were highly addictive new games to play. Now all of that creative explosion is pretty much dead. The reason is that as soon as some new and exciting app becomes popular, like iDos for example, Apple kills it. Never mind that it had been in the App Store for years and got popular because it could run an extremely early version of Windows, it had violated the rules that Apple made up out of thin air and so had to die. Who is going to risk wasting years of their lives to produce an exciting new app in an ecosystem like that? No one that's who.
If Apple could carve out a space on the iPhone for risky apps to do risky things without access to the rest of the phone's data or iCloud, excitement could return to iOS. Oculus does this with the Quest. It has a separate app store for apps that are not quite ready to appear on the main app store or do things that Facebook is not yet comfortable with. The user takes the risk but the apps are there and some of them are wonderful. This will not happen on the iPhone because Apple's rules have very little to do with user safety. They are almost all about preserving Apple's control over the iPhone. The need for control is a kind of addiction for Apple's executives. Like other addictions, they are very harmful for both the addict and anyone around them. In this case, it is systematically killing the iPhone platform. Yes the new iPhones have nice new hardware features but when was the last time you bought an iPhone to get access to some amazing new app?
Unadulterated horseshit as usual. Apparently you haven’t used any LIDAR scanning apps, AR apps, ML app etc. I couldn’t point my camera at plants and get an instant identification, or 3D scan and texture an entire room and send it to my desktop 3D modeling software, or get real-time AR text translation replacement on my old iPhones.
A folding phone may someday be compelling. We may wonder how we ever lugged around our current devices with their weight and size. But pushing for the design change because it would be "cool" is frankly a weird and un-AI take. Is Samsung on to something? Obviously not. Has anyone even seen a person with a Fold? The only place I ever even see it online is here. That doesn't mean they're wrong for thinking the market will go the foldable direction. And Apple may indeed do something like that with a few killer features. But copying Samsung shouldn't be one of them.
Apple has chosen to be late to the party in many areas simply because it has made good business sense to them.
As long as people are willing to purchase iPhones in sufficient numbers, this is very unlikely to change and even if change is provoked by a reality check in the shape of something like a profit warning, the most probable change would be to pricing first and, only as a last resort, features.
In terms of where the puck might be at any given time, Apple has mostly missed it many times in recent years. By accident, strategic planning, strategic misplanning or by simply failing to see what users actually want or need.
Apple is a 'play safe' company in many regards today, and there isn't much room for 'cool' on the roadmap. There will be occasional moments along the way for some great innovation but that isn't where the company is at.
Margins and revenues are what really count. That cannot be criticised from a business perspective but it comes at a price for users.
The latest iPhone offerings are really a prime example of the drip, drop attitude to features.
I haven't seen a single review that hasn't carried a tone of an 'S' series review. Of course that is exactly what they are. 'S' series phones without the 'S' in the name because Apple marketing knows full well that users are onto the 'S' labelling and what it represents.
Android manufacturers could band together for a branding campaign and really destabilise the entire iPhone ecosystem by attacking the notion that Apple is actually cool and pointing out the bare truth. That would really do some damage but I feel Android manufacturers just don't feel a need for that.
Apple is fine with the current scenario because it knows that most buyers won't be asking about things like refresh rates at purchase time, but if purchasers knew that the asking price is underdelivering with regards to the competition that would probably have an impact on sales.
Although Apple has had no option but to progressively expand its model offerings (an essential move IMO) adjust pricing and slowly add the most glaring feature omissions (tri-cameras, better low light photography, more camera versatility, better and faster charging options, longer battery life, smaller notch, 5G, higher base storage...) there is still a huge amount of damage that a concerted Android branding campaign could do (both from a hardware and software perspective).
However, in the case of flip phones specifically, from a business perspective for Apple, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Unlike Samsung or any top Chinese vendor) they are a 'mainstream' company with no 'non-mainstream' product outlets.
Everything has to be mass market. That makes it virtually impossible to bring a nascent form factor to market.
Do I think they should do it, though? Definitely!
Same tropes you have been pedalling for years. Is the iPhone 13 an ‘S’ upgrade for a user coming from an iPhone 6/7/8 or X? Very very few people upgrade yearly. The iOS user base continues to tick upward. Apple is so far in front of the competition in Wearables. Idk, at what point do we just give up on the same tireless narratives?
Android vendors play a spec war and in the end they run out of ideas and vendors. LG being the latest casualty.
Apple has chosen to be late to the party in many areas simply because it has made good business sense to them.
As long as people are willing to purchase iPhones in sufficient numbers, this is very unlikely to change and even if change is provoked by a reality check in the shape of something like a profit warning, the most probable change would be to pricing first and, only as a last resort, features.
In terms of where the puck might be at any given time, Apple has mostly missed it many times in recent years. By accident, strategic planning, strategic misplanning or by simply failing to see what users actually want or need.
Apple is a 'play safe' company in many regards today, and there isn't much room for 'cool' on the roadmap. There will be occasional moments along the way for some great innovation but that isn't where the company is at.
Margins and revenues are what really count. That cannot be criticised from a business perspective but it comes at a price for users.
The latest iPhone offerings are really a prime example of the drip, drop attitude to features.
I haven't seen a single review that hasn't carried a tone of an 'S' series review. Of course that is exactly what they are. 'S' series phones without the 'S' in the name because Apple marketing knows full well that users are onto the 'S' labelling and what it represents.
Android manufacturers could band together for a branding campaign and really destabilise the entire iPhone ecosystem by attacking the notion that Apple is actually cool and pointing out the bare truth. That would really do some damage but I feel Android manufacturers just don't feel a need for that.
Apple is fine with the current scenario because it knows that most buyers won't be asking about things like refresh rates at purchase time, but if purchasers knew that the asking price is underdelivering with regards to the competition that would probably have an impact on sales.
Although Apple has had no option but to progressively expand its model offerings (an essential move IMO) adjust pricing and slowly add the most glaring feature omissions (tri-cameras, better low light photography, more camera versatility, better and faster charging options, longer battery life, smaller notch, 5G, higher base storage...) there is still a huge amount of damage that a concerted Android branding campaign could do (both from a hardware and software perspective).
However, in the case of flip phones specifically, from a business perspective for Apple, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Unlike Samsung or any top Chinese vendor) they are a 'mainstream' company with no 'non-mainstream' product outlets.
Everything has to be mass market. That makes it virtually impossible to bring a nascent form factor to market.
Do I think they should do it, though? Definitely!
Same tropes you have been pedalling for years. Is the iPhone 13 an ‘S’ upgrade for a user coming from an iPhone 6/7/8 or X? Very very few people upgrade yearly. The iOS user base continues to tick upward. Apple is so far in front of the competition in Wearables. Idk, at what point do we just give up on the same tireless narratives?
Android vendors play a spec war and in the end they run out of ideas and vendors. LG being the latest casualty.
My view hasn't changed in years but I don't 'pedal' anything.
Slowly but surely Apple has implemented practically everything I have commented on.
The timelines are out there. You only have to follow them.
This isn't about wearables. There is little that can be 'cool' about wearables right now. They are basically sensor clusters.
That could change with AR/VR but isn't the case now.
Android hardware definitely isn't only about a 'spec war'. Just about every single Android flagship advance has brought more than pure specs to the table and almost all of those have ended up on iPhones.
If Jobs were still here the iPhone would have pioneered the foldable phone. Apple is too complacent these days.
THat's complete bullish*t. Apple is rarely the first to market on anything, and that was especially true under Jobs. What Apple is fantastic at is brining to market something that may not be new, but is absolutely the best at what it does.
The PowerBook wasn't the first laptop, but it was the best. The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player, but it was the best. The iPhone wasn't the first smart phone, but it was the best. The iPad wasn't the first table, but it was the best. AirPods weren't the first wireless earbuds, but they were the best.
Comments
Not these stupid articles. Every time some OEM comes out with a novel “cool” form factor for some reason every reason is brought up why Apple needs to jump on the bandwagon. I honestly couldn’t care less whether Apple makes a foldable phone or not, but just because others are doesn’t mean Apple needs to as well.
I would bet money that at some point Apple will release a foldable device if they determine there’s a practical use for it. Like I don’t know, a small computer where the screen folds down over the keyboard to make it more portable? Seriously though… a foldable iPad could be nice.
Does a flip phone sound like “it”
Innovation, surely. But is it a significant game-changing innovation really? a flip phone or a curved screen?
I think you are right on the money that smartphones are no longer cool. And also that it is a problem for not only Apple, but every other smartphone manufacturer.
I think the puck is AR and smartglasses. Who else can make actually usefull and cool smartglasses?
Apple can, and they are. So I believe you are wrong in that apple should pursue a million variants in physical design just to satisfy every customers specific “cool” design preference.
They need to deliver beyond “cool” And beyond cool is taking a tech that has been maturing now for half a century, but with no homerun product, and break the AR market wide open.
Apple can take AR and VR to the masses, and start a new cycle that will have every player chasing apple on having a mature and superbly performant wearable computer to pair with AR glasses, which the iphone is.
You just need to imagine a couple killer apps, namely maps in AR. And Pokemon GO in AR, just to mention one surefire blockbuster.
AR glasses check both “cool” and a new tech that is going to change humanity. Both of which apple cares about.
Reliability/durability of the folding "glass" is a concern too. The argument could be made that people tend to trade in phones every 2-4 years, so maybe doesn't matter as much, but trade-in value would be next-to-nothing if they're shown to fail after a few years.
no thanks. Been there, done that. Old hat.
Above all a foldable phone doesn’t feel “Apple” to me. I don’t think the company likes them.
Phones matured. They are inherently boring. iPads too. I feel the same with every brand though. A foldable phone is just another gimmick.
As long as people are willing to purchase iPhones in sufficient numbers, this is very unlikely to change and even if change is provoked by a reality check in the shape of something like a profit warning, the most probable change would be to pricing first and, only as a last resort, features.
In terms of where the puck might be at any given time, Apple has mostly missed it many times in recent years. By accident, strategic planning, strategic misplanning or by simply failing to see what users actually want or need.
Apple is a 'play safe' company in many regards today, and there isn't much room for 'cool' on the roadmap. There will be occasional moments along the way for some great innovation but that isn't where the company is at.
Margins and revenues are what really count. That cannot be criticised from a business perspective but it comes at a price for users.
The latest iPhone offerings are really a prime example of the drip, drop attitude to features.
I haven't seen a single review that hasn't carried a tone of an 'S' series review. Of course that is exactly what they are. 'S' series phones without the 'S' in the name because Apple marketing knows full well that users are onto the 'S' labelling and what it represents.
Android manufacturers could band together for a branding campaign and really destabilise the entire iPhone ecosystem by attacking the notion that Apple is actually cool and pointing out the bare truth. That would really do some damage but I feel Android manufacturers just don't feel a need for that.
Apple is fine with the current scenario because it knows that most buyers won't be asking about things like refresh rates at purchase time, but if purchasers knew that the asking price is underdelivering with regards to the competition that would probably have an impact on sales.
Although Apple has had no option but to progressively expand its model offerings (an essential move IMO) adjust pricing and slowly add the most glaring feature omissions (tri-cameras, better low light photography, more camera versatility, better and faster charging options, longer battery life, smaller notch, 5G, higher base storage...) there is still a huge amount of damage that a concerted Android branding campaign could do (both from a hardware and software perspective).
However, in the case of flip phones specifically, from a business perspective for Apple, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Unlike Samsung or any top Chinese vendor) they are a 'mainstream' company with no 'non-mainstream' product outlets.
Everything has to be mass market. That makes it virtually impossible to bring a nascent form factor to market.
Do I think they should do it, though? Definitely!
Apple probably has a flip/folding phone prototype in its labs, and it’s probably been worked on for some time. But as we know, Apple doesn’t release products based on immature technology as that is a major cause of user dissatisfaction. Apple will release this when the technology is mature AND if it thinks there’s a market for it.
Personally I’m skeptical about use in a phone, but say in a iPad that folds to the size of an iPad Mini. Yes, I could see a market there.
Confirmed.
Slowly but surely Apple has implemented practically everything I have commented on.
The timelines are out there. You only have to follow them.
This isn't about wearables. There is little that can be 'cool' about wearables right now. They are basically sensor clusters.
That could change with AR/VR but isn't the case now.
Android hardware definitely isn't only about a 'spec war'. Just about every single Android flagship advance has brought more than pure specs to the table and almost all of those have ended up on iPhones.
The PowerBook wasn't the first laptop, but it was the best.
The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player, but it was the best.
The iPhone wasn't the first smart phone, but it was the best.
The iPad wasn't the first table, but it was the best.
AirPods weren't the first wireless earbuds, but they were the best.
I could go on and on, but you get the point.