baederboy

freeper said:

lkrupp said:

AppleInsider said:

People shopping for a smartphone in July, for instance, might consider holding off if a significant iPhone update is predicted for September. Hints of a modest update can prompt people to wait even longer, or simply buy an Android phone.

I seriously doubt the people would “buy an Android phone” because they didn’t want to wait for Apple. That’s strictly a nerd sort of mentality.

Except that surveys and polls have shown that people do exactly that. Or a very recent example of the reverse behavior: during the Note 7 debacle, lots of people who wanted to buy the Galaxy Note 7 bought iPhones instead, and lots of THOSE are either buying the Samsung Galaxy 8+ or are waiting on the Galaxy Note 8. Two things that you are overlooking: 1) Carriers make it VERY EASY for their longtime customers to switch/upgrade devices. The reason is that it prevents the competition (carriers I mean) from using the lure of a new device to get people to switch. 2) 90% of the population doesn't care about the fanboy platform wars. Most people switch back and forth between the platforms. The vast majority of iPhone owners have owned an Android phone in the past and vice versa. The media only reports the number of people who switch from Android to iPhone each quarter ... while ignoring that an equal number of people switch from iPhone to Android, and that a huge number of people own BOTH iPhones and Androids with one being their daily driver and the other a spare, or one being for professional use and the other for personal use. That is why I always take the "I once owned a Samsung and LG phone and it was so horrible ... the stutter, the lag, the crashing apps ... it was a total nightmare but when I switched to an iPhone it was like a new lease on life!" comments on Apple blogs with a grain of salt (because anonymous unverifiable Internet comments that can be made with no repercussions are exactly that). It does not come close to matching actual market statistics and patterns. If it did you WOULD NOT see AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile treat iPhones and major Android phones nearly equally. (This was not always the case by the way ... I remember when Android phones were a distinct stepchildren to the iPhone and Nokia phones to carriers, and also when carriers were quite antagonistic to Google.) So as the average consumer hasn't been a loyal Apple fan who has only bought Apple products for the past 20 years but is instead someone who owned an Android phone 3 years ago before buying an iPhone 2 years ago - or vice versa - getting a Samsung Galaxy to use for 6 months or so until they can switch to an iPhone at the cost of only like $50 - $100 bucks (or even for free) from their carrier is not exactly a nausea-inducing thought, but rather is a routine business transaction for your very friends and neighbors.

Soli said:

hmurchison said:

No people will use what works.  Siri works in far more countries because they put the effort in. Alexa simply lacks the sophistication to understand more languages which means on a global scale it simply isn't a factor. 

I'm not sure what your point is. Are you saying the Echo is a good product because their market is currently smaller? Of course Apple supports more languages, because as previously stated they support a lot more countries and users with a lot more languages. If Amazon had the same unit sales, revenue, and profit margins as the iPhone I'm certain they wouldn't supported more countries by now.

BTW, how many countries did Siri support after only 2 years on the market?

logicandlove said:

AirPods change everything. Unlike Alexa, they provide AI control in every room of your house, and with an iPhone in your pocket, they allow audiovisual control outside as well as inside.  Alexa has no visual display and a very very limited range. The AirPod/iPhone combination is the future of AI. I believe we will look back and see that AirPods were Apple's most significant device in recent years.