radarthekat

Apple doesn’t yet have stores in India.  Same as here in the Philippines, another, albeit smaller, developing country, with 105 million people.  But what I see here in the Philippines is dedicated Apple resellers.  High-end chains that sell only Apple computers, tablets, phones and watches, etc.  They are setup like Apple stores, with presentation tables for each product, Genius Bar analogs, all the Apple cases and accessories and the same 3rd-party Bluetooth speakers, etc.   iStore is one such chain, with about 8 stores here in Cebu and more to be found in other major cities throughout the country (Manila, Davao, General Santos, Iloilo, Baguio, Angeles, Desmariñas, and dozens more cities).  There’s another called Mac Store that focuses more on Mac computers but also carries iPhones and iPads.  And I’ve seen a third chain, but I can’t recall the name.  There’s healthy traffic in these stores, so Apple has a strong presence there, along with Samsung and all the Chinese brands in their own dedicated stores.  Every mall of any size, from small to large, has a prominent Electronics Zone section, and it’s called that in all malls, regardless of the mall operator, whether Ayala, SM, Giasano, or Metro (those are the four major national mall developers here).  Here in the Philippines you do see many of the very poor using feature phones, and 40% of the populace falls into the very poor category.  Another 40% of the populace is what we in the west would call the lower class.  These folks here make about $200-300/month.  There are many smartphone brands to serve them, from Vivo, Oppo, Huewei, to lower priced local brands.  The final 20% of the populace is the middle class, but more like lower middle class in western terms. Incomes in this class vary widely, with many at $400-500/month (teachers, call center operators) to $1500-2000/month management level, to doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.  I live within the western alcoves where many BPO personnel work, but don’t live, and where many management professionals both work and live.  I see iPhones everywhere in this context; it’s an aspirational
product. 

I suspect India, in per capital terms, is a bit behind the Philippines, and so it might be years before there exist nationwide chains of dedicated 3rd-party Apple resellers like exist here in the Philippines, and more years before there are many actual Apple stores.  There are none yet here in the Philippines.  But iPhone penetration will come, as it has here.  And in the meantime, India’s 12x larger population should provide meaningful iPhone unit sales numbers.  The future is long, and the global middle class is growing. This is what Tim Cook knows. 

foggyhill said:

Good god, the One plus photos are all oversaturated and contrasty and most oversharpened too, it's a no contest.

Seems you're commenting that is "pleasing" for some hypothetical idiot on instagram.

What you call more pleasing for One Plus I find invariably displeasing.

The skin tones are ridiculously off in all photos.

Oversaturating and too much contrast means info has been lost, there is a reason why in cinema, people shoot flat.

What they did here is the opposite of "flat" and cannot be fixed even in post. The photo is messed up.

This!

What the OnePlus is doing is the norm for Android phones.  I often stop my friends from taking selfies of our little group using their android, and they now know that it’s Carl’s phone (me, on the right in this photo) that will get the best shot.  Everywhere, but especially indoors at a restaurant or while out listening the music in a dimly lit space.  I often set the camera to Flash OFF before handing it to whomever is going to take the shot as it has the chops to get a decent pic without artificially lighting the screen with the screen flash.  I result I prefer.  You don’t want to see the comparison shots take on my friend’s Android before those were deleted and my iPhone 8+ was handed over to him. 

I sometimes will apply some photo editing to shots taken on my iPhone before posting to FB, and they appear fine in that context, because FB downsamples pics anyway.  But I notice when I later view those photos in the larger screen of my iPad the reduction in quality from applying too many edits (shadow, contrast, saturation, light, exposure, brightness, etc) really degrades the pic.  Seems every pic taken with an Android is degraded as such by default.   Cheap
tricks that appeal to those who aren’t savvy enough to know better.  Try Oppo phones.  I’ve noted they stretch the image, or maybe a better word is distort it.  Makes the subject look thinner (complimentary for selfies) but wholly unnatural resilts.  

chasm said:

MacPro said:

Nah, it is easy, you just copy everything like Google did.

And yet you haven't done it. So ... you're either lazy, stupid, or a troll. Oops, trick statement: it could be (and likely is) all three!

Or he’s an Apple investor.  Like me.  Why build another when you can own a piece or the best.  And for the record, it was obviously implied that there was not much ‘incremental cost’ to Apple.  

Happened to my series 0 after I moved to the Philippines; a very hot and humid environment.  The battery swelled and popped the screen off.  It was one of the very first manufactured, received on that day back when everyone was going unboxing videos.  Was that April 24, 2015?  Seem to recall that as the date.  I drive a series 2 Nike Edition now.  Love it.  Nothing lasts forever. 

patchythepirate said:

SpamSandwich said:

Too bad they couldn't get treble damages.

I don't know why we don't hear more about that. From what I remember a while back, damages could be tripled if 'willful intent' to copy could be proven. In this case, I don't know how much more obvious it can get. samsung created an entire gd presentation on how they were going to copy the iphone's UI, including diagrams and screen grabs!

On top of that, didn't google (of all companies..) send and email to them warning not to copy so closely? And yet they kept going.

Don't see how it could get more 'willful' than that.

It’s because that document covered changes Samsung made to copy Apple’s UX.  They were all software UI elements.  And this trial, very early on, was limited by the judge to just a handful of patents.  Apple, on the judge’s order, included only a couple software patents that Samsung’s document might have covered (I don’t recall, but I think they were in there).  And so that document would provide evidence of willful intent only for the small amount ($5 million) applied against the two software patents in this case.  The document would not have covered the hardware design patents that made up the vast majority of the damages, though there might have been evidence to present that would show willful intent on those patents.  Just that the document Samsung created is not evidence against those patents.