lwio

zoetmb said:

saltyzip said:

As long as the faithful stay with an iPhone then Apple has many more profitable years ahead.

The problem for the iPhone is not Samsung, like appleinsider seems to think, it is Android in general.

Google, LG, Motorola, Huawei all make great phones and most eclipse iPhone on the camera too. Look at the verge website for their latest camera shootout and you'll see iPhone doesn't even make the podium.

Apple phone inovation has plateaued​, technical advancement takes a long time, and because they are running out of features to entice people to upgrade they are now falling behind what was the chasing pack.

As long as the Apple faithful continue buying iPhones, then nothing will change, but don't expect to get best bang for your buck.

Think about what most people, especially younger people, do with their phones, which is why they find Samsung and/or Android phones acceptable, especially when they're priced lower.   They text, use Facebook, Instagram, listen to music, watch YouTube, take photos/video, watch other movies/video, send/receive email, play games and sometimes use the browser to look something up.   For those types of apps, an Android phone works perfectly well.   And if it has a better camera or a larger screen, even better.   Most people live in the moment and don't care about security, at least not enough to spend more to do something about it.    

I live in NYC and use the subways a lot.   These days, almost everyone in a subway car is using their phones.   Some people are listening to music, but I would say that when I sit next to someone who is looking at their phone (so not necessarily just listening to music), if I look over to see what they're doing, I'd say that 20% of the time they're texting and 70% of the time they're playing a free game, regardless of age.  

It's similar to why most people can get away with a $400 PC.   For web browsing, Facebook and email, which is what most people do on their PC's, it works fine for up to a tenth of the cost.  Maybe the color isn't accurate and the UI isn't as good - maybe it's less secure.  Maybe frame rates are actually pretty poor.      But for 1/8th the price of a MBP, it's perfectly fine for the masses, at least that's their perception.   On the other hand, if you go to a place where people have money, almost all you see are Macs.    I always laugh when I pass a coffee shop in a hipster neighborhood and look inside and every machine is a Mac.  I also consult for a company that's in a WeWork shared space facility and as you walk around the floor, almost every single computer used by the startups are Macs.   Older, larger tech companies are exceptions where you see a lot of Wintel laptops and towers.   

So sure, a lot of people will stick with Apple because it's what they know or because they've invested in apps and don't want to switch.   But for many other people, when they need a new phone, if they can get an Android phone for far less, they will.   And I think that Samsung's advertising also does a great job in attempting to compete with Apple as does a lot of Microsoft's advertising.    Apple's advertising used to be great, but whenever I see their TV spot about those stupid stickers, I want to vomit.  One should spend $700 for a phone or $3000 for a laptop so they can put stupid stickers on someone's face that look appropriate for an 8-year-old?    This is the same company that ran the "Think Different" campaign?