shamino

Apple has no choice.  They chose to locate nearly all of their manufacturing facilities in China and the Chinese government knows it.  So they can make demands like "you won't advertise in newspapers we don't like or we're shutting down your operation in our country".  And Apple has no choice but to comply because to do otherwise would eliminate their ability to sell any new product.

They were fools to use Chinese factories and now they are facing the consequences.  It will take them years to set up factories elsewhere, which is the only way they can possibly get out of this hole.  But they won't do it because ultimately cost-cutting is more important than freedom, no matter how many corporate press releases claim otherwise.

Marvin said:

It wouldn't matter if they shrunk the battery down, external battery cases can make up for it for people who need the extra.

But it completely undermines the point of an extra long-life battery if we still have to drag around external battery packs.

Marvin said:

Battery life is pretty good on mobile devices these days, it's pretty rare that someone runs completely out of battery during a day.

You don't have kids, do you?  My daughter completely drains her phone and an external battery pack every day, thanks to an obsessive desire to be active on social media every waking minute.  She is not unusual these days.

But you know that you'll never get a phone that can go 3x as long between charges.  If such a battery is invented and becomes practical and affordable, the phone manufacturers (including Apple) will shrink the battery to 1/3 its size and use the remaining space for something else (or just make the device even thinner, just for bragging rights.)  You'll still be unable to go a whole day between charges if you actually use it for running apps.

https://www.eviscerati.org/comics/comic/hd/2016/09/Solving-Wrong-Problem

rogifan_new said:

I'd be curious to see statistics on how many people use Google services vs. own Apple hardware. And how many people who own Apple hardware use Google services.

I own lots of Apple hardware and I use Google services all the time.  Especially GMail, search and Maps.

It's interesting, but there's more to creativity and innovation than patent filings, and most research involves more people than those listed on the patent as the primary inventors.

Each company has also deployed thousands of features which are not patentable for various reasons - either there is prior art, or based on patents from other companies (licensed or expired) or concepts considered "obvious" by the patent office.

As we all know, there can be incredible amounts of innovation, creativity and design work in implementing a concept.  Two companies implementing the same concept rarely produce the same result.  cf. Windows vs. Mac, iOS vs. Android vs. Windows Mobile, XBox vs. PlayStation vs. Wii, etc.