Fans' loyalty questioned as iPhone popularity plummets iPopularity is in a state of decline, with "Apple loyalty" said to have fallen for the first time since the iPhone's 2007 release. Only 75 per cent of iPhone owners in Western Europe say they'd choose an Apple device for their next smartphone, new data from market watcher Strategy Analytics show. That still seems a relatively …
At some point even the frothiest of fanbois have to notice that this years new innovations are increasingly things Apple previously swore they would not do. Things they took the time to publicly claim were mistakes when their competition did them, hard to not notice that the competition did them 1st since Apple pointed that out to all that would listen.
Cool is a poor substitute for functionality. When iPhone started it was ahead on both. Now its not and even the deliberately blind can't continue lying to themselves about that.
Not accurate.
The 7" market was non-existent when the iPad was launched and the 10" was what punters wanted (proof by iPad sales v. all 7" tablets combined). The market has matured a bit since then and now there is in fact a market for a medium sized device (not sure how big though). No fail by Apple here, then or now.
The bigger screen iPhone is bigger without materially compromising the objectives of the single size doctrine - single hand operation and identical interface experience for apps. No fail there either.
Dweeb
"Not accurate.
The 7" market was non-existent when the iPad was launched and the 10" was what punters wanted (proof by iPad sales v. all 7" tablets combined). The market has matured a bit since then and now there is in fact a market for a medium sized device (not sure how big though). No fail by Apple here, then or now.
The bigger screen iPhone is bigger without materially compromising the objectives of the single size doctrine - single hand operation and identical interface experience for apps. No fail there either.
Dweeb"
Who supplies your information, Al jazeera?
What an absolute wacking pile of shite!
Stop your poor attempts at justifying your folly.
"Cool is a poor substitute for functionality. When iPhone started it was ahead on both."
NO IT WAS NOT! It had a capacitive touch-screen - that is all. The original iPhone was a terrible device -- 2G only, no application support, no GPS, terrible non-autofocus 2MP camera, poor bluetooth, no front camera, no memory expansion, no FM radio, stupid micro-SIM tray, non-user removable battery, inferior touch-only keyboard, alarms not working when device is off, poor standby, a rip-off price.
Some of the terrible design decisions in the original iPhone still persist to this day, with many other manufacturers copying this form-over-function design for the sake of fashion.
Yet mine is still in daily use, battery lasts longer than an S2 or a S3 (more functionality than those devices then :-) )
No micro sim tray, standard sim.
No application support...hmm looks at all the apps on my phone..if you say so..
poor bluetooth..works for a headset..
no memory expansion...hmm which android devices can you expand the memory on, note not the onboard storage, but the memory you're complaining about...
Touch only keyboard...aha You're a bitter blackberry user...that explains all.. So how's RIM decisions on hard keyboards and removeable batteries working for them huh?
Find your battery comment dubious though can't comment on the Samdung batteries myself, but as for the rest:
SIM/Micro-SIM -- whatever, was speaking off the top of my head, and SIM trays are still turd (and so are micro-SIMs for that matter)
I don't recall application support when the WhyPhone "started" and receiving all the hype. Far from "ahead".
It may work for a headset, but that's hardly what I would call "ahead".
Flash storage is a form of memory -- stop trying to twist my words.
Nope, not a Blackberry user -- BlackberryOS just as proprietary as WhyOS -- Android QWERTY slider all the way.
If walking through trains on the Metropolitan line is any judge. The GSIIIs really do have been a huge hit.
I'd love to know why people are starting to choose Android-I suspect big screens was part of it, and maybe the widget desktop letting you see what the weather's going to be? Who knows.
Agree here. Those GS3 commercials are a HUGE hit and it strikes directly at Apple's core. High school kids are bragging about updating, rooting, and expanding their Android phones while their Apple classmates sit in silence. Meanwhile, Apple keeps showing itself a brand hypocrite with Foxconn abuses and patent lawsuits.
So, Apple is not compassionate, not leading-edge, and not cool. Destroying their own brand..
Is it just me or does the iPhone5 already feel like old technology? The problem is they have (for a breif period) proven they can be innovative, however now, they are proving the opposite with their iPhone 5 - its the same as the 4S as far as most owners are concerned and they're locked in for another year or two with the same tech they had previous ( minus the maps of course ) ... no wonder ppl are beginning to lose interest.
At the last launch, I tried to point out that the last couple of iPhones had seemed iterative at best and was resoundingly shouted down by Crapple fanbois. What is the point of the standard Crapple push for yearly handset churn when:
1) Most users are locked into a 2 year contract.
2) The "brand new" phone is only an interation of capability from the previous version and/or very similar to the capability of other phones on the market.
3) It includes major issues like iOS maps.
I mean what is the point for the consumer? - From the perspective of Crapple, they definitely want their users churning over to a new iDevice every year.
Is there any thing worse than a rabid, unquestioning fan?
1) No. That is a situation peculiar to markets that allow it.
2) Yes indeed, and I may choose an iPhone5 to replace my 3GS. I detest the Android model, so reject it as an option.
3) Apple dropped the ball and have admitted it. Next.
There is no point in buying a new car before the wheels fall off according to you.
Ownership of an iPhone does not make one a fanbois.
"2) Yes indeed, and I may choose an iPhone5 to replace my 3GS. I detest the Android model, so reject it as an option."
Then
"Which one? There are a lot to choose from."
& "Which android model? They don't all look the same! Something that can't be said for iclone."
& "Maybe he has an irrational fear of choice? Would certainly explain it."
Did IQs drop sharply around here? Obviously the OP is not talking about the various models of the phone, but the model of OS distinct from hardware.
And I'm not commenting on whether the OP is right on that or not, but one thing I feel about people who vehemently defend their choice of purchase, whether thats Apple or Android (or any other product for that matter), they've obviously got doubts they made the correct choice.
"the Android model" was clearly unclear to at least on poster here. The phrase was intended to refer to the process from design, code, deployment to manufactures, carrier intervention, Google intervention etc. etc etc. of the Android the OS. Android is not a phone, it is an OS.
I don't actually WANT a phone where the OS is designed by a committee and manged by boy scouts and deployed by the author, manufacturers and carriers with interests widely divergent from the consumer (me). The upgrade history for Android devices is also appalling, and I would prefer my phones to remain current for more than 5 minutes. Samsung is still selling Android phones running v2.3 ffs.
(thanks tony for noting what I thought was blindingly obvious)
Android is not designed by committee. One person has been in charge of the project ever since it was founded (by him and a few of his mates) in 2003. The person is Andy Rubin. Since 3.0, one man has been in charge of the GUI aspects. That's Mattias Duarte (and he answers directly to Andy Rubin, of course). If you see them interviewed, you will see that these guys very much take personal ownership - and pride - in the work they are doing. And they really do have the end-user in mind. Their ambition is to make the OS as elegant, powerful, smooth and flexible as possible. And, to my mind, they're doing a very good job of that.
Complaining about Samsung selling Android 2.3 phones is really missing the point. Those phones are low-end devices being sold mostly to people who would not be able to afford a proper smartphone if Android didn't exist. If you want the latest software, either buy the latest premium device from an OEM, or buy a Nexus.
"At the last launch, I tried to point out that the last couple of iPhones had seemed iterative at best and was resoundingly shouted down by Crapple fanbois. What is the point of the standard Crapple push for yearly handset churn when:
1) Most users are locked into a 2 year contract."... for which they paid peanuts for the phone, yet iPhone users site "desirability and premium product" as a major selling point. (the iPhone is cool and expensive therefore I am cool factor)
Really, all the chavs have an iPhone. Every pikey and their chavvy lass have one.
If you see iPhone users, you know to s p e a k s l o w l y so they can undertsand what is going on around them.
I wonder how much has to do with changes by the wireless companies, though. Here in the States, Verizon (and others, since they aren't an industry leader so much as an industry optimizer) has done away with the ability to purchase a phone with new two-year contract regardless of how much was left on the old contract. Instead, if you aren't "upgrade eligible", you pay full retail with the option to "trade-in" and sell back your old phone. However, it's rarely enough to cover the difference between full retail and subsidized prices (my old-tech HTC Incredible will fetch a whole $16).
So you are locked into that two year upgrade cycle unless you have lots of cash in your pockets. A Galaxy S3 with 32GB will set you back $100 less at retail price than a 32GB iPhone 5. Is that $100 really worth it since the two devices are comparable in many ways if you strip out the stupid brand loyalty wars? And even if you like your iPhone 4, but want a larger screen or better battery, can you really stomach that retail price? If you were going to upgrade regardless, maybe you figure that while the iPhone 5 is nice, it might be worth it to give the Galaxy S3 or RAZR HD phones a chance (I kind of like my wife's new RAZR HD) since they cost less. I just don't see the cost-benefit to upgrade, unless the refresh of the iPhone 5 ends up being more than just an Intel tick (die shrink, same architecture).
With the way I use my phone (less phone, more media, internet, calendar device), though, the Galaxy Note 2 might be a better option for me, and that's something Apple, in terms of size and features, can't compete on right now.
Well, I have no strong pro/anti opinions, I use whatever works for me at the time.. but I have to say that right now, Apple are a bit.. dull.
Making a thinner IMac or a longer phone isn't all that interesting. If I am going to drop a chunk of change on their latest and greatest, I expect something a little audacious or unusual- especially if I am to put up with various bits of lockdown.
Maybe it's too early to call it, but this recent barrage of "product" does feel a little like some shark jumping. It seems to be just a revenue drive for the quarterly financials, rather than delivering product which shake up or define some market segment or other.
The iPhone 5? It looks OK, I suppose. I am not that excited by it, nor am I driven mad with hatred. If someone were to give me one, I'd tinker with it, but it doesn't feel like it offers anything unmissable over and above my current perfectly good smartphone (an unlocked Galaxy S3). Maybe that's the problem- "good enough" isn't always good enough.
Indeed. The new features don't warrant a major version jump.
For me, the phone killer app (apart from being a phone and sms system) is cloud email and unified address books. I don't know if icloud does this, but I know my linux systems will talk nicely to google services. I'm unhappy with apple taking stuff off their kit (macs) and not actually replacing it with with anything better and its that attitude which somewhat scares me even if they did talk nicely with my suse desktop. I dislike being an advertising commodity but I dislike a lack of interoperability and function more. I also suspect apple wants to head down the advertising path and iOS will end up as bad as android games. My wife's free iOS card games certainly contain irritating adverts.
I'm not sure what phones could add which would be new and innovative. Apple could put a PSTN link back in the mac and allow your iphone to make landline calls. Decent VOIP? How about making time-machine hardware into a decent firewall/router or voip gateway or tv recorder (with icloud subscription covering the EPG tweaking) with your iphone as the UI?
How about making the iphone dual-sim so its usable for work and home?
The first bunch of people to buy an iPhone were much more eager to want one. Now you see the nice-to-have-one, added to the must-have-one-at-all-cost, and the must-have-one-as-my-next-device crowds. And don't forget the must-have-something-different-from-everybody-else crowd.
BTW, it is a good thing we hadn't an internet during the days Microsoft got really big. At least people are forced to copy somebody else's take on Apple iOS news. Next time they can just reuse their own content, and do some global search-and-replaces on the pro- and antagonists. That is going to be a wonderful deja-vu experience. Can't wait for it to happen.
The iPhone is long overdue for a new look. iPhone 5 is sufficiently different for the fanbois to notice, but is same-old to normal people. Big bad Steve would have seen this. The current management are obsessed with keeping ahead of the competition in the features race, something that never bothered Jobs. He knew, as does any salesman, that punters buy benefits, not features. Only the geeks care about the specs.
As the owner of a relatively new iPhone 4S, I like my phone. Granted, I don't really want to anything more complicated than send a few text messages, make a few phone calls, and occasionally read a few emails, but what it does, it does well. The hardware is pretty good. Extortionately expensive for what it is, but pretty good.
But what really pains me about the whole Apple / iOS 'experience', is iOS itself. The bloody thing looks basically the same as it did 6 iterations ago. OK, the corners of the icons are probably slightly more round, but fundamentally nothing much has changed. In my eyes, it's like firing up a brand-spranking new laptop with the most powerful internals around, and finding its running Windows 3.1. Compare it with 6 iterations of Mac OS X and it's obvious where the development efforts have been.
Please Apple, go away and have a play with iOS. Make it look and feel a little less 2007, and then come back to us.
Given the overwhelming and increasing success of Android, I'd say Android would win on any loyalty survey.
And scoff at Blackberry all you like, but they outsold Apple for years, and it's still unclear if Apple have caught up to their numbers. Blackberry were selling smartphones years before Apple's iphone was still a dumb phone that couldn't even do apps.
I had a HTC for my previous two handsets and if asked 6 months ago I would say I would have another. Upgrade time arrived and I bought a Note II. Thats not to say my satisfaction with HTC declined 8n those 6 months... I just found something else I liked that wasn't from them.
My wife isn't happy with her 4S since seeing the epic screen on my phone. But wouldnt want anything bigger. So would she go apple again? The new one is bigger.... but she likes apple. I'm rambling.
My missus was all set to get her first iphone on her next upgrade too until she saw my Note 2, and now wants a Galaxy S3 instead. That and the fact I had to sue Apple (successfully) to get a replacement for a broken 18-month old iPad took the shine out of the reality distortion field.
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