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 …
Samsung could fall quicker than Apple. People are loyal to Apple / iOS - partly as they go hand in hand. Samsung are just another Android maker - Google could upset them with their purchase of Motorola or HTC / someone else could come out with the new 'best' Android phone = bye bye Samsung.
If I were Samsung I would be feeling more vulnerable than Apple.
"Samsung could fall quicker than Apple. People are loyal to Apple / iOS - partly as they go hand in hand. Samsung are just another Android maker - Google could upset them with their purchase of Motorola or HTC / someone else could come out with the new 'best' Android phone = bye bye Samsung.
If I were Samsung I would be feeling more vulnerable than Apple."
Or in the real world, Samsung are not tied to one product/ecosystem and are partners for various OS suppliers. More eggs in more baskets.
Apple have only a small user base and they have to work harder to make them believe that their purchase was not folly in the first place.
"They basically make all their profit on selling the phones"
Except the profits they make on TV's of course. And computers. And Blu-ray players, home theatre systems, oh and whitegoods. And of course all their electronic components and manufacturing plants. And OLED patents and production. And...
Apple are the ones limited to just phones and computers - if Samsuing stopped selling twice as many smartphones as Apple tomorrow Samsung would survive. Doubt Apple would be doing so well if their iphone/ipad business stopped...
Arguably this just happened, in the form of the Nexus 4. Costs £279 unlocked for a 16gb version, processor is on a par with that of iPhone 5 (quad-core snapdragon s4). Screen is a proper IPS LCD and is around 720 in the small direction (and is 4.7 inches diag.). Plus it will get OS updates from google.
Probably wont play nicely with outlook/exchange activesync out of the box though, so if that's a factor it might be out. Unless you are OK with Touchdown or similar.
If you have to uglify your super-cool speaker dock with an adaptor then you can choose whether to go for an iPhone 5 lightning cable/adaptor or an audio cable for your an Android phone. The Lightning connector means that people's accessories no longer tie them to the iHardware.
Many devices support Airplay or are Bluetooth devices - I don't really get why people would want to 'dock' these days - yes I guess it charges the device but so... and what if you are using an iPad / other devices. Wireless streaming is the way forward. As for the connector - simply it's far better than the old dock connector and better than micro USB - it's what micro USB should have been.
Plug it in either way - so much better than fiddling with getting it the 'right' way.
Docks might not be the best way of connecting devices to speakers but if you already have docks then there is a strong incentive to buy a device that connects to them - even if you actually prefer an alternative product. The accessories provide an 'ecosystem' that ties you to the original device brand. Once the original brand ceases to connect to the accessories then you are free to look around and may well choose something different. Whether the lighting connector is better is not the point; it's that the lightning connector breaks the accessories 'ecosystem' that has helped to keep people buying ipods/iphones.
Wireless charging is a nice idea but it's not practical. So I need a charging pad in my car, one for the office, one in the house and perhaps another for my laptop bag - how much are extra pads (probably more than a simple cable).
Is the same pad definitely going to work with other manufacturers? Can it charge a tablet at 2 amps wirelessly?
Does it make the device bigger - you have to ask yourself is plugging the thing in once or twice or dropping it onto a dock all that much hard work? Also it only charges - connectors can also do data and even have control signals for other devices.
"So I need a charging pad in my car, one for the office, one in the house"
How crap is your battery life? I charge my phone overnight, that's all I need, and I use it pretty heavily
"Is the same pad definitely going to work with other manufacturers?"
There are common standards set, so the intent is for all devices to work. Unless a manufacturer specifically chooses to make theirs incompatible.
"Does it make the device bigger"
The only one I've seen in real life is the Samsung one, and it was exactly the same size as a regular SGS3 (just a different battery cover), so no, it isn't any bigger (or doesn't have to be...)
"it only charges - connectors can also do data"
You mean like bluetooth and wifi do data?
Nokia didn't beat the to it unless you claim they invented the technology. Apple and the other manufacturers have just chosen not to include it - perhaps it's bulky, expensive etc. I have seen slip on 'skins' for phones with that technology added - they basically double the thickness of the phone = non starter.
The Nokia N9 has NFC beat Samsung too I think.
Why are nerds so crazy about NFC? I have never seen even 1 shop taking NFC payments (ok, maybe a function of where I live and what I buy, but here is generally regarded as one of the world's advanced countries).
NFC offers very few advantages over a credit cards as a payment medium - if any. It's just one more infrastructure cost for retailers and a way for telcos to get some action in the financial transaction processing business. It has nothing to do with extra utility for consumers or cheaper services. It's a wank basically.
"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."
ONLY 75% - it's a figure other manufacturers would LOVE. I really can't imagine someone saying "Yes I'm definitely buying a HTC next time". You buy whichever handset suits you best at the time and consider how many are there 75% is a huge number and probably double that of anyone else.
Just let the competition flourish without litigation silly patents and such.
Apple has been too litigating and too expensive and those days when Apple users showed the iThingi so superbly pround and happy is gone.
It should be like this, we will not gain anything if there i some company with a very high percentage of what ever industry.
With even the inquirer's "Ipad Mini vs Nexus 7 vs Kindle Fire HD" review failing to mention GPS I'm finding it hard to find 'fair minded press'.
Forget loyalty, how about proper real user useful reporting?
More real reporting can improve things for everyone including Apple users.
We don't need successful dumbed down gadgets winning via very limited reporting.
And if you were using an iPhone then it would pass GPS location data to the iPad.
Apple have to build their kit to support all of the markets that they sell in. In some they need GLONAS compatibility, in others they are not permitted to include sat nav at all. How many markets does the Nexus 7 sell in again?
"And if you were using an iPhone then it would pass GPS location data to the iPad"
So I have to buy a $600 iphone to give a $600 ipad functionality that costs about 30c to add to a device?
Or I can buy a $200 Android tablet with GPS already built in and save $1000(+).
Gee which is the best buy LOL!
Oh come on, almost no-one in the US pays the full amount for their phone, getting them subsidised by their cell carrier, and it's not much different for the up-front cost of an iPhone or an Android phone. If you've already bought the iPhone then you can access its GPS data for nothing from your $330 iPad mini.
You can buy the 3G version of the iPad mini and get GPS/GLONAS if you don't have an iPhone, which gives you more flexibility and costs you $130 extra. Under no circumstances can you save the kind of money you're claiming.
So all those TOMTOM devices...don't need GPS, wifi would do for them?
Nexus 7 makes a GREAT satnav.
Google now, works much better with gps (hint better location - more accurate)
There is really only one use-case for 3g/4g in a tablet and that's where someone else is paying for the data, so corporate email on the tablett. Other than that until network operators give family's pots of data that they can all use and free sims to acess that pot of data you are better off buying one set of data and using that for all devices when you are out of wifi range.
Battery life - get an external battery pac or a mifi if you like.
Saying that I might get a 3g nexus as for £30 it's not bad for emergencies..
Kind of shot your own argument down there didn't you?
You don't need a contract for the 3/4G iPads, you can pay for data on a PAYG basis (with some carriers letting you pay for a day or a week's access). The rest of the time you can tether to your phone if you want.
Alternatively you can shop about and get a couple of gig a month on a 1 month rolling contract for about £5. This saves 1) hassle enabling/disabling tethering on the phone and 2) lets you tether a laptop etc without bothering about battery life (or a bulky battery pack).
The argument is two fold
1) better build quality (something that the Fandroids seem to hate and put no value in, but it's brought up in every review)
2) there is hugely more tablet optimised software available for it. Before you start on about fart apps, there is just as much, if not more, dross in the Play store. The lack of propper tablet apps is more than just an irritation for Android tablets at the moment.
...if you choose to rub your Gentleman Vegetables with a Droid or an iThing or whatever?
Whichever you choose you are still a sad moron who rubs his bits with a piece of plastic/aluminium.
Get a life and get laid, or go climb a mountain or go for a walk.
It really is not that important. It's just a bloody phone with a web browser that can run a few silly programs that you CAN live without.
I recently moved from an iphone 4 to iphone 5
despite the lack of improvements, which am not too fussed about ... a good phone
yeh it works like an iphone
what does not work is everything around it, all the sound equipment that apple consumers have bought in the past ... useless ... new connector
hey ... buy an adaptor ... Apple you tight gits ! after people have been buying your products you don't even have the courtesy to provide the adaptor for free, instead ... you sell it for 25 quid , whilst non-branded adaptors are not even out.
then here goes Command in the merc ... not charging, and of course, merc hasn't got cables for the new iPhone.
this really give me the hump
The map integration .... oh well, not as good as the gmap integration
so where does that leave the consumer ? somewhere in the middle of ladyboy pageant with trousers round the ankles
worse of that with my iphone 4
<rant over>
PS: please no cretinous reply " you should have bought this blah blah blah "
OR...
...just use a good ole phono lead out of the headphone socket and cope with having to walk to your stereo to skip a track?
Apple have done what lots of bands do - they've got their formula, and are now afraid to change it (RHCP, Coldplay for example).
Still, 75% of users happy and will buy again? As mentioned above, you'd have to go a long, long way to find that level of brand loyalty anywhere else.
yes, the phono lead ... thanks ... really works browsing the playlist having to look at a phone screen instead of the screen I have behind the wheel
may I suggest you spare money by not living in a house and paying a mortgage and living in a tent ?
no don't thank me, like you I like to dish out useful advice
IN-TE-GRA-TION is the problem, not the lack of music
In fact, I don't even own a mobile telephone. But I have replaced an absolute shed load of them for my wife and kids. An awful lot of these smartphones seem to be quite flimsy, drop them and the screen cracks, battery life is shite etc etc.
i base this entirely on observations and having to fork out the cash for poxy new phones all the time.
My daughter has a crack across the screen of her brand new galaxy S advanced. Luckily I have it insured, but she wants to wait until she "really" breaks it before putting the claim in.
When the wife broke her 5th telephone, I sellotaped up her old broken nokia e71 and that's that.
She is "very" "happy" now, embarrassed to bejaesus mind, but meh.
The one thing that the jesus phone has going for it is that it seems to be more knock resistant.
I'm still not buying her a new one mind.
People who buy these things are like people who bought Harry Potter hardbacks because they want to be part of the gang. As the book types discovered, you can only milk that cow so many times before the novelty wears off and too many wannabes join the self-appointed taste elite.
That and less cheap credit in the last few years prevents quite so many buying overpriced tat on their flexible friend.
"people who buy these things"
"part of the gang"
thanks for that in depth analysis, which truly adds to the discussion
there's me thinking that when you have nothing constructive to say, you should save your keyboard from use
clearly not ... arrrg should have saved my keyboard
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