Huawei? Apple and Samsung's worst nightmare, pal

Re: Whose worst nightmare? Samsung's! Not Apple's.

"and sold to people with more money than discernment (Ah yes, that'll be it)"

When I lived in that part of the world, a Hampstead café owner had a Rolls-Royce with a gold plated flying lady mascot.Today, blinged iPhones remind me of this.

I happened to have an acquaintance who also owned a Royce of the same era. He had bought it when his mother died and left him lots of money. He had asked his wife if she wanted one too, and she said no, too big for London, she wanted a Honda Civic.

Over the next two years the Royce was off the road more often than on while the Civic just ran like clockwork between routine services. I believe he eventually decided, not long after I moved, that the Royce would never be fixed to the point of actual reliability, and disposed of it at a huge loss.

...begin rant

Now, I am not suggesting that Apple stuff is as unreliable as a 1970s Rolls-Royce. Nor is it in the same class of over-pricedness. But for years I did afford Apple kit. Gradually I noticed that failed motherboards, failed hard drives, and OS problems were just as common as with Windows machines and it wasn't clear what benefit I was getting. After the bodged transition to OS X a load of Apple kit was either sold or became landfill, and our business ran happily on the business products of Acer and Redmond, to the benefit of the bottom line. I swore a mighty oath on the bones of my ancestors that the Furies of Alan Turing would abide with me and my house if I ever was suckered by Apple again.

Now what was I going to say? Oh yes, it's a bloody computer, not an objet d'art or, kayn anoreh, a status symbol. If the Chinese can churn out Honda-Civic equivalent mobile phones at Chinese prices, a combination of inverted snobbery and desire for value for money will eventually eat into the Apple market share outside the US. Because sometimes using a spade with a plain steel blade doesn't actually mean you can't afford a stainless steel one, it just means that a spade is only a spade, not a life affirming aesthetic choice.

...end rant

Re: Whose worst nightmare? Samsung's! Not Apple's.

Well, what about Apple - inventor of stuff that people actually want.

What about them? Actually, no, let's consider that Apple, despite having invented a few things over the years, aren't that much better than a number of other American corporates who invent a few things then spend the rest of their days sitting on their IP, filing countless lawsuits to back themselves up. While other corporates like Samsung and Google can stand up to this sort of thing and will give as good as they get, the people that suffer are the small fry who often do the real inventing work.

As for phone sales and such, I took delivery of my Huawei Honor 6 this week. I've been a Huawei user for a couple of years now and though I often get odd looks when I tell people what I use, they are often impressed by the phone and, more notably, the price I paid to get it. I look at the cost of Apple and Samsung devices and realised long ago that paying that sort of money just for a badge cannot be justified unless they have a must-have functionality that is worth that extra cost. If not, I'm quite happy to let Huawei, Xioumi, Oneplus, ZTE or whoever tout for my business. They have proven themselves to me.

Re: Whose worst nightmare? Samsung's! Not Apple's.

Well, it is generally considered to be a place where some sort of continued civilization has occurred, even though it has seen plenty of power switches(much like ye old Mesopotamia). Another contender for one of the oldest civilizations is Egypt, which has also seen a continued existence of a society much with the same genetic makeup.

All in all, it's a silly/stupid statement that has not much merit from a historical perspective and generally paints with a extremely overtly big brush.

Re: Whose worst nightmare? Samsung's! Not Apple's.

"Just one example: they had fleets, naval power, ability to navigate in open sea long before Europeans."

The Antikythera mechanism dates from the 2nd century BCE and uses gearing with a technical sophistication that could not be reproduced in Europe until the 18th century. We tend to think of civilisation continually evolving, but it has had major setbacks. Thanks, Romans, Scandinavians and Mongols.

Or ships... Lot's of ships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Heavy_Industries