back to article Apple taxpayers swarm to stone-age iPhone 6+ purely for the bigness

Remember “Peak Apple”? Maybe you haven’t heard the phrase so much lately. Punters are paying the Apple Tax and it’s primarily because Apple has done exactly what it did before … only in a bigger package. Kantar’s smartphone market share numbers for Q1 show the Apple iPhone 6 Plus seized 44% of the US phablet market in only …

  1. Zog_but_not_the_first
    Trollface

    iPhone purchase

    It's a covert intelligence test. Well, maybe not so covert.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    Wow....

    talk about flamebait.

    popcorn please.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Mark 85

        Re: Wow....

        Blackberry, anyone? * DUCKS *

        Have an upvote for the observation and also not mentioning the Windows Phone idiocy.... err.... product.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And why not?

    "How galling it must be to be an Android ODM and cram in interesting new features, only for punters to flood back to Apple, for doing the same thing it’s always done"

    There's a lesson there though. How annoying is it when you have been happily using something without any particular problems, then the manufacturer makes rampant changes to the UI just because fashion, or bling, or differentiation or whatever?

    As a customer you would much rather they devoted their efforts to fixing actual bugs, or making your thing play nice with other things, but no. They have to reinvent stuff and you have to learn it all again.

    I don't have an iPhone and there are many things I could criticise Apple for - but this isn't one of them.

    1. dan1980

      Re: And why not?

      @Evil Graham

      Amen. Couldn't agree more. I also don't have an iPhone and I'm not really an Apple person because the way Macs work doesn't really gel with the way I work. Personal preference and habit perhaps but if I would faster on a Windows machine then that's what I'll use.

      Unfortunately, MS seem to just love changing UIs around with generally very little gain and often quite a lot of inconvenience.

      MS and Apple are both 'my way or the highway' when it comes to their interfaces. The difference is that once you're used to an Apple device's interface, they don't go and change it for the next release. That said, their changes (such as 'natural' scrolling) on Macs as part of their efforts to merge OSX and iOS were every bit as annoying as MS's Windows 8/Office 2013 changes toward the same goal, but the changes seemed to be smaller.

      Ahhh Classic Shell - where would I be without you?

  4. ZSn

    Stone age

    Stone age? All the OSs are 'stone age' - iOS and Linux are UNIX from the 70s/80s, NT is a rip off of VMS from the 80s. Perhaps Meego, but the rest are comfortably into middle age...

  5. Dave 126 Silver badge

    > Stone Age UI

    "The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones"

    UI schmueye... I'm an Android user, but even though a Lollipop update has been waiting for me to install it for a few weeks, I haven't yet bothered - the current KitKat UI is just fine so I'll let good people on the internet test the update for me first. "If it ain't broke..."

    OSX hasn't drastically changed for an even longer period of time.... and given the wailing and gnashing of teeth about Windows 8's UI changes (I'm still on 7), Apple must feel a little vindicated.

    I'll leave it to iOS users here to comment on whether iOS has any major annoyances that need fixing.

    1. james 68

      "...I'll leave it to iOS users here to comment on whether iOS has any major annoyances that need fixing."

      Other than holier than thou users? They're the biggest annoyance of iOS, though to be honest Android suffers quite a bit from the same issue. WinPhone users, not so much, they're usually too ashamed to proselytize, wether or not that's a good or bad thing though....anyones guess.

      1. cambsukguy

        > WinPhone users, not so much, they're usually too ashamed to proselytize

        So, you think that I bought my last three cellphones, all WinPhones, accidentally or was forced to?

        I chose them specifically of course, because I prefer the experience (and the Nokia design/build) as well as the battery life being better, built-in maps, free music etc.

        No shame here, just pity (lying) for someone who must say other systems (s/he has almost certainly not owned) are no good, to presumably make their inadequate selves feel better.

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          I'm an Android user, as I said. However, experience has taught me that the users of a platform are the best critics of it.

          I don't use a Windows phone, but the little of it I've seen I've liked. I don't know how I'd find if I used it or longer.

          I have iOS-using friends who have 'jailbreaked' their devices because they havewanted more than the stock UI/OS offered.

          I've never had enough incentive to 'root' my Android phone.

        2. james 68

          Actually I tried a Lumia for about 6 months, it was crap and I went back to a Galaxy at the first opportunity and I have previously tried an iphone as well so... yeah. I stand by my comment. Just take a look through the comments on here regarding phones, you will see many, many iOS and Android users flaming left and right and few if any Winphone users doing the same thing.

  6. eSeM

    For This Years Tax .....

    It will get upgraded with an S ..... the iPhone 6S Plus.

    :-)

  7. El_Fev

    Hold on .. Reg remind us..

    Which website was spouing the Peak Apple rubbish!

  8. Rich 2 Silver badge

    UI

    Not defending Apple or anything like that but why have a go at the UI?

    It works. Why change it juat for change' sake? Or do you think they ought to follow the desktop PC market and change it so that it pisses off existing users with no tangible benefits?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why change it juat for change' sake?

      So people can complain about it changing for change's sake.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Why change it juat for change' sake?

        Well, regardless if it's Apple or whoever, you have to change sometime. Win 3.x's Ui worked, but would you like to use it? New methods do come along, faster and more flexible. The problem Apple is having is that they are stuck in a rut period where they are almost certainly scared to change anything, so Apple fans will just be stuck with them.

        To me in general, if a Ui is completely and utterly done by numbers methodically, then it can remain the same forever. But once you start putting a touch of "swoosh" and "ahhh" into it, it slowly becomes something similar to an art. And just like art, it will have its periods.

        You may or may not like Apple for not changing anything, but it has gone stale. But again if you like it, well some like aged cheese better than fresh cheese. As long as the cheese suits you!

  9. Dave 126 Silver badge

    >How galling it must be to be an Android ODM and cram in interesting new features

    Interesting, yes. Useful? Not always.

    - Waterproofing (Samsung, Sony). Useful

    -Stylus input (Samsung Note). Useful

    - Eyeball Tracking (Samsung). Interesting. Potentially useful accessibility applications for users with impaired motor function.

    -Heart Rate Sensor (Samsung Galaxy). Umm...

    The trouble for the Android OEMs is that if they do introduce an interesting new feature and it becomes popular with consumers, there is little to stop other Android OEMs from doing exactly the same. Product differentiation is short lived. Example: Samsung first making 'phablet' phones. Everyone else soon does the same.

    1. Paul Shirley

      Dell first making 'phablet' phones (Dell Streak 5). Everyone ignores it. Years later Samsung get it right, then everyone else copies Dell.

      1. VinceH
        Trollface

        "Years later Samsung get it right, then everyone else copies Dell thinks Apple were first with the 6+."

        FTFY! (Probably, at some point in the future, anyway.)

      2. Dave 126 Silver badge

        My bad. Phablets *popularised* by Samsung. The Dell Streak was being sold at discount for years after its release.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "Dell first making 'phablet' phones..."

          Honestly, I saw some pretty phabby Palm Pilots back in the day...very phabby (one weighed like 200lbs and was the size of your left shoe).

  10. Norphy

    "The iPhone still uses the same stone-age UI it did nine years ago, with only a lick of paint."

    Is consistency really such a bad thing? The iPhone's UI works, changing for the sake of change is more annoying to me than having to use an "old" UI.

    1. P. Lee

      >>"The iPhone still uses the same stone-age UI it did nine years ago, with only a lick of paint."

      >Is consistency really such a bad thing? The iPhone's UI works, changing for the sake of change is more annoying to me than having to use an "old" UI.

      Given how annoying the lick of paint was, I suspect they thought they'd better stop doing things. Any structural improvements aside, ios 7->8 was horrible - meaningless icons are meaningless.

    2. Alien8n

      As an end user I like consistency. Having used both Android and iOS I prefer iOS simply because of it's consistency. With Android I would expect to be able to pick up any phone and know how it works. However my experience is that every update and every OEM has a different UI making a new phone a learning curve each time. This is something mirrored in their respective desktop OSes. OSX has remained relatively consistent over time. Even Windows has been fairly consistent (if you forget about Windows 8). Linux however is the buffet lunch of OSes, with a multitude of flavours. And even after you've chosen your main course it then asks you how you want it presenting with the various incarnations of Gnome and KDE.

      Now for a desktop OS I don't mind that choice, I'm geeky enough that I'll dig around inside the UI to find out how it all works. But for a phone? I want stability, knowing that when I pickup an upgrade in 2 years time I'll know exactly where everything is.

  11. WonkoTheSane
    Holmes

    I know why Apple are claiming so many sales

    It's because I recently received an iPhone 6 from EE, despite never ordering one.

    I'm telling them that if they don't collect it inside 2 weeks, it's mine to sell according to

    "Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008"

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Mark 85

      Re: I know why Apple are claiming so many sales

      That was.. mmm... nice of them. Did they helpfully pre-load credit card and banking info as well any passwords they've stumbled across for you?

      Telecoms can be scary about that. A couple of years ago, wife decided she needed a new phone so called the local phone store (big Telco's store actually) to check on prices, contract, etc. When she got the info she needed, she told them she would be later that day to get the phone. When she walked in, after introducing herself, the sales droid brought her a phone... pre-loaded with everything from the phone in her purse. Needless to say, I had an NSA moment there.

      1. WonkoTheSane

        Re: I know why Apple are claiming so many sales

        Hopefully not, as it's still sealed in its box, as is the 20GB data plan SIM they sent with it.

        On the up side, they seem to have also refunded me £49.99 for receiving this phone.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    More Taboola than Taboola.

    I don't get it: how is the iPhone's UI any more stone age than Android? Or am I just supposed to start ranting right about now?

    If anything, both iPhone and Android are looking staid compared to Windows Phone.

  13. Archaon
    Facepalm

    The bleeding edge of obviousness.

    So...people who bought the phone with the big screen rather than the virtually identical smaller screened version bought it because it has a big screen? Wow. Next they'll be telling me crazy things like the reason that I bought a 40" TV was because I didn't want a 32" TV!

    Cutting edge market research there Kantar. Well done.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The bleeding edge of obviousness.

      It's a fine point. However, my 40" tv has never snagged my knackers when I sit down. Size isn't everything, as I keep telling the Mrs.

      1. Archaon

        Re: The bleeding edge of obviousness.

        If you want your TV to snag your nadgers that's your business, but that would probably come under purchase satisfaction rather than purchase decision. ;-)

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How galling it must be to be an Android ODM and cram in interesting new features, only for punters to flood back to Apple, for doing the same thing it’s always done. The iPhone still uses the same stone-age UI it did nine years ago, with only a lick of paint.

    Doesn't that sort of prove the point of the whole iPhone approach? We had reasonably smart phones before that could do email, synced data and do conference calling, but they were a total pain to use. Apple did NOT invent the smartphone (nor claimed to have done so), they added some decent UI design to make it usable. As soon as you go back to lobbing in features to differentiate you lose exactly that very basic idea of keeping things usable.

    I have an IT background, but I had the benefit of a number of experiences that firmly put me on the user's side of the fence when it comes to delivery, and that focus becomes even more essential when you deal with security. It starts and ends with users, and that means dealing with people and finding out what matters to them. Bells and whistles get in the way if you just want use it.

  15. Haku

    "NEW AND IMPROVED!"

    If you're talking about UI, no thank you, I want to keep the buttons & layout of regularly used software (& websites for that matter) exactly where they have been for a long time.

    Don't keep changing the layout because you think it'll attract more customers, or mistakenly believe that's what we want, you'll just end up pissing off your current userbase, forcing some to go elsewhere where they're treated with respect..

    1. Mark 85

      Re: "NEW AND IMPROVED!"

      forcing some to go elsewhere where they're treated with respect

      And where would that be? Every phone maker has it's disrespect issues... privacy... walled garden... security... ???? And I won't even get into the brick and mortar shops issues.

  16. dave 93

    Haters gonna hate...

    ...but the numbers speak for themselves.

    Apple and Google aren't charities, they're both in business to make money.

    What phone does Orlowski use, I wonder...?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Haters gonna hate...

      What phone does Orlowski use, I wonder...?

      If I recall correctly, he insists on an empty Heinz tin on his end, but is less concerned about the make of string :)

  17. ratfox

    Larger size

    Apple has caught the market’s changing tastes just in time

    Er… Actually, it took them two years to catch up with that particular changing taste of the market. The larger size of the iPhone 5 was already considered at the time as a reaction move to the popularity of bigger phones; and the iPhone 6 came two years after that. Have a look at this article from two years ago:

    Apple CEO Tim Cook: Here's Why We Don't Sell An iPhone With A Big Screen, Even Though Lots Of People Want One

    Of course, they had many good reasons for that; in particular they wanted to simplify the life of developers and give them a small number of screen resolutions to work with. That particular condition is one they had to break with the iPhone 6 and the 6+, each having a new aspect ratio, and downsampling to display apps made for previous versions: The Ultimate Guide To iPhone Resolutions

    One of the reasons the iPhone 6 has been so popular is that it finally has a larger size.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Larger size

      One of the reasons the iPhone 6 has been so popular is that it finally has a larger size.

      Hmm, you seem to imply that Android was only sold better because Apple didn't do 'bigger' - I think that's an oversimplification. People are different, and some people do get on better with Android.

      Personally, I am not likely to buy a 6+ precisely because I dislike its size, but then I have an iPad. I prefer something that fits in a pocket and remains light.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Buy some old tech gear, but encase in Apple goodness

    Easy money when them fishies bite.

  19. Jason Hindle

    Well my Phone's a Nexus 5 and my Tablet's an iPad Air 2

    Apple's clean/dated interface isn't stopping me from doing anything. Nor does it make me any less productive. Overall, Google's more open ecosystem edges it for me, but there's little in it. The tablet decision, late last year, boiled down to hardware (iPad vs Nexus 9) and the iPad won. My next phone will probably be a Nexus 6 (or what comes after).

    The widgets, that Andriod supports, were very nice at first, but I hardly use them these days.

    1. Alien8n

      Re: Well my Phone's a Nexus 5 and my Tablet's an iPad Air 2

      My tablet choice was entirely based on what streaming capabilities were available at the time. Lovefilm only streamed to the iPad when I bought it so that's what I bought. I wasn't going to buy a generic tablet that couldn't use the one app that I actually wanted. It's a great little gadget to take on holidays, load it up with a couple of films and away you go.

  20. dave 93

    You ignored the best-in-class camera

    iPhones have always had good cameras when compared to the competition, and the 6+ camera receives consistently great reviews - only the Samsung Galaxy S6 comes close, and it isn't much cheaper $699 vs $750 for the iPhone. @AndrewOrlowski - What phone have you got in your pocket, eh?

    1. Alien8n

      Re: You ignored the best-in-class camera

      Having a great camera does not make it a great phone however. I'm reminded of the SE Satio. Probably one of the best cameras ever put into a phone (at the time), however the phone itself was an unusable pile of junk.

    2. cambsukguy

      Re: You ignored the best-in-class camera

      Best at what? Picture quality or time-to-shoot, slow-mo etc.

      I doubt that it takes better pictures than a Lumia 1020, now three years old.

      http://fortheloveoftech.com/2014/09/25/iphone-6-plus-vs-nokia-lumia-1020-camera-comparison/

      > As you can see, you start losing quality when it starts zooming in. When the images are at full size, I would personally say that they’re equal, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

      From what I could see, the 1020 pictures looked like they had better colour accuracy and range/saturation etc. too but that is subjective perhaps.

      Since being closer isn't always an option, the ability to zoom in and still have a decent shot makes a difference - more so than being able take a picture quickly, since one has to take it out of their pocket in a hurry anyway. Besides, anything other than an emergency snap requires some effort at selecting the subject, framing, adjusting the exposure etc. - all of which the beautiful Camera app on the Lumias allows control over if wanted.

      As the reviewer on that page says, he prefers the 930 because the pictures are (nearly) as good but the speed is superior.

      Still, and more importantly, my 1020 has my preferred OS (glad I didn't have to choose over OS and camera features although that will probably happen with the new Lumias). My 1020 also has wireless charging - wouldn't touch a phone without it again.

      And, I paid £300 for my phone and an iPhone costs twice that.

      I have also dropped my phone several times onto various unfriendly surfaces and don't use a case. It has never cracked or broken and I don't spend any time at all worrying about it.

    3. abedarts

      Re: You ignored the best-in-class camera

      Moto G - indifferent camera but its 1/3 of the price and I use a camera to take photos - old school I know.

      Nothing against Apple, I just don't want to pay that much for a phone anymore, it seems kind of pointless and a bit passé.

      1. Gene Cash Silver badge

        Re: You ignored the best-in-class camera

        The only problem I have with my Moto G is if I want to replace it, I have no choice but that broken POS known as Lollipop. My Moto G on KitKat routinely goes 2-3 days w/o charging. My friend with Lollipop is lucky if he can make it through the day.

        I am seriously considering an iPhone for that reason.

        1. bep

          Moto G

          I recently upgraded to the larger Moto G and I endorse your comments about Lollipop. Change for change's sake, most for the worse. For example, apparently they have made the short-cuts on the drop-down list 'dynamic'. If you don't use them for a while, they disappear. Apparently all the Android guys think this is a great idea. I don't use the torch shortcut very often, but when I need it I want it to be where I expect it to be.

          Having said that, I do think the Apple interface is very dated, it takes a lot of 'flicks' to do things that are quicker to do in Android.

  21. abedarts

    Maybe the UI was right first time

    There is an implicit assumption here that people who buy Apple kit are sleep walking into buying something that they could get better and cheaper elsewhere, which seems to me hugely arrogant. People make buying decisions for all sorts of reasons and its clear that Apple keep hitting the spot for huge numbers of people around the world - are they all wrong.

    I've used iPhones and now I'm using a cheap Android phone. Its good enough but theres nothing special about the UI, especially as Google seem determined to take one step forward and most of a step back with each iteration of the OS.

  22. thomas k.

    Just curious ...

    What does the LG G Watch (pictured) have to do with the iPhone 6?

  23. W Donelson
    FAIL

    Jeez

    What a bunch of whiners and losers.

  24. John Bond

    Kantar's numbers

    Article: "Kantar’s numbers don’t indicate that a major migration over from Android is taking place"

    Are you sure?

    "Kantar Worldpanel claims that 32.4% of Apple’s new customers in the five big European countries surveyed switched to iOS from Android during the first three months of the year"

    from: "Android Switchers Drive iOS Adoption in Europe During First Quarter"

    http://www.macrumors.com/2015/05/06/kantar-worldpanel-ios-android-q1-2015/

  25. jbelkin

    It's Not a Tax If You Gladly Pay It

    Work is something you have to do, Play is something you want to do - same with Apple products. It's not a tax if you gladly pay it because it's a holiday of gadgets - unlike others that are a chore. Evidence = sales and repeated sales.

  26. jbelkin

    Not a tax if You Gladly pay It.

    Like a holiday, you gladly pay extra for an Apple product because it's worth EVERY bit. Other smartphones are like work, you do it if you have to but it's no holiday.

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