Android Users Are So Committed that Exploding Note 7 Did Little To Help Apple: NPD (appleinsider.com) 191
An anonymous reader writes: Like loyalty to a political party or hometown sports team, smartphone users are extremely passionate about their choices -- a commitment that led many customers to stick with Samsung, despite the disaster of its downright dangerous Galaxy Note 7. Earlier this week, mobile analytics firm Flurry published data from the holiday season, showing that Apple saw twice as many device activations as rival Samsung. Despite Apple's continued commanding lead in holiday sales of smartphones and tablets, however, the numbers suggested Apple's share was lower and Samsung's was slightly higher from last year. Attempting to explain the trends shown in the data, NPD analyst Stephen Baker told The Wall Street Journal he believes that Android loyalists are committed, and even dangerous exploding batteries in the Galaxy Note 7 were not enough to push significant numbers of customers over to the iPhone. "Most of those who bought or wanted to buy a Note 7 opted for a different high-end Galaxy phone," Baker said.
not loyalty (Score:5, Insightful)
it's not loyalty to android that keeps them from going to apple. it's apple that keeps them from going to apple
Re:not loyalty (Score:5, Insightful)
It's easy to buy a new Android phone that doesn't explode.
You can't buy a new iOS phone that has a headphone jack.
Multiple vendors really helps the Android user to get what they want. If the iPhone doesn't give you what you want, you're stuck.
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> If the iPhone doesn't give you what you want, you're stuck.
Except you are not: diversity has always been the defining feature of Android, so you can find pretty much anything you like. (Unless you are looking for years of support, in which case custom ROMs or Apple are indeed the only option.)
Re: not loyalty (Score:1)
Are you kidding me? My 4s just stopped receiving updates. I got it in 2012.
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Sorry, but I will not shed a tear for you. Most Android devices stop receiving major updates withing a year (if they ever even get an update). The manufacturer is too busy working on the next device to ever patch the old stuff.
This is both the blessing and the curse of Android -- the sheer number of devices. The good is that there is a lot of choice, and the down side is that there is a lot of variability.
An Apple developer can test four or five devices and be pretty sure that their app will work on pret
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I think that I said "most" and not "all."
Look for updates for lower-end devices. Try manufacturers like LG, Alcatel, or HTC. Updates for phones under $100 are few an far between.
Re: not loyalty (Score:4, Interesting)
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That's not bad though. Updates cost money - the lack thereof is part of what makes those phones sub-$100 or even sub-$50 devices. If you want to live with that in exchange for a cheap phone, you have that option with Android. If you want a more expensive device that DOES get regular updates, you have that option too.
Sometimes the ability to cut a corner is a GOOD thing if it's something you feel you can live without.
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I'm pretty anti-Apple; they have crippled their devices to encourage lock-in (you can't send a group message to more than 10 people unless all are iOS users). But there's a reason I'm running a Nexus 6P, and it's not because I thought Huawei makes great phones: it's the monthly security updates and two-year version guarantee.
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I actually have a coworker at work who's still using an iPhone 3. No, it doesn't get updates and he only has like a 150MB per month data plan, but he seems happy with it. Granted, he's an old COBOL programmer in his late 50's, but some people just aren't into the latest and greatest tech.
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You of course have evidence concerning the 'designed to cripple', yes? Or could it just be that the new OS needs more resources? As far as I remember, that got fixed with iOS 9 and 10. There are a lot of iPhone 5 still out there and in use. They got iOS 10.
As for '2 year old hardware'... which SoC in the Android world beats the A10fusion...?
I can understand if people don't like Apple. Fine, don't by stuff from them, no one forces you. But when talking about their stuff, stick with facts.
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Cyanogenmod is just getting a rebrand to Lineage OS. Even if that team completely exploded, whoever is the number two ROM would just get a huge influx of devs as it becomes the new number 1 choice.
Not to endorse piracy, but as for "the community will provide" look at how these sites progress
Look at Piratebay -> KAT -> ExtraTorrent
If there comes a time when ALL major manufactures lock their phones so tight we can't install custom roms, the "community" will surely just kickstart their own open design.
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Too bad that "Custom ROMs" ability is going the way of Cyanogenmod...
Too bad you are wrong. It has already been forked and will be known as Lineage OS. The failure of Cyanogen as a company (thanks in part to Microsoft's reverse-Midas touch?) does not mean the end of CyanogenMod or the incredibly vibrant Android development community.
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My nearly 3 year old Galaxy S5 got yet another update yesterday.
Bah, must be fake malware, since only Apple gives updates past a year. Praise Jobs!
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It's easy to buy a new Android phone that doesn't explode.
You can't buy a new iOS phone that has a headphone jack.
Multiple vendors really helps the Android user to get what they want. If the iPhone doesn't give you what you want, you're stuck.
And in a year or two, you won't be able to buy a Samsung phone with a "headphone jack", either.
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Fortunately there are many more manufacturers than Samsung who make Android phones.
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Did you know the first Android phone was made by HTC? How, prey tell, did they copy Samsung? That's quite a feat!
You know very well what I mean. Quit being intentionally obtuse.
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Did you know the first Android phone was made by HTC? How, prey tell, did they copy Samsung? That's quite a feat!
I seem to remember a small company offering an Android phone targeted at developers around the same time, possibly first. But of course the Dream/G1 was the first commercially available Android phone, and it was great. There were also other smartphones before the iphone though, such as some by Nokia, Sony, Palm, and of course Blackberry. But I suppose they all copied Samsung, who copied Apple, just ask any Apple fanboy.
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Re:not loyalty (Score:5, Insightful)
Then I'll drop Samsung and go with another brand that gives me what I want. That's the point.
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And in a year or two, you won't be able to buy a Samsung phone with a "headphone jack", either.
And in a year or two, there will still be numerous Android phones sold by companies not named Samsung. But that is an inconvenient truth for Apple fanboys who continually conflate Samsung's choices with the demise of Android.
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Multiple vendors really helps the Android user to get what they want.
Your response:
you won't be able to buy a Samsung phone with a "headphone jack", either.
Just that is enough to call your comment obtuse. You quoted the part that showing you are wrong. But let's read further...
He then repeats the point that there are more manufacturers.
To which you claim that all of them copies samsung, despite the diversity in phone models, sizes, materials and focus (like better front facing camera, lasting battery, water/dust resistance - that sony was doing for years before samsung or apple).
He gives you one example of how your sentence cannot be correct. To
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It's easy to buy a new Android phone that doesn't explode.
You can't buy a new iOS phone that has a headphone jack.
Multiple vendors really helps the Android user to get what they want. If the iPhone doesn't give you what you want, you're stuck.
Multiple vendors isn't relevant. The title is misleading; this isn't about Note 7 customers sticking with Android, they are sticking with Samsung. And guess what, true to form, Samsung is going for no-headphone jack in future models.
Just FYI, since the point seems to get so overstated so frequently, the new iPhones include a pair of lightning earphones and an 1/8 phono adapter. It's isn't like there is no alternative. The only sore point is that you can't charge and listen at the same time.
Unless you want updates (Score:2)
Sure, if it's the feature set that you're talking about. If you want a new phone that isn't abandoned update-wise a year or less after you get it, you have one Android option: the Pixel.
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It's easy to buy a new Android phone that doesn't explode.
You can't buy a new iOS phone that has a headphone jack.
Multiple vendors really helps the Android user to get what they want. If the iPhone doesn't give you what you want, you're stuck.
I've never owned an Apple product, but every day at work I see multiple iphones with cracked screens, I hear people moaning about how expensive replacements are, how bad the last forced update hosed their phones. My Android phone is 2.5 years old because it still works fine. I may upgrade soon just because I am sometimes entranced by new, shiny things, not because I feel a real need to. There are at least eight phones I can think of right off hand that I will consider buying, none of which are Samsungs or A
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Monochrome (Looks exactly like a Serial port)
No, the MDA port on the computer was female, and the serial port was male.
I get your point, but there is something to be said for continuity. In the same way that there are USB<->almost everything adapters, the 3.5 mm audio jack is almost universal. Getting rid of it is A Big Deal.
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I suppose that Apple inventing new terms for marketing purposes also annoys me, such that I
Doesn't follow (Score:1)
I wanted something that would handle harsh environments.
An iPhone with a Lifeproof case is perfect. Plus if you mess up the case over time, you can replace just the case - not so with your phone which is simply rugged.
at that point the phone would be just as heavy and bulky as the Kyocera
But more functional and stable software-wise. And in-bteween bad telecom closets you'd have the option to remove the case... I go hiking in remote areas and also like to deck my phone out in a very rugged case when I'm
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This.
Apple's product line is too limited for me to ever consider them for my primary personal computing device (I have a PC and laptop, but neither see as much total use as my phone). I have had HTC, Motorola, and Samsung Android phones in the past and it is important to me that I have options when refreshing my phone. The Android ecosystem allowed me to leave Motorola for Samsung without even a minor disruption, and it will allow me to leave Samsung for probably LG or Google next year if the Galaxy S8 does
Re: not loyalty (Score:1)
I don't get you people, I really don't. You bitch at Apple because they release a new phone so often. Saying it's Apples forced obsolete model. Yet you run out and switch from Samsung to LG to Google to bumfuck. What is the difference? You are buying phones just as often as Apple people are, if not more.
All those android phones do the same god damn thing. So you are upgraded for the sake of upgrading. Why does Apple have to have multiple phone options? They already have the regular model and the plus. That
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I don't get you people, I really don't. You bitch at Apple because they release a new phone so often. Saying it's Apples forced obsolete model. Yet you run out and switch from Samsung to LG to Google to bumfuck. What is the difference? You are buying phones just as often as Apple people are, if not more.
You do realize there are more than one sets of opinions among Android users, and not everyone shares the complaints you mentioned. I for one never complain about Apple (or Samsung) releasing new phones so often, and while I don't like planned obsolescence it certainly doesn't affect me as I get a new phone every other year.
All those android phones do the same god damn thing. So you are upgraded for the sake of upgrading. Why does Apple have to have multiple phone options? They already have the regular model and the plus. That is all one needs. A small screen model and a higher end large screen model.
First off, Apple did not have a large screen until it had become common for at least two years in Android phones, so lets not pretend iPhone users always had that option. But still if you
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Even if you aren't especially wedded to Android, Apple simply doesn't make a comparable device(apparently voluntarily; their 'Apple pencil' thing suggests that they could do a stylus supporting phone if they felt like it). If your
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It's not loyalty to Android indeed. It's loyalty to Samsung. That's made clear even in TFS. That Samsung phones use the Android system is probably largely irrelevant to this loyalty.
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it's not loyalty to android that keeps them from going to apple. it's apple that keeps them from going to apple
Close, but still wrong. I know I am not alone in saying that I use Android because it works, it does what I want it to do, and the Android devices I've owned have offered tremendous overall value. I have not interest in iOS, nor hate for Apple - the company and their over-priced hardware are irrelevant to me. I feel no loyalty to Google or Android, or any particular manufacturer, though Android phones, tablets, and media boxes have been good for me.
Re: not loyalty (Score:3)
Samsung Galaxy owner here. Upgraded from an S4 to... A Nexus 5X.
I happen to like iPhones. I don't like Apple's walled garden.
Not all of us are so committed. But I think people tend to stick with what they know.
And frankly, any reasonable person will accept that companies make mistakes. One bad product doesn't make all their products bad, and Samsung has more of a track record than a single exploding phone. Just like the iPhone 4 antenna problem didn't prevent the iPhone 5 from being popular. The reasons I w
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Have you considered that they might be strait.
I'm confused. What does a narrow body of water between two land masses have to do with phone preference?
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^^^^ THIS (Score:2)
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Journalists only want eyeballs; specifically, the end financial effect of eyeballs. Informing you isn't even a tertiary domino.
Two Party System (Score:4, Insightful)
It's probably not so much they are fanatical about Android, but simply don't want to use Apple, and there's really only the one main competitor to turn to from there. If you don't want an Apple handset you are almost bound to buy an Android set, unless you have a fetish for Windows.
People are pretty heavily conditioned by decades of advertising to believe brand is a highly valuable thing when deciding which item to buy. Samsung has a lot of brand recognition and many leading products on the market - it's no surprise they held their ground.
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It's sheer convenience and inertia. I'm an Apple user and I have my complaints about their direction; the iPhone 7 with its lack of headphone jack is particularly troubling and makes me skeptical of their coming products. I kinda see a day where I just don't find their products fitting my needs, which apparently are out of line with the masses or what Apple _thinks_ are the needs of the masses.
But I probably won't switch because doing so requires me to learn an entirely new system, perhaps find new apps,
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It's hardly surprising at this point, despite what the zealots will have you believe, both Android and iOS are mature enough now that they've shared the major advantages each had - and there's few compelling reasons to switch. There still is a learning curve though, so the cost/benefit is highly weighted towards everyone staying where they are.
Samsung is Android now? (Score:5, Insightful)
At the very least, the headline should had been "Samsung users".
The summery compares Samsung sales with Apple, not Android.
Obligatory Automotive Analogy (Score:3, Informative)
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Ford Drivers So Committed That Exploding Pintos Did Little To Help Mercedes Benz.
Ha! pretty much. While it's an oblig cliche which tends to get overworked (poorly), in this case you used the analogy well to quickly show that this article is just a puff piece.
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Finally, a car analogy! Now it all makes sense. Never change, Slashdot, never change.
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So amusing. Actually Mercedes cars are, or used to, be well known for their easy maintenance and low part cost compared with other cars in the same segment. While Apple just glues shit together.
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Imagine you were an owner of one of those exploding Samsungs. Chances are, yours did not explode. In fact it was just a really great phone. It got rave reviews, you were probably very happy with it. When it was recalled they offered to let you swap it for another similar Samsung phone. I bet a good proportion of users did just that.
Plus, the latest iPhones all suck. The 6 series seems to have major hardware issues (bending, battery problems, touch screen problems) and the 7 is missing the headphone socket.
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Depends what performance. Single core, sure, but multi-core they get trounced. App performance seems to depend more on the quality of the app than anything.
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Depends what performance. Single core, sure, but multi-core they get trounced. App performance seems to depend more on the quality of the app than anything.
Bzzt!. Not according to Daring Fireball [daringfireball.net].
Um, and also not if the Android in question runs something equal to, or less than, a Snapdragon 821 [bgr.com], like several do, including the Pixel.
A fact confirmed by this Test [redmondpie.com], too...
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At the very least, the headline should had been "Samsung users".
The summery compares Samsung sales with Apple, not Android.
Both Apple and Samsung users think there are only two companies making smartphones. They see only 4 choices in the market: Galaxy S, Note, small iphone, and bigger iphone. Their loss is our gain, as Samsung continuing to be the most recognizable name in Android phones (and "the" iphone alternative) can only help keep prices down for equivalent or superior devices from other companies.
Tripe (Score:5, Insightful)
Obviously (Score:1)
First, Samsung made the exploding batteries. Samsung is not the only Android manufacturer. If an HP computer exploded, we wouldn't be seeing an article wondering why people weren't switching away from Windows.
Second, I won't switch because I don't want to find/buy/download all new apps.
Android or Samsung users?? (Score:3)
Android is my mobile OS of choice, the hardware it runs on may not be Samsung on the next purchase
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Most of the reviews done by owners rather than "professional" reviewers moan about this. I have no intention of buying a phone without both features. Fortunately Samsung offer several. They
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in other news (Score:1)
you may be surprised to know that samsung is not the same as android...
Blowing up and catching fire is a FEATURE! (Score:3)
Stop making it sound as if it was a flaw. that was a FEATURE DAMMIT!
Apple owners only wish they had that feature in their phones.
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Stop making it sound as if it was a flaw. that was a FEATURE DAMMIT!
Apple owners only wish they had that feature in their phones.
It's coming in the next iOS update! Just place phone in nearby toaster to allow for "Catching Fire" (Hunger Games tie in?) update to download. Make sure you press down on the lever, and remember to turn bagel mode OFF or it'll just burn one side of the phone.
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It's good advertising. Samsung can honestly say they have the hottest phones on the market.
ecosystem lock in (Score:3)
The obvious lock in is previous app purchases, you don't want to have to rebuy all those apps and games you purchased on your first real app ecosystem.
If you have more than one person in the ecosystem, that's a real lock in... with app purchase and music subscription sharing, it simply costs more to have your family split between iOS and Android. In addition, you get access to great family features like location sharing when you all have the same type of device. So if you want to switch, you have to be ready to move not just your phone, but 2+ phones at the same time if you really use these features.
And not just money, but time, curating music libraries and playlists in the cloud music solution provided by the ecosystem takes time and effort. There do not appear to be many good tools to migrate this sort of thing over.
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I'd wager it's more the ecosystem lock in.
Yep. While most of the peanut gallery on /. is whining about headphone jacks and custom ROMs, to the average smartphone user it's simply a pain in the ass to switch platforms.
Most people don't actually enjoy learning a different OS, and hunting down and re-purchasing all their apps. To a person who sees the prospect of futzing with mobile technology to be about as interesting as watching paint dry, it's simpler to just buy another Samsung phone (hopefully, one that's less likely to explode).
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Yeah, it's obviously this.
Apple was first out with a slab phone, and I was accidentally on purpose an early adopter, and over the years I've picked up the apps I like and am used to, along with the music handling and what not - the hardware is good enough or better that it will probably never be worth swapping over, and I'm sure long term Android users feel just the same the other way.
Ignoring this is as stupid as people who review various laptops purely on hardware, as if OSX vs Windows (or Linux, I suppos
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you're funny. My wife, kids and myself use Android and our apps cost $0. Maybe we'd like to keep it that way.
Silly article (Score:4, Informative)
The article is nonsense. The "surprise" that users didn't opt to move to a phone with different software after having one with a hardware problem does presume that users are really stupid. I'm not saying many aren't, but not that stupid. The more reasonable expectation would be that they'd opt for another Android phone and not an Apple one.
The article mentions may opted for another Samsung phone, but fails to mention than in addition to offering refunds for the Note 7 they purchased, there were additional rebates if they purchased another Samsung phone as a replacement. ( http://venturebeat.com/2016/10... [venturebeat.com] ) Samsung offered to pay people to stay with them and it seems to have worked.
Equating the decision to stick with the same OS and to take advantage of a $100 rebate as loyalty to a sports team ignores too many of the facts.
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This article is a sort of saving of face because recall during the debacle there were poorly supported claims (via leading online surveys) that every Note 7 user was marching right to their nearest Apple store to buy an iPhone.
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The article is nonsense.
The content of the article is irrelevant. The reason this story exists - as was the case with several other recent Slashdot submissions - is to get the name of the unknown company "Flurry" out into the public eye.
Seriously - how many "Flurry" stories have we had in the past week or two?
I don't know if it's their real intent, but I'm hankering for a McDonalds frozen dessert right now...
One man's loyalty (Score:1)
Well this is a dumb premise. (Score:2)
Apple is evil (Score:2)
burying the lead (Score:2, Insightful)
who was expecting people to switch to apple? (Score:2)
Analogy: Let's say I'm a Windows user, and I have a laptop that I love. It turns out that laptop commonly catches fire. Based upon that data alone, what kind of laptop do you think I'll purchase next?
Most likely, I think I'd consider switching brands, but still go with a laptop that runs the same software that I like, and has a similar design. I suppose it's possible I'd switch to a Mac, but only if the Mac had the features I wanted, but it certainly wouldn't be my first instinct.
I'm not familiar with the S
Anrdoid Didn't Explode (Score:2)
Logic? Never heard of it. (Score:1)
This has got to be one of the dumbest articles... (Score:2)
...I've read on /. I mean, come on, really? Should everyone rush to leave any given brand or ecosystem every time one particular piece fails? (Hint: the answer is NO)
All hardware vendors experience issues of varying degrees with things they make. Some manage to recover, some don't. Abit was one of the great mobo makers of the time. Bad caps marred them, but it doesn't diminish all the excellent stuff they had made, and had they weathered it better they'd likely still be making excellent stuff that people wo
Or maybe its because... (Score:4, Insightful)
The only people who make a big deal about the Note 7 fiasco are Note 7 owners, Samsung stockholders, and Apple fanboys (where TFA comes from). Compared to Android's overall sales, Note 7 sales were a drop in the bucket. Every single Note 7 owner could've switched to iPhones and you would've needed 3 significant figures to even notice.
Samsung =/= Android (Score:2)
Because they're cheaper (Score:2)
Android devices tend to be a lot less expensive than everything else. That has always been true, and has been the single biggest reason why Android is so popular. The majority of people don't care about what a device can do as long as it can do the minimum they need, and I guess, play Candy Crush.
All the people I know who use apple fall into two categories: People that need an easy to use device and have the money to buy apple, or people who are technical inclined but don't *want* to deal with complexity
Did Apple need any help? (Score:2)
According to recent numbers, Apple devices lead all others in activations during the Christmas season...
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nope. beta only had 60 minutes while VHS debuted with 120 minutes, and RCA came out with 240 minute VHS soon after. When the beta came out with longer time format the horizontal res dropped to same as VHS, and the other claimed advantages of less crosstalk for beta weren't visible in blind tests. There became no compelling reason to own beta especially since VHS HQ then came out. Yes after that "super beta" came out but by then market share was tiny.
They do not tell the truth: (Score:2)
Switching platforms is real work. (Score:4, Insightful)
Changing your phone OS is the same as changing that on your computer: you have to replace software, reconfigure stuff, re-train yourself. It's a real effort, and so it's not surprising it takes more than one bum phone to make people go through it.
You could apply the same logic to the missing headphone jack on the iPhone 7. Many would argue it's a limitation rather than a feature, but not, apparently, a big enough limitation to make people switch.
Duh (Score:3)
Android users are Android users because Android works for them, and/or they have no interest in iOS or Apple products. When did the iphone v. Samsung (if not just the Note) become the only smartphone story in the media, anyway? I still like my old LG G3 because it works, and will probably buy a ZTE Axon 7 soon. There are plenty of good non-Samsung options that are also not iphones.
Familiarity (Score:2)
I think it's less to do with fanboyism or brand loyalty and more to do with wanting to take advantage of knowledge of how the thing works. The novelty of figuring out how yet another UI works wears off for people trying to achieve things.
Even the apps are walled gardens (Score:2)
I tried to stream some clips from my Samba share, and basically every app forces you to use both its own file manager AND video player at the same time. I don't know if it's a limitation of iOS but it killed off any chances I'm leaving Android.
you *do* realize iPhone6 and iPhone7 phones burn? (Score:2)
Do a google search for iPhone6 or iPhone7 fire. You'll find that they also had a few incidents :-)
The Note7 had a higher incidence of it because of some dumb design decisions to maximize battery size, but phones catching fire because of lithium batteries is not a new thing...
You're looking at it the wrong way (Score:2)
You're looking at it the wrong way.
It's not android vs. apple.
Its samsung and many many other manufacturers against apple. People do not care about android vs. iOS. When samsung devices burn, they may loose some users. But the odds that they choose apple next are just 1/N, when there are N-1 android devices left and just 1 iOS device.
Stupid summary (Score:2)
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Actually the problem stems from skipping 6. So yes, the next Note will be the 6 as it ought to have been. Then they can jump to 8 after that because there's already been a 7.