iPhones Are Priced 'High in the Extreme' But They're Worth It, Says Apple Co-founder Wozniak (scmp.com) 291
An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple's iPhone has been losing ground to domestic competitors in China. That is because Chinese smartphone makers offer sophisticated functions at reasonable prices, according to Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder and one of the pioneers of the personal computer industry. "Here is what I admire about Chinese phones: really good, intelligent decisions about how to lower the cost but keep enough of the functionality in, because I am into products that are good, well designed, nice looking, but at prices that the average person can afford," he said. Still, Wozniak believes the quality of Apple's product makes it worth the high price tag. "In life I don't believe in quantity as much as I do in quality. So you may not have the hugest share in the market or be the No 1, but you should have the best product you can possibly build and Apple qualifies for that," Wozniak, told reporters after he discussed artificial intelligence with Liu Zihong, chairman and chied executive of Royole, in a technology forum held at Tianan Cyber Park in Dongguan, Guangdong province, on Tuesday. Unlike Chinese smartphone brands that prioritise cost-effectiveness, Apple's popular and more expensive iPhone handsets are still the leader in innovation in certain features despite being more of a "safe product," he said. "Apple products are safe. And Apple's pricing is high in the extreme. It's a safe bet for a lot of people, and when you love Apple you are willing to pay for it," he said.
How is an iPhone not a "Chinese phone"? (Score:2, Insightful)
How is an iPhone not a "Chinese phone"?
Re:How is an iPhone not a "Chinese phone"? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:How is an iPhone not a "Chinese phone"? (Score:5, Informative)
...and an Android phone is? (Hint: designed by Google in California)
Well the closest competitor to Apple phones right now is Samsung, so your hint should probably be "designed by Samsung in South Korea". The Google Pixel phones are also very nice although they haven't sold that well in their first year. The quality seems high enough that they can gain plenty of market share if they keep at it though.
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...and an Android phone is? (Hint: designed by Google in California)
Actually the OS is designed in California, then modded elsewhere. The hardware is designed and assembled in different places, based on the manufacturer. For the actual processors they may come from many places that aren't China. The level of quality control is also based on the manufacturer.
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...and an Android phone is? (Hint: designed by Google in California)
Android is, phones, not necessarily, it depends on the manufacturer.
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Re:How is an iPhone not a "Chinese phone"? (Score:4, Funny)
No no no no no. No.
With the Pixel, the branding and marketing speak have all made it very clear. Pixel is "Made by Google"(tm). Do not look behind the curtain. Do not compare the design and components to existing phones made by HTC. Do not question whether Google actually has manufacturing lines, foundries, or any physical product design experience.
Just repeat the mantra. Made by Google. Made by Google. Made by Google.
Oh Google, we thank you for your services, and we humbly accept the fact that we are the product. We ask that you keep us and hold our data so that we may enter into thine Divine Ecosystem. We ask not why you taketh away Reader, Latitude, or most of your other gifts for we know naught of your Divine Plan; instead we rejoice in the bounty that are Apps and AdWords that you so Graciously provide us.
In the name of the Alphabet, and of the Android, and of the Holy Google we pray.
And now, as Brothers Page and Brin pass the collection plates, we shall recite Schmidt's prayer.
Our Google, which art in Silicon Valley,
Hallowed be thy Names.
Thy Monopoly come.
Thy will be done in Android,
As it is in Web.
Give us this day our daily apps.
And forgive us our Ad Blockers,
As we forgive them that Ad Block against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from Apple.
For thine is the Monopoly,
The spying, and the advertising,
For ever and ever.
Amen.
Re:How is an iPhone not a "Chinese phone"? (Score:5, Funny)
By that logic all Chinese companies need to do to claim that their phones are American is hire a guy in California to draw a rectangle on a sheet of paper and call that the design document. Sure, a lot of it was engineered overseas, just like the iPhone, but it was designed in California so it's an American phone!
Re:How is an iPhone not a "Chinese phone"? (Score:4, Funny)
Don't forget the rounded corners!
Re: How is an iPhone not a "Chinese phone"? (Score:4, Insightful)
"Design" also includes things like the SoC. And Apple does not just design how it looks. Compare Apple's SoC against a MediaTek one and you will find some dramatic performance differences.
Or compare performance and battery life of the iPhone SE against Chinese 4" phones.
Thinking that "designed by Apple" only means the outer decoration is a truly idiotic.
Re: How is an iPhone not a "Chinese phone"? (Score:4, Insightful)
The SoC is an ARM CPU (designed in England), and a modem designed in Korea and China (check the patents). Don't know what audio codec they use but I doubt they bothered to do their own, probably grabbed some VHDL from Realtek or something. GPU was designed in the UK too, until recently, but sure where they got the latest one from.
iPhone battery life is rather poor compared to my Chinese OnePlus phone.
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Battery life on my Xiaomi with a 4400mAH battery and MediaTek CPU was over 12 hours. The iPhone doesn't get anywhere close to that.
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I don't see what's so better about Apple. Their walled garden that require you to buy their overpriced accessories? The requirement to use their shitty iTunes app to load your stuff into the phone?
I had to install iTunes for my girlfriend last week, the Windows binary is now over 250Mb. The last iPhone I had was a 4S (before the new connector required me to dump all the docking stations I had), and back then the iTunes install
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I don't see what's so better about Apple.
Why don't you simply use an iPad and an Android for 3 month side by side?
Sorry, this bullshit: Their walled garden that require you to buy their overpriced accessories? makes you not look bright. Not this: The requirement to use their shitty iTunes app to load your stuff into the phone? Oh, you are on a PC? Then install Ubuntu, it accesses the iPhone/iPad natively as USB drive.
On my Android Yoga Book, I can not even change the typing language in a simple way. And w
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I'm willing to pay extra for an Apple phone because I don't want a phone filled with carrier bloatware. I also want more than 18 months of security updates before they cut me off, like Verizon did on both of my old Android phones.
And, yeah, I know that I could have rooted the phone and installed a different version of Android on there. The carriers do their damndest to make that process a pain in the ass, though, and many of the various homebrew Android distributions out there are even less stable than the
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I had to install iTunes for my girlfriend last week, the Windows binary is now over 250Mb.
Look I hate to point out how she's not the right one for you but if she wanted iTunes installed that's a clue.
The fact that you needed the Windows binary is another.
If on the other hand she needed it installed and couldn't do it herself because Wine kept throwing a fit then put a damn ring on it man!
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>> Woz: "Here is what I admire about Chinese phones...(but Apple is more good-er)" How is an iPhone not a "Chinese phone"?
Last time I saw a breakdown, China pretty much just assembled the phone. Besides being designed and built for an American (Irish?) company, most of the parts were built were built in Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. More of the money it takes to build an iPhone also went to each of those three nations than China also.
Quality doesn't matter when it's disposable anyway (Score:3, Insightful)
Most people basically replace their phones every two to three years, so what does it matter if your phone is built to last longer? All that matters on modern phones are features, and on that front Apple tends to lag a bit.
Re:Quality doesn't matter when it's disposable any (Score:5, Insightful)
We don't all replace a perfectly working gadget every few years just for shiny shiny!, not just because of the monetary cost but because of the ethics and enviromental costs. So some of us do care that they're built to last.
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My Android phones last just fine. This is just another bit of bogus nonsense from the Apple cult.
The real question is how long these phones will be supported and what will happen to them once they are force upgraded to a new OS version. Will they still be useful then?
Apple is very much a mixed bag when it comes to product longevity in real live.
Re:Quality doesn't matter when it's disposable any (Score:5, Informative)
So your phone has the most recent Android safe from the currently known crop of android exploits? That puts you in the tiny minority of android owners.
The vast majority of Android owners need to upgrade their phones every year or two just to be able to get more recent updates given how fast so many android makers drop support of their phones.
Apple a mixed bag? Your ignorance is bliss apparently. iPhone owners get a few years more safe use from their phones as all phones newer than the 5s (sold since Sept2013) can use the latest iOS 11 & most do, having been updated since Apple made iOS 11 available in June.
It doesn't mean that old phones can't soldier on for years and years afterwards, just not safely.
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The vast majority of Android owners need to upgrade their phones every year or two just to be able to get more recent updates given how fast so many android makers drop support of their phones.
It's not really that fast in most cases. My nearly three-year old, $100 (when new) LG phone still gets updates (oh and it has a replaceable battery and micro SD slot). But it doesn't matter. The real way that people with Android get owned is by installing shady apps, some from Google Play, and blindly agreeing to the over-intrusive permissions.
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The adoption rates of Android updates (that I don't have the time to track down but that you can if you need confirmation) begs to differ.
Am I saying that there aren't Android vendors that do a better job than most giving exceptions like yours and indeed more /. posters than is the norm? No.
Am I saying that the the use of outdated Android versions is how most android owners get owned? Nope, the low hanging fruit of gullible users is clearly the major vector at present but much like for Wannacry & Petya
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Apple a mixed bag? Your ignorance is bliss apparently. iPhone owners get a few years more safe use from their phones as all phones newer than the 5s (sold since Sept2013) can use the latest iOS 11 & most do, having been updated since Apple made iOS 11 available in June.
Do you know how well a 5s runs OS11? Because I've seen so many iPhones that have been 'upgraded' into an unusable state because they now do everything so slowly. I'm very skeptical about this always-autoupgrade major version thing that Apple does, it's not much use when you no longer can use the damn thing effectively. Possibly we're at a state where old phones are still fast enough, but this has definitely been a problem in the past.
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My old 5s is now my wife's so yeah, I do. It's not as fast as my 7+ but is still a big step up from the even older 4S she was using previously - besides which she mostly uses it for phone/facetime so it's _more_ than fast enough for her.
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Good point. In Lollipop, Google took the control of the OS out of the phone makers or carriers, and back in-house. I have a Verizon Ellipsis 10 w/ 16GB internal storage & 128GB external storage. I can't upgrade the tablet to Marshmallow, which would allow me to swap the logical internal & external drives, so that I have adequate storage for everything, no matter what.
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You're not helping. An iOS11 beta was released in June. "Most" are not running iOS 11, and have only updated to iOS 10.3.3, because as non-developers they stay on the release branch of the iOS ecosystem.
You could have made the same point with iOS 10, which is the current release and stil
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Brain fart. You're entirely correct.
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I don't tend to change phones very often...
My first smart phone was the iPhone 3GS.
I kept that till I upgraded it to the iPhone 6SPlus....if that gives you any indication how long they will last and be useful....
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I'd rather pay 1/3rd the price for a better spec phone, and then replace it after two years when the OS updates stop coming. I could install LegacyOS if I wanted more life out of it, but I'd rather give it to someone else and get a new one for myself.
Re:Quality doesn't matter when it's disposable any (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple is very much a mixed bag when it comes to product longevity in real live.
You can't just drop a statement like that without backing it up with some evidence. While we can point to a handful of instances where Apple dropped support for things earlier than some people, particularly nerds, would have liked, calling their product longevity a mixed bag is a gross overstatement of the actual problem facing most users, in much the same way that saying "Malware is thousands of times more common on Android than iOS" is a way that the media (and Apple fanboys) like to lie with statistics. Sure, it may be true, but it doesn't reflect the reality of the situation (i.e. that malware isn't really a common problem on either platform).
Certainly when it comes to iPhones, Apple has a rather good track record for product longevity, and it's widely understood that they support old devices with the latest updates for longer than any of their Android counterparts.
For my part, the iPhone 5s I bought in 2013 and still use today as my primary device will be fully supported in iOS 11 that is coming out later this year. Generally speaking, it still runs just as well today as it did on the day I bought it. It's only been in the last few months that I've even started noticing a performance difference between apps on my iPhone and the same apps running on newer devices, but the differences are nowhere near sufficient to warrant an upgrade. The phone still holds enough of a charge that it can (admittedly barely) last from work on Friday to work on Monday without needing a charge over the weekend, so the battery hasn't forced an upgrade, and I don't expect that it will anytime soon.
In fact, I've had the money set aside in my budget since 2015 to buy a new iPhone outright, given that I had anticipated upgrading on the stereotypical two-year cycle, but my iPhone 5s continues to run like a champ, much to my surprise and delight. As such, I've held off upgrading for the last two years, and given the rumors circulating so far and the continued performance from my current device, I expect that I'll do so again this year, meaning that by the time I finally do decide to upgrade, I will have had a fully supported, still-useful iPhone running the latest OS with the latest security updates and the latest features for a period lasting no less than 5-6 years.
My Android phones last just fine.
Define "just fine".
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They didn't, but you have to admit, with the iPhone they really did Lead The Way.
There was a period when most phones, even Apple's, were pretty good hardware. They were expected to outlast the battery and you would probably change it at least once. Apple was one of the first to have the "courage" to use a cost-reduced integrated battery design, which of course everyone, even companies that previously had a reputation for quality (e.g. Samsung) had to copy.
If Apple
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My current 3-year-old Samsung phone (S4) is definitely my last Samsung phone, ever. No more money for you, Samsung, unless you decide to stop copying Apple and go back to making quality hardware.
They did: they made the Galaxy S5. I had an S4 before, and now I have an S5, and the S5 is better in every way. I recommend upgrading to that.
(Of course, the S5 is now 3+ years old...)
If the S5 becomes too cumbersome to use because of lack of updates or whatever, I'm really not sure what to upgrade to next, becaus
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They didn't, but you have to admit, with the iPhone they really did Lead The Way
Except for the part where Apple offers software updates to their phones for far longer than any other major manufacturer.
Good luck finding another major vendor that supports their smartphones for 4 years.
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No, they just patented it.
I wish! Then they'd actively prevent other companies from doing it.
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Depending on your variation you can have no updates from the time you bought the device to just under 2 years of updates.
Wrong. My Galaxy S5 is over 3 years old now and is still receiving updates.
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Really? Apple changed enough in its hardware in 6 years that an OS doesn't run on it anymore?
Who'd have thought?
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Unsupported is pretty irrelevant.
My iPad 2 and iPhone 4S are probably 7 or 8 years old and run just fine.
And for my own reasons I have iOS 7 on my iPad and if I'm not mistaken iOS 6 on my iPhone.
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Then let me rephrase it:
For me it is not relevant.
And to publish Apps that run on old 'unsupported' OS you only have to set a check box in the IDE.
I just got an update for 'Thai Dict' on my iPhone running iOS 6 I believe.
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However, new iPhone buyers probably go 2.5-3.5 years between new and unsupported.
So far as the flagship iPhones go, the iPhone 5 is the only one losing support in iOS 11. It was, as you said, launched in 2012, and it was discontinued a year later in 2013, meaning that by the time iOS 11 launches later this year, every iPhone 5 buyer will have received a minimum of 5 years of support, with people who bought it on launch day receiving 6 years of support. With iOS 11 dropping support for 32-bit processors and the iPhone 5 is on the wrong side of that divide, it's unsurprising that it's bei
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You don't, I don't, but we don't count. The majority out there does just that, so why bother building a cellphone that lasts? Yes, the 1% of people who actually care will be pissed, but they, too, will just buy a new cellphone. They'll just mutter profanities towards the manufacturer of their current phone while they buy a phone from the manufacturer they muttered profanities at 2 years ago when they bought the phone they are tossing now, while the rest of the people squeal "ohhh shiny!" while buying whatev
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We don't all
No, but all enough that the alternative market is pretty much non-existent.
Re:Quality doesn't matter when it's disposable any (Score:4, Interesting)
For iPhones (and Galaxy / Pixel) quality has more to do with features and capabilities than it does long lasting craftsmanship. Not many people claim high end phones are made of parts which will last longer than cheaper phones, they claim they have better quality cameras / larger screens / better resolution / faster processors / etc.
I would be very surprised if cheaper phones didn't have a much longer shelf life than high end phones. They are not cramming as much processing power into such a small mobile device so they are probably more reliable on average.
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Have to admit I am running out of space though
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Those with children pass their old phones to their kids. Extremely common in my hallway. Not saying I think a phone that costs as much as a nice PC is fair at all, but my company buys me my iPhone so... yeah, my kids get old iPhones.
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Three years top, uh? That doesn't explain my iPhone 4.
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And for how long did it run when it was brand new? :)
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/i... [ifixit.com]
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I can get 7 days of heavy use from my Nokia 7110...
when you love Apple you are willing to pay for it (Score:2)
let them eat cake (Score:2)
Those of us that live in the real world have to realistically weigh such tradeoffs and decide what we want to spend our pennies on.
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You're no true Scotsman!
Nice branding (Score:2)
I mean, why not just come out and say you're appealing to conspicuous consumption so the more you charge, the more loyal your customers get?
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I wouldn't call it crap - I would say it's grossly overpriced for the functionality it provides, and I'd also say I'm not keen on their walled garden.
And of course I find the idea of paying a premium for branding to be offensively stupid because I'm not a child any more.
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Courageous Crap.
I remember... (Score:3, Funny)
When the Apple iPhone was terrible at making phone calls. Thankfully, nowadays nobody uses iPhones for that purpose anymore, so it doesn't really matter.
I pull out my iPhone when I want to impress someone, but it doesn't actually have a SIM in it. I use an Android phone to communicate with people.
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You forgot to tell us to get off your lawn there grandpa...
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A 10 year old meme is an apt reply to a 4 digit slashID harking back to the glory days of Ma Bell.
Wtf pissed in your cornflakes this morning hmm? I own both my apartment in Paris & have a summer home on the Côte d'Azur. Did the bank repossess your doublewide?
Innovations (Score:4, Insightful)
Like removing user replaceable batteries and removing headphone jacks and not including features.
Yeah, the only difference between Apple and landfill is the price tag. They led the race to the bottom, and now my 4+ year old phone is probably the last phone I will own due to their "innovations."
Samsung S5 - replaceable battery / rear case. Wireless charging. Waterproof. OLED display. Lineage OS support (think free as in speech).
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Wish I had mod points. The cynicism with which Apple disguise their blatant cost cutting and built in obsolescence under the banner of "innovation" is just staggering. Almost as staggering as the number of rich dumb fanboys and other sheeple who actually believe it.
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Most of the world is hardly impressed with Apple. Pretty much just the 5 eyes (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States).
Sources:
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Like removing user replaceable batteries
"Removing" suggests they had it in the first place. They didn't. The iPhone was never aimed at people who wanted to replace batteries. I understand the frustration with the headphone jack removal, but what sort of sense does it make to complain that a device isn't something it never claimed to be?
Every device is the sum of a set of design decisions. Apple chose to make specific compromises in order to make gains in areas that appeal to their target demographic, of which you are clearly not a member. There's
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A few years? You're supposed to buy a new one in 2 years, tops, so that's a feature, not a bug.
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Haven't noticed it on my 4 y/o phone. Maybe you had the "daylight" stuff on and mistook that for screen damage? I also replaced the case (not bolted an ugly ill fitting cover on top of) with a folio (fold over cover), so maybe that adds a layer of protection?
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Making them a bit thicker would also make it easier to give them better battery life.
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"Hey, isn't it awesome how thin my phone is? Why yes, I DID put it in an Otter Box that makes it bigger than most other phones, but I don't want it to break if I drop it!"
Intelligent discussion? (Score:5, Funny)
I anticipate a serious, informative and insightful discussion on not just the merits of the iphone, but about the general concepts of value and how it relates to personal preferences and requirements.
Please? Maybe?
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I anticipate a serious, informative and insightful discussion
Nope, ain't gonna happen, TFS mentioned Apple. This IS still /..
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Well iOS only runs on Apple hardware, so if you wanted to run it on a "Chinese Phone", you couldn't.
But I've never owned an iPhone, so I don't know or care about what I'm missing out on. A late 2012 Korean phone does all I need running the latest Android 7.x release. If I need a replacement I'll simply substitute a model supported by Lineage OS and with a good repairability score on ifixit.
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You don't know or care but you posted to an apple subject on /.? Thanks for sharing your ignorance & apathy with us, because that's the reason we frequent /.
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I anticipate a serious, informative and insightful discussion on not just the merits of the iphone, but about the general concepts of value and...
The iPhone really isn't that expensive compared to other things people regularly spend money on. Smoke? A pack-a-day habit averages around $2k per year. Go out drinking? That can easily run into the thousands, annually. Have cable TV? In my neck of the woods, that'll cost you at least as much annually as a current generation iPhone. Most people keep their phone longer than a year, too.
Technical merits aside, the advantage of the iPhone is that it is a "safe" choice if you're not interested in researc
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You should really see someone about your Trump OCD. They have meds for OCD now. Or are you just off your meds again?
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As in all things, there is cost benefit analysis. Phones have reached the point that they are now effectively a 3 year device (while early smart phones were 1.5 year devices). The things holding back longevity are screens that get damaged and non replaceable batteries. Otherwise, the specs on a 3 year old phone are very good. The other thing holding back older phones is discontinued OS support. On the other hand, the battery and screen in my 2 year old Galaxy S6 are both doing great and the OS is still
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What merits? First you brings us the merits, then we'll discuss them.
Re:Intelligent discussion? (Score:5, Interesting)
If you look at raw specs, yes. But we all know that it's not just about a checklist of features in the hardware and the OS.
It's the UI, the reliability of the device, the reputation of the vendor, the ecosystem that the device falls into. Are there any particular worthwhile features that trump everything else? All those elements factor into the overall "value" of a device. The question then becomes, HOW valuable is that to a given person?
For me for example, I wanted *solid* bluetooth performance. I've had such dismal experience with bluetooth that I had effectively dismissed the entire technology as over-hyped garbage. I had zero plans on purchasing an iPhone 7... until I discovered that it had Bluetooth Power Class 1, which AFAIK no other mobile device on the entire market can do. So I took a chance and bought one (128GB storage), along with a BeatsX headphones. They were stupidly expensive. Ended up dropping ~$1400 on the whole shebang. And you know what? I don't regret it at all. I have had exceptionally flawless performance. I had exactly one drop out, and that was when I passed an electrical room that puts out so much EM that there is literally no hope for *any* wireless anything to function. The phone itself performs more or less as expected. (iTunes, of course, is still just as much shit as it ever was... but I only needed it long enough to be able to do my initial sync of music and configure non-cloud wifi backups.)
I personally have a very low tolerance for bullshit, especially when it comes to technology when something is supposed to "just work", and I have no qualms about paying a premium for a device that doesn't give me grief.... because that is extremely valuable to me. The entire Android ecosystem fell well below my expectations and requirements. Other people have different requirements, and that's fine.
Incidentally, the last 2 or so releases of Android have dramatically improved (especially in terms of power management), and if I was starting from scratch, I would probably give it another try. However, I've purchased enough iOS apps that I'm now effectively commited to the platform, and it's just not worth it for me to migrate.
Tangentially, I *almost* gave up on Mac because Apple's handling of their hardware HAS been that grievous. But then Microsoft said "hold my beer" and released Windows 10, so now it's become not a question of "which one is better", but "which one hurts less".
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For me, it's iOS. Much the same as the "are Macs worth it?" debate, it boils down to whether or not you want iOS, and how much you're prepared to pay for it.
I've tried using Android, and while I can't prepare you a bullet-point list of things I especially wish were different, it just feels clunky and unintuitive to me in comparison to iOS. There's also a certain amount of group effect in that I play a number of on-line games against iOS-using friends, many of which aren't available on other platforms, or
Flame! Troll! Opinion as fact! (Score:2)
Just a few of my ideas for this discussion.
For who (Score:2)
Bait the Woz (Score:3)
I think it's comedic how people constantly try to bait Woz to say something bad about Apple. Hello, he is always gonna love Apple that's his baby. Even if your kid gets into drugs and robs a bunch of old ladies, you are still gonna say your kid is a good kid. It's possibly even rude/disrespectful to ask the guy. If you go up to a mother and ask "why is your baby ugly?" isn't that mean?
Plus it's kind of true most of the Chinese phones aren't bringing anything to the table besides cost reduction by removing features.
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Even if your kid gets into drugs and robs a bunch of old ladies, you are still gonna say your kid is a good kid. It's possibly even rude/disrespectful to ask the guy. If you go up to a mother and ask "why is your baby ugly?" isn't that mean?
You're conflating two things.
Yes, it IS rude to ask someone why their baby is ugly, or to say that it is. The baby can't help the way it looks, and a lot of babies really are ugly. Hopefully they'll grow out of it. But it doesn't matter: baby-ugliness is just a cosmet
Similar to Mac vs. Windows (Score:5, Insightful)
I've used both Android and iPhone, and I found the iPhone just "cleaner" and more straight-forward. Apple controls the user experience carefully, and refuses most junk and clutter.
It may not be that Android is "bad" per se, but various phone vendors either don't give enough thought to a clean UI, and/or put junkware and play games to get you to buy their crap. It's more wild-west in flavor. On the upside, Android may have more potential options and shortcuts if you fiddle and dig enough.
It's much like the old Mac vs. Windows debate: Mac is easier to "just use" out of the box, while Windows is less expensive and has more potential software, but needs more babysitting of the machine to do it and keep running, and UI design that sometimes makes you cringe. Google is the new Microsoft, for good or bad.
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No, iOS is more like Windows in this case, and Android is like Linux (literally). Apple is all about controlling end-users, just like Microsoft. Forcing their proprietary ecosystem down their throats. While Android shares a little bit of that due to Google, it's not inherent to the open-source operating system, and it's possible to have a well functioning phone without any of that Google stuff.
Apple became the "new Microsoft" a long time ago.
They ARE worth it... if you don't upgrade. (Score:2)
However, if you fancy yourself a photographer and thus need the best iPhone for the best camera. OK.
If you're a serious mobile gamer and need the best graphics and a phablet screen. OK
But, similarly, you need to understand that you're trying to get multiple high-perform
I payed $20 for a Moto E (Score:3)
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This!
I paid $10 for a Moto E on black friday and it came with a case. I bought two in case i lose one.. the MicroSD's i put in cost much more then the phone did.
I use them as "bike computers".. because at $10 for a throw-away phone it is MUCH cheaper then $160 for a "bike computer" which doesnt have software updates, doesnt play music, have maps or much of anything else.
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These are listed at $130 from Motorola, and even the old 2nd generation models are still $70 on Amazon. Perhaps you're referring to some kind of subsidy you got from your mobile carrier? It's really disingenuous to make that comparison. I can go get an iPhone for $0 from Sprint. So what? It's still a $650 phone.
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Mine is a "pay as you go".. i dropped $10 at bestbuy for the phone, and pay monthly.... no contracts... nothing.
Carrier locked, but a lot of phones are.
"Best Buy [bestbuy.com] has 8GB Verizon Motorola Moto E 4G No Contract Smartphone for $9.99"
"Do What I Mean" (Score:5, Insightful)
Hopefully, this will clarify what the general public sees in Apple products...
As Slashdotters, we're used to telling computers "do what I say". If you've ever had a Google search that came back ignoring a critical part of a search term and having gotten mad at it for doing so, it's because Google didn't do what you said. We are the types of people who have unusual requests and explicit commands that we expect our computers to honor. Complex routing and firewall rules, always clicking "custom" when installing software, selecting which software updates get applied, and the inherent nature of software development - these are all the result of a "do what I say" mentality...and it's why we're very, very good at what we do - we know what to say.
The general public does not have this.
The general public knows they want the data on their phone to survive if the hardware doesn't. Do most think through it enough to consider which server it should live on, or how to ensure text messages are properly backed up (and in what format), or whether a TLA can access that data without their knowledge? If prompted, maybe, but for 99.9999% of iPhone users, the sequence of "having their phone fall from a roller coaster", "having Apple replace that phone with a new one", and "all the pictures of their kids being where they were before" is a far superior experience that requires no thought or action from the user; "make sure my data is safe" is a "do what I mean" command that iCloud basically provides far better than some amalgam of what Google offers - Google will back up your text messages, but gets inconsistent with MMS if Verizon is handling text messages with their proprietary app that comes standard on Android, as one example.
Asking a friend how to do something on an iPhone, even if they're not exactly the same model, is pretty much guaranteed to work consistently. Go ahead and *try* walking someone through setting up an e-mail account on an Android phone. Which Android version? Which carrier? Motorola launcher, Samsung launcher, HTC launcher? Are they using a third party mail client? Are they doing so without knowing it, since later versions of Android tend to handle Exchange through the Gmail app? While a somewhat-informed, not-IT person can walk another user through adding an e-mail account on an iPhone, it's all but hopeless on Android. Rinse and repeat for many tasks, and it's abundantly clear why Apple has a far greater grasp on the social aspect of owning an iPhone. Now, don't get me wrong, I very much appreciate the customizability of Android and use it quite extensively. However, it's only useful with the understanding that effectively customizing an Android device requires a "do what I say" mentality.
Finally, let's discuss safety. While sure, I think that the "toxic hellstew" comment is ridiculous, the fact of the matter is that you probably know someone who has called "Microsoft Support" and gotten taken for $400 and likely left a mess for you to clean up. It's a sad reality that such a scam works, but it does. The "do what I say" crowd decries the walled garden because it keeps us in, preventing us from accessing lower level system functions, greater customizations, nontraditional apps (oh ctorrent...), and the principled stance of owning a purchased device. However, the "do what I mean" crowd wants a device where they don't have to worry about something happening that they didn't "mean". The walls on the garden are for their safety, and even though they might disagree with a few aspects of that configuration if pressed, the fact is that an "Apple Support" scam is a nonstarter on the platform and for most iPhone users, that is a fair trade in exchange for low level functions they wouldn't know how to use anyway because they don't know what to "say".
And that, fellow Slashdotters, is why the iPhone remains popular.
Yeah, Right Woz (Score:2, Interesting)
My IPhone can't maintain a WIFI connection at all. My cheap Android phone has not one issue at all.
Who has to have these "high end features"? (Score:2)
Nothing about it mobile phones is "worth it" (Score:2)
Are you kidding me?
"Super-rich dude with vested interest says $1000+ for a fragile piece of spy(hard)ware is worth it."
Yeah. OK Woz. Sure. Say bud, think I can borrow a million bucks from you?
The wireless industry has you all so bamboozled that you are actually discussing the merits of a piece of tech that is designed to fail as fast as possible while locking you into their brand of shit via the proprietary app ecosystem.
I suppose when they collectively realized they had you all brainwashed into thinking th
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i also would never use a desktop that didn't run a unix or unix like operating system, so there's that. i also do not enjoy the inconvenience and lack of design sense that comes with linux on the desktop so there's that too.
Have you not used the latest version of Windows? "Lack of design sense" and "inconvenience" don't even begin to describe the horror show that is the modern Windows UI.
There's definitely a LOT to gripe about with modern Linux UIs (especially Gnome3 - what a piece of shit), but compared t
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It's "riggity riggity wrecked".