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Businesses Iphone The Almighty Buck Apple

Apple's Latest Products Get Rare Mixed-Bag Reviews, Muted Reception (bloomberg.com) 211

Posted by msmash from the is-the-charm-fading-away dept.
Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg: Despite the strength of its brand, Apple occasionally releases a product to mediocre reviews -- remember the original Apple TV or Apple Watch? But reviewers have rarely been as grumpy as this month, when Apple unveiled its collection of new gadgets for the holidays. "I can't think of a single compelling reason to upgrade [to iPhone 8, or iPhone 8 Plus] from an iPhone 7 [which was launched last year]," wrote Nilay Patel of The Verge. Another potential sign of trouble: the iPhone 8 models didn't sell out during pre-orders, another rare occurrence for Apple phones. [...] Reviewing the new Apple Watch Series 3 model, The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern wrote "On the AT&T-connected models, the cellular connection dropped, calls were often choppy and Siri sometimes failed to connect. On the one that ran on T-Mobile, I experienced several dropped connections." The Verge's Lauren Goode noticed a serious connection issue as well, saying the device "would appear to pick up a single bar of some random Wi-Fi signal, and hang on that, rather than switching to LTE." [...] Reviewing the Apple TV 4K, The Verge's Patel noted the device's high price, a lack of 4K support in major apps including YouTube, and a lack of support for the Dolby Atmos audio standard. Reuters reported on Friday: Hundreds of people usually gather at Apple's Sydney city store with queues winding down the town's main street, George Street, when there is a new product release. But there were fewer than 30 people lining up before the store opened on Friday, according to a Reuters witness. While the number of people queuing up outside Apple stores have dropped over the years with many opting for online purchases, the weak turnout for the latest iPhone has partly been due to poor reviews. Over at Financial Times, Tim Bradshaw reports: "I think demand is down from last year, for no other reason than you have another flagship phone," said Neil Cybart, an Apple analyst at Above Avalon. "A portion of the iPhone launch demand is not materialising quite yet." That could leave this weekend's initial sales lower than at any point since the iPhone 6 first launched in 2014, Mr Cybart added. Apple's decision to increase prices for the iPhone 8 compared with last year's model and a less aggressive launch push by mobile carriers could also affect demand.
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Apple's Latest Products Get Rare Mixed-Bag Reviews, Muted Reception More

Apple's Latest Products Get Rare Mixed-Bag Reviews, Muted Reception

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  • "the iPhone 8 models didn't sell out during..." (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:10AM (#55244873)

    Well yeah, people are waiting for the iPhone X. Or...gasp, the smartphone market is becoming saturated.

    Maybe Apple will start giving their computers some love again. Or take their money and get into a whole new business to diversify a bit. At the moment they're all in on the phones and phone accessories, which is not a great plan long term.

    • Re:"the iPhone 8 models didn't sell out during..." (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Moheeheeko ( 1682914 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:12AM (#55244893)

      Maybe Apple will start giving their computers some love again.

      Why would they? People slurp up the 'newest' macbook before it even properly leaves the anus, Apple has no incentive.

      • In a rare statement, they pre announced they're making a new form factor for the Mac Pro in the next year. Partially because the from factor didn't work out as expected, but the pre announce seemed to be because consumers were so unhappy.

        I think the new Macbook Pro pushed them over. Yes, they claimed "the most orders" (or preorders) or something for the Macbook Pro, but everyone knows that's because of the demand buildup because they hadn't shipped a new Macbook Pro in awhile. The actual reception was tep

        • I jumped to a Dell Precision running Ubuntu from my 2012 MBP and I'm pretty happy with it. It's got some quirks, but so far nothing as bad as some of the idiocy that OSX was tormenting me with. (If I wasn't signed into iCloud, e.g., it would randomly pop up a notice every few hours telling me it couldn't connect, even though I had no services using iCloud and everything possible to disable related to it disabled.) I got ballpark twice the hardware of a similar priced MBP, along with an actual nVidia video c

        • In a rare statement, they pre announced they're making a new form factor for the Mac Pro in the next year. Partially because the from factor didn't work out as expected, but the pre announce seemed to be because consumers were so unhappy.

          I think the new Macbook Pro pushed them over. Yes, they claimed "the most orders" (or preorders) or something for the Macbook Pro, but everyone knows that's because of the demand buildup because they hadn't shipped a new Macbook Pro in awhile. The actual reception was tepid and I'm sure longer-term sales showed that.

          I was waiting for this new Macbook Pro, but now I'm seeing if I can wait for the next one. It made me look seriously at other laptops (but I haven't found one I liked out there, either).

          Gimme a break!

          There wasn't massive "pent up demand" for the 2016 MBP. Heck, it had only been a little over a year since the 2015 MBP came out! There were lots of orders for the 2016 MBP because it was demonstrably better in many important areas over its 2015 predecessor.

          Having said all that, I'm very anxious to see what they have in mind for the new "modular" Mac Pro, and what is to become of the Mac mini...

          • If you're happy with what they've been releasing, I'm genuinely glad it works for you.
            Wikipedia groups all of the Macbook Pros between 2012 and 2015 under "Third Generation (Retina)" [1]. They all had Ivy Bridge and later Haswell chips (that started shipping from 2012 and 2013)[2]. I was holding out for Kaby Lake--or, honestly, just something compelling enough to upgrade my 2011 laptop. If I waited 5+ years, I don't want to pay for a new laptop where the architecture is only 1 or 2 years newer. I've regular

      • Yeah we do I'm already on the 2012 model, us macfags sure buy whatever as long as it's new.

      • FTFY:
        Why would they? Some People slurp up the 'newest' macbook before it even properly leaves the anus, Apple has no incentive.
        Some other users are still waiting for a revamped 17" or even 18" MacBook Pro, and perhaps finally some MacBooks (pro or not) that have a touch screen.
        Actually a 17" sized laptop with a smaller frame around the screen would probably be enoug.

    • or.... Apple could ship something of value, not a product with small features here and there

      • Re:"the iPhone 8 models didn't sell out during..." (Score:4, Interesting)

        by XxtraLarGe ( 551297 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:39AM (#55245107) Journal

        or.... Apple could ship something of value, not a product with small features here and there

        I just bought an iPhone 7 Plus after they announced the iPhone 8 & X. There were barely any differences between the iPhone 7 & iPhone 8, and the iPhone 8's are only available in 64 & 256 GB memory. Also, the iPhone 7 Plus's price dropped, and I was able to get 128 GB. Wireless charging isn't a compelling enough reason to drop an extra $150.

        • My fitbit bit the dust a few weeks back...and I was thinking Apple Watch this go around, since it now seems to do and track all I like...although it appears you have to get a 3rd party app for sleep tracking.

          Hmm....has anyone heard if the Verizon connected LTE model has had the connection problems?

          I've only read ATT and TMobile problems so far...?

        • The more shocking part is that there seems to have been little real-world testing of the phones, or the wifi issue would have been caught. Wherever they were using it probably had nice wifi. I think Apple's reputation for consistent quality might be declining.

        • Wireless charging isn't a compelling enough reason to drop an extra $150.

          The only reason I can see to buy last year's model of something is if you don't have the $ up front to by the current model.

          You paid less, but you now own a phone that's worth less if you ever want to sell it. You own a phone that will reach it's EOL a year sooner (which means you'll have to buy a new phone a year sooner). When you factor those in, your decision amounts to no money saved (and possibly money lost), and the pleasure of using a lesser product.

    • Re:"the iPhone 8 models didn't sell out during..." (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Austerity Empowers ( 669817 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:27AM (#55245021)

      I'm fairly certain Apple wants people to buy the iPhone X. The reason people aren't flocking to the 8 is because Apple said "here's this thing, that's ok...but look over at THIS thing that's really awesome", so of course people are going to want the awesome.

      • I'm fairly certain Apple wants people to buy the iPhone X.

        What are you trying to say? Apple wants people to buy the more expensive product? Pretty controversial statement. You'd better have the data to back up that claim.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mea2214 ( 935585 )

        The reason people aren't flocking to the 8 is because Apple said "here's this thing, that's ok...but look over at THIS thing that's really awesome",

        Malibu Stacy with a new hat!

  • Clearly, the root cause of this debacle is disruption caused by cat parasites.
  • If the facial scanner was on the back of the phone, and used as a miniature lidar sensor, I would seriously be impressed. Being able to scan items into a virtual environment easily and quickly would have a very large range of awesome applications. As it is now it could probably be repurposed for some pretty neat stuff.

  • No compelling reason to upgrade (Score:3, Insightful)

    by supercell ( 1148577 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:18AM (#55244931)
    The iPhone 8, other than a faster processo, slightly better camera and wireless charging is the exact same as the 7, which is very similar to the 6. The X has the same internals as the 8 and is much more expensive. Apple has really quit trying to be a innovative leader.

  • People waiting for Iphone X (Score:3)

    by prasadsurve ( 665770 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:19AM (#55244939)
    People who want the latest and greatest Iphone will go for Iphone X. Cant see any compelling reason to move from Iphone 7 to Iphone 8.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MouseR ( 3264 )

      The compelling reason would be the price difference.

      When the 6+ came out, I forked for the BIG model: 128g storage. It amounted to ~950$CAD.

      This new X, is 400$CAD MORE for half the storage on the base model.

      Not going to happen.

  • What about iPhone X holdouts? (Score:3)

    by llZENll ( 545605 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:23AM (#55244985)

    It is also the first time Apple has released its new phones with the premium model being delayed a few months, I know if I intend to upgrade there is little reason to get the 8 over the X.

    • It is also the first time Apple has released its new phones with the premium model being delayed a few months, I know if I intend to upgrade there is little reason to get the 8 over the X.

      It will be interesting to see what the numbers are once the X comes out. I would guess a number of iPhone users who view it as fashion statement will wait for the X simply because, well it is the X. Some will actually find the new features compelling and useful and will wait for it. Are there enough of those to overcome slow sales of the 8? Will be interesting to see. Personally, I see no compelling reason to upgrade from a 7 to an 8; and an X isn't worth $1000 to me.

      • The X has a larger, presumably better (OLED) screen in a smaller package. The screen is a pretty important part of your smartphone experience. Not something I'd write off as a "fashion statement".

        A friend of mine has the Samsung Note8. Having a screen like that really is something to be excited about.

         

        • OLED is only "better" if you don't care about durability.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dgatwood ( 11270 )

            It's a tradeoff of durability versus readability. The screen that burns twice as bright burns half as long. (With apologies to Lao Tzu.)

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by torkus ( 1133985 )

            Maybe do a bit of homework...Samsung has been using AMOLED in their phones for several generations (and, unless i'm mistaken, the LCD panel vendor for Apple)

      • It is also the first time Apple has released its new phones with the premium model being delayed a few months, I know if I intend to upgrade there is little reason to get the 8 over the X.

        It will be interesting to see what the numbers are once the X comes out. I would guess a number of iPhone users who view it as fashion statement will wait for the X simply because, well it is the X. Some will actually find the new features compelling and useful and will wait for it. Are there enough of those to overcome slow sales of the 8? Will be interesting to see. Personally, I see no compelling reason to upgrade from a 7 to an 8; and an X isn't worth $1000 to me.

        Then why are you commenting?

    • You mean aside from the X being insanely expensive?

    • I know if I intend to upgrade there is little reason to get the 8 over the X.

      Yeah we're all waiting for the ugly smaller model with the insane price tag.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by swb ( 14022 )

      If sales of 8 are weak because "everyone" is waiting for the X, then Apple is kind of fucked because of their production ceiling.

      Unless, of course, those stories that it's so supercalifragilisticexpialidocious they can't make enough of them are total bullshit to increase perceptions of rarity and exclusiveness.

  • Framing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:28AM (#55245033) Journal

    I like how the Bloomberg article attributes the mediocre reviews of Apple products to "grumpy reviewers". Because of course, it's not possible that Apple's offerings could ever actually be mediocre.

  • Meh - I'm not a Bergen, don't need to eat Trolls (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ripvlan ( 2609033 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:35AM (#55245085)

    It's a telephone. The first year that the Bell phone hung on the wall everyone I'm sure was excited. Now a days there's a box in my parent's basement full old crap phones...you want one? all are free!!! This is where we are with the iPhone. It's a phone. The most exciting feature of the X is an animated emoji - I hear the movie sucked ! The phone is still a rectangle. You have any idea how long it took AT&T to change the shape of the phone - wasn't until after it was deregulated.

    I do need a new phone - have a discontinued iPhone 5 (no S, no C, no Plus.... plain old original stock). However, the X is too rich and thinking about the whole material things won't love me issue...I'll go for the 8. But my wife has the 7 --- and I don't see a difference.

    Obviously I hold onto things until they expire. Do I save a buck and get the 7 or at least get the most current model 8?! or maybe the SE because it is smaller - and I have the watch too.

    But why do I need a smartphone again?! Oh, so I can swipe through FB twice a day while pretending to care about the content !? That experience can be had for far less than a $1,000 X.

    And damit -- why are the storage sizes 64 or 256. Why couldn't it have been a useful 128 vs 256? Oh - 'cause nobody would pay the premium for a 256. I guess I will be parted from my money.

    Oh woes me.

  • Apple's secret to success (Score:4, Insightful)

    by StreamingEagle ( 1571901 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:36AM (#55245089)
    .. isn't hardware. It's software. More specifically, Apple offers a complete platform where hardware, software (OS and built-in apps), web services (iCloud, App Store, iTunes music and video) and content are all fully and seamlessly integrated. Users get a consistent experience across devices, and app developers can count on relatively consistent capabilities on end-user devices (as opposed to the fairly disparate device software and hardware configurations and capabilities on Android and Windows platforms). All the attention at an Apple product launch is paid to the shiny new hardware. Relatively little attention is paid to the fundamental improvements in the platform, like the adoption of HEVC and HEIF (2x better photo and video compression), or the introduction of Augmented Reality and Machine Learning (ARkit and Core ML), multitasking, drag and drop. Why do you think Microsoft is now in the hardware business, and Google is building a hardware business? They can't compete with Apple if they can't offer a seamless experience.

    • Apple's secret to success isn't hardware. It's software.

      Steve Jobs said almost verbatim that "Apple is a software company [youtube.com]" and he was right. Apple designs nice hardware but it's not really terribly different from their competition and they don't actually make much of it themselves. I could put Windows 10 on a Mac and if you didn't see the badge on the front of the box you'd have no idea you were using an Apple product. You could put Android on the iPhone hardware and you'd never know it was an Apple product. What makes Apple distinct and what enables them t

      • Steve Jobs said almost verbatim that "Apple is a software company" and he was right.

        So why are they so bad at it? iTunes is a train wreck. iPhoto has gone backwards in recent years according to photographers I know. NeXTStep was surprisingly peppy on an '040 and OSX doesn't seem much faster even on massive hardware even though it's the same damned OS.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sjbe ( 173966 )

          So why are they so bad at it?

          They aren't. They are/were actually pretty good at it or at least at certain parts of it. People LOVE their software (sometimes to an irrational degree) and are willing pay a premium for it so they must be doing something right for somebody.

          • They aren't. They are/were actually pretty good at it or at least at certain parts of it. People LOVE their software (sometimes to an irrational degree) and are willing pay a premium for it so they must be doing something right for somebody.

            Only a tiny minority of the population LOVEs their software enough to stand in lines for it. Most people just use whatever they're aware of, which is based on what their friends use, or whatever their carrier is willing to sell them for a price they can afford. They're even less popular when it comes to computers, especially since there is currently broad disaffection with their lineup.

            What Apple is doing right, as ever, is Marketing. They're convincing people that their inferior software is superior. But t

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • iPhoto is no more, it was replaced by Photos. The thing that irks everybody about it is that it doesn't give you easy access to the files, you have to export them, otherwise it's okay. I only use it for syncing photos from my phone, not for serious photos. I was never a big fan of iPhoto so I'm not going to complain, but OS X in general has gone downhill since 10.6, tons of annoying new features nobody wanted that just get in the way and old stuff breaks.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Apple is a fashion brand. Everything else is secondary. Just because fashion houses make some actually good quality clothing doesn't change the fact that you pay so much for them because of the branding, instead of buying cheaper but equally good/more functional clothing elsewhere.

        How else can you explain decisions like removing the headphone jack or insisting on using an series of proprietary ports instead of USB? Why go as far as to brick unlicensed 3rd party hardware with software updates? Apple is all a

    • That wall of acronyms and tech buzzwords means almost nothing to Apple's target market. People that give 2 cents about that are probably on Android. For better or worse Apple has hitched their cart to the masses and the masses want flashy features, not "media playback is 5% more efficient". Also, every release seems to generate more grumbling about the direction the iPhone UI is going. I had to help my mother in law with her iPhone a couple of weeks ago, and "intuitive" was NOT the word I would have use

    • [Google] can't compete with Apple if they can't offer a seamless experience.

      You have me confused. Android's 86% marketshare can't complete with Apple's 14% marketshare...how?

      Google buying HTC isn't so Google can compete with Apple. It's more so Google can bury Apple. The major part of of Apple's revenues come from the iPhone. A few lost percentage points of phone marketshare for Apple translates into HUGE losses for Apple.

      • So far, the sales of Google's phones were basically a footnote despite much hype. It's difficult to see how buying HTC will change that.

  • Tim, I usually sell good advice (Score:4, Informative)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:46AM (#55245157)

    This one is free.

    I know, you're a Bauhaus [wikipedia.org] enthusiast. And you know, I usually agree: Remove everything that's superfluous and what remains will be perfect. No frills, no fluff, no bells, no whistles. Bare bone, form follows functions approach. Absolutely agree.

    You overdid it. And to make matters worse, you then went astray.

    You removed features people actually didn't see as superfluous. And added some that actually are. Reverse this and you'll see people return to your product.

  • Apple is selling the same iPhone for the fourth yr (Score:4, Insightful)

    by guacamole ( 24270 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:46AM (#55245159)

    Why should there be some kind of surprise that the market for iPhones eventually becomes saturated? The iPhone 6s was the same as iPhone 6 with better specs, and the 7 was a 6s with better specs but without the headphone jack. The 8 is basically an improved 8, and they all look the same. They all run an identical OS. I don't want to blame Apple for the lack of innovation. The technology has now matured and Apple has found a formula that works for them, and they're sticking with it.

    However, this incredible bubble has to eventually pop. When more and more people realize that their three year old iPhone looks and works the same as the new one, less and less of them will be willing to spend 700-1000USD for a new one each cycle. I can imagine upgrading from the 6, because it has only 1GB of RAM, but 6S is where I would stop upgrading iPhone because the 6s still can use wired headphones.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PCM2 ( 4486 )

      Why should there be some kind of surprise that the market for iPhones eventually becomes saturated?

      Maybe because the market for Samsung Galaxy phones does not appear to be saturated? There's this theory that companies need to compete to win sales they haven't already made.

    • One of Apple's biggest innovations was partnering with AT&T, Verizon, etc., to sell $1000 computers (iPhones, and to a lesser extent iPads) on an installment plan. People who would never think of doing that for a $600 laptop all of a sudden were buying $900 iPhones that way.

  • Some Restrictions Apply (Score:4, Funny)

    by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:49AM (#55245189) Homepage

    Yes, I would say it is indeed factually accurate to say that, with a few exceptions*, it is rare for Apple products to receive substantial numbers of lukewarm or hostile reviews from august publications.

    *exceptions include Fisher-Price iMac, Desk Lamp iMac, Aluminum iMac, iPod the First, iPod the Touch, iPhone Ha Ha No Keyboard Good Luck With That, iPhone Ick You Used Plastic, iPhone Duh You Used Glass, iPhone Hurr Durr Way Too Many Pixels, iPhone Just Keep Saying AntennaGate, iPhone Horrendous Disfiguring Camera Bump Of The End Times, iPad, little iPad, big iPad, Apple Pencil for god's sake, Toilet Seat MacBook, Won't You Always Be Knocking Your Power Cord Out MacBook Pro, Why Did You Get Rid Of The Magnetic Power Cord Macbook Pro, Give Me Function Keys Or Give Me Death Macbook Pro, Pretty Much Every Other MacBook Pro Except The Original 12" Aluminum MacBook Pro But Also That One Too, Mac Pro, The Other Mac Pro, Pretty Sure There's One More Mac Pro In The Mix Here, Good Luck Doing Anything Without A Floppy Drive Mac, Good Luck Doing Anything Without An Optical Drive Mac, Good Luck Doing Anything Without A PS/2 Port Mac, The Heck Even Is A FireWire Though Mac, Oh Wait I Forgot About The Stupid Cheese Grater Mac Pro Hah Because Of All The Holes, MacBook Air, G4 Cube, Apple Watch, Magic Mouse, Apple TV, OS X, iOS, and overwhelming majority of future products yet to be created

    • Hilarious post. I checked out your game, too. The intro is pretty impressive, and the concept is also quite entertaining. I did not get into the gameplay, but I'll check it out later. Is it entirely Flash-based? Because that doesn't seem like a platform with a future, I regret to say.

      "Motivational verse" just kills me. I'll have to show the gf this when she gets home.

      • Thank you! Yeah, Flash-based b/c it's my work-on-it-when-I-have-some-ounce-of-free-time project and has been in the pipeline for *years* and *years* and *years*. That said, the same code base is also compiling successfully via the still-supported Adobe AIR platform to Win/OSX executable, iOS, and Android, so I'm not *too* worried about losing the web-based stuff.

        • I did figure that you were using Adobe AIR there, but I suppose I had thought that it was also on the way out. However, it seems they have had three major releases this year, so I guess I'm completely out on that one. Thanks for the response.

    • Yes, I would say it is indeed factually accurate to say that, with a few exceptions*, it is rare for Apple products to receive substantial numbers of lukewarm or hostile reviews from august publications.

      *exceptions include Fisher-Price iMac, Desk Lamp iMac, Aluminum iMac, iPod the First, iPod the Touch, iPhone Ha Ha No Keyboard Good Luck With That, iPhone Ick You Used Plastic, iPhone Duh You Used Glass, iPhone Hurr Durr Way Too Many Pixels, iPhone Just Keep Saying AntennaGate, iPhone Horrendous Disfiguring Camera Bump Of The End Times, iPad, little iPad, big iPad, Apple Pencil for god's sake, Toilet Seat MacBook, Won't You Always Be Knocking Your Power Cord Out MacBook Pro, Why Did You Get Rid Of The Magnetic Power Cord Macbook Pro, Give Me Function Keys Or Give Me Death Macbook Pro, Pretty Much Every Other MacBook Pro Except The Original 12" Aluminum MacBook Pro But Also That One Too, Mac Pro, The Other Mac Pro, Pretty Sure There's One More Mac Pro In The Mix Here, Good Luck Doing Anything Without A Floppy Drive Mac, Good Luck Doing Anything Without An Optical Drive Mac, Good Luck Doing Anything Without A PS/2 Port Mac, The Heck Even Is A FireWire Though Mac, Oh Wait I Forgot About The Stupid Cheese Grater Mac Pro Hah Because Of All The Holes, MacBook Air, G4 Cube, Apple Watch, Magic Mouse, Apple TV, OS X, iOS, and overwhelming majority of future products yet to be created

      Perfect!!!!

  • Lack of Dolby Atmos? (Score:3)

    by omnichad ( 1198475 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @12:49PM (#55245659) Homepage

    lack of support for the Dolby Atmos audio standard

    I doubt there's a single consumer thinking that Dolby Atmos is a compelling reason to buy a phone.

    In theaters, Dolby Atmos is a 128-channel audio coding standard with spatial metadata and auditoriums can use dozens of pairs of speakers, including overhead for accurate spatial simulation.

    On a phone, it's at best a dual-stereo speaker setup, but maybe the upper stereo speakers are pointed upward. Using the same name for both is a gimmick, and honestly Atmos only offers a little bit of precision over a standard 5.1 setup.

  • "I can't think of a single compelling reason to upgrade [to iPhone 8, or iPhone 8 Plus] from an iPhone 7 [which was launched last year]," wrote Nilay Patel of The Verge.

    Of course there's little reason to upgrade from last year's iPhone 7. The question is whether there is a reason to upgrade from a 2 year old iPhone 6s or a 3 year old iPhone 6.

    The answer is No, because the iPhone 8 doesn't have a headphone jack.

  • How surprising is this? (Score:3)

    by Dixie_Flatline ( 5077 ) <vincent@jan@goh.gmail@com> on Friday September 22, 2017 @12:56PM (#55245707) Homepage

    I don't know why there's this narrative that the Apple market is 'saturated'. They're still growing, just more slowly.

    But even if that were the case, Apple is well known for allowing its own products to cannibalize sales of its other products. There's going to be a lot of demand for the X, and so that's suppressing iPhone 8 sales. Hardly a revelation.

    There are plenty of people on long update cycles now; the most common one is 'when my phone breaks'. Assuming you're actually fairly careful with your phone, you'll get iOS updates for phones as old as the iPhone 5S, which was released in 2013. iOS 11 runs well on my iPhone 6, and I plan my upgrades to be on a 4 year cycle, because that's where I think the value is. A huge number of people bought the iPhone 6, and so how many of them really feel like they need an upgrade is a bit of an open question.

    There's this story that Apple fans aren't just loyal, we're fanatical to the point of nonsense, and we buy things for no reason, all the time, and that's not true. We spend our money where we think it's warranted, and we like Apple products because they're well engineered and built to last if you put in a little effort. We don't buy things that are new for the sake of buying new things. I understand this narrative is important for some people because it makes them feel like the only reason that Apple is successful is because they're good at marketing and its customers don't understand what they're doing, but I'm afraid you're just going to have to accept that there are plenty of good reasons to buy Apple's stuff on its own merits.

    The iPhone 8 looks like a great phone. If this were my upgrade year, I might consider one—though I would probably also go for the X, since that feels like it has longer legs for the future. I'm sure a lot of other people are making this decision and that's probably the one Apple was expecting. Relax.

  • This CSPAN video where Brian Merchant talked about his book "The One Device: the secret history of the iPhone", in which he retraces the creation and development of the iPhone. What I found interesting is comparison of Jobs to Edison where he didn't invent the smartphone (or the light bulb) but many others did. https://www.c-span.org/video/?... [c-span.org]

  • Tick-tock strategy (Score:3)

    by Mr_Silver ( 213637 ) on Friday September 22, 2017 @01:17PM (#55245843)

    "I can't think of a single compelling reason to upgrade [to iPhone 8, or iPhone 8 Plus] from an iPhone 7 [which was launched last year]," wrote Nilay Patel of The Verge.

    Apple work on the assumption that people upgrade every other year driven, in part, by the standard 2 year contracts that network operators tend to have.

    The fact that last years phone isn't a big enough improvement over this years has been consistent for well over 10 years now. Admitidally skipping the S moniker has confused things - but Apple's target for the iPhone 8 are the people currently using an iPhone 6S (or earlier). In which case, the move from those devices to the 8 is a big jump.

    I'm surprised that this well-worn strategy still takes reviewers (and posters on internet forums) by surprise.

  • Apple practically deifies themselves to its followers, which is fine if you want the image of providing magical, revolutionary products and services. If you position yourself that way though, it becomes impossible to release a product that would otherwise be considered very standard and practical and "good enough" without getting this kind of negative response that contradicts the hype. There's nothing wrong with the stuff they put out, generally speaking, but it's hard live up to the gleaming, shiny perfec

  • While having a phone that is also a computer is great, it has to be affecting the marketability of these that (presumably subsidized) tablets have become so cheap. When an Amazon Fire can be had for $40 it has to make it harder to justify why a phone would be worth $1000. Sure the iPhone X is more powerful, but if the use case is Facebook and Netflix...

  • I see a lot of Apple fans rushing to defend the company, pointing out all the times the media decried an Apple product as a poor idea or too expensive or ?? And then, people got their hands on them, decided they really liked them, and sales went through the roof anyway.

    Point taken and agreed with, EXCEPT -- the post Steve Jobs Apple is notably less interesting. I think the fact is, Apple was Steve's baby. When he gave those Keynotes and gushed about some "insanely great" new idea, he really believed it was

  • To run down the articles: the iPhone 8 isn't selling like a flagship Apple phone, because it's not the flagship. The iPhone X is.

    The new Apple Watch is too sticky with the Wifi. Will be fixed in a patch shortly.

    A phone with a mono speaker doesn't support Dolby Atmos, a technology nobody gives a rats ass about in the first place. Atmos enabled receivers have been flooding the secondary market after completely failing to justify their price premium.

    Is this really the best the haters can come up with

  • There is little change from the 7 to the 8. And, the price of the X is staggering. Granted, the AR stuff is cool. But, is the ability to create an animated emoji worth the several hundred dollars over the 8.

    The Apple Watch Series 3 has a minor network issue. It will be fixed. Heck, I've seen something similar on my 6 Plus. It would be nice, when switching to a another network, to verify the signal strength AND connectivity before making the jump. Surprised this got past QA yet again.

    Still, I now have

    • There is little change from the 7 to the 8.

      The logic behind that is probably, why change a design that already works? So they just tune the internal specs each year and still skim most of the profits in the mobile markets.

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