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It really doesn't matter what type of outstanding specs these guys put in the upcoming android phones, Apple's Iphone is the number one phone out there. These manufacturers have forgotten that it was Apple that brought the price of smartphones down drastically. You don't beat the number one product on the market by charging MORE for your product.
Now that Apple is on multiple carriers, Android cannot afford to make such critical mistakes. The recently announced prices on upcoming android devices have made me wait for news on the IPHONE 5. I will pay MORE for the number one phone, but damned if I'm going to pay MORE for a phone that doesn't even receive updates till the next model.
Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one...
Yet you come here claiming that the Iphone 4 or yet to be release Iphone 5 is "the number one phone", by who's standard? Sales? Yes, Apple has an outstanding marketing department.
I agree the Iphone "can" be a great phone, once it is jailbroken... But the proprietary of the device will turn others away in these forum. You know your in an Android forum right? Get prepared to be flamed.
I am glad the Iphone is doing well, and I am glad the Iphone is no longer exclusive only to AT$T. Which in turn for us is a great thing. You will see in the upcoming months what Android smartphone has to offer. You'll end up having buyers remorse.
Personally I think you came in trolling and to see what kind of response (negative) you can get. Sad...
Xstop said:
Personally I think you came in trolling and to see what kind of response (negative) you can get. Sad...
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I think ya pretty much nailed it X..
Xstop said:
Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one...
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lmao! XD
anyways, i personally think the quality of apps in apple are way better than in android....but ther's way more customisation in android.....i am a rom-ohlic myself....flash new roms like everyday....android community is way better
Dell2 said:
It really doesn't matter what type of outstanding specs these guys put in the upcoming android phones, Apple's Iphone is the number one phone out there. These manufacturers have forgotten that it was Apple that brought the price of smartphones down drastically. You don't beat the number one product on the market by charging MORE for your product.
Now that Apple is on multiple carriers, Android cannot afford to make such critical mistakes. The recently announced prices on upcoming android devices have made me wait for news on the IPHONE 5. I will pay MORE for the number one phone, but damned if I'm going to pay MORE for a phone that doesn't even receive updates till the next model.
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Besides trolling, what are you talking about?
Enjoy being locked into the Apple way and the constant cycle of not updating as you wait for jailbreaks.
And Apple never brought the price of Smartphones down... $199 on contract was the standard price for WinMo phones long before Apple. And they had expandable memory and removable batteries.
I would or could not ever go back to an iphone after owning a quality android phone. There really is no comparison in user experience
Trolling? No way! As I stated in a previous post, my captivate made me return my iPhone 4 TWICE. Actually, my captivate enables me to wait for the iPhone 5 to release, I don't need another phone right now.
I meant that the iPhone 4 is the number one SELLING phone out there. Excuse me for sounding like an Apple fanboy.
Yet, the fact remains, higher priced android devices will help sell more Apple devices.
Correction, my captivate on Cognition 3.04 enables me to wait till summer. I jailbreak iPhones and I flash roms, I'm not a total noob at this.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Lets wait and see how they "change everything" without making a meaningful change of anything
Dell2 said:
Trolling? No way! As I stated in a previous post, my captivate made me return my iPhone 4 TWICE. Actually, my captivate enables me to wait for the iPhone 5 to release, I don't need another phone right now.
I meant that the iPhone 4 is the number one SELLING phone out there. Excuse me for sounding like an Apple fanboy.
Yet, the fact remains, higher priced android devices will help sell more Apple devices.
Correction, my captivate on Cognition 3.04 enables me to wait till summer. I jailbreak iPhones and I flash roms, I'm not a total noob at this.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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You may not be a noob from a tech standpoint but you are from a business aspect. The iPhone outsells because of image. People are sheep - they want something that is spun in a certain way - Apple does the marketing for the one phone product they offer. Android doesn't have that luxury - it has 20 different manufacturers so there is not ONE Android phone to compare to the iPhone.
People buy iPhones because they see ads for one appstore, for one company, etc. it is simple and fits the simple mind. Price has NOTHING to do with it. If it did, no one would buy the higher capacity iPhones. Look at all the people that waited in line to buy the first iPhone - no product reviews, and no subsidy.... where is the price theory there? They buy them today on eBay for $800 - not rational - but supply and demand dictates - along with perception and the idea of being a sheep.
Just like the new commercial knocking Toyota... anyone that has driven a Camry knows that it is a plain boring car - it gets the job done though - but why does everyone buy it when there are better values? Sheep.
alphadog00 said:
You may not be a noob from a tech standpoint but you are from a business aspect. The iPhone outsells because of image. People are sheep - they want something that is spun in a certain way - Apple does the marketing for the one phone product they offer. Android doesn't have that luxury - it has 20 different manufacturers so there is not ONE Android phone to compare to the iPhone.
People buy iPhones because they see ads for one appstore, for one company, etc. it is simple and fits the simple mind. Price has NOTHING to do with it. If it did, no one would buy the higher capacity iPhones. Look at all the people that waited in line to buy the first iPhone - no product reviews, and no subsidy.... where is the price theory there? They buy them today on eBay for $800 - not rational - but supply and demand dictates - along with perception and the idea of being a sheep.
Just like the new commercial knocking Toyota... anyone that has driven a Camry knows that it is a plain boring car - it gets the job done though - but why does everyone buy it when there are better values? Sheep.
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I agree wholeheartedly.
I think in the coming years we'll see the iphone go the way of the blackberry regardless of its lemming followers. Apple is constantly introducing new OS versions with hardly barely any significant feature changes. When multitasking was introduced, it absolutely destroyed any hint of speed on the iphone 3g. Yet, we've been multitasking with android since introduction on hardware that is just slightly faster.
With every Apple update, the older devices get slower, yet with every android update, devices that can run the update become faster, and more responsive.
Dell2,
In order for Apple to catch back up to Android in terms of innovation and feature-richness, they will have to heavily modify their OS, which in turn will force them to significantly update their hardware. If this happens (or rather, when Steve Jobs stops gracing California's judicial system with his presence every time somebody pulls the same **** on him that he pulled on IBM, and actually gets back to creating new product ideas) you will watch the price of the iphone skyrocket past the Android. When this happens, you will watch sales decline and Apple will drop out of the phone business.
Truth be known, aside from everything that Alphadog has said, the only other reason the iphone made it to 4 is because every electronics manufacturer and their mom started making their products with a proprietary Apple connector. Imagine if they hired a linux guy and started making them with MicroUSB?
oh and for the record I absolutely loathe everything about i(can'tstarthalfthetimeona64bitmachinesofuckloadingyourmusic)tunes.
leetpriest said:
I agree wholeheartedly.
I think in the coming years we'll see the iphone go the way of the blackberry regardless of its lemming followers. Apple is constantly introducing new OS versions with hardly barely any significant feature changes. When multitasking was introduced, it absolutely destroyed any hint of speed on the iphone 3g. Yet, we've been multitasking with android since introduction on hardware that is just slightly faster.
With every Apple update, the older devices get slower, yet with every android update, devices that can run the update become faster, and more responsive.
Dell2,
In order for Apple to catch back up to Android in terms of innovation and feature-richness, they will have to heavily modify their OS, which in turn will force them to significantly update their hardware. If this happens (or rather, when Steve Jobs stops gracing California's judicial system with his presence every time somebody pulls the same **** on him that he pulled on IBM, and actually gets back to creating new product ideas) you will watch the price of the iphone skyrocket past the Android. When this happens, you will watch sales decline and Apple will drop out of the phone business.
Truth be known, aside from everything that Alphadog has said, the only other reason the iphone made it to 4 is because every electronics manufacturer and their mom started making their products with a proprietary Apple connector. Imagine if they hired a linux guy and started making them with MicroUSB?
oh and for the record I absolutely loathe everything about i(can'tstarthalfthetimeona64bitmachinesofuckloadingyourmusic)tunes.
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I feel ya on the last line. I think it spends too much time reporting back to steve jobs I have a droidx than an iphone. Sheep just plain sheep.
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
Prices of phones outright from Rogers
Iphone 4 16gb- $649
Captivate- $549
X10- $549
Prices of phones on 3 yr contract from Rogers
Iphone4 16gb- $159
Captivate- $99.99
X10- $49.99
How exactly is android powered phones more expensive than the iphone?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk
http://www.canalys.com/pr/images/r2011013.gif
the iOS isn't even the world's leading smartphone platform...I don't think it's ever beaten symbian. android, however, has passed symbian and is now the leading platform.
Sent from a phone, playing a phone, disguised as another phone.
You also have to take into account that the iphone is the only phone with ios where as android had dozens of phones. allowing people to pick what works best
Customization > conformity
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
leetpriest said:
With every Apple update, the older devices get slower, yet with every android update, devices that can run the update become faster, and more responsive.
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Click to collapse
Unless you own a Cliq XT...
Im waiting for the iphone 5 myself; I have the captivate rooted abd I love it, but I find myself getting bored with the operating system itself; I need something different you know?
I have had the phone since... spetember I think and I love it, but I just use it all of the time and I get a little bored.
Captivate 2.2.1 Paragon
FLAC Vest said:
Im waiting for the iphone 5 myself; I have the captivate rooted abd I love it, but I find myself getting bored with the operating system itself; I need something different you know?
I have had the phone since... spetember I think and I love it, but I just use it all of the time and I get a little bored.
Captivate 2.2.1 Paragon
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If you a bored with android you will commit suicide with ios
Sales numbers don't make something better lol microsoft os's are not better than apple os's but out sell them and are the most sold os out there. Not to mention iphone gained popularity way before google released android and just has a huge fan base, plus popularity of the ipod helped out a lot to.
Don't get wrong I'm not bashing the iphone it definitely has a place in the market for people , old people who can't figure stuff out , middle age people who can't figure stuff out , teens cause they have to have what there friends have and noobs in general lol
Open source never gains the popularity that the big company's gain ( Linux for example ) but all power users will tell you the same thing and if you don't know what that is then you definitely belong with your iphone
And for those who get bored with Android, what the hell are you gonna do on an iphone , jail break it lol , get real lol
Sent from my SuperDuper!Captivate | SuperNova v1.0 Mini | Firebird 2 v0.7 | Member of Team Phoenix
mcord11758 said:
If you a bored with android you will commit suicide with ios
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Amen to that!!!!!
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I'm sorry but.......
"Shipments of Android-based phones reached 32.9 million in the fourth quarter, while Nokia sold 31 million Symbian phones worldwide. Apple was third, shipping 16.2 million iPhones, while Research In Motion (RIM) sold 14.2 million BlackBerrys. Nokia held on to its lead in global market share with 28 percent
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/01/android-becomes-top-selling-smartphone-platform-worldwide/#ixzz1DJqwKjuR"
Just want to start off by saying that I don't have an iPhone or any Apple product for that matter. I have an Android phone. So I don't want people to start by saying I'm an Apple fanboy.
One thing that Apple has done consistently very well is market their products extremely well.
1. Take for example the marketing campaign for “there’s an app for that”. That was brilliant Apple used the apps to sell their Phones, instead of just the phone. Yet Google doesn’t do that.
2. Now look at the way they are marketing the iPad. Their commercials get people excited about the product. They show you the fancy graphics the cool and neat things you can do and the public is sold.
3. Or take SIRI for example it got so much buzz yet Android had voice actions long before, but yet they didn’t take advantage of that in their marketing campaign. Or even the fact that they packaged SIRI as a personal assistant, why didn’t Google do this first (with voice actions).
The general public doesn’t really care too much about multi-core GPUs, 1G RAM or 2 G RAM. I find Google / Android focuses a little too much on the stuff that the masses are not interested in and they kind of lose sight of the big picture.
Take the new Samsung Beam, Samsung/Google should be marketing this thing like crazy. It’s the 1st phone of it’s kind with a built in Pico Projector. Do some kind of marketing campaign that it’s the closest thing to a hologram or something like that. Get people excited about your products. I feel if Apple put a pico projector in their iPhone, the marketing would be a lot more exciting.
What do you guys think?
Jamolah said:
Just want to start off by saying that I don't have an iPhone or any Apple product for that matter. I have an Android phone. So I don't want people to start by saying I'm an Apple fanboy.
One thing that Apple has done consistently very well is market their products extremely well.
1. Take for example the marketing campaign for “there’s an app for that”. That was brilliant Apple used the apps to sell their Phones, instead of just the phone. Yet Google doesn’t do that.
2. Now look at the way they are marketing the iPad. Their commercials get people excited about the product. They show you the fancy graphics the cool and neat things you can do and the public is sold.
3. Or take SIRI for example it got so much buzz yet Android had voice actions long before, buy yet they didn’t take advantage of that in their marketing campaign. Or even the fact that they packaged SIRI as a personal assistant, why didn’t Google do this before.
The general public doesn’t really care too much about multi-core GPUs, 1G RAM or 2 G RAM. I find Google / Android focuses a little too much on the stuff that the masses are not interested in and they kind of lose sight of the big picture.
Take the new Samsung Beam, Samsung/Google should be marketing this thing like crazy. It’s the 1st phone of it’s kind with a built in Pico Projector. Do some kind of marketing campaign that it’s the closest thing to a hologram or something like that. Get people excited about your products. I feel if Apple put a pic projector in their phones, the marketing would be a lot more exciting.
What do you guys think?
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I agree that Google needs to put in a lot of effort into marketing their products. Honestly I see apple making so many advertisements and everything. I have never seen a Google advert on TV. I have to search YouTube . So... I hope Google sees this thread and changes for the better.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Its not really up to Google to sell Android, it should be the OEMs doing it. The most effective Android commercials I've seen were the Droid Does ones for the OG Droid and Google had nothing to do with those. That was all done by Verizon/Motorola.
And to be honest the Apple commercials mostly annoy me. There was the Mac vs PC commercials where they spread false rumors about how bad Windows was. There was commercials when the iPhone first came out that made it look like no other portable device had ever done the stuff it did, when we had similar apps on WM for years. Granted the UI wasn't as finger friendly but I look for functionality first and aesthetics second. Now we have commercials where people are treating siri like a person, there is one on now where a kid tells siri to "Call me rock god". Voice commands are useful for real commands like text x person x sentence or go to x website and Apple does show some useful siri commands in their commercials, but the other ones annoy me.
Google has more streams of revenue than apple. I'm not sure this one face of their triple dodecahedron is worth them putting much more capital into. Maybe after Apple starts a search engine they will take notice...but word of mouth has been doing their business wonders on the mobile phone front. That , and service provides and OEMs shouldering the brunt of advertiser bulk.
Rezound on Ineffabils 1.3
spunker88 said:
Its not really up to Google to sell Android, it should be the OEMs doing it. The most effective Android commercials I've seen were the Droid Does ones for the OG Droid and Google had nothing to do with those. That was all done by Verizon/Motorola.
And to be honest the Apple commercials mostly annoy me. There was the Mac vs PC commercials where they spread false rumors about how bad Windows was. There was commercials when the iPhone first came out that made it look like no other portable device had ever done the stuff it did, when we had similar apps on WM for years. Granted the UI wasn't as finger friendly but I look for functionality first and aesthetics second. Now we have commercials where people are treating siri like a person, there is one on now where a kid tells siri to "Call me rock god". Voice commands are useful for real commands like text x person x sentence or go to x website and Apple does show some useful siri commands in their commercials, but the other ones annoy me.
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What you pointed out in the highlited comment is exactly what I'm trying to get at. Apple takes something and puts a great spin on it to sell to the masses and they just eat it up.
But Google doesn't seem to do that.
And I think it is up to google to sell ANDROID. I know ANDROID has the largest market share for OS on mobile devices. But they need to get the jump or market their products a lot better. It's not like Google doesn't have the money to do so, yet why don't they do it?!
1st off, My house is an android powered house and I love the platform. It is only after months of being around my girlfriend and her family as they used android, that I started to really put a finer point on why so many people prefer other OS's (yes i understand Android is grabbing up market share like crazy). this is my thoughts after watching people I know use and leave android, use and struggle with android, and use and love android.
1st off, a list of the things that aren't google fault per say, but pit falls due to there lack of control over the final product.
#1) battery life. Due to varying hardware design and the freedom to do as you please to the OS, manufactures have made some phones with really bad battery life. this coupled with the constant updating a android device can do for any apps and the increase in popularity of cloud service, android ends up with wildly varying battery life from device to device.
#2) Consistency. If someone had a Verizon "droid", they could be using a Sense UI, a moto blur UI, or vanilla android. That's just in that one "brand of phone" alone. People dont adapt well to tech if they aren't big tech fans.
#3 quality of hardware, and I'm not talking about specs. Most consumers only judge the internals on how smooth the final product is. No, I'm talking about, build materials and the screen. There is some junk out there (allot of them have great internals). some of these phones are built like toys with race car parts inside them.
Now for where google is falling short.
#1 marketing. This is amazing to me that an Advertising company would fall short here but they do. Google ads focus on strange things like the ability to unlock your bootloader. Most people have no idea what this means and why they should care. They probably shouldn't care since they will never hack there phones.
also, every time Apple comes out with an "I" product ad, they are doing a real good job of showing how there "new feature" will make your life more fun and allot easier. The funny thing is, they are almost always features that android already had.
This is one of the things I really started to notice as I was surrounded by the non tech savvy android users. I would say, "funny, android already does that, has for a while now". My girlfriend would then ask, "does my phone do that?". Wow Google, you should be the master and telling people about all the selling points of your product.
#2 ease of use. This one may also be an issue with the carriers but I am going to put it in this section. One of the things I again noticed as I helped my girlfriend master here Nexus S 4G was, weird quirks that are not even a stumbling block to a Tech savvy user but almost a deal breaker to the average consumer.
Example: when my girlfriend 1st got here nexus, she hated it, couldn't believe I recommended it. One of her issues that stuck in my mind was the SMS limit. She hated that the SMS would cap her before she was done texing a message. She didnt care if it sent as two messages but she wanted to be able to type one continues message and then send it, letting the software sort it out. So I said, no problem, my phone doesn't do that (galaxy nexus) so there must be a deep setting to control this. As it turns out there wasn't, at least I couldn't find it. So again, I said no problem and down loaded handsent witch fixed the problem and she loved the easy theming. Well along came here ICS update that I had been raving about and her phone started crashing. Turns out handsent was the reason. Again, I said, no problem and downloaded Go SMS witch she loves even more.
That's just one example, in the mean time, 4 people in her family have switched from android to I Phones and don't regret it. I feel that one of them was mainly due to the hardware they chose and the rest is because they didn't have the live in tech help that my girlfriend has ( don't mean that to sound arrogant). My girlfriend loves her phone partly because I fix each issue as it arises and inform her of cool features.
Conclusion: I really think that the the lack of consistency is the other side of the open source double edged sword. this shows it self in software and hardware. It can be as small as the order in witch the bottom buttons appear, and as big as the Sense UI that changes everything a little bit. I also feel that no one besides Verizon in the early days, is really advertising Android well. Even Verizon doesn't do as good of a job showing you how much the phones can do and why you should want these features as Apple does.
Oddly I aggree with most of that, esp the marketing, you know I just found out just how good google voice was the other day... I have had android phones now for 3 years... Lol.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
funny you should bring up google voice. That was one of the things that I was thinking about when it comes to advertising short comings. It has been a great feature and a solid performer and now with Jellybean, it has every function of Siri, with the performance level I have come to expect from Google voice.
google needs to talk about it in plain English with every day examples of implementation
All of those faults/cons/criticisms can be attributed to just about any device/thing/object/concept that endorses an open-ended nature. The one off the top of my head that fits the OP's bill nearly word for word is Windows (technically Windows is closed-source). The Playstation 3 is a similar concept too. It's got all the nice bells and tech but its advertising sucks.
Google doesn't need to do any advertising, but rather the respective manufacturers. They're the ones that should be selling what Android does for their phones and why people should choose their phones over the others. If there are feature discrepancies from one phone to the other, the manufacturers should work to get those features implemented, that's the real strength of open-source software. It helps a lot if a manufacturer works together with their modding community to make it happen, which in turns makes your product/device more competitive and play on that.
Google caters to the developers because that's what Google is: a developer. That's why Google has their own line of phones: Nexus. Their phones are catered to the developers and well...us XDA'ers. They do a good job at advertising where it matters: recent one being their own conference just a week ago. If it reassures the OP: the rumor that Google plans to expand the Nexus line to more manufacturers is a good thing for us XDAers and friends of XDAers.
alpha-niner64 said:
All of those faults/cons/criticisms can be attributed to just about any device/thing/object/concept that endorses an open-ended nature. The one off the top of my head that fits the OP's bill nearly word for word is Windows (technically Windows is closed-source). The Playstation 3 is a similar concept too. It's got all the nice bells and tech but its advertising sucks.
Google doesn't need to do any advertising, but rather the respective manufacturers. They're the ones that should be selling what Android does for their phones and why people should choose their phones over the others. If there are feature discrepancies from one phone to the other, the manufacturers should work to get those features implemented, that's the real strength of open-source software. It helps a lot if a manufacturer works together with their modding community to make it happen, which in turns makes your product/device more competitive and play on that.
Google caters to the developers because that's what Google is: a developer. That's why Google has their own line of phones: Nexus. Their phones are catered to the developers and well...us XDA'ers. They do a good job at advertising where it matters: recent one being their own conference just a week ago.
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1st off, other companies doing it too, its not a reason to ignore said issue. Also, windows is taking steps to correct the hardware issue and make there OS consistent (for example)
If you think google doesn't "have to" advertise, I guess your right but even companies like 3M who sells many products to OEM's that then sell to the end user (like google) advertise to further there brand and promote the use of there products by OEM's. Also, 3M knows more about the products than any one OEM that uses there products, not to mention, the OEM's that use 3M consider 3M to be one of the reasons there product is good, and will not focus on key points of the 3M element.
Also, look at gorilla glass from corning, another product that isn't sold direct to the end user. They do there own advertising to promote there product and increase brand recognition to better sell there product.
I also disagree that google is a developer selling to developers only. Google nexus 7 is a perfect example of that. The nexus 7 tab is meant to further the "play store" brand, and is being sold at a vary low price point in the hopes that play store sales will make up for it just like the Kindle. I also don't think the Galaxy Nexus is a "developer device" at least, not exclusively.
So does google have to, no. Should they want to, yes.
What would you have Google advertise about that other companies should be doing in their stead? Google has brand recognition already and it's pretty clear by Google I/O that their intended audience isn't the Apple crowd: so who else would there be to advertise to? If the Apple crowd is whom you're referring to: that should be Samsung, HTC, Sony's job to do. What can Google do to help those manufacturers sell their features to the consumer that those companies aren't already doing themselves?
This is where we are going to disagree. Google has brand recognition but Android has far less. Verizon, did the best job and now the "droid" brand has more recognition than "android", many times "droid" is used and the general brand for all android by consumers. I don't think Google should depend on hardware companies to advertise there product. Even windows advertises there software. The OEM's should ALSO advertise but not ONLY advertise.
Advertising that the Galaxy nexus has a "unlockable" boot loader is un needed and doesnt further the brand. 98% of the people who want a unlocked boot loader, knew the galaxy nexus had one before the ad hit the streets.
The fact that apple fans are oviusly not googles target market is or should be false (proven by samsung). Google should be polishing there OS so that more of apple users would be interested. Google will not be able to continue on for ever just appealing to a small market such as the XDA community. OEM's will abandon them if that was the case. Look at the OEM's and there behavior, they are not interested in selling phones to the developer community only, otherwise Motorola would not lock there phones down as they did, or at least they would offer developers unlock tools like HTC has done. HTC is a little more "developer marketed" but lets be real, they still drag there feet when ever they can or feel pressure from the big 3.
That leads me to the Carrier's, they do not want to sell phones marketed to developers that are easily hacked and modded. they want control. Google should want to sell the most units they can within reason. This means helping the developer community with there goals and helping the OEM's and Carrier's with there's. Google should be (and I think they are) trying to make android more marketable to the masses and then lead that marketing campaign by example.
Its like that old saying, "alone with your principles". You can stand here and say that the OEM's should do all the advertising but it doesn't change the fact that they aren't doing what needs to be done and google need to sell product that is dependent on the platform. They are an advertising company so do they sit back and hope HTC and Samsung start talking more about there product and doing more to show how it will improve our lives or should they step in and show the OEM's how its done, at the same time increasing the value of there products
I think a lot of your issues are going to be solved for the mainstream with more Nexus devices rolling out. The other great thing is that as more people start looking at Nexus flexibility and timely updates the more other OEMs will be forced to follow suit if they want to stay viable. It seems Sony and to some extent HTC and Samsung are pretty serious about both the hardware and update side of things so anyone else will just have to play catch-up.
As a whole though some of these things will continue to persist. One of the draws of Android devices is having smartphone abilities without ridiculous cost. There will always be people who want the goodies but don't have a lot of extra funds and those devices will simply be a little behind the curve. With the optimizations coming via Jellybean though OEMs won't have the excuse of claiming that newer versions are too complex for older phones and I would hope that they continue to push updates for a reasonable period.
Stupid post. Why? Because you have no clue what android is. Android is an open source operating system. OEM's take android, and just so you know, they don't need google's consent, and manipulate it the way they want to put on their hardware. Google has no say in what they do to it, how they arrange their buttons, or the UI that they add to it. So your post is more directed at OEM's than google.
lowandbehold said:
Stupid post. Why? Because you have no clue what android is. Android is an open source operating system. OEM's take android, and just so you know, they don't need google's consent, and manipulate it the way they want to put on their hardware. Google has no say in what they do to it, how they arrange their buttons, or the UI that they add to it. So your post is more directed at OEM's than google.
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if you read my post you would have seen I acknowledge that some of these issues are a side effect of open source. They do in fact charge for the "gaps" suite. all hardware sold with gaps on it has paid licensing to Google.
dB Zac said:
if you read my post you would have seen I acknowledge that some of these issues are a side effect of open source. They do in fact charge for the "gaps" suite. all hardware sold with gaps on it has paid licensing to Google.
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So? Google gets no say in how they manipulate the OS. I mean seriously...battery life? How the f*** could that be a google issue?
I spesificly said that wasn't Google's fault, but a short coming of open source
Sent from my HTC One XL using Tapatalk 2
dB Zac said:
I spesificly said that wasn't Google's fault, but a short coming of open source
Sent from my HTC One XL using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
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Sounds like you need an Iphone..
lowandbehold said:
Sounds like you need an Iphone..
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So I have to love it and ignore any and all short coming or be crusified? Ok sounds like a page from apple fanboyism
here, since you will not read the whole thing before commenting, i will post the part you seemed to miss
dB Zac said:
1st off, a list of the things that aren't google fault per say, but pit falls due to there lack of control over the final product.
#1) battery life.
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Click to collapse
dB Zac said:
1st off, My house is an android powered house and I love the platform. It is only after months of being around my girlfriend and her family as they used android, that I started to really put a finer point on why so many people prefer other OS's (yes i understand Android is grabbing up market share like crazy). this is my thoughts after watching people I know use and leave android, use and struggle with android, and use and love android.
1st off, a list of the things that aren't google fault per say, but pit falls due to there lack of control over the final product.
#1) battery life. Due to varying hardware design and the freedom to do as you please to the OS, manufactures have made some phones with really bad battery life. this coupled with the constant updating a android device can do for any apps and the increase in popularity of cloud service, android ends up with wildly varying battery life from device to device.
#2) Consistency. If someone had a Verizon "droid", they could be using a Sense UI, a moto blur UI, or vanilla android. That's just in that one "brand of phone" alone. People dont adapt well to tech if they aren't big tech fans.
#3 quality of hardware, and I'm not talking about specs. Most consumers only judge the internals on how smooth the final product is. No, I'm talking about, build materials and the screen. There is some junk out there (allot of them have great internals). some of these phones are built like toys with race car parts inside them.
Now for where google is falling short.
#1 marketing. This is amazing to me that an Advertising company would fall short here but they do. Google ads focus on strange things like the ability to unlock your bootloader. Most people have no idea what this means and why they should care. They probably shouldn't care since they will never hack there phones.
also, every time Apple comes out with an "I" product ad, they are doing a real good job of showing how there "new feature" will make your life more fun and allot easier. The funny thing is, they are almost always features that android already had.
This is one of the things I really started to notice as I was surrounded by the non tech savvy android users. I would say, "funny, android already does that, has for a while now". My girlfriend would then ask, "does my phone do that?". Wow Google, you should be the master and telling people about all the selling points of your product.
#2 ease of use. This one may also be an issue with the carriers but I am going to put it in this section. One of the things I again noticed as I helped my girlfriend master here Nexus S 4G was, weird quirks that are not even a stumbling block to a Tech savvy user but almost a deal breaker to the average consumer.
Example: when my girlfriend 1st got here nexus, she hated it, couldn't believe I recommended it. One of her issues that stuck in my mind was the SMS limit. She hated that the SMS would cap her before she was done texing a message. She didnt care if it sent as two messages but she wanted to be able to type one continues message and then send it, letting the software sort it out. So I said, no problem, my phone doesn't do that (galaxy nexus) so there must be a deep setting to control this. As it turns out there wasn't, at least I couldn't find it. So again, I said no problem and down loaded handsent witch fixed the problem and she loved the easy theming. Well along came here ICS update that I had been raving about and her phone started crashing. Turns out handsent was the reason. Again, I said, no problem and downloaded Go SMS witch she loves even more.
That's just one example, in the mean time, 4 people in her family have switched from android to I Phones and don't regret it. I feel that one of them was mainly due to the hardware they chose and the rest is because they didn't have the live in tech help that my girlfriend has ( don't mean that to sound arrogant). My girlfriend loves her phone partly because I fix each issue as it arises and inform her of cool features.
Conclusion: I really think that the the lack of consistency is the other side of the open source double edged sword. this shows it self in software and hardware. It can be as small as the order in witch the bottom buttons appear, and as big as the Sense UI that changes everything a little bit. I also feel that no one besides Verizon in the early days, is really advertising Android well. Even Verizon doesn't do as good of a job showing you how much the phones can do and why you should want these features as Apple does.
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Click to collapse
Ok let me help you out.
#2: Actually, Droid branding is owned by motorola, therefore they will only be using blur UI.
Marketing: Google is not in the business of advertising an OEM's phone. That is up to the OEM and the OEM only.
Ease of use: Apple owns a patent that breaks up the long text AFTER it is typed. Therefore, it would be illegal for Android to use it. Example invalid.
Conclusion: Verizon sucks.
You really did not point out 1 thing that google has control over in your whole post.
lowandbehold said:
Stupid post. Why? Because you have no clue what android is. Android is an open source operating system. OEM's take android, and just so you know, they don't need google's consent, and manipulate it the way they want to put on their hardware. Google has no say in what they do to it, how they arrange their buttons, or the UI that they add to it. So your post is more directed at OEM's than google.
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http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/03/14/android-isnt-really-open-its-just-less-closed-than-apple/
Google only cares about advertising (and like to snoop in on what you do, say, what you buy, where you shop, visit, etc... ) of course.
But they do have pretty good control over Android.
lowandbehold said:
Ok let me help you out.
#2: Actually, Droid branding is owned by motorola, therefore they will only be using blur UI.
Marketing: Google is not in the business of advertising an OEM's phone. That is up to the OEM and the OEM only.
Ease of use: Apple owns a patent that breaks up the long text AFTER it is typed. Therefore, it would be illegal for Android to use it. Example invalid.
Conclusion: Verizon sucks.
You really did not point out 1 thing that google has control over in your whole post.
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Click to collapse
1st off, "droid" always running blur was not the point and incorrect. Verizon owns the "droid" name, as it is licensed to them by Lucus Industries. hence the HTC phones under that same brand name. I was commenting on the superior advertizing and Branding that Verizon did. The Droid 1 was a great vanilla phone that did well in a large part, due to advertizing. The verizon campain made "droid" a household name, more so than "Android".
2nd google can advertise features and the OS without advertising a specifice peice of hardware, windows does it all the time. Also, since google does have Google branded harware (nexus), they are in the hardware biz and should advertize aas such.
"Verizon sucks" based on what I can only emagin was your reasoning for this statement, I'm sure all major cariers "suck, not really the point here. Out of all the cariers, Verizon, furthered the android the most in the last 3 years out of anyone. Only now is Samsung beging to be the leader in promoting the android platform.
I agree with you on this, anyone who ask me what phone to get, i personally recommend iPhone UNLESS the guy knows his stuff, i myself LOVE android, been using it for 3 years now but i am software developer and very much familiar with kernels and bootloaders and and and , someone was aksing me the other day, since Android has much bigger marketshare, why everything comes out for iPhone first?
answer is simple, as a developer making things for iPhone is sooooo much easier, you only have "ONE" screen dimension to worry about, you only got 3-4 phones to worry about which 90% of them are similar, now compare this with android phones !!!
and last as everyone mentioned is advertising, personally i think google and all manufacturers do a HORRIBLE job promoting , remember when iCloud came out? nothing new really, just another DropBox, but Apple made such a big deal about it, everyone was AMAZED !!! same with siri, and so many other things,
Personally i think iPhone WORKS, its great for people who dont think outside the box, they want something that WORKS and thats it, they like to be TOLD what to do, how to use your phone , and they follow it.
Android is for thone who like to explore, install custom ROMs , play with OC/UV , etc.
Raul77 said:
remember when iCloud came out? nothing new really, just another DropBox, but Apple made such a big deal about it, everyone was AMAZED !!! same with siri, and so many other things
thats another real good example of, others were 1st but Apple advertizes better
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I actually came from a blackberry, where in convention they make and market their devices.
When I switched to android now essentially Samsung was giving me their flavour of what they call android through Touchwiz and I really hated it.
Google should really take sometime to ensure manufacturers aren't dumbing down the platform for consumers and give users a clear overview of how it can serve them. Which is exactly what Google does with its Nexus.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
It's looking very dim for samsung at this point. My overall observation is how big of a blow would this win if Apple wins be to the Android OS?
http://allthingsd.com/20120806/iphone-caused-crisis-of-design-at-samsung-memo/
Well here is the thing. If they are mainly suing over android features how come apple just does not go after google?
blackguy101 said:
Well here is the thing. If they are mainly suing over android features how come apple just does not go after google?
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Click to collapse
That can't handle that "beast".
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
screw apple I love their Macs but they really need to lay off android and stop trying to be the one and only mobile os there is nothing wrong with a little compitition. I will never buy another ios device because off all apples BS
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Mark930 said:
screw apple I love their Macs but they really need to lay off android and stop trying to be the one and only mobile os there is nothing wrong with a little compitition. I will never buy another ios device because off all apples BS
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
+1
with all respect to the late Steven P. Jobs, apple had a huge problem with people copying interfaces, and this is more of a Jobs thing.
If you look at the history of the company based in the Jobs biography, it has always had problems with competitors copying them, but seems like this time is the first time that they feel the leverage to pursue legal action.
I for one am seeing this as apple being completely ugly and childish, and it certainly has changed the way that I look at them and their products.
It also doesn't help that Samsung seems hell bent on losing this case. Most things they've done so far have either pissed off the Judge or made themselves look like idiots.
I don't know what street corner they got their lawyers from, but they need to seriously consider getting some new ones.
mustbepbs said:
It also doesn't help that Samsung seems hell bent on losing this case. Most things they've done so far have either pissed off the Judge or made themselves look like idiots.
I don't know what street corner they got their lawyers from, but they need to seriously consider getting some new ones.
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Click to collapse
Perhaps this is a cultural divide.
It seems to me this legal battle is being fought on Apple's home turf.
Of course, I live in the USA.
I believe the justice system is impartial to a certain degree but South Korean companies do business differently (every country does) and their behavior from the get go I would agree seems a little uncouth.
Releasing the images of the prototypes to the media was a bad idea. I haven't kept up on the case as much as I would like but seems they don't get that they should play nice in court.
Mark930 said:
screw apple I love their Macs but they really need to lay off android and stop trying to be the one and only mobile os there is nothing wrong with a little compitition. I will never buy another ios device because off all apples BS
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Last I checked, the US still has anti-monopoly laws in place. Will it deter their dominance quest? Of course not. What can we do? What we already do: support and run Android! Plus, without apple, these forums would be overrun with idiots asking what the extra physical buttons do and demanding to know why they didn't receive a gingerbread and frozen yogurt sandwich covered in jelly beans and cupcake frosting with their device purchase
Super SGS3, Away!!
SCH-I535.10, Beans custom stock build 6
stevenjcampbell said:
Perhaps this is a cultural divide.
It seems to me this legal battle is being fought on Apple's home turf.
Of course, I live in the USA.
I believe the justice system is impartial to a certain degree but South Korean companies do business differently (every country does) and their behavior from the get go I would agree seems a little uncouth.
Releasing the images of the prototypes to the media was a bad idea. I haven't kept up on the case as much as I would like but seems they don't get that they should play nice in court.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it was a good idea. Piss off the judge and if she shows that shes pissed and thus bias in court you get a mistrial and can get an easy appeal thus showing that evidence in court.
Sccrluk9 said:
I think it was a good idea. Piss off the judge and if she shows that shes pissed and thus bias in court you get a mistrial and can get an easy appeal thus showing that evidence in court.
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I think you are right. This will definitely go to appeal. Chances are that Samsung will get whatever judgement suspended until its worked its way through the system. This case is very hotly contested and I can see it making it to the Supreme Court.
blackguy101 said:
Well here is the thing. If they are mainly suing over android features how come apple just does not go after google?
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Click to collapse
Why is that so damning? All I see is what any CEO should do and that is look at the competition and see what you have to do to compete with them?
I'll bet there is a memo like that in every mobile phone company's CEO email somewhere. You have to look at the competition, especially when they make something so different and game changing, and change directions and you have to communicate that some how.
Yeah, this is looking bad.
They don't sue Google because it's Samsung that allegedly infringed on their patents. They copied the form-factor, they copied the icons. The form-factor is less of an issue - I think they will win on that. A flat touchscreen in a square body is basically the only design you could use for a touch-centric OS. But the icons, and that document that came out today, oh God...
It is depressing that in the gigantic tech space, there really is no company besides Apple that has the user-centric design culture to make what is essentially a perfect device for the vast majority of users. They have copied, and will copy, but the difference is Apple is innovative in a way that Samsung and Google simply are not. Google is too geek-and-tech centric to do what Apple does. They love hacking. They love making phones people can hack. They are like us Android fans, they love customizability, and so they don't pay attention to the details that would make Android a perfect OS for mobile devices, because, in their world they WANT people to customize and add their own flair. They want people to be like them. And a lot of us are like that, we love it. I love it. But that's a minority. Most people want an appliance and a perfectly engineered system to play Angry Birds in.
iOS is designed just as a simple vehicle for launching apps for the most part. Android is designed to be a bit more than that. In any case they chose to use the Microsoft strategy of just getting the OS out there instead of making a device that would be a perfect synergy of hardware and software. And Samsung is just a consumer electronics company, making cookie-cutter devices for the most part. They are trying, I'll admit, but it's all half-assed. S-Voice is almost useless, they bring nothing special to Android with TouchWiz, the gestures are nice but really just gimmicky. And if they do come up with something absolutely original, they need to bring the fight to Apple, who will no doubt copy really useful features like voice-activation for the camera. And they probably won't...
There is no chance of monopoly issues as long as Android is as successful as it is. I remain convinced Android's biggest problem is there are simply not enough developers in the world interested in Android. There are numerous technical and economic reasons why Android does not have the apps and the polished apps we deserve. I fear, just as PC software was essentially Microsoft's domain for so many years, the next 15 years will be defined by the mobile space being iOS' domain. There simply isn't the justification for developers to work on Android as much, just as most PC software development was for Windows, not Macs back in the '90s...
I think Samsung will get hard...maybe it will be enough to startle them into innovation, but frankly, Asian companies do not have a great history of it. The last great consumer device to be invented in Asia was Sony's Walkman, and that was 30 years ago.
Face it, we have PCs. But PCs without the appbase. A few of us are enthusiasts, water-cooling and overclocking and have 3 screens. That's the XDA crowd, the hackers, the ROMers, the developers and themers. But the vast majority of Android users are downmarket folks who couldn't afford an iPhone but wanted to check their email and browse the web.
piiman said:
Why is that so damning? All I see is what any CEO should do and that is look at the competition and see what you have to do to compete with them?
I'll bet there is a memo like that in every mobile phone company's CEO email somewhere. You have to look at the competition, especially when they make something so different and game changing, and change directions and you have to communicate that some how.
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Click to collapse
I agree. Maybe I'm not seeing the context, but it sure just reads like he's pushing his developers to come up with better products, which is what he should be doing.
I understand that my sentiments will belong to the minority here, but the fact that we like certain aspects of android phones better than certain aspects of various iPhones doesn't change Apple's claims.
The court case isn't about a rectangular phone with rounded corners or rounded-square green phone icons, it's about the entirety of the widget. If any one of Apples claims were made on its own, the case would have long since been thrown out. We can't become so jaded by the ubiquity of the iPhone in 2012 to remember how vastly different, unique, and mind blowing it was in 2007. You will see by my profile here that, A) I don't post a whole heck of a lot, B) I was using touch screen XDA devices years before the iPhone came out, and C) after the iPhone came out, I dropped off the face of the xda-developers world. Not because I was an Apple fan-boy... but because they brought a product to market that it took competitors many years to try and catch up with. Phones of that day were slow, the interfaces were buggy and unintuitive. We had never seen a mobile OS interface that was designed from the ground up to be used without a stylus.
While we love to think that swipe to unlock, pinch to zoom and pages of horizontally scrolled square icons, touch screen predictive thumb keyboards are common place and should be fair game for all. I'm thinking that many forgot that there were a couple of years where there was only one show in town with those features.
I currently own a SGS3, I love it, but the very foundation of that phone (and almost all android phones) is built off of the bricks that Apple laid. You want to see someone who didn't wholesale steal the iPhone's groove? Look at Nokia, or Microsoft. (One might also note, that they haven't been doing all that great.) Someone has to be ill informed, disingenuous, or nearly blind to say that the smartphones of today look more like the non-iPhones of 2007 than the iPhone of 2007.
I would love for Apple to be wrong. I love their products, but I love competition better. The fact is, though, that wholesale theft and regurgitation of another company's product is not truly competition. Rather than defending Samsung or cursing Apple, we should be demanding that our devices be more than just half hearted clones.
//signed Devil's Advocate
marsonist said:
I understand that my sentiments will belong to the minority here, but the fact that we like certain aspects of android phones better than certain aspects of various iPhones doesn't change Apple's claims.
The court case isn't about a rectangular phone with rounded corners or rounded-square green phone icons, it's about the entirety of the widget. If any one of Apples claims were made on its own, the case would have long since been thrown out. We can't become so jaded by the ubiquity of the iPhone in 2012 to remember how vastly different, unique, and mind blowing it was in 2007. You will see by my profile here that, A) I don't post a whole heck of a lot, B) I was using touch screen XDA devices years before the iPhone came out, and C) after the iPhone came out, I dropped off the face of the xda-developers world. Not because I was an Apple fan-boy... but because they brought a product to market that it took competitors many years to try and catch up with. Phones of that day were slow, the interfaces were buggy and unintuitive. We had never seen a mobile OS interface that was designed from the ground up to be used without a stylus.
While we love to think that swipe to unlock, pinch to zoom and pages of horizontally scrolled square icons, touch screen predictive thumb keyboards are common place and should be fair game for all. I'm thinking that many forgot that there were a couple of years where there was only one show in town with those features.
I currently own a SGS3, I love it, but the very foundation of that phone (and almost all android phones) is built off of the bricks that Apple laid. You want to see someone who didn't wholesale steal the iPhone's groove? Look at Nokia, or Microsoft. (One might also note, that they haven't been doing all that great.) Someone has to be ill informed, disingenuous, or nearly blind to say that the smartphones of today look more like the non-iPhones of 2007 than the iPhone of 2007.
I would love for Apple to be wrong. I love their products, but I love competition better. The fact is, though, that wholesale theft and regurgitation of another company's product is not truly competition. Rather than defending Samsung or cursing Apple, we should be demanding that our devices be more than just half hearted clones.
//signed Devil's Advocate
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Click to collapse
I think calling the S3 a half hearted clone is doing both the Android OS and the strides that Android hardware makers have made over the past several years a disservice. I love competition too. But I also believe it is in full force here. Competition is why the S3 is light years better than my first Android device, the Droid X. Competition is why the S3 is the fastest, smoothest and least buggy Android device I've owned. I agree that the iPhone was a ground breaking device that set the standard for all smartphones. But when I see just how far the Android ecosystem has advanced in just the past two years I can't help but be impressed. Two year ago (July 2010) I waited in line for the Droid X. It had Froyo, which was obviously inferior to iOS 3.0, which was on iPhone devices at that time. I have now moved on to the S3 with ICS. The difference is night and day -- almost beyond compare. This was made possible not only by vast improvements in the Android OS by Google but also because of vast improvements in the hardware designed to run it by smartphone makers such as Samsung and HTC. Also, if you really think the S3 is a half hearted clone, can I ask why you have one, why do you love it and what compelled you to switch from the iPhone? I'm not trying to sarcastic. I really would like to know. Thanks for listening to my two cents.
we
kishin14 said:
I think calling the S3 a half hearted clone is doing both the Android OS and the strides that Android hardware makers have made over the past several years a disservice. I love competition too. But I also believe it is in full force here. Competition is why the S3 is light years better than my first Android device, the Droid X. Competition is why the S3 is the fastest, smoothest and least buggy Android device I've owned. I agree that the iPhone was a ground breaking device that set the standard for all smartphones. But when I see just how far the Android ecosystem has advanced in just the past two years I can't help but be impressed. Two year ago (July 2010) I waited in line for the Droid X. It had Froyo, which was obviously inferior to iOS 3.0, which was on iPhone devices at that time. I have now moved on to the S3 with ICS. The difference is night and day -- almost beyond compare. This was made possible not only by vast improvements in the Android OS by Google but also because of vast improvements in the hardware designed to run it by smartphone makers such as Samsung and HTC. Also, if you really think the S3 is a half hearted clone, can I ask why you have one, why do you love it and what compelled you to switch from the iPhone? I'm not trying to sarcastic. I really would like to know. Thanks for listening to my two cents.
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Absolutely fare questions. I own an Android device because I am inherently a tinkerer. I have had every generation of iPhone with a brief lapse in 2009 when the OG Droid was released. (I say brief because I gave it away after three months.) The interface and primary functionality of iPhones is a well worn path. I decided that I'd like something that I can toy with more. The ability to tinker is not a feather in Samsung's cap, however, rather a more fundamental aspect of the Android core.
It is now 2012. Early Android phones left *a lot* to be desired. Newer devices are more stable and have a few neat features that the iPhone doesn't, yet, have. Would these devices have lasted long enough to say "We've got NFC first" if they hadn't spent four years walking in the iPhones footsteps? I don't think so.
It's really a stupid case in my opinion. I mean, yeah, Samung probably took the iPhone as an example when they developed the Galaxy line. So what? Does Apple want Samsung to make phones shaped in a triangle? Beds have looked pretty much the same bar some details but no-one is complaining about copyright infringement. If something makes an impact as big as the iPhone on society, how is it possible not to think of it when developing a phone after it's release?
I hope Apple wins the software side of the argument so then maybe Samsung will stop puking their TW over android and let Google deal with any legal **** that comes about.
First of all, props to anyone who gets the reference in the title. This thread is to talk what about OEMs could do better when selling their phones. This is what they need to focus on if they want to sell.
Disclaimer: I like Samsung. I don't like HTC, only because they bought a big part of Beats. I hate Beats, it's overpriced, terrible, and only exists to line Dre's pockets. The One isn't bad, I've tried it myself, but meh. I don't get everyone's need for build quality. Most people use cases anyways. This isn't a flame post, but I see a lot of things they could do better. And since it's competing at a high level, it receives most of my critiism.
Before we get to that, let's split up the OEMs into tiers, based on usage, coverage, and general awareness.
Tier 1: Apple and Samsung
Tier 2: HTC, LG, Motorola, Nexus, Nokia, Sony
Tier 3: Blu, Pantech, Kyocera, and any other OEMs that make low / mid range carrier phones.
All the Tier 2 (T2) brands are completely capable of battling Apple and Samsung, but they're doing things wrong. But, what exactly are they doing wrong?
Mainly, Naming and Branding
This problem applies to all of the T2 brands except for Nexus. Nexus has it right, but all the others have a problem with creating a brand name. Samsung may slap the Galaxy name on everything, but people know what it is. Consumers can't distinguish the individual models yet, but Samsung is heading in the right direction. But how come everyone else can't seem to get this right? Here are some general branding rules.
1. Create a memorable cohesive brand name (Nexus, Galaxy, Optimus, Lumia)
This does not need to be explained.
2. Do not use numbers and/or letters in any form in the phone name (Lumia 920, 925, 928, One X, One)
*Does not apply to sequels
Nokia, these numbers are confusing, and not memorable.
HTC, using numbers and letters are very confusing when you try to name sequels. What's next? The One One? One Two? One+? One+One?
3. Do not use vague sounding buzzwords. (Optimus G Pro, One X+)
Pro, +, and X are all marketing cliches here. They're not memorable.
The moral here is create a strong brand and then insert various words to name your phones.
Nexus_______, Optimus__________, Lumia__________, Galaxy__________, Xperia ________
HTC, ditch the One brand.
Motorola, use Razr as a name, not a brand. And I hope Moto X is just a codename.
Availability
Samsung and Apple are to be commended here, for making their phones available on all the major carriers. The S3 is available on 5/7 of the largest carriers in the US, and on MetroPCS when it was not owned by T-Mobile. This works for them, just look at the market share. In addition, every carrier seems to have a Galaxy ___________. That's a combination of availability and strong branding. HTC has almost done (it) the same thing with the One. It's their most available phone yet, and will only get stronger once it hits Verizon. So it's been obvious over the last year that carrier exclusives don't work. And why would they? I'm not sure on the business behind it, but the OEMs have to do what they can to get their Hero phone on every carrier. It's obvious that Hero phones only sell well when they're available to all.
The moral here is to make your phones as accessible as possible.
Marketing
Availability only matters when you can market. People need to know about the phone. Samsung's major success with its Galaxy S and Note lines are widely attributed to its massive marketing budget, and for good reason. Their marketing team is killing it. Their commercials are funny, clever, and show what you can do with the phone. That's important. Apple doesn't play the marketing game, they have great brand awareness and word of mouth. As we've seen with the HTC commercials, it's not enough to make ads. They have to be good. Samsung's commercials show people interacting with the device, because that's what people care about, how they can use it. The Droid DNA commercials are a great example of what not to do. Normal people don't care about specs.
*I read all of this somewhere (maybe Verge forums) and it made a great point. I'm just paraphrasing here.
The moral here is to make ads with people using the phone, not the specs.
Features
This ties back into marketing. Samsung has been slammed for all the features that they've included in the S4, but why slam an OEM for including too many features? Because it lags? Everything lags, and I'd much rather have a little lag for a lot more features. Seems like a fair deal. The only version of Android I've seen that doesn't lag at all is stock. (Avatar rom on Samsung Captivate/ S1 for AT&T) But why would an OEM use stock? Because you guys think it will sell well? It won't. OEMs need to add features to distinguish themselves from the pack. The S Pen has no real features when you're not using it on Touchwiz.
Instead of slamming Samsung, the criticism should be on Motorola, HTC, LG, Nokia, for not including any notable features. "But they have features!" so you say. I don't see the Zoe and Blinkfeed being something notable. I've seen the ad for Blinkfeed, it has what I want in an ad but it's alright. Too exaggerated with the dirt though. Boomsound is good, but has to be marketed better. If HTC really sees this as features, they have to convince me. They have to make ads where I can see it being used in normal situations, like Samsung and their S4 Graduation party commercial. This commercial is a great demonstration of features.
The moral here, add features, then make ads on those features.
That's all I can remember for right now. But what do you guys think? Do you agree? Or am I way off? I'd love to have a civilized argument about this.
Personally, I want Motorola X to compete with Samsung. I think Motorola could make some great stuff. It would be even better if Google bought Nokia and merged them. Nokarola. Can you imagine? Camera, battery, colors, and super slim phones? And it would piss off Microsoft, which I know Google likes to do.