JBL has a iHome type thing with wireless charging for the 920. Charging mats are an evolving technology. You have to start somewhere.
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Why is wireless charging considered a selling point?
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JBL has a iHome type thing with wireless charging for the 920. Charging mats are an evolving technology. You have to start somewhere.
onthecouchagain
macrumors 604
Wait a minute....so are you saying there's a choice?!!!!! 😱 Holy Crap!!!!!! lol. He talks as if a choice is a bad thing to have.
No my point is that it's not worthy of being used as a major combating selling point.
"Our phone is better because has a better camera and is quad core!" is a better selling point than "Out phone is better because it can charge using a mat!"
F123D
macrumors 68040
onthecouchagain
macrumors 604
I wonder if you'd be saying the same thing if the iPhone had wireless charging and apple was the one using it as a selling point. Something tells me you'd have no problem with them touting that feature, then.
And it's not like this is the only thing these companies are talking about. It's not like they're saying, "hey stop asking about the quadcores and the 1080p already. We really want to talk about and only about wireless charging! Argh!!"
I really don't understand why you're so entangled by them wanting to let people know they have a new feature that few other phones have. I don't know why this baffles you...
Dmaynard83
macrumors 6502a
Because the feature is meh. Taking 1 second less to charge the phone isn't that big of a deal.
onthecouchagain
macrumors 604
Apple touts their macs as having thunderbolt connectivity. Yet this is not a widespread form of transferring. Not yet anyway. And apple is often regarded as pushing technology forward for it.
But when others try new things and want to tout them, then suddenly its usefulness is in high question, or the world isn't ready for whatever reason. In fact, it's even silly to want to let people know about them. 🙄
But when others try new things and want to tout them, then suddenly its usefulness is in high question, or the world isn't ready for whatever reason. In fact, it's even silly to want to let people know about them. 🙄
Dmaynard83
macrumors 6502a
Thunderbolt isn't the killer feature that makes people want to switch.
From the i4S to the i5 the killer feature was probably LTE. Night and day compared to 3g.
This whole argument about the utility of wireless charging harkens back to a similar argument in 2011 regarding LTE. Let's review some of what iphone4 users had to say (please note, I am not saying every iPhone user in 2011 said this. This is just a recurring theme I have seen from many iPhone users over time. And I was an iPhone user in 2011.) Here are but a few quotes:
daveathall
macrumors 68020
I may be missing something and I apologise if I am, and this isn't to start an argument, but how is it easier to use a phone when attached to a cable? Using a mat, one picks up the phone from the mat, answers the call, and then replaces the phone back on the mat to start charging again, (if one wants one can move around the office rather than be tethered to a 3 foot cable) I honestly cant think of anything easier than that.
I hope its not a dumb question but honestly, I can't see the problem. 🙂
Dmaynard83
macrumors 6502a
lol.
Am I missing something?
Wireless charging makes it so you don't have to plug in the phone...
Big deal. lol comparing LTE = 2mb/s download speeds to eliminating the need to plug in a charger (2 seconds)..
Why are we splitting hairs here?
Why wouldn't they advertise a new feature? The fact that said feature has existed in another product before is no reason not to advertise it.
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You're not saying that every user in 2011 said that, so....what is the actual point you're trying to make?
"Some people said LTE isn't needed before the iphone 5 came out but other people said it was the main new feature after it came out."
That's not really a point 😛
The only thing that would make yours and onthecouchagain's point is if you could find people that said it didn't need LTE and then those same people touted it as a major feature.
mrsir2009
macrumors 604
To all you people who are saying "Oh, but it only takes 2 seconds to stick the charger in", it's called convenience. It's easier to put the phone on a mat than it is to plug in a charger, and when you're going to have to do either at least once every single day... Which one are you going to choose?
No, because I'm not the person to hate on something till the iPhone gets it. I love the iPhone but just because Apple adds a feature doesn't mean I'm going to fall in love and praise that feature. If Apple put Wireless charging okay good for them, I still think it's useless, and I still don't think it should be used as an upfront selling point. Throw it in casually, don't slam it in the front in people's faces. I wouldn't tout wireless charging no matter what phone I have because I think it's dumb
I don't have iPhone jealously. When I got my iPhone I fully well knew I wouldn't have 4G or a larger screen or other features that the Android phones they tried to push on me had, and when the iPhone 5 came out I said "cool, but other phones have had this". Of course I still love the iPhone and my next phone may be an iPhone 5, but I'm not a person who says just because Apple did it's good, and all others are bad.
I'm not saying don't advertise it, i'm just saying it's not a major selling point. I see people a lot of the times pick one phone over another (and the phone they picked is sometimes worse than their other option) because of the sole reason of wireless charging. I've seen employees push phones based on the fact of wireless charging. I don't think it's that important, and its certainly not a phone selling feature, but companies and people treat it like it is. You're acting like I'm trying to say "STOP ADVERTISING WIRELESS CHARGING RIGHT NOW TELL NO ONE ABOUT IT!" and I'm not, what I'm trying to say is that Wireless charging shouldn't be treated as a selling point like the Note's stylus or Nokia's 808 Camera or the power inside a Droid DNA. Wireless Charging is nothing compared to other specs. Still include it in the pitch and whatnot, but stop trying to use it solely to sell phones.
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Yeah, but you also lose functionality, which case makes a dock better. If you just plop it on a mat you can't really use the phone unless you're hovering directly over it, but if you have say a dock which does the exact same thing, you can get multimedia features be it an alarm dock, music dock, etc.
onthecouchagain
macrumors 604
The problem is quite obvious: apple hasn't done it yet. 😉
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Aren't iPhone docks a huge thing too?
And a wireless charger need not be flat. Look at the nexus charging orb.
It's really amazing how finely calibrated apple has made some of their fans. Not only have they been conditioned to accept mediocrity, they've been conditioned to the point of defending it. Anything apple does is "good enough" until they raise it little by little each year then that new standard becomes "good enough". Anything more than that is either unnecessary, un-useful, the world isn't ready for, or otherwise somehow unworthy of attention or discussion.
It really is a marvel to see this happen.
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Sometimes a good selling point is just anything that one phone can do that the other cannot, even if it's something as insignificant as wireless charging.
What people are trying to say is that you can still charge phones that support wireless charging using cables, so you're not losing any functionality, but gaining it. If you need to use your phone while it's charging, you can either use the phone while it's on the pad, or plug in a cable and charge it that way.
Also, when your phone might usually just lay on a desk, you could be charging it instead. Like I could lay my phone on a charging pad, pick it up when I get a text message, then put it back afterwards.
Charging speed tends to be a bit slower, so if I was charging my phone before I went out or something, I would use a cable still. Seems like charging pads would mainly be useful for me for charging overnight and in the scenario I set out above.
thejadedmonkey
macrumors G3
This is where you're going wrong. Remember most android or windows phones are all different sizes, and there's no standard dock that you can buy for them. And yes, a dock is probably almost just as convenient, but if you can't get a dock, saying it has wireless charging is just as good.
Think of it as "plop and charge". The iPhone has (had) docks, android and windows phones have Qi.
onthecouchagain
macrumors 604
It's a fair point. They have to let people know they've caught up to the competition. 😉
But in all seriousness, it's somewhat of a statement of the state of the iPhone and iOS 6. It's really telling that the competition has moved ahead and beyond. No other company, as far as I've seen, is advertising features that have been around for ages. Panoramic camera, noise cancellation, a thinner phone with a larger screen... None of that is even remotely new in the smartphone world. Whereas in the Samsung commercials that demonstrate features, they're showing off things that only a few other phones can do. Keep in mind I currently do not own a single Samsung device.
Some of us have moved on with our smartphones, and unless apple brings some significant improvements to iOS 7, I'll be moving on from my iPad, too. (I'll still happily be a Mac owner however 🙂).
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daveathall
macrumors 68020
For pity sake, you don't lose functionality, just pick it up when needed, once used, put it back. How can you lose functionality? If you are saying that your phone needs to be charging 100% of the time I would agree, but it doesn't. If it was in a dock one still needs to be close enough to touch or pick up the phone.
Can someone tell me what functionality is lost by charging a phone on a mat please?
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http://i1.cdnds.net/12/38/618x973/tech_samsung_apple_1.jpg
Samsung just advertises those can't-live-without features like Tilt to Zoom, Palm Swipe Capture, Palm Touch Mute Pause and Shake to Update.
You act like Apple is the only company that advertises little features.
onthecouchagain
macrumors 604
They're demonstrating they have more features than the iPhone, which is accurate.
I think you're proving my point... I made no comment about the quality of the features they have; just that they're demonstrating things few other phones can do. This is good advertising (for them). Whereas apple is demonstrating features already common to most smartphones. Again, not a statement of the quality or importance of those features.
So what you're saying is that the iPhone is advertised like this:
"Hey, I'm the iPhone and this is what I can do."
Whereas Samsung advertises like this:
"Hey, I'm the Galaxy S3. LOOK HOW DIFFERENT I AM!!!"
I guess the point I'm trying to make is who cares what features the competition has when it's the iPhone that is being advertised?
I would rather see the features I actually care about and am likely to use advertised, than just the ones that make it unique.
onthecouchagain
macrumors 604
Fair enough. Just to be clear, I'm not as much talking about the effectiveness of one ad versus another than I am about the statement their ads are making. It just seems like Apple has nothing new to showoff, whereas Samsung does, and that says something.