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Cool. How does it feel to pay more for less hardware?

Pay more? Compared to what? GS4? Same exact price. Yea sure it's got better specs, and that's the sad part. Android has to be on better specs to be on par with the responsiveness of ios.
 
The iPhone 5 failed.
Someone made a poll a few days ago asking which iPhone had the best launch. iPhone 4 won. rightly so. When that thing came out it was miles ahead of competition - similar to when the original iPhone came out. That's what it looks like when a company wants to WIN. Want to see what that looks like now? See Samsung, see Nokia, see HTC. They're putting skin into the game.
In contrast, the iPhone 5 not only looks like the iPhone 4, it is functionally indifferent. I know someone who bought the iPhone 5 outright, only to return it a week later and went back to his iPhone 4 ("it doesnt do anything more")...
Kind of disappointing - it's their main profit centre and yet Apple isn't pedal-to-the-metal with it. iOS 7 should have come out when iOS 6 came out. Their 2 year lead against Android not only disappeared, it's been surpassed. It's like they stopped working when iOS 4 came out and snoozed right until iOS 7.

Now the rumors of iPhone 5s dont show any real upgrades over the iPhone 5. Seems like they are still snoozing. Yes, they're just rumors. But Apple's track record at keeping rumors is also slipping.
I have an iPhone 4s, and it doesnt look like I'll hand Apple my money for an iPhone 5S.

Bring back Apple ala 2010.
 
This statement is false.

Completely true. You've never used a cheap android device if you think otherwise. The flagship devices are not to be compared to those. As for Google Play support, yea def inferior.

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The iPhone 5 failed.
Someone made a poll a few days ago asking which iPhone had the best launch. iPhone 4 won. rightly so. When that thing came out it was miles ahead of competition - similar to when the original iPhone came out. That's what it looks like when a company wants to WIN. Want to see what that looks like now? See Samsung, see Nokia, see HTC. They're putting skin into the game.
In contrast, the iPhone 5 not only looks like the iPhone 4, it is functionally indifferent. I know someone who bought the iPhone 5 outright, only to return it a week later and went back to his iPhone 4 ("it doesnt do anything more")...
Kind of disappointing - it's their main profit centre and yet Apple isn't pedal-to-the-metal with it. iOS 7 should have come out when iOS 6 came out. Their 2 year lead against Android not only disappeared, it's been surpassed. It's like they stopped working when iOS 4 came out and snoozed right until iOS 7.

Now the rumors of iPhone 5s dont show any real upgrades over the iPhone 5. Seems like they are still snoozing. Yes, they're just rumors. But Apple's track record at keeping rumors is also slipping.
I have an iPhone 4s, and it doesnt look like I'll hand Apple my money for an iPhone 5S.

Bring back Apple ala 2010.

iPhone 5 didn't fail. Failure would mean no one bought it. Yet, it's the most successful iphone in sales so how did it fail?
 
Completely true. You've never used a cheap android device if you think otherwise. The flagship devices are not to be compared to those. As for Google Play support, yea def inferior.

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iPhone 5 didn't fail. Failure would mean no one bought it. Yet, it's the most successful iphone in sales so how did it fail?

did you read my whole post? because that would have answered your question.
 
Maybe it is because I live in Connecticut... but when I look around any room (and I do this pretty much anywhere I go) the market share of iPhones far exceeds that of any other phone. Just a personal observation...

A little off topic but when people talk about iPhone being for old people, my high school students almost exclusively own or wish to own iPhones. I know there is a big world out there so this must not be the case everywhere... such as places where the iPhone is not available.
 
Maybe it is because I live in Connecticut... but when I look around any room (and I do this pretty much anywhere I go) the market share of iPhones far exceeds that of any other phone. Just a personal observation...

A little off topic but when people talk about iPhone being for old people, my high school students almost exclusively own or wish to own iPhones. I know there is a big world out there so this must not be the case everywhere... such as places where the iPhone is not available.

That is because of these reasons:

1. Apple has a retail presence and the best customer satisfaction.
2. Apple has great marketing.
3. Apple was the first smartphone.

That is why people want an iphone. The iphone itself sucks.
 
Falling market share is bound to affect their profits at some point simply because they're selling less than they otherwise would. Would be interesting to know what the bottom line is for market share before revenues/profits start declining.

I think they made a mistake not releasing a larger screen option on the iPhone 5 last year and thereby giving Samsung a huge sales boost. Presumably we won't see a larger iPhone for at least another year or so. I just hope the cheaper iPhone 5C is able to grab some of that share back before it starts putting off potential developers.

Are you a stock holder? If yes, okay I understand your concern. If not, I don't understand your objection. Apple have always prided themselves in making the best product they can, not the product that everyone seems to want at the time. This has worked out well for them in the past (iPod/iPhone/iPad/No Floppy/No disc drive). Huge screens on a phone is both a fad and ridiculous. Kind of like tight rolled jeans.

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That is because of these reasons:

1. Apple has a retail presence and the best customer satisfaction.
2. Apple has great marketing.
3. Apple was the first smartphone.

That is why people want an iphone. The iphone itself sucks.

Sounds like sound reasoning. Great company. Great service. Awful product. Huge sales... can you support this with anything other than your opinion? Are there other any awful products that sell so well just because it was the first? Please give examples.
 
I believe that one day we will move to a way of seeing market share that doesn't factor in huge quantities of phones sitting in a warehouse somewhere.
 
iPhone 5 didn't fail. Failure would mean no one bought it. Yet, it's the most successful iphone in sales so how did it fail?

So, if Apple sold one iPhone 5 that would have meant that it wasn't a failure? Since one person did actually buy it...

Considering that the smart phone market is expanding, I wouldn't use the fact that it's the most successful iPhone in sales as an argument for its success. Previous iPhone models captured a higher percentage of high end smart phone sales.

To show the error in your argument. Consider unemployment and the fact that most countries have a growing population. A politician argues that his party should be re-elected because there more people employed today than when the his party won the last election. But in reality the percentage who is unemployed have gone up and the only reason that more people are working is due to the growing population.
 
Not surprising. I'm guessing a lot of people are like myself; I paid $40 for a Virgin Mobile Android phone. It runs 2.3, no room for more than a few apps, is more than bit slow, absolutely **** battery life, etc.

But all of that is mostly unimportant. It makes calls, texts, browses the web at a reasonable pace, and I can play Doodle Jump. That's all that really matters. :D

This is the average Android customer. Not someone looking for the best experience. Market share speaks nothing to quality or desirability. Maybe that is why Apple keeps winning design awards and Google/Samsung/100s of no name android phone makers does not.
 
But the sales numbers went up. And they made most of the profit. And practically no one returns an iPhone after they buy it, and every iPhone is a smart phone...should I keep going?

And as a non stock holding consumer, why is this important?

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Who friggin cares who has what share. Doesn't affect my opinion of what phone/os I'm going to prefer.

Probably the most sensible post in the thread.

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What about the percentage of profits in the mobile market? Isn't that what's really important? Who wants to break even or lose money? These market share numbers are almost useless. iOS is still the place to be.

And this is important to the consumer because?
 
This is the average Android customer. Not someone looking for the best experience. Market share speaks nothing to quality or desirability. Maybe that is why Apple keeps winning design awards and Google/Samsung/100s of no name android phone makers does not.

I agree that Apple provides this superior experience. But they do that for the Mac as well. But that didn't change the fact that Windows has owned the PC market for two decades. Apple will always be more profitable than other smartphone makers but I don't think iPhone users will be happy with just 10-20% market share.
 
So, if Apple sold one iPhone 5 that would have meant that it wasn't a failure? Since one person did actually buy it...

Considering that the smart phone market is expanding, I wouldn't use the fact that it's the most successful iPhone in sales as an argument for its success. Previous iPhone models captured a higher percentage of high end smart phone sales.

To show the error in your argument. Consider unemployment and the fact that most countries have a growing population. A politician argues that his party should be re-elected because there more people employed today than when the his party won the last election. But in reality the percentage who is unemployed have gone up and the only reason that more people are working is due to the growing population.


But also you need to factor is available models. If I have 200 different models to present to people at different price points and someone else has 3 models at different price points, statistically who will sell more?

I would love to see exact Galaxy S4 figures compared directly to iPhone 5 figures. But we all can't get exact figures from companies so this argument is moot. At least Apple distinguishes mobile from everything else. Samsung is one big guessing game (but keep believing what the analysts estimate).
 
Are you a stock holder? If yes, okay I understand your concern. If not, I don't understand your objection. Apple have always prided themselves in making the best product they can, not the product that everyone seems to want at the time. This has worked out well for them in the past (iPod/iPhone/iPad/No Floppy/No disc drive). Huge screens on a phone is both a fad and ridiculous. Kind of like tight rolled jeans.

I do buy and sell Apple shares yes but I'm not looking at things as a shareholder. I'm looking at things as an Apple fan and a customer.

I simply don't agree that Apple are divorced from the market in the way you describe. The iPod was a great product but it was also the product that everyone wanted at the time. Same goes for the iPad and iPhone, which is why people queued around the block to buy them.

Huge screens are not a fad. Love them or hate them they are very popular. I honestly don't see the problem with Apple offering two versions of the iPhone - one with a 4" screen and one with a 4.7" or 5" screen. It's no different to making more than one size MBA or MBP. Nobody complains about that.
 
I agree that Apple provides this superior experience. But they do that for the Mac as well. But that didn't change the fact that Windows has owned the PC market for two decades. Apple will always be more profitable than other smartphone makers but I don't think iPhone users will be happy with just 10-20% market share.

I'm happy with it as long as they keep making the best product. I agree though. Other iPhone users (especially ones on forums like this) are not ever going to be happy (neither will the android users that continue to spend all their time on Apple forums (I don't know any Apple users that troll Android/Windows forums... (how many sets of parentheses can I use?))).
 
But also you need to factor is available models. If I have 200 different models to present to people at different price points and someone else has 3 models at different price points, statistically who will sell more?

I would love to see exact Galaxy S4 figures compared directly to iPhone 5 figures. But we all can't get exact figures from companies so this argument is moot. At least Apple distinguishes mobile from everything else. Samsung is one big guessing game (but keep believing what the analysts estimate).

You really think this is a vast conspiracy?
 
Market share is a worthless metric.

Profit is the metric you measure.

Android has something like 4000+ different mobile phone handsets out there with less then 25% of the profit.

iOS has 5 mobile phone handsets with 75% profit.

Again, why does Joe Consumer care about which company makes the most profit?
 
You really think this is a vast conspiracy?

No.. I just know that statistics are often unreliable and used in deceiving ways. In this case there are even smartphones that most people wouldn't consider very smart in the mix. This skews data. I would rather compare apples to apples (or oranges to oranges so I am not labelled an Apple koolaide drinker). What are the numbers of android smartphones that have complete smartphone capabilities? Android is a very differentiated operated system. Some do not have features that others do.

I've seen phones labeled as smartphones that I would say are more like clever functioning dumbphones.

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I do buy and sell Apple shares yes but I'm not looking at things as a shareholder. I'm looking at things as an Apple fan and a customer.

I simply don't agree that Apple are divorced from the market in the way you describe. The iPod was a great product but it was also the product that everyone wanted at the time. Same goes for the iPad and iPhone, which is why people queued around the block to buy them.

Huge screens are not a fad. Love them or hate them they are very popular. I honestly don't see the problem with Apple offering two versions of the iPhone - one with a 4" screen and one with a 4.7" or 5" screen. It's no different to making more than one size MBA or MBP. Nobody complains about that.

Point taken. I agree that more options would not be a bad thing... I am just frustrated that I read the same article every week on this website, "Apple is falling behind," "Apple is failing," "Apple will soon be the Apple of 1995"
 
But also you need to factor is available models. If I have 200 different models to present to people at different price points and someone else has 3 models at different price points, statistically who will sell more?

And? That's a business decision. In any case, compared to the top non Apple smart phone of that time, I can't see any other iPhone model doing worse than the 5. Can you?

I would love to see exact Galaxy S4 figures compared directly to iPhone 5 figures. But we all can't get exact figures from companies so this argument is moot. At least Apple distinguishes mobile from everything else. Samsung is one big guessing game (but keep believing what the analysts estimate).

As of March 2013, Samsung had sold 50 million of the S3, that's 10 months after it was released.
Apple, on the other hand, stopped releasing numbers on how many iPhone 5 that had been sold after it reported that 5 million had been sold during the first three day. (And it did the same for the 4S.)

You should ask Apple why it's not willing to give out any further numbers on iPhone 5 sales.
 
Again, why does Joe Consumer care about which company makes the most profit?

It's another metric as arbitrary as market share. Why does Joe Consumer care about most shipped (again not most sold, or most money made). I think the best metric is most used but we only get snide comments about how Apple are trying to push that aspect of "market" share.
 
No it doesnt. Unlike Apple, the majority of those other competitors handsets are returned to sender after they fail to sell.

Profit is the only true reliable metric. The HP Touchpad proved that the shipped metric was so badly faulted. HP shipped 1 million touchpads. 25K were sold. 975k+ were slated for return before the fire sale.

I mean why do you think NONE and I mean NONE of these handset vendors and tablet vendors are reporting SALES. Don't give me the whole.."oh they sell to 3rd party vendors like Verizon, ATT, Best Buy, etc and can't track them" bs....Apple does the same thing.

It's because their sales are HORRIBLE. If they were decent or even great, they'd be shouting it from high heaven.

It's just like Amazon refusing to break out their sales for Kindles.

Those that hide their #s are hiding them for a reason.

Quarter after quarter Android market share rises, but they really don't sell any of those phones. They make over 100 million phones a year and don't sell any of them. I can't imagine anyone believes this.

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It's another metric as arbitrary as market share. Why does Joe Consumer care about most shipped (again not most sold, or most money made). I think the best metric is most used but we only get snide comments about how Apple are trying to push that aspect of "market" share.

The average consumer doesn't care about any of that either.

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Who really gives a **** about 'world wide' marketshare?
This includes **** hole 2nd and 3rd world countries which would add next to nothing to Apple's bottom line.

The only metric that makes any difference is profitshare and Apple is still king - by a wide margin.

Image

Sure there are untapped markets (China) where Apple would like to gain a foothold and they are addressing that issue with this new iPhone 5C (or whatever). Statistics like that cited in the article include people in **** hold countries (or continents) like Africa and South America who's markets have a very small value proposition.

Then again, Apple could just chase marketshare with low margin products and put their entire business model in jeopardy.

Why does a consumer care about how much profit a company makes?
 
Falling market share is bound to affect their profits at some point simply because they're selling less than they otherwise would. Would be interesting to know what the bottom line is for market share before revenues/profits start declining.

Market share is completely irrelevant. Sales numbers are what counts. How do you propose that Apple's profits are affected if a gazillion people switch from a cheap feature phone to an equally cheap "smartphone"? Apple sales are still growing.

This is like Mercedes' marketshare in the "motorized vehicle market" in China dropping, because millions sell their bicycle and buy a moped.
 
Quarter after quarter Android market share rises, but they really don't sell any of those phones. They make over 100 million phones a year and don't sell any of them. I can't imagine anyone believes this.

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The average consumer doesn't care about any of that either.

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Why does a consumer care about how much profit a company makes?

Not arguing they don't sell any, just than shipped numbers are never usage numbers.
 
Market share is completely irrelevant. Sales numbers are what counts. How do you propose that Apple's profits are affected if a gazillion people switch from a cheap feature phone to an equally cheap "smartphone"? Apple sales are still growing.

This is like Mercedes' marketshare in the "motorized vehicle market" in China dropping, because millions sell their bicycle and buy a moped.

If a market is experiencing a 150% growth and your product only achieves a 3% growth, would you still be happy about that? I mean, you are still selling more products.

And no, this isn't just about "cheap smart phones".
 
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