Google Mocks iPhone 15 and Late USB-C Adoption in Latest Ad

[Chazak]

You want to go Google on hardware? Feel free, but I will take being the best over being first any time.

Over a few decades of Apple products in my home, pocket and business, I never experienced Apple being sometimes slow to adopt features originating on another platform affecting me in any negative way.

To read some of the posts, you would think some have suffered immeasurably directly due to Apple not jumping on the USB-C bandwagon as fast as they would have liked. I would love to hear real world, fact-based experiences from some here about how they have harmed by Apple's sometime slow adoption. What were they slow on that actually caused you or your business to lose money, contracts or produce lower quality work? Taking a bit longer for a file to be moved to or from an iPhone doesn't qualify as harm.

 

[deconstruct60]

The problem with these 'adverts' from Google, Samsung, is that they talk constantly about features but not the benefits. One of the first rules of salesmanship is that the two go hand-in-hand.

Active call screening and translation is primarily both. What additional 'benefit' characterization do you have to do for translation. The action itself is the value of the service. If you don't speak language X and get text in one that you do ... how much more is there in the explanation of the benefit?


Apple doing the transcription of the voice sooner. That is closer to a 'feature' than 'benefit' because it was already suppose to do that anyway ... just not as delayed now.

And apple is now where near being able to naviate voice menu systems when the phone user has to call into somewhere. Again if have been through the experience don't really need much explanation of the 'benefit' of the numbers to press for which option just showing up on the screen.

Like Uunblurring photos is honestly hot garbage most of the time, so much so that Google and Samsung's adverts even have small print that says it may not work on all photos.

What works all the time? Siri FUBARs voicemail transcription content almost every day.

 

[k1121j]

Applestans: apple actually waits until technology is mature they may not be first but theyre best 😌

Applestans: google and samsung never innovate they copy the iphone apple once again at the forefront of tech!

Sounds like a nice excuse you made for apple. Not always .... one example: iMac was super early (one of the first) to hop on the USB train with the mouse and keyboard.

 

[AgeOfSpiracles]

The same nerds that obsess over USBC are the same people that made this ad and are appealing to an incredibly narrow audience. It’s more of an in joke than a general advertisement. Most consumers just don’t care.

They used to also obsess over smartphone specs... a lot. Octocore this, gigahertz that. Then conveniently when the iPhone started stomping all over every benchmark, specs don't matter anymore because "all phones are fast enough now." And yeah, it's true... benchmarks don't really matter if the result is a better experience. And iOS was always a smoother, less frustrating experience.

 

[AgeOfSpiracles]

I might be off on my timing but you could argue that lightning forced the development of USB-C (again, I might be off on the timing but that "seems" right that Lightning came first).

Yes, Lightning was first. Apple was part of the consortium that developed USB-C, but the standard was no where near ready by the time they really wanted to ditch the old 32-pin connector... so they went ahead with a proprietary version of their existing work on USB-C, which is Lightning.

 

[joecomo]

must say this is a nice add - subtle, funny and not too mean.
What a contrast to those Samsung adds (and some older ones from Microsoft, when they were still pushing Windows Mobile)

 

[3304614]

I mean... the marketing department behind this advertisement isn’t wrong. We got USB-C coming and… umm… hmmm… something, something.

And that fairly typical. Phones aren‘t exciting anymore. And it’s fine to not be exciting. Well… “fine“ as long as you aren’t an Apple shareholder, lol.

I’m happy to use my current iPhone until it becomes impractical to use it anymore (and then I’ll get whatever the current iPhone is years later). Honestly if you downgraded me back to an iPhone 8 (the oldest model still supported by Apple), I’d be okay with that. I wouldn’t be thrilled to go back to the iPhone 8, but it wouldn’t be a huge problem for me to do so.

 

[tomnavratil]

Smart ad. I’m kinda surprised they released this before USB-C on iPhone was even officially announced though. What about the 1% chance the iPhone doesn’t actually update to USB-C? Google being this bold about it is more confirmation it’s actually happening than the leaks are. I’m guessing Google has insider knowledge.

I mean there are indications from the supply chain itself and considering the legislation in place, the likelihood of the switch for this model is quite high, thus they went with it. Doesn't have to be insider knowledge per se but yeah stuff always gets leaked from China, no matter how well you try to protect your IP.

 

[spazzcat]

Well, although the message is true, the strategy is wrong. Mock a competitor for what they still don't have, not what they finally have. If you mock a competitor for what they are finally getting, although you are right in that they have been behind, you are advertising that they are catching up, so that they are removing one reason for not getting that product. In other words, this helps get the word out that coming up there is one less reason to avoid iPhone, if the USB-C thing is what's holding you back.

I would argue the person who wasn't buying an iPhone because of USB-C was looking for a reason not to buy one.

 

[tomnavratil]

Google has no right to be poking fun at the competition when they have a veritable graveyard of products they have discontinued, the most recent one being their Pixel Pass subscription.

Google kills two-year “Pixel Pass” subscription after just 22 months

Two years on a Pixel Pass was supposed to get you a new phone.

arstechnica.com

And that's certainly not a short list. From a development perspective, Google can be a nightmare to work with/for due to random product changes like these to be honest.

 

[duffman9000]

Google is still bitter that Apple did not show any interest in “improving” messaging for Google.

 

[ctk02]

I recently went from being a life long iPhone user (and all other apple products) to trying out the z flip 5 and let me tell you how much I hate the android OS. It all looks so cluttered and jumbled and its so full of ads everywhere you turn. Every app subjects you to 3-5x the amount of ads i experienced on my iphone. Ads in your email messages too. Battery life if HORRIBLE and I cant wait to preorder the new 15 because I have hated this experience. And Samsung as a company is trash with their customer service.

 

[duffman9000]

I'm looking forward to USB-C on the iphone lineup to hopefully drastically increase charging speed and sync/backup times, as well as to reduce the number of cables and chargers I need to bring on every trip outside the house.

Google/Samsung do sometimes introduce features like throwing darts at a dartboard, who remembers the "3D photos" the android phones had for like one or two generations, then never mentioned again.

I remember the Samsung curved edge of the phone thing. It was not the next big thing.

 

[AgeOfSpiracles]

And that's certainly not a short list. From a development perspective, Google can be a nightmare to work with/for due to random product changes like these to be honest.

List of Google products - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Admittingly, Apple is late to the game and only making the change because of the EU, but the ad isn’t funny. Maybe Google wasn’t going for comedy.

Nah, they would have switched to USB-C soon enough. Even Steve Jobs said Lightning was the new connector "for the next decade" when he introduced it, and that decade is up. They had already migrated to USB-C in iPads and MacBooks have been using it for charging for some time now. It was going to happen with iPhones also. Just the increased transfer speeds for those who need it is reason enough. They just get to deflect blame to the EU when the inevitable outcry comes from the segment that hates change.

 

[User 6502]

Google will be the first one to watch the Apple Wonderlust Event. In addition, they can’t wait to can’t wait to copy a feature or two from the iPhone 15 line up. 👀

I don’t think many people, let alone Google, will be looking forward to yet another lacklustre prerecorded mediocre event where nothing of relevance is announced. iPhone is getting stale sadly.

 

[pshufd]

Google has no right to be poking fun at the competition when they have a veritable graveyard of products they have discontinued, the most recent one being their Pixel Pass subscription.

Google kills two-year “Pixel Pass” subscription after just 22 months

Two years on a Pixel Pass was supposed to get you a new phone.

arstechnica.com

I bought a Motorola phone many years ago and they promised 1 upgrade. They reneged on that. I had the Nexus 7 and the upgrade to Android 5 basically bricked it. Also had the Nexus from Samsung and one of their upgrades basically bricked it. They blamed not being able to fix it because they didn't have the data for a TI chip but TI offered to give them the data. I had a Nexus 5 and that didn't get much in the way of updates either. My wife and son are using the iPhone 6s and I ask if they want upgrades every year and they are happy with those.

 

[Flamingdeathbolts]

I love these ads as they are hilarious.

Honestly my work phone is a Galaxy S20. It’s a decent phone as it’s free. But I would never pay to own one. My biggest complaint is texting as they incorporated numbers with their alphabet keyboard which makes the buttons smaller and also it is not as intuitive to recognize mistakes so always have to delete and correct words.

 

[Marshall73]

Better buy a rubber bung to stop the usb c port going faulty. My friends last 3 Samsungs no longer charge via usb c as the ports all failed. Seems fine on laptops etc but pocket fluff is apparently an issue for them. 🤷‍♂️

 

[sjsharksfan12]

That was funny. Well done Google, even though there are many things you do I'm not a fan of.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

Samsung promised 3 major OS upgrades and 2 years of security updates, but only on their midrange and high end phones, which I've heard is more than Google offers.

My mom has Samsung Galaxy A51 and it didn't seem to be full of bloatware. The worst Android phones I've used are the Motorola ones. Really disappointed, since I thought Motorola is great. I have no idea how they always screw up so bad.

Sony really disappointed me with the lack of updates. They seem to have nice phones, but the lack of software support is awful and I don't understand why this is the case. They supported PS3 for a long time.

Still, many people say that Samsung is the greatest choice. I'd be really eager to try Pixel someday though.

I think the support terms changed over the last few years, pretty sure Samsung promise at least five years of security updates for all handsets sold now. Not sure around specifics for feature / core OS updates, but I doubt they'll be very long, and definitely not anywhere near as high as Apple's support periods. iPhone XR is five years old this month, and will still be getting iOS 17 plus most of its features.

Sorry, Samsung's own bloatware specifically, so it's all of the garbage features Samsung load in, often duplicating features of the core operating system.

Personally I don't know why anyone looking for an Android device would go beyond the Pixel lineup. All of the devices I've played with have felt far superior to the equivalent Samsung offering in virtually every way, especially in hardware and software quality.

 

[philipma1957]

Or you could say people looked at lighting with exposed contacts and said this is stupid I know I will simply turn the usb trapezoid shape into an oval shape. But lightning was first and did have the reversible insertion first. They were slow to realize usb-c is better and fought it losing $$$ over that.

 

[gk_brown]

And have I missed a different port over the years? Not in the slightest, I hardly ever even use the lightning port as it is, and that’s not going to change with a USB-C port.

Exactly. I have never heard a single person outside of this site complain about the iPhone's use of Lightning vs. USB-C. Most iPhone users don't even know (or care) that USB-C exists.

 

[philipma1957]

lightning was first and usb-c was an improvement. eventually lightning will be dropped as usb-c is better. not much of a story. The real story is why pay 1000 for an iPhone vs 300 for a samsung android when both have reception dropouts. I have so many friends with top end iPhones that suffer the same as me with cell tower reception issues and I pay under 30% their price.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

[...] Spending 1399 for an iPhone max with 256gb and no sd cards. the screen = 6.7
or 283 for a Samsung A54 with 128gb storage and a 512 gb card. the screen = 6.4

I have multiple friends with top of the line iPhones that don't work better than a mid grade samsung. [...]

Yeah sure. Samsung's most recent flagship is still smashed by Apple's iPhone 13 Pro now released two years ago.

Worth noting too, your A54 will be worthless the second it's exposed to air. I'll still sell my iPhone 14 Pro Max in a years time for £700 easy.