I think you misinterpreted @HEK post. I think he was saying Samsung seems to carbon copy the competition. And everyone knows Apple was no where near innovating large screen devices. Apple was traditionally known for their 4 inch iPhone, which still is in their line up today.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 7 The Decline...
- Thread starter maxsix
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I think you misinterpreted @HEK post. I think he was saying Samsung seems to carbon copy the competition. And everyone knows Apple was no where near innovating large screen devices. Apple was traditionally known for their 4 inch iPhone, which still is in their line up today.
What has Apple really ever come up with that was ground breaking? Personal computer? No. Music player? No. smartphone? No.
You're waiting with for Apple to release a nonspecific product to make you spend money you otherwise wouldn't? On the one hand you're the ultimate sceptic. On the other you're their perfect customer.
And to build on this...did Samsung not learn by rushing out their devices like what happened with the Note 7? Why are they now trying to, again, rush out their S8 series?
I get they are trying to financially recover from the Q4 losses but if they rush into another catastrophe then they could be losing more than just revenue.
Personal computer? Yes
Apple II really was the signature start of any mass sales of personal computers. The Macintosh brought all the modern computer processes. Pull down menu, mouse, point and click, point and drag, copy, paste, paint, draw etc. the graphical interphase that Jobs copied from Xerox Parc That never went to market and that Bill Gates of Microsoft stole from Apple to make Windows. Propelling IBM to personal computing heights.
Everything has been a copy job after that. faster, better storage, better screens yes, but no real change to how we interact with computer. Apple was most definitely ground breaking. First ever personal computer, no, something like Altair was first. How many of those were sold? Mass marketed and copied by everyone, yes Apple most definitely gets the credit for being ground breaking for that.
Music player? Yes
Portable radios, tape players, notably by Sony, but until Apple put out a minature hard disk player with wheel control and then finally went completely solid state, music players were not ground breaking. Once Apple got iPod out it took over the music industry. Ground breaking, you betcha.
Smartphone? Yes
As what typically happens, science fiction foretold the future. The Star Trek communicator put the idea of hand held communication device in the heads of designers. Motorola developed the flip phone, and we were off. The biggest part of this technology was the cell tower infrastructure that needed to be built. Integrating texting, email, baby internet, into the phone were attempts at a smart phone. Pre 2007 the technology just wasn't there yet. But stabs at smartphone were being made. The true innovation came when full size capacitance touch screens were introduced. Eliminating the hard keyboard. Even the first year the technology wasn't quite there yet. Processor speed was still lagging.
By the 3GS and 4 everyone that was going to survive in the market was copying apple's approach. Those that refused to adopt apple's design, like Blackberry joined other buggy whip manufacturers. Full screen, no hard keyboard, multiple apps, cameras, all features that became the hand held pocket computer we use today. Ground breaking, absolutely. In fact the term smartphone is no longer valid. As the phone part is now a small percentage of what these hand held computing devices with a phone app now do.
Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, but he was instrumental in innovating two key ground breaking aspects that turned the automobile from a rich man's toy, to a global industry. He coupled mass production techniques with a wage for his workers that allowed them the ability to buy what they made. Everyone else copied those innovations. Groundbreaking.
Last edited:
With Samsung its not just dangerous phones. They've had to recall washing machines as well due to complaints of them blowing apart during the spin cycle. It seems their quality control has gone unregulated this year. Most definitely to increase profits. Kinda ironic how that idea blew up in their faces... Am I right? I'm here 'til Tuesday.
I could've quoted your entire post, you reached on a lot of your points. You also skipped portable cd players, which remained popular for years after the iPod came out. You skipped mini disc players, hip zip, etc.. Even after iPod came out it borrowed ideas available on other devices. To say music players were not groundbreaking until apple made the iPod just sounds insane.
To be fair, just two completely unrelated things from completely unrelated divisions that have nothing in common or have anything to do with the other aside from being under the same company name doesn't really make for any particular meaningful overreaching conclusions.
Last edited:
Companies (much like us) rely on rumors and such to gauge the competition. When rumblings first started of next year's supposed "bezel-less" design, it was Samsung and Xiaomi which tried to implement these rumors to market first. Just the way it is. That's how they operate their business. The S7 Edge, while it is a beautiful phone, just doesn't work as intended in the hand. My palm was constantly touching the edges and made my phone useless until I re-positioned my hand. Its things like this that Apple capitalizes on. They see where others fail and fine tune it. That's how they are. And that's just the way it is.
I mean, what more can we possibly expect out of our smartphones that software can't fix? We are always expecting to be blown away, and I feel that we may have reached our peak. Bendable phones? Meh. Projectors? Nope. Iris scanners? Nah. Thumbprint scanners? Sure. Maybe glucose meters? I really don't know anymore. All I know is that I have tried other phones, I have wanted to try new things and I always find myself going back to Apple.
I mean, what more can we possibly expect out of our smartphones that software can't fix? We are always expecting to be blown away, and I feel that we may have reached our peak. Bendable phones? Meh. Projectors? Nope. Iris scanners? Nah. Thumbprint scanners? Sure. Maybe glucose meters? I really don't know anymore. All I know is that I have tried other phones, I have wanted to try new things and I always find myself going back to Apple.
I thought the Walkman was pretty groundbreaking at the time.
Walkman >= iPod ... for it's time. Sony was killing it in the 80-90s.
Planned obsolescence...
is really good at this game. Once upon a time they baited people with the half-hearted "larger" screen upgrade that was the iPhone 5/5s. Then they finally released the 6/6+ and people got the true bigger screens they really wanted. Now they'll just bait people with some improvements on the 7, but then drop the big "upgrade now" release that people are waiting for ie. with curved OLED displays.So the cycle continues - I don't know what will be the next big step after curved displays but there will be that next killer must have feature that will keep the cycle going. Once they finally run out of killer features to add, we might see a longer term decline, but until then, people will keep upgrading. You see this with iPads where there's really not so much else they can add to it, so the upgrade cycle lenghtens.
Ol' Max has been suspended for 2+ weeks now. Methinks he finally got the eternal timeout.
[doublepost=1479324826][/doublepost]
I'm going to let you just go ahead and argue with yourself on this one. You guys have fun.Planned obsolescence...
So the cycle continues - I don't know what will be the next big step after curved displays but there will be that next killer must have feature that will keep the cycle going. Once they finally run out of killer features to add, we might see a longer term decline, but until then, people will keep upgrading. You see this with iPads where there's really not so much else they can add to it, so the upgrade cycle lenghtens.
In another thread, when a user asked:
You replied:
Last edited:
I once was blind, but now I see. Thanks for pointing that out.
Just like how they omitted the dual lens camera from the 7, and the OIS from the 6... I predict someday the non-Plus model will get the dual lens setup of the 7+. I suppose its more holding back features than planned obsolescence, but they sure know how to string carrots in a line.
Same strategy doesn't really work as well for iPads though.
I have seen the "planned obsolescence" arguments many times, and I sometimes see the point, but I'm not sure I do in regards to features on flagship smartphones. To be, the term means that devices become obsolete due to speeds and limitations, but the different camera systems come down to the more expensive product getting more premium features.
I think Apple is shooting really big for next years iPhone and they needed a little extra time to make it happen. Apple is just fine.
The iPhone 7 is an extremely durable smartphone - physically (proven aluminum casing, water resistant, ion-x screen, buttonless home button) and technologically (A10, 2 gig of Ram, iOS) that will be sold for at least 3 years. No other smartphone on the market will have the same fate.
So I think Apple will be very happy with its sales figures. It will probably end up being the most sold smartphones on earth, until the iPhone 8.
So I think Apple will be very happy with its sales figures. It will probably end up being the most sold smartphones on earth, until the iPhone 8.
Market is flooded both android and apple have great devices currently the key question I see unanswered is how much stuff do we really need in a phone? Most current offerings are way more than 90 percent of users need or use. A completely stock google phone would be nice but carriers won't allow it.
Big time. Always wandered about this - what would the market look like if google and ios compete head to head without the carriers sad garbage.
Well, they have here and there, when carriers have offered various Nexus models (and now with Verizon selling the Pixel).
It is for now. But Google will likely expand beyond this. I'm sure from a marketing stand point, they chose one of the nations largest carriers to test the waters if you will.
I think that the iPhone 7 is really a huge yawner. For all practical purposes, it's the same as the 6S and even the 6. Better specs, yeah, but in reality, next to nothing that justifies spending a thousand bucks.