Given their insistence on huge bezels I've always found lack of space hard to believe.
But frankly when you sell boatloads of your stuff, and can get away with mono speaker at a premium price point, why bother spending the money to include one?
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Why no stereo speakers for iPhone?
- Thread starter Risco
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Given their insistence on huge bezels I've always found lack of space hard to believe.
But frankly when you sell boatloads of your stuff, and can get away with mono speaker at a premium price point, why bother spending the money to include one?
Surely not less than your knowledge about - and I quote - 'cheap plastic'
I know people for some reason like shiny stuff that does not return to its original shape when being scratched, dinged or bent. Personally I think it is a bad design choice when aesthetics result in devices looking clearly used in just a few weeks if you choose not to use a case (which then hides the design...)
Other phones manage to find space. I don't think that's a viable excuse. Also, unless the speakers are reasonably far apart you won't get a stereo effect. It works nicely on my Nexus 7 tablet in landscape mode (the way you would naturally be using the device for media consumption) bceause the speakers are placed at opposite ends of the device. If the iphone were to have 2 speakers they should also have been located on the top and bottom of the device (when held in portrait mode, and then when you turned it to landscape they would probably be quite effective, especially on the larger iphone 6.
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They are selling well despite a major shortcoming, but that does not excuse them trying to 'get away' with something.
Why no stereo speakers for iPhone?
At the expense of what? The iPhone has been pretty packed as it is. I haven't seen tear downs of the iPhone 6, 6+, so I can't really comment on those models.
If all other phones jumped off a cliff, would you expect Apple to do so also? I don't see it as a big deal. If I want stereo, I plug in headphones or use Bluetooth in my car. Speaking of Bluetooth, a good majority of those Bluetooth Jam speakers being marketed at cell phone users are not stereo.
At the expense of what? The iPhone has been pretty packed as it is. I haven't seen tear downs of the iPhone 6, 6+, so I can't really comment on those models.
If all other phones jumped off a cliff, would you expect Apple to do so also? I don't see it as a big deal. If I want stereo, I plug in headphones or use Bluetooth in my car. Speaking of Bluetooth, a good majority of those Bluetooth Jam speakers being marketed at cell phone users are not stereo.
Sometimes you don't want to be bothered with headphones or external speakers. Your reference to others jumping off a cliff is totally irrelevant. For one thing jumping off a cliff is a bad thing most of the time (unless you're a base jumper). Stereo speakers on a device are a good thing and ought to be a feature of any service that can play videos or music.
Why no stereo speakers for iPhone?
Stereo speakers built into a phone are a subjective experience. I feel they are irrelevant and provide no real good feature.
Stereo speakers built into a phone are a subjective experience. I feel they are irrelevant and provide no real good feature.
Maybe you feel that way but that doesn't mean that the majority of others agree.
+1 So true, so true. I mainly listen to music through either high quality headphones, in ear buds or bluetooth speakers. Smartphone speakers leave a lot to be desired as far as music quality is concerned. They are fine are listening to podcasts, sports, news and anytime when quality is not an issue.
I also agree with the earlier portion of your post.
I bet you were one of those people who also thought a larger screen and NFC was useless. Whatever Apple doesn't do, people here seem to find a way to agree with them. At least, until Apple does it then everyone praises them.
No... Apple waits until the technology is mature. Google's implementation of NFC? Security flaws everywhere. Hard to use. No authentication beside a password. Also, it wasn't built into every Android phone. They didn't partner with banks. They went into the payment industry and tried to convince everybody to drop their stuff and go Google. That's completely stupid and ineffective. Which is exactly how NFC (when supported by Google) turned out. Imagine going to another country and telling people that their culture/customs is wrong and they should change to your culture/customs. That's exactly how Google approached the payment industry.
Apple? They went in and found the problems; and then figured out a solution that makes everybody happy (from customer to banks and everyone in between).
As for larger screens, Steve Jobs said he was against them... for several reasons. Poor battery life, poor display technology, hard to use. Apple thinks they have fixed all of these problems. Jobs never hated something because it was something. He hated something for reason(s) for why they don't work. If someone (or Apple) can manage to fix these reason(s) for why they don't work, then obviously his hatred is no longer valid. This same logic was true for small tablets (iPad mini) and also large phones (iPhone 6 and 6 Plus).
Google thinks technology alone is enough. Apple does not.
Say what you will, but with Android adopting NFC years ago, there's no way Apple Pay would be ready right now. It's because of Android and NFC that stores have slowly been adding more and more NFC-capable POS systems.
Uh, no.
Massive and non-stop credit card breaches are what is responsible for more and more merchants going to NFC-capable card READERS hooked into their POS networks. There are very few NFC capable POS systems....most retailers work very hard to remove the POS system from the card processing altogether to limit PCI scope and compliance with same.
The EMV mandate coming in 2015 is what is driving all of this adoption. Apple just took advantage of this coming mandate to negotiate with the card processors and come up with a solution that was win-win for them both.
Google wallet was a nice try but so few merchants adopted it simply because all Google tried to do was replicate the credit card with a battery powered version instead. With all the same inherent security risks associated with same.
TouchID is the game here. NFC was just an enabling tech.
The purpose of stereo speakers is to provide stereo imaging. About 99% of all boom box speakers or portable bluetooth speakers do not provide stereo imaging even though they have stereo speakers. If you want to experience stereo imaging you need to have speakers spaced in a triangle in relation to your head.
You will only experience true stereo imaging with bookshelf speakers or a home theater system. A small device like an iPhone will never be able to give you stereo imaging EVER. There is no reason to have 2 speakers.
Now that they've moved the power button to the side, I'd like to see them put another speaker where the power button once was. I know it won't create a very good stereo sound effect, but I'd like to be able to turn the volume up loud enough to show a video to my friends.
That being said, I've heard that the iPhone 6 is louder than the previous iPhones. I hope so.
That being said, I've heard that the iPhone 6 is louder than the previous iPhones. I hope so.
Anyone complaining about the loudspeaker on the iPhone 6/6+ either doesn't have one or is hard of hearing.
They have one of the best there is. It's as good as the htc boom sound speakers.
They have one of the best there is. It's as good as the htc boom sound speakers.
If you have the room to put two bad speakers for stereo, you have the room to put a decent mono speaker. And the later is actually a much better solution - for instance, portable radio and speaking that make the choice of big mono speakers can sound pretty good despite being small.
Actually, if you have been following the news you will know that there is a new law put into place that essentially requires all merchants to support EMV or be liable for any fraud that occurs by late 2015. While this does not equate to every merchant automatically upgrading to POS systems that also support NFC/contactless payment methods, you can bet that they are upgrading to such POS systems because of Apple and their partners which including all the large banks and also the credit card companies. Google did not have such partnerships and you can see that NFC adoption has basically been stagnant. Now, because Apple has the full support for all the large banks AND credit card companies, merchants are more likely to pay the extra cost for NFC/contactless payments POS systems. The motivation to pay the extra cost is NOT mainly due to Google or Android. If that were the case, NFC payments would have taken off a long time ago since Android has supported it for years (I forget the exact amount of time but it's longer than 1-2 years). So Google gets credit for first implementation and first attempt at making it mainstream. They don't get credit this time around.
In any case, my evidence is anecdotal. We shall see what happens in October when ApplePay launches and what happens in the subsequent months to come.
Contactless payment has been available for years at many merchant chains, it's not because of Apple releasing ApplePay years later, it's because Android phones have had that feature. A merchant would not upgrade their payment system to support NFC in 2012 when Apple Pay wouldn't be there until late 2014.
It's not about high fidelity or listening to music in stereo. Front speakers (like the HTC M7/M8) are a great idea and would definitely be welcome on an iPhone. How many times have you had to cup your hands around the bottom of your iPhone to hear a video you're showing someone?
Like everything else, it won't be an insanely great idea until Apple says so.
Like everything else, it won't be an insanely great idea until Apple says so.
This particular part I disagree with. Aluminum is currently floating around $.90/ pound.
http://www.vincentmetals.com/Daily_Aluminum_Prices.html
That's actually cheaper than high end plastics. Polycarbonates are around $1.60/pound.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarbonate
There is a big difference in machining and molding prices of course.
I think it's time for apple to up the ante and move to something more exotic like titanium.
On topic, you can definitely hear the stereo separation of an HTC One. It had nice speakers for a phone no doubt. Certainly more enjoyable to watch a quick video in bed or whatever, but not worth cutting any corners anywhere. I'd rather wireless speakers if a compromise has to be made.
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Some would say the same for large plots of barren real estate.