Counterclockwise: the rise and fall of smartphone brands Comments
- DanishBeacon
- nRB
Anonymous, 15 Oct 2017Sony is number one. Few people will understand it. Sony's stable smooth software? Do you know ... moreYes, that is true. Sony lags on design but probably the best software experience!
All of my Samsungs were getting slower as time went along and new updates were coming, but sony... My old Z3 had an Antutu score 48600 on original lollipop and after update to marshmallow i got wooping 57000.
That's sony software optimization!
- carol
- snj
Ef Raim, 15 Oct 2017This part "If you take one thing away from this chart, let it be this – we have more variety n... moreYes yeah but still, apple and chinese conpanies have to go;). They are market destroyers. Before apple, people could buy high end devices produced in Europe with 500 euros. Those devices had everything one phone need. Charger, headphones usb cables and so on, everything of the good quality. Now after apple, everything is produced in china and cost double! No more headphones, hack some even have no usb cable. Newly we also have no more jack for headphones. Apple hast to go. The only thing they did in this market was to raise the prices, and that is not in customers advantage.
- thisguy
- kD@
thats a horrible graph. try again.
- Ef Raim
- UD{
This part "If you take one thing away from this chart, let it be this – we have more variety now than ever before. And don’t ever, ever, ever say that you are about to kill your most popular product."
- Hats off to you Mr. Peter .. That's how people should think, let the competition do the math. Don't ever talk about leaving or cursing a brand to fail . More competition , the better for consumers !
- Vegetaholic
- sX%
Anonymous, 15 Oct 2017Sony is number one. Few people will understand it. Sony's stable smooth software? Do you know ... moreBiggest nonsense I ever read, Samsung interface as smooth as it can be, it is not 2013, I had Sony erricson before and it was catching up with competition, unfortunately same with Sony, it is behind all the time and last to implement. No design improvements, camera are mediocre at best even they made high pixel sensors before and provides sensors to competition, cameras are not great, no Amoleds, sticking with same old LCD panels, doesn't have any great software features unlike Samsung touchwizz, so to be blond fanboy you can be at best
- Anonymous
- 6XU
Sony is number one. Few people will understand it. Sony's stable smooth software? Do you know what stable software is? If you use Samsung probably not. It's laggy interface will become more laggy every month.
- Anonymous
- 6XU
AnonD-558092, 15 Oct 2017Not with the poor R&D budget they don't. People want novelty. And the first thing they see... moreYou want cool design instead of durability? Who cares about design if your phone will lag and screen will break easily?
- AnonD-558092
- r7b
AnonD-505842, 15 Oct 2017Sony will rise againNot with the poor R&D budget they don't. People want novelty. And the first thing they see is the design. Same old rectangle? Oh, it's still the same as the year before. Pass.
- AnonD-672395
- vId
Apple and Google has some very curious and suspicious connection, something that worried early researchers of Android for the longest.
Google's CEO Eric Schmidt was on Apple's board. And all of Apple top management were informing Apple and Steve Jobs in particular about the developments on Android. Therefore a Lot of Android development was halted or terribly delayed, because Jobs thought it was similar to IOS or the iPhone. As we all knows, Jobs was terribly monopolistic whether it came to hardware or software and attempted suing anyone and everyone who he felt was copying Apple (never mind that Apple arguably invented nothing, only refining or re-branding and marketing existing technologies and products, so much so that even the iPod and so many other design masterpieces of Apple were actually Braun Product ripoffs).
This and the pressure from Apple delayed the Android platform for the longest.
While Android has improved substantially since those unfortunate days, I guess someone must research on whether Android is stubborn about not incorporating changes to the platform, software and functionality even now. Nobody seems to state this, but the amazing HDR on the Pixel Phones seems to incorporate some feature that seems to be either excellent algorithms or a back-door entry to Google's own smartphones, not permitted to other smartphone makers using the Android Platform.
Android seems to pick up a lot from Samsung from customisation to multi-tasking to even Google Assistant (which had improved Substantially since Bixby gatecrashed that party), to many other things.
Nokia's weakest point was always the turn around and their stubbornness not to listen to users. While Zara has a 2 week design to showroom window, Nokia is arguably on the opposite end of that turn around from design to showroom. Sometimes way too late.
Motorola has mostly been killed by Google. They sucked it dry almost completely. Whatever was left has been ruined by Lenovo, creating over-priced, underwhelming and uninpsiringly designed phones.
LG still makes great phones. This weak link, is only their design language and high launch price. If they launch their models at 20% lower costs for only 1 full year, they can see exponential grown.
HTC is mostly brought about it's own downfall. Their premium pricing could never be justified. They have lost a lot of their customer base. And building it again would have to employ some superb re-designig of everything.
Sony seems very gimmicky. For the longest, their Flagships phones seemed terribly over-priced. Also their brick design is so 1990s, not 2017.
One Plus started out brilliantly, and then instead of improving, they became stagnant. Users don't get the best camera experience; their phone designs are getting worse; no expandable storage makes it seem like their devices are heading towards the premium route; they also dont have wireless charging; no water resistence etc all point then not wanting to improve the whole user experince. Just addig more RAM and more storage doesnt say much.
Apple has had a superb 10 years of dominance. Their design language has become terrible and they seem to be regurgitating technology and hardware. They haven't shown anything terribly innovative or re-designed of late. Getting Wireless Charging (albiet asa premium) many many years after everyone else in yhe snartphonr business hasmade them something of a laughing stock. Also they had this strategy of making celebs and people who are photographers and videotaphers use their Phones, and give rave reviews everywhere. This despite the fact that many smartphone makers have had way better camera and video quality on their devices than iPhones. Now others have picked up this gimmicky almost click-bait like Marketing Techniques, and got people buying their products in the millions. Also their buying lines and waiting for preorders have been spoofed by everyone from Samsung to Google to Microsoft to everyone else. One thing that Apple still does way better than Eveyone else is creating the Ecosystem around its products, whether it's their accessories, or their sponsored Apps (such as Garageband), or their Stores creating environments for people buying into the Apple El Dorado.
One thing that has happened, thanks mostly to Apple, is that Smart phone companies can charge almost $1000 for devices and if the Advertisement seems crazy enough, people will actually buy those Phones. Hopefully there is either a price correction (starring with Apple), or the amount of freebies goes up substantially.
Huawei seems to be one Chinese company that seems to be eating big time into apple's customer base. Especially considering its pricing is heading more and more towards Apple's side. And they call everything premium. They don't have anyblowet priced devices now and even heir mid is more mid-premium now.
The competition is getting truly exciting.
- vivo
- n{2
There is no obvious difference in Sony and Huawei colours...
- Anonymous
- 2Au
Oathbreaker, 15 Oct 2017I have owned about 30+ phones and from 15 different brands. I sold four of my phones recently ... morewill said, yes I still have 3 Motorola RAZR the v3, v3i and the w375 I miss these phones a lot thought I have a moto z droid but still those retro phones are awesome to use, just like using a old vintage cars.. yes those flagship way back in 2014 and 2016 is still kicking some ass I still have My moto x pure edition those front firing speakers is really good plus I updated it on 7.0 the phone is still worth a shot ( bamboo back with a customize engraving is a bad ass to see )
- Eske Rahn
- s0x
Oathbreaker, 15 Oct 2017I have owned about 30+ phones and from 15 different brands. I sold four of my phones recently ... moreI too have high hopes for complex foldable devices.
I imagine a foldable 'tablet' with display on one side only that could BOTH be folded as a "Z" for usage like a small phone with a display AND as an "a" protecting the display area completely.
- Anonymous
- LQX
Too many brands.
Except Samsung, Apple and Huawei the rest are just stealing costumers from each other.
- AnonD-441601
- SH3
Nokia fan boy, 15 Oct 2017At first, many Apple would say this till now. " Apple will surely be number 1 forever!!!!!!!! ... moreI agree and its tottaly true.Apple were overpriced since beggining when they made first pc in garage.
after 40 years they still are overpriced so people buy anything else.
- AnonD-441601
- SH3
Be, 15 Oct 2017Yep 1. Samsung 2. Huawei. 3. AppleNokia were always first and in present era a lot of people buying nokia again. Its a legend that will be never burried.
- AnonD-441601
- SH3
AnonD-632062, 15 Oct 2017I see Samsung phone sales decrease sharply from 2016 to 2017? Care to explain, Peter?Man Note 7 was biggest shame for Samsung from then peope are afraid of this brand.
So its logical Samsung went deep down.
And when people tryed something new and were satisfied with it then why to go back to samsung?
Xiaomi for example doing very well for a really good price.
- Oathbreaker
- IbE
I have owned about 30+ phones and from 15 different brands. I sold four of my phones recently and use my LG G5, V20, iPhone SE, Motorola Moto E 4G, and HTC One M7 daily drivers. I'm loving my M7 all over again. Best design ever. Still pretty smooth too if you keep it simple with older versions of apps.
Out of all the brands, I like old Nokia, Motorola, and LG the best. I would put HTC up there again and maybe Apple. Only one smartphone brand I never had but want to try - Sony Xperia. I never owned Huawei/Honor and Oppo/OnePlus but don't trust the Chinese. Xiaomi is good but don't trust China and their PC Suite software.
There is no phone released this year that has me interested in it because I dislike phones with all-glass rears or lack of headphone jack. I might end up being a retro smartphone collector similar to retro gamers collecting old consoles from 20-30+ years ago. Focusing on phones from the 2014-2016. Thinking of getting One M8 in red.
The previous decade had more varied form factors. The current by simply decreasing bezel on the top and bottom is a joke trend. I hope foldable displays which can be folded multiple times brings back multiple form factors than the sams stale slab designs.
Classic Nokia (1998-2011)
Motorola flip phones (2004-2006)
LG (2012-Present)
HTC (2007-2014)
Sony (2012-2014)
Apple (1997-2011), their last good design was 5s.
LG might be the only brand that tries to change up the design annually. The others treat each latest phone like automobiles or next Madden game with little tweaks. LG was a joke prior to their Optimus G line. Their 2015 bootloops did tarnish their reputation.
HTC and Sony are similar that they were tops in design at some point but prices their phones way too high which had several Chinese like ZTE and Xiaomi undercut them. Their last memorable phones were released in 2014 with the M8 and Z3 duos respectively. All HTC did was milk the M7 thrice and Sony has been milking Omnibalance for 4.5 yrs now.
Apple will likely milk the iPhone X and its unibrow, dog ears (looks like dead pixels) design for several years too. The Notcho X is here to stay for awhile. Takes 18 months minimum to start from scratch and most brands just want to reuse the same shells to save cost. No rush getting an X when it feels like it is beta and don't trust Apple after a new revamp.
In my heart, I want LG, HTC, and Sony to be tied but the latter pair hasn't been interesting since 2014. HTC 10 seems like a nice phone but it didn't wow me like the M7 and M8 did. Classic Moto is now owned by Lenovo and HMD offers Nokia in name only. Their time was best left in the past like BlackBerry and Palm were.
Avoid Chinese like you should avoid MSG on their food. Either go Pixel or Xperia or stick to the oldies but still a goodie. I like phones released from 2014 and 2016 the best. You can use a flagship from those two years and they would still work fine in 2020. I would love to get a Z3 or Z3 Compact if it didn't have a glass back. Wished it was like the P9.
People only buy phones annually for an ego trip of having something new to show off their shiny new toy with only annual incremental updates on software and hardware. My 4.5 yr old M7 can hold its own on most simple tasks except in gaming and camera. Planned obsolescence is evil.
- AnonD-441601
- SH3
Anonymous, 15 Oct 2017We can see that Apple is one of the smaller phone brands, yet they are the one with the most h... moreMan people will always hate apple because its apple.
For example somewhere in may 2012 European Union said all chargers must been unified and Micro USB arised but apple always had own.
Like apple never used Micro SD cards in their devices because apple dont do any.
There are billions of reasons to hate apple.
Most important is price.
For price of one apple phone you can have 5 good midrangers from xiaomi.
And to be honest one midranger from xiaomi is good enough to give up at apple.
The respond is almost same. For a camera quality you can have a nice Nikon or Canon for 150 eur which do a lot better photos than Iphone X. And we can continue forewer.
Soon or later people stop buying expensive phones because in every country if your salary grow by little your total expenses grow by a lot.
- Eske Rahn
- s0x
Anonymous, 15 Oct 2017You are obviously a hater, because you don‘t give them credit for anything and basically said ... moreOh I'm definitely am aPple hater. I used Ios for 1.5 years on a Iphone 6- , and it was a horror....
But I'm NOT saying that any of the other brands have come up with anything substantial either. NOTHING has really happened since phones went to smartphones. Sure a little huger and faster every year, and reduced bezels, but that is just evolution.
But sure, as long as people are stupid enough to pay $1000 every one or two year for a device that are more or less identical to what they already got, there are no reasons for anyone to come up with something substantially new, they could just milk the stupid consumers. That is what any good merchant would do if they could get away with it. (The planned obsolescence of non removable batteries are part of this story, so people don't pass the old device on, but throw it away on upgrade)
PERHAPS the foldable devices will give us a new revolution of usage with something back to phone sizes when closed, that unfold to phablet/tablet sizes for browsing and watching videos.
Or maybe something completely new and much more revolutionizing turns up - time will show.
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