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35% Consumers Want iPhone 5... Sight Unseen
judgecorp writes "Apple's iPhone 5 is not announced yet, but 35 percent of consumers say they will buy it, when it comes out, even though they know nothing about it. The figure comes from an online survey of 3,000 US consumers by Experian's PriceGrabber shopping website."
...that 65% or two-thirds don't want it.
They're probably people like me who own the 3gs (or older), still had time too much time on their plans (or who thought the 4 didn't quite justify an upgrade), and believe the next one is likely a good time to step up.
This is news? Coming up next you'll tell us that a new study predicts the Sun will continue to rise in the East?
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
In other words 35% of consumers don't care about the product but the social symbol it is and the status they think it confers on them.
35% of people who visit the Apple website on a daily basis? 35% of people who registered for some random website through their iPhone?
Seems like an awfully high percentage for just a regular average consumer survey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg
Yes, yes we will.
By "3000 consumers", do they mean 3000 Apple consumers that just bought the IPhone 4 on that site by any chance?
Because I really doubt that 35% of "consumers" in general plan to buy a new phone, not to speak of a certain Apple phone...
I have an android phone, but for my job I have been working a lot with iOS so would like to get an iPhone. In Canada, rogers is starting to roll out LTE. I could buy an iPhone 4 now, but I will instead wait for the iPhone 5 and get that once it is out.. as I am sure it will have LTE.
I want the iPhone 5. Do you have the iPhone 5? I want the iPhone 5.
of those 35% would put down money now - sight unseen - for it, as opposed to just saying that they "will" buy it.
Also, the article does not say where the survey took place - if it were on, and linked to by, a Mac user site, it's perhaps unsurprising that the result is what it is.
The power of Steve compels you... to buy a new iPhone.
Apple marketing department: Bend over ... this will be a pleasant surprise
Apple fanboi: Yes please
no one likes to talk about the weaknesses of the proprietary itunes tether
I must admit that, having moved from Linux to Mac, I have not yet noticed a particular problem - my music files are stored DRM free, even those which I purchase, and they are stored in a flat filesystem, and so can be easily moved around, or accessed by other programs.
I used to sync my iPod with Amarok1.4 / gtkpod, and had no problems with either - each synced the iPod perfectly.
Moreover, 69 percent of consumers indicated that they would prefer Apple’s iPhone 5 as a gift.
So jewelery and watches are replaced by iPhone. Buyers do not care about how many megapixels has iPhone5 camera, which OS is installed, 3G or 4G... It's just important to have the Apple logo on the device.
In love, war and slashdot discussions, everything is allowed.
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
The masses are hooked on mediocrity in functionality, but will buy anything looking Gucci. Apple may become the first Trillion dollar valuation company in the world based on this kind of blind consumer interest.
Of course I want an iPhone 5.. my 3GS is due for a contractual upgrade, so why not get the 5. I already know what the 4 will do, and each release of the phone has been progressively better.
It's not like I want to throw away my investments in apps and go to another OS (droid or win7). Sounds like a no-brainer to me, not a cultists mindless decision that commentators make it out to sound like.
99% of Slashdot users will hate on this story... Sight Unseen.
give me 20 minutes, a roll of duct tape, and a stack of business cards...im about to fashion together your new god in record time....and of course, its 5g.
just make that check out to 'cash'
Good people go to bed earlier.
Apple has been making people believe it has been making quality phones for years, so it is a reasonable assumption that the next one will also be a quality product, so it is reasonable for some people to say that they will buy iPhone 5 when it comes out.
FTFY
Of course they do! The iPhone has gotten progressively better from the original to the current version; it's not like you're going to open the box for the eventual iPhone 5 and have it contain nothing but a loose collection of wires and poster tack, with a little sign saying "HAHA PWNED." My wife is squarely in this category, since she's still fighting with an increasingly balky 3G whose apps are getting crashier as they expect to have more modern amounts of memory.
I think the 35% is actually more likely, people who have loved the phones that have come out, their plan contract is completed, and they're waiting for the iPhone 5, to upgrade.
I know I'm in that boat, as are ~5 of my friends. We've all had them before, and we're waiting to upgrade. We don't want a 4, because then we'll be stuck with it, while the 5 is just around the corner. Which would be annoying. I've liked these phones since the 3, and each model out has been good, so I've nothing to suspect the 5 won't be good. More so, it's upgradin' time. I'm currently paying for the same contract, but without paying off the phone, this means the carrier is making uber monies. I'm in limbo. Apple, at least gimme a time line so I can make an informed choice.
The 65% are people who might want it later, or are still on a plan contract.
This is my footer. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
I'm surprised that the percentage wasn't higher.
"1) For plenty of these people, it will be a free upgrade; so why not?"
What planet are you from? AT&T / Verizon and Apple have NEVER given a "free" upgrade ot anything other than the basic phones or out of date ones.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Is this about Apple, or about successful brands in general? What do you suppose would be the percentage that would buy these hypothetical products, sight unseen:
I know, "Apple fanboys are all tools", "It's all about the shiny", blah blah blah. But people are always interested in followups to successful products they like. How many /. users are psyched for Linux kernel 3.0, sight unseen?
have you tried syncing with something that's not 5 years old?
Under Linux, no - has support been broken in the newer products?
There seem to be guides available, but I have not tried them.
"The figure comes from an online survey of 3,000 US consumers by Experian's PriceGrabber shopping website"
Correction - Apple has been making underwhelming, inferior phones for some time now.
Anything that you can't pop open and replace the battery on is crap.
Anything that blocks signal just because of how you hold the phone is crap.
Anything with an Apple logo is crap.
that's why US was established as a republic and not a democracy, because an average person should not be voting for anything.
You can't handle the truth.
Nah, everyone knows sheep don't like apples. What you got there is more of an equine species, like a horse or more probably a donkey. A male one.
P.S. Its called a joke, mods and repliers. I feel the need to point this out, which is kinda sad.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
Apple makes a decent phone that integrates well with other Apple products. The target demographic of Apple is the consumer electronics user, not the serious computer user. They only use computers to accomplish something else. They don't use computers for the sake of using computers. The polished and (reasonably) well integrated user interface is simple and lets them get on with doing what they want to do without getting in their way. The iPhone4 was better than the 3. Apple has a track record of solid and steady improvements, rather than some companies who completely redesign their user interface every time they come out with a major release. *cough* *cough* Microsoft *cough* *cough* When I'm happy with an appliance, I'm very likely to want to buy another one of the same brand when it's time to replace and/or upgrade. I don't see why the iPhone would be any different.
iSheep, just sayin.
Choosing to buy now isn't completely a blind purchase. It's sure to have the A5 processor, Bluetooth 4 Low Energy and a dual GSM/CDMA chip. Less sure are a bigger camera with dual LED flash and the exact case design that is supposed to be thinner and lighter.
If you like these features, and you're looking to upgrade your iPhone anyway, it's a fairly safe purchase decision. It's certainly not buying in the dark.
if you think the right way to pick a phone is to add up all the numbered features and then take the phone with the highest total.
Apple customers really don't care about the logo, they care that it is a solidly engineered appliance.
I'm one of the folks who's probably going to buy it sight unseen. I could care less about if someone else things I'm affluent because I have an iPhone 5, or if I'm "trendy" because of it, or anything else. And just because it's got an Apple logo in the middle of the back doesn't mean it's worth it's weight in gold either.
I'm still using a 3GS, and after two years it's starting to get a little beaten up - the screen isn't cracked or deeply scratched, but it's got a few pits here and there, etc. I was going to upgrade to a 4, but I decided to skip a generation since we're so close to the release of the 5. And, since once of the reasons I wanted the 4 was a improvement in the camera over the 3GS (which I use a lot), I figure the 5's camera will more likely than not be slightly better.
Which brings me to the question: how may of of the 35% mentioned are people who decided to skip a generation because there wasn't a compelling reason to upgrade to a 4, but about the time the 5 rolls around their 3G or 3GS is due for a replacement?
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
We've passed the tipping point.
Have gnu, will travel.
The only people that think owning an iPhone is somehow a social symbol are Android users with inferiority complexes. Having an iPhone stopped being unusual years ago.
They should rename it to iPhone 6 a month after launch. A lot of people would buy it again.
Brief listing of a couple things apple have done here.
To my knowledge the latest thing they tried was some funky crypto business that as of a year or so ago still hadn't been cracked. No use in buying from a company that is actively fighting against you using their product.
because there is now quite a bit of historical evidence of Apple building high-quality, well-engineered products. I can understand why that would be perplexing to you (a) don't mind fiddling with technology to get it to work, and (b) don't understand technology well enough to appreciate good engineering.
... and yet they sell. Perception of a product is very important. People know that iPhones are "good" (enough), they know that everyone and their dog know how to handle them and thus cannot be too complicated to use (whether this is true or not). One final thing that Apple does correctly: restrict choice. That might be counter-intuitive to you, but when you buy an iPhone you know exactly what you get. The only differences consist in how much storage space you have and whether you get the black or the white one. That's it.
You might think that bad, but in a sense it isn't. How many HTC phones you you have? A shitload and you aren't sure whether the one you get is going to fit. I happen to have a HTC Smart. Bad choice? At first you think it's one of the "good" ones because it really looks like it runs HTC Sense. It was also damned cheap and that should have raised a red flag. Now, last time, I came up with this in a discussion, I got slammed because I didn't get the 500€ HTC running (Desire, etc...). Yes, true... My mistake... Still, if I was going to spend 600€, why not get the iPhone as I know that it is decent quality and easy to use.
The iPhone has in a sense become the "Windows of Smartphones": The baseline everything else is compared with. To make a phone better than the iPhone it needs to be cheaper (very important! If it's more expensive or on par, the choice falls on the iPhone), as easy or easier to use than the iPhone, and be able to compete on the "apps" (hate the word) that you can install.
We have one iPhone in the household. It belongs to my wife, and while I wouldn't mind having one myself, I simply cannot justify another 50€/month plan (sure the phone is "only" 49€ then). I keep the crap phone with the cheap plan. My wife, a computer neophyte, has never been so happy with a phone. She now actually uses the Internet on it, buys songs, uses facebook and writes email. Something I never managed to get her to do on her computer.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Okay this is just bullshit. First, this is not news for nerds, this is news for:
1) Apple Fanbois to thump their chest on
2) Android Fanbois to fires of their hatred of anything Apple
3) Business Marketroids, who are most definitely not nerds
Obviously I have to start voting with my eyeballs and look to some other site for quality news. There's nothing of substance in an article like this, it's just flamebait for all the Apple-Android flame wars.
But just to answer all three groups and point out my utter annoyance with all of them:
1) Just because you are popular doesn't mean you have the best product. Doesn't mean you don't, but "everyone else is buying it" is a top fallacy that everyone needs to stop using as a badge of honor. /rant
2) I love how you point out 35% of people are [stupid/easy to fool/lambs to the slaughter/insert overdone cliche] and then out of the other side of your mouth point out how Android phones are more popular in volume than Apple phones. To those of you who do, see #1 and stop thinking you are somehow better than Apple fanbois because you are not, you are 100% just like them.
3) You are not nerds, get off this site so the nerds can mod these stories into oblivion.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
This website used to cater to nerds who care about free and open platforms but at some point did a complete 180 to support the most closed and controlled platform in the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyVh1_vWYQ
Are you inferring that 35% of consumers would time travel for an iPhone 5?
choose an iPhone b/c it's a good phone
You've just illustrated the point. The iphone 5 isn't out yet, but you're saying it will be good - simply because that's what you think of the ones that preceded it (all their faults notwithstanding).
Maybe it WILL be a good phone, maybe the designers and marketeers will have learned all the lessons from past mistakes. Until it comes out, nobody knows. Therefore the only people who would buy it sight-unseen and price-unkown and without knowing what the voice/data package will cost appear to be people who put their faith, willingly, in an untried product without doing any sort of critical analysis or bothering to look around to see what else is available.
Sounds like you're their ideal customer
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
No. Not 35% of consumers. 35% of people who filled out the survey. There is no qualification of the sample in the article. Who knows how they were chosen?
35% seems shockingly high. Shockingly convenient for a who-the-heck-are-you website that could really get attention.
With any cool new tech toy, people are going to want it. Consumers like cool things. Consumers are also interested in getting in on the latest and greatest (they aren't necessarily dumb, they are more likely ignorant). Besides, how accurate are those survey results? What if not much thought was put into the participants choosing the right answers? Keep in mind also of the halo effect: Apple makes a great product, consumer purchases that product; suddenly, all Apple products become awesome in that consumer's eyes. This goes for anything else too.
The more you know, the more you have to say and the more you should listen.
As I've often been flamed for saying before, Apple product sales have very little to do with quality or features yet have everything to do with the current fad of apple being "cool". This just goes to prove that 35% of apple users openly admit it since they don't know what will be in the iphone5. Reminds me of that skit on the onion where the guy says "I'll buy anything if it's shiny and made by Apple."
for its entire history--it has covered all manner of technology (closed or not). The PS3/Wii/Xbox are all far more closed platforms than iPhones, and they've all gotten plenty of ink here. The space shuttle program has also gotten a lot of ink, I assume you don't believe that's an open platform, do you?
Any company that sells locked phones without having factory unlocked phones available is crap.
Give kudos to Apple here - you can buy an unlocked one without any hacking required. Just click on "buy" on the Apple site or pop into an Apple store.
I'm changing carriers when my contract is up in early August and it's literally just going to be a SIM card change and a number port and I'll be up and running with my existing device and still be contract-free.
The battery issue is somewhat annoying, but I can see why Apple preferred to have a hard-to-remove back to preserve the ergonomics. Besides, with decent care (frequent charging) my iPhone 3G battery, now 3 years old, still works pretty well.
iphones still cannot do basic smartphone stuff like run arbitrary code. its you who is non-technical, if you think iphone is a smartphone. iphone is a dumb phone designed for idiots who wanna look cool. why else would they buy a phone that doesn't even have a fucking file manager? the thing with smartphones is 90% people who think they need a smartphone do not need it. they just need voice, text and the web. if you are one of these people, iphone is ideal. if not, there are many true smartphones out there.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
... and actually doing it. How many of those 35% that responded will actually go out and buy one as soon as it comes out? Not many I'd suspect, even if only because most will still be bound by contracts etc.
I don't. I know quite a few people who don't. I have an android tablet and a cheap pay as you go phone. When I'm not in my car I'm near open Wifi about 75% of the time - I'm not paying $50 a month for the privilege of updating my Facebook page while I drive.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
I think zombies are rated to be at least 35% post-consumer. . . Thanks, I'll be here all week. Try the veal.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Lots of people get a new phone every X years and if they currently like the iPhone and possibly have a bunch paid for apps that only work on the iPhone then of course they'll buy an iPhone 5. Unless when it comes out it really sucks, but that's unlikely given Apple hasn't screwed it up yet.
If asked I'd say that yes I'll be buying Mass Effect 3 (though most likely after it has been out long enough to be discounted) even though for all I know they could release a tetris/tower defense hybrid and call is Mass Effect 3. I liked the first two so it seems a fair bet. I won't be pre-ordering and I'm sure these people aren't suggesting they'll pay for it right now before the hype starts...
I agree with you to a point. I have an iPhone 4, but I wouldn't use it if I didn't know how to jailbreak it. To me, an unlocked iPhone is just a really nice paper-weight. But OTOH, I am a technical person. I can see how the lack of choices would appeal to the masses and thus why the Apple stuffs sell so well. My wife and daughter use a MacBook and absolutely love them. Of course, that was AFTER I hooked it up to my exchange server so they could get email and installed all the other MS products so it was more like their old PC. But whatever. And when something breaks on them they come to me rather than going to the "Genius Bar" (laughable), not because I know anything about them, but because I'm technical and, more importantly, tenacious enough that I bang my head against it long enough to figure it out. Again, not the masses. But that's OK and that's how Apple has made their billions. Clearly there's something out there for everyone.
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"if you can't figure out that the iPhones are pretty high-quality pieces of engineering"
But the bullet points! Android has better bullet points! Bigger numbers! Won't someone please think of the bullet points!
That 5G is gonna be BLAZING FAST!!!!
Sure there is a lot of talk about the problems with the iTunes problem. Heck I was just reading a CNN article on how developers are dropping iOS apps because Apple wants to take a cut off of every product/sub app sold threw the app.
The problem is there isn't a compelling alternative out there yet. Android while having a larger user base has less quality apps.
Right now everyone is copying Apple. That is good for Apple as lot people will decide to get the Original vs. the Copy.
Now in order to dethrone Apple you will need a product that is noticeable cheaper 50%+ cheaper or generations ahead of the Apple offering.
Apple iPhone kicked in because it was a generation ahead of the other smart phones (Even with Edge) out there. It took about 2 years for phone companies to catch up.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
and the percentage sounds about right for this kind of blind stupidity.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Bullshit. No one likes new tech. We always prefer the older, slower, known quantities of grandfathered hardware. It comforts us in our dotage.
iphones still cannot do basic smartphone stuff like run arbitrary code
First of all, they will run arbitrary code right out of the box if you have the developer kit.
But I presume you mean that you can't download any old binary off of any old web site and run it. Apple would argue this is a feature, but I digress.
You certainly can run arbitrary code if you aren't completely retarded and just jailbreak the stupid thing. It's been 4 generations in 4 years, and all of them have been rooted successfully.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
iphones still cannot do basic smartphone stuff like run arbitrary code. its you who is non-technical, if you think iphone is a smartphone. iphone is a dumb phone designed for idiots who wanna look cool.
While I personally believe that taking into account licensing and other non-technical usage issues is vital when considering whether a piece of technology works for your purposes, actually conflating the technical and non-technical aspects is a step too far.
So I'm totally on board with hating on the App Store and Apple's control over the platform, and as a technical person that's exactly why I wouldn't buy an iPhone. Yet at the same time it is clearly a smartphone, can clearly run arbitrary code, and can clearly do a lot more than just voice, text and the web. That the arbitrary code must also be approved is a serious limitation imposed by Apple. Sucks, but doesn't make a smartphone not-a-smartphone.
The enemies of Democracy are
My iphone 3G is getting 'phone Alzheimers' (It may have been dropped a few times as a child...and adult), therefore I think it's getting about time to take it out back with the shotgun and bring home a cute new iphone 5
Nice summation of the idiotic Android/iOS fanboy mentality. I salute you sir.
Quit believing what other companies tell you. I don't care about the user replaceable battery. Why? Because in 3 years of using iPhones I've never run the battery down all the way. Not once. The fact that other phones "require" you carry a second battery is their problem, not Apple's.
Next Media Animation in Tapei has Apple fandom covered. "When the Iphone 5 comes out, I'm screwed".
Just a matter of experience. I've gone through 2 iPhones, have invested significant amounts of $$ in apps, and they just work. I know, based on experience, that the next one will be a similar experience: I'll plug it in (100% certainty it'll be same cable), it'll sync my apps, and it'll look and feel like my last phone, only a bit faster and shinier. Had a similar experience with my iPad - had to sell my first iPad, recently replaced it with an iPad 2. Plugged it in, and it synced .. so I had essentially the same device I had several months ago.
We could get into the details people always rage about - the tweak-necessary nature of Android, whether or not Android has superior hardware, Android security issues, the philosophy of openness, Apple's gaffe with location data, etc, etc ... but the reality is none of that matters. To geeks, maybe. (Hell, I'm a geek .. I spend more time writing code everyday than your typical Slashdotter, and I can see past those issues.) The key is customer experience. Apple, for better or worse, has built up an ecosystem that makes this happen. I dropped my phone, cracked the screen, made an appointment, had a new screen within a couple of hours. Android? Well, I'd have to get online, do some searching, and hope I found a shop that did service. And hope my particular model's replacement parts were in stock. You can't overcome that experience with a free nav app inside of Google Maps.
If Google (or someone else.. Amazon?) can build up that ecosystem, I'd probably commit to buy sight unseen.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
iphones still cannot do basic smartphone stuff like run arbitrary code.
Running arbitrary code is what delineates a smartphone from a "dumb phone"? First off, what is the advantage in running arbitrary code? What do you mean by "arbitrary code"? What are you looking to do?
I've been using my iPhone for about 3 years, and not once have I lamented the lack of a file manager. Now mind you, I'm not toting around spreadsheets, etc, but it's done a pretty fantastic job of managing my music, audiobooks, tasks, notes, as well as myriad other functions. Compiled, purpose-built applications have done a pretty great job of elevating this device above the status of a so-called "dumb phone".
I'd like to know what arbitrary code you want that can't be put into an application. Or are you bothered by Apple's code vetting process?
iphones still cannot do basic smartphone stuff like run arbitrary code.
Except that it can you are a developer. Now it can't run arbitrary code from anywhere but considering how much malware exists for Android, most consumers wouldn't consider that a feature.
why else would they buy a phone that doesn't even have a fucking file manager?
Seriously, are you saying the arcane notion of having to manuallly manipulate files == true smartphone OS? So do you consider only languages where you have micro-manage memory registers like assembly to be "real" programming languages.
the thing with smartphones is 90% people who think they need a smartphone do not need it. they just need voice, text and the web. if you are one of these people, iphone is ideal. if not, there are many true smartphones out there.
So your definition of smartphone isn't the commonly accepted one where users are allowed to do those things. Instead your defintion is one where users have to things they no longer have to do because of something called progress. So in your world do you have to hand crank your car to start it and need to adjust the engine timing otherwise it's not a true car?
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
You realize, of course, you're being trolled. Somebody got a long time out in the basement and is taking out their frustrations on the Internets.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Gee, you've just proven the AC wrong - how else could he have gotten his anti-time-travel post in before your first post, if not by time travel?
Fandroids hate facts.
I said nothing other than that the iPhone hasn't been a status symbol for years. Your brain filled in all the ridiculousness required to leap all the way over here.
read the first line of my comment. i explain why your assertion is wrong.
Could it be because of the huge number of mature, high quality applications that attract users as opposed to technical pinheads?
is there any "mature, high quality application" that is available for ipad but not for android? i doubt it.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
Congrats, I'm glad you've never been away from power for an extended period of time in the entire time you've owned your iPhone. Whereas some people do things like travel, or hike, or camp, or what have you.
I've only drained my battery completely a few times on my blackberry, and that was due to heavy usage across multiple days of not charging my phone, but I'm STILL glad I have a user accessible battery. Why? The one time I accidentally got my phone soaking wet, I was able to pull the battery quickly, and as a result, my phone and everything in it still works perfectly fine. It also means that there's no reason for my phone manufacturer to complain that SIM cards are too big, since a regular SIM card fits great under a battery. Which makes it a hell of a lot more convenient for international travel.
And neither of those things has anything to do with "what other companies tell me." I just, on a frequent basis, encounter use scenarios across all my devices that Apple devices would easily bite the dust on.
Which of course pertains to the original article. I'm not going to buy something without any information on it from ANY company, because I know my damn use cases, and I want a tool to meet my requirements, not define my requirements.
If the iPhone had a file manager, you would find another arbitrary (there's that word again) feature it lacks and say that it's the reason the iPhone is dumb. "why else would they buy a phone that doesn't even have a fucking Fortran compiler?"
iphones still cannot do basic smartphone stuff like run arbitrary code
First of all, they will run arbitrary code right out of the box if you have the developer kit and you have overpaid for apple hardware.
But I presume you mean that you can't download any old binary off of any old web site and run it. Apple would argue this is a feature, but I digress.
You certainly can run arbitrary code if you are completely retarded and just jailbreak the stupid thing. It's been 4 generations in 4 years, and all of them have been rooted successfully.
ftfy
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
but many people don't care about replacing the battery and they'd rather not have some rickety plastic door on it that pops open all the time.
Those are your only choices with Apple? You either get a non-serviceable battery, or a rickety plastic door that pops open all the time? Why can't Apple design a battery cover that stays attached to the phone like every other manufacturer has managed to do? Is that one of those copy-and-paste things, where Apple will eventually come out with a feature long after everyone else has it and then say they do it "better"?
Every phone blocks signal based on how you hold it--I can understand why that isn't obvious to you but this is a technical website so you probably shouldn't hang out here if you don't care to understand basic RF.
If you're going to be technical, then the phone doesn't block anything, your hand does. But, only with the iPhone was your hand actually touching and shorting the antenna.
It is really totally okay if you don't want to buy Apple products and you don't understand anything about technology or engineering
Wow. God help us when Apple's customer base are considered the elite technical/engineering crowd. Apple designs their devices to be extremely simple to use, not technical, designed and marketed for simple people. While generally impressive under the hood, they are marketed with simplicity in mind. I don't know if you heard, but Wozniak doesn't work there any more.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
iphones still cannot do basic smartphone stuff like run arbitrary code. its you who is non-technical, if you think iphone is a smartphone. iphone is a dumb phone designed for idiots who wanna look cool.
While I personally believe that taking into account licensing and other non-technical usage issues is vital when considering whether a piece of technology works for your purposes, actually conflating the technical and non-technical aspects is a step too far.
So I'm totally on board with hating on the App Store and Apple's control over the platform, and as a technical person that's exactly why I wouldn't buy an iPhone. Yet at the same time it is clearly a smartphone, can clearly run arbitrary code, and can clearly do a lot more than just voice, text and the web. That the arbitrary code must also be approved is a serious limitation imposed by Apple. Sucks, but doesn't make a smartphone not-a-smartphone.
it makes the code un-arbitrary. and imo calling something like this a smartphone is misleading.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
They know nothing about it? Hardly. Quite a bit is known. The iPhone has been around for 4 generations of devices, each one being an extension of the last. Generation 5 will be an extension of gen 4. So already there is quite a bit known.
The summary and article is just a bunch of FUD.
One could make the argument that they have a pretty reasonable expectation, based on past performance, that the new product will be similar to existing offerings but with as-yet-unspecified improvements. If you asked people whether or not they intended to buy a phone produced by an unknown company with no track record then, indeed, they would "know nothing about it." Not the case here.
ANNOUNCE IT ALREADY.
OK. There WILL be an iPhone 5.
Happy?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
35% would sell a kidney! for a good place on the line. Whats the point of getting an iDevice w/out the "human moth" ritual?
I only could figure it out when I'm not holding it wrong :(
I'm going to hold out on this and wait for the iPhone20 (to go with my Mach 20). I expect good things from such high numbers
ftfy
Not really - you just totally changed the argument from "you can't do that" to "you can do that, but I think it's too expensive".
Since value is relative, I'll just stop. Unless you'd like me to say "nuh-uh!" and then we can go back and forth like that for a while.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
No, /. is not pro Apple and thats what shills are trying to change. I've read here Apple users that make perfectly coherent arguments for choosing Apple but also you see people that react violently to any claim that Apple is a dud, quote obscure numbers and statistics and always manage to firehose even the most irrelevant articles containing the word iPhone.
Like the digg ring of circlejerking and the Fark club of approval, Slashdot have an organized group of people that openly promote Apple while the majority of people here just feel sick about the blatant and unsolicited spam. All this while Taco *ca chin* his way to the pagehits bank.
And you hearing this from that guy in marketing that have several Apple devices, so I must be biased thanks to be immune to marketing poison.
If you press any carrier in my country (Canada), they will eventually admit that when it comes down to it, they get more reports about dropped calls from iPhone users than anyone else. I have friends who have finally gotten so sick of worse reception or frequent dropped calls that even though they found various iPhones acceptable, they are moving away from Apple in the next few months.
And frankly, I wouldn't mind that $100 because I already know that my Bold 9700 gets better reception than an iPhone 4. I did extensive tests with a friend's phone one day in my basement, and with various methods of holding in exactly the same location on exactly the same number, the iPhone dropped calls WAY more often than the BlackBerry did.
The hype is justified if you understand the technology, but since most customers don't then the hype from them is unjustified? Do you have any idea how that sounds?
Even non-technical people can appreciate good engineering. You don't have to know how bridges are built to appreciate that good ones don't collapse and bad ones do. If you then associate the good bridges with the companies that made them, does that mean that you only care about that company's logo?
Do you think anybody buys an iPhone because they were tricked into thinking they could do some C++ coding for it right out of the box?
The technology is impressive and well-executed. If it isn't something you want, then don't buy it (there are alternatives). I don't see why you have to shit all over anyone who makes a different value judgement about what they want from a phone.
How does a hard to remove back improve ergonomics?
My Samsung Android has a removable battery and there's no screws or anything. There's is is a half-inch-long gap between front/back at the bottom, barely wide enough to get your fingernail into. You insert something in the slot, twist, the back pops off.
I've seen others where the back slides downwards if you press it just right. When it's closed there's no gap anywhere.
In short, the whole "ergonomics" thing is bullshit ... and you've swallowed it as gospel simply because Apple has repeated it enough times. Go back to your flock of sheeple.
No sig today...
This website used to cater to nerds who care about free and open platforms but at some point did a complete 180 to support the most closed and controlled platform in the world.
Yeah, people here really like the Kindle. Remember when everybody attacked Amazon for one-click-buy? Now they use it to buy their eBooks.
Fandroids hate facts.
Going from 3 to 5...maybe understandable.
From 4 to 5, sight unseen...not so much. It's pure one-upmanship by people who think they've got too much money.
No sig today...
Except that it can you are a developer.
Sure, but you can't write and release an interpreter for a turing-complete language for other people to use. And an awful number of useful things are turing-complete (Heck, if I've read the app store guidelines correctly, a postscript renderer would be in violation of apple policies and they would have every right to remove it).
So your definition of smartphone isn't the commonly accepted one where users are allowed to do those things. Instead your defintion is one where users have to things they no longer have to do because of something called progress.
Look, if you can't run arbitrary programs it's not a smartphone. That's the only meaningful feature distinction we can make. Otherwise my old nokia was a smartphone - I could use it to make calls and text and browse the web and play nokia's games and ...
I am trolling
don't you get it? i can, by your logic, argue that my calculator too can run arbitrary code. because, after all, i can just pay millions of bucks and get a majority share in casio. then i can put any program i want into the calculator.
imposing a (non-trivial) price on the development tools is a serious matter. only devices that can get away with this are special-purpose computers (xbox, ps3, etc). since iphone too require you to pay to develop for it, it is NOT a general-purpose computer, thus it is not a smartphone. again, you might not agree with this because the very definition of a smartphone has been fucked by apple marketing dept.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
If only it worked that way. Then the iPhone7 would flop and the world would be rid of the iPhenomenon.
The power point is strong in this one
I'm in the 35% that wants the iphone 5 to be an unseen sight.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Amplitube. And scads of other applications for musicians that don't work on Android because of latency issues.
Hipsters in the dystopian 2050 will use iPhones 1G bolted awkwardly (you know, holding it wrong) to their faces as a rebel sign against the oppression of the Big Apple Brotherhood and the persistent iTelescreen watching incessantly from every corner, since every corner of this brave new world have a Min-iStore.. all of them tripleplusgood.
Yes, future int the hands of Apple is so fucked up that hipsters are the closer thing to a guerrilla.
Coomand line is a toughcrime
Linux is oppression
We have always been at war with Oracle
Successful campaigns in the Microsoft front
Production of earbuds have increased 5000%
WHATS NOT TO LIKE!!?
imposing a (non-trivial) price on the development tools is a serious matter.
$99 is cheap for development tools, by any objective measure. You'll drop $600-700 on a phone but sneeze at $100 for the development tools? I'm not asking you to drop $6 billion or so on the controlling share of a company - just a Franklin.
Besides, you don't even need the official development tools - if you have a jailbroken (for free!) iPhone you can use one of the free compilers. Just don't expect the Apple magic shiny stuff.
since iphone too require you to pay to develop for it, it is NOT a general-purpose computer, thus it is not a smartphone.
That's a funny definition of a general-purpose computer. People have been running proprietary computers for decades and have considered them "multi-purpose". And since when does "smartphone" get defined in terms of it being general-purpose? Nokia Symbian, Blackberry, Apple, Windows Mobile... these are all smart phones.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
There's a bit of a lock-in to having a bunch of stuff already in the app-store/iTunes.
My fiancee has been looking at getting an iPhone 4. She's got a lot of apps she uses on the iPod, and was looking at a "Galaxy S2" VS "iPhone 4." I mentioned that the 5 is probably coming out, and would expect some features to include a multi-core processor etc in order to stay competitive with the newer Android phones. So does one consider iPhone5 as a competitor for the other phones, or mainly against the iPhone4? For those that are looking a "new iphone", it makes sense to at least wait until the 5 is out and then see if the full features list warrants an upgrade.
People buy iPhones because they are well-built with a user-friendly interface and a well-executed ecosystem for media (tv/movies/music/apps) across iOS products (iPad/iPhone/AppleTV). iPhone [generally speaking] don't want to tinker with their phones or write code for them.
You are mad that what the majority of people want is not what you specifically want. You want something you can fiddle with and hack at. And that's great, but it is unreasonable for you to expect the rest of the consumer world to subsidize your desire to tinker.
Apple has not misled anyone. People are getting exactly what they want and paid for. It just isn't what *you* want.
Nokia does have a proud history and they rode the value of that brand quite a while after they stopped making the best smartphone on the block. What existing product do they have which is comparable to an iPhone4 or an iPad2?
Apple is still making excellent products. If they stop making good products and then 3 years later people are still buying it then you could maybe make a case that they are buying it "just for the logo".
The "just for the logo" crowd is just so outrageously stupid. The logo has basically been unchanged for about 30 years--during which time Apple has nearly gone out of business several times (coincidentally when they were making crappy products)--why didn't the "logo" save them then? Why don't other companies get themselves magical logos if it is that frickin easy?
Nokia has a number of Symbian phones that are in engineering and quality terms at least the equal of the iPhone.
Apple's logo is currently fashionable. It wasn't in the past, but it is now. Excellent marketing (and adequate design coupled with excellent software support) of the iPod caused that; the phones have leveraged that and Apple has continued with its marketing excellence.
The devices themselves are by no means shabby, but don't dismiss the power of that status boasting logo.
for the CPU and IIRC 7 times as fast for the graphics, all at the same price. A lot of people dump their current computing products for something like that.
Basically, "sight unseen" is irrelevant here. We know it's basically going to kick-ass. There is almost no chance that it won't. It's a pretty safe bet to say you'd buy it, especially if you're already invested in the ecosystem. Love that lock-in.
I for one would like to know how many don't want one, regardless of changes.
I assume it will still be overpriced and hyped as well as limited and very easy to break.
a smartphone is (or was supposed to be) a general purpose computer that fits in your hand and can connect to a cell network. although apple has (thru marketing) changed that definition to "phone with touchscreen".
The term "smartphone" was coined by Ericsson, for the r380. It ran Symbian and had a touchscreen. Oh, and "users could not install their own software on the device." So what was that about a general computing device? Sounds more like a smartphone is a phone that can run purpose-built applications. Or perhaps a PDA that can connect to a cell network.
i'd like to have control of my own device. i'd also like everyone to have control of their own devices. i care about other people because the runaway success of iphone impedes on my freedom too. i can't get a nice symbian or windows mobile phone right now. because corps now understand that selling is about tricking unthinking dumbasses, not actually providing a powerful smartphone.
No corporation is stopping you from getting a Symbian or WinMo device. I'm sure there are even some very nice ones out there, for certain values of "nice". I understand that you're upset that you can't or haven't found something that suits your purposes, but companies are not obligated to fulfill your desires. The success of devices that don't do what you want is not an impingement on your freedom.
...that's the fundamental problem.
You think the value of a technology is measured by gigabytes and megapixels but in fact the point of all technology is to improve the quality of life for some human. Nokia's symbian phones might have some good engineering but they don't have the full package the way Apple's products do, with great hardware, great software and a large & well-executed media-delivery ecosystem (tv/movies/music/apps/books/etc.) on a platform which extends elegantly across phones/tablets/computers.
Because you aren't capable of understanding the complete story of how that technology really affects peoples lives then you are left grappling from some explanation of the overwhemling success Apple's had--and so you dismiss it as "good marketing" with a "trendy logo". It's sad and pathetic.
Many, many moons ago (see my UID), this was a site founded about open source (with emphasis on Linux), science, and technology (with emphasis on IT). It was good, and attracted many interesting and smart people. The articles weren't always the best, but you could read comments from people who were knowledgeable in their field, and learn about really cool things you otherwise would never hear about.
But then, MS started to astroturf, and with popularity came misinformed bigots and those ignorant of science and the reasons for Free software. Microsoft and most of their shills have been (rightfully) discredited, but there has been a resurgence in people too blind to look past their brand loyalty and not satisfied with other sites that might better meet their needs. Why they feel the need to push their agenda to every inch of the Internet, I do not know.
Many good people have left slashdot; some of us still stay to try and clean things up. But it's hard when you see tons of spam and slashvertisements for companies who are hostile to freedom filling up the firehose everyday, and very little of note about open source and science and real technology getting through. Though there are still many wise people posting insightful comments here, I fear it might be time for me to leave. I'm not sure where I'd go; preferably somewhere that focuses on more technical issues; somewhere that cares about Freedom and open systems. Slashdot does not appear to be that place anymore.
Nathan's blog
if you can't figure out that the iPhones are pretty high-quality pieces of engineering.
The success of the iPhone had absolutely nothing to do with quality. Hell, the first one couldn't even manage picture messaging (MMS). How long did it take to get copy and paste on that so-called smartphone?
This is to say nothing of the astonishingly poor battery life that plagued the thing at least until the iPhone 4.
The iPhones success is a complete mystery to me. How did the crumbiest phone on the market gain such impressive market share?
Required reading for internet skeptics
I know plenty of androids who can't run arbitrary code.. If by arbitrary code you mean the latest OS update.
Umm.. no. You've described a netbook or notebook.
Thousands of bucks? Come back from fairytale land. A developers license is $99. I have one, do you?
Odd, what kind of app is it that I can't create?
It runs the software that most people want to run and it interacts with their lives in a positive way.
If you have special wants and needs then that's a great reason for you to look elsewhere, but it doesn't invalidate the value of Apple's technology for everyone else.
This is so obvious that you must know it so I'm going to assume that you are either (a) trolling or (b) far too stupid to grasp these basic concepts--either way, I'm bored.
No, friend, Slashdot has never been that. I've been visiting this site for over 15 years, and it has always had articles from a broad range to technical themes, and a diverse array of opinions expressed in the comments. It used to be very anti-apple, it's true, and some explained this by claiming apple was not open, but the change happened around the time apple released the iMac.
This was the time when the quality of Apple's products improved dramatically. Apple started innovating and their products were no longer overpriced and underpowered. Apple reinvented the music industry and the cell phone industry. You complain they are not open, but maybe you don't remember how things were before apple moved into these industries (much, much worse).
I'll admit that apple does a lot of screwed up stuff, but the reason they get traction here on slashdot is they move the state of the art forward, and they produce products of supperior quality. Open platforms will win out in the end, and Apple will be forced to capitulate some day, when the rest of the market has caught up to them. But in the mean time, Apple has the support of most slashdotters because they actually release new products from time to time.
No apps for it.
We don't buy computers to have specs. We buy computers to do work.
iPad is so far ahead of everything it's not even funny. We use it as a Point-of-sale terminal, for example. Can't do that on a Tab.
It should read "35% of self-selected respondents to an online poll at an online shopping website indicate that they will buy the iPhone 5." In other words, it's meaningless. I am impressed by the brand loyalty that Apple has managed to generate in the short time they've been in the phone market, but it'll become increasingly difficult to sell $650+ handsets to consumers as the market matures.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they all want iPhone5. Are they willing to buy it? Or they want someone to give it to them? So 65% of the people would not even want an iPhone5. Even if it was just handed to them. It puts the headline in a completely different light!
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I'm waiting for the iPhone 6!
The CB App. What's your 20?
Seriously, the only reasons anyone upgrades:
1) because it's new
2) because it's prettier
3) because it's thinner (see #2)
4) because mine sucks (see #1)
Nobody ever upgrades because:
1) The hardware guys cut radiation emittance by 35% in the new model
2) The dot pitch has been embiggened. I can actually see a whole page of email now
3) On screen keyboard keys have gotten 15% bigger. I can now type easier.
4) Devs have added support for IMAPS now so I can use my home mail server
5) The new model uses 12% less electricity now so it's better for the environment
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
Maybe if your information wasn't so out of date and wrong you might have had a point. To be a developer requires that you register with Apple. To publish your code to the store requires the $99 yearly fee. Later you change that to thousands so it seems to me that being accurate isn't as important to you.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I find it ironic that people use the word "Lemmings" to talk about others who just follow the crowd, seeing as how the idea that actual lemmings commit mass suicide is not true. So by using the word in this way, you're just following what a bunch of people have told you, without verifying it for yourself.
Of course, for the ultimate irony, I'm just writing all this based on what I've seen other people post on random comment threads, and on what I've read on wikipedia.
Right now everyone is copying Apple.
Except for RIM, Motorola, HTC, and a host of other manufacturers.
Required reading for internet skeptics
I'll buy it if it is a compelling upgrade. Will it be dual core, and will it feature 64GB or 128GB of storage, and a larger display? I don't care about 4G/LTE since 3G is fast enough for my purposes; I can stream netflix without issue, Rhapsody without a problem, and I expect Apple's iCloud services will work just fine once they work through MAFIAA insanity regarding streaming content users own (remember, when you buy creative works, you OWN that copy; you have the right of first sale. You just can't violate its copyright, so spare me your propaganda).
If it's not a compelling upgrade though, that is, if it's still limited to 32GB with no SD slot to expand storage, I'll stick with my iPhone4 until there is a compelling reason to upgrade. Storage is the deciding point for me; I am constantly juggling my play list, especially as I re-rip my CDs to replace old 128kbps rips (which, after years of going without using a home stereo system, I'm building a new system with Klipsch Reference speakers and a new Elite receiver to replace Elite VSX-26TX that is so obsolete that I probably couldn't even give it away at this point) because my new system will easily make the flaws in 128kbps rips apparent.
So yeah - between purchased videos and my music collection, which as I dig up my CDs and re-rip them, my media collection would exceed even a 128GB capacity by far, especially when you figure that iOS will probably take up 1.2GB, then my purchased apps another 8-12GB, and then my Free/Free apps (sbsettings, BSD userland, mobile terminal, openssh, assorted utilities and shell scripts for monitoring servers, etc.) via Cydia taking up another couple gig.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
From the GP:
That's okay.
Don't quote me on this.
Not hard to imagine these numbers.
Q: Would you buy a phone that's better than the iPhone4 (one of the best selling smart phones)?
A: Survey results: most everyone says yes..
"better than the iPhone4" = "iPhone5"
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Zombies. They probably vote the same way, without a thought of who will have to pay for all those social programs.
the point of a smartphone is that you can theoretically have every damn feature.
Nope. That's something you just made up.
"but many people don't care about replacing the battery"
Actually, most people I know who have an iphone4 (that includes me) do care about battery. One reason I moved away was that I use the smart part of the phone (networked apps, apps that use the camera and the sensors) heavily, and that does kill the iphone4 for about 6-7 hours, which is for me totally unacceptable. Now that I'm using a smartphone that allows using replacement batteries, I can squeeze over a day of heavy usage. I still carry the iphone as an emergency phone though.
My opinion has changed from "replacing the battery is a good thing" to "if you can't use the battery on full throttle for over a day, you probably don't need a smartphone anyway".
Also, what I got is (unsurprisingly, because it is newer) a much better gadget than the iphone4 in terms of hardware and features.
thousands because you pay them for the hardware (the development machine), too.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
So you get all of your development machines for free? They just rain out of the sky?
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
no, but i do not overpay for mediocre quality hardware. i get a thinkpad.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
So you think $599 for a new Mac is paying $1000. And then of course everyone who wants to pay for a computer has to buy new. No one ever buys a used compute, ever.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
no, i think paying $599 for a mac is stupid, because you get hardware worth only $299.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
Then you admit your "paying thousands" for a development machine is not realty grounded in reality but some arbitrary condition you imposed wherein some one who wants to develop iOS has to buy a brand new Mac of your choosing. As for the $299 price, you do realize that Core i5 processor alone retails for about $200 and that neither Dell nor HP nor Lenovo sells a Core i5 desktop your $299. It seems again accuracy isn't your thing.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
i admit i like to buy high quality hardware. is it wrong of me to assume that i'll be able to develop software on a machine of my choosing?
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
35% of the sample population has or has a friend that has an older generation iPhone. Having not been disappointed in the past, by said product, they can say that they will likely want the new iPhone after their current mobile contract is up. If that is the iPhone 5 then so be it.
I know I fit into that category. I bought the 3GS a while back and have to say I have been very happy with it. Do I want an iPhone 5? Hell yes. Will that stop me from looking at alternatives? No. But will my positive history with the device add to my purchasing decision? Definitely. If when released, the iPhone is a dog, will I still get it? Likely not. Depending on when my contract ends, hopefully I won't be a first adopter, and can find out from someone else if it had problems.
It's not wrong but unrealistic to think you can dictate terms for development to the platform owners. Want to develop for Windows? You need a Windows machine. Yes mono exists but it isn't complete. Want to develop for Blackberry? You have to use whatever software/hardware they bless. This has been true since the beginning of software development. Why you single out Apple is illogical as is why you feel it is some sort of right that you can dictate their requirements.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Seems like Apple fanboys have gone through all your posts and modded you down.
Slashdot needs Geekcode | Can anyone recommend any good SCIFI? My tastes: Foundation, Startide Rising, CITY, Ringworld,
at least one person agrees with me. i don't care about the mods, i have plenty of karma to burn.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.