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Huawei Surpasses Apple As the World's Second Largest Smartphone Brand (theverge.com)

According to analysis by consulting firm Counterpoint Research, China's leading smartphone marker, Huawei, surpassed Apple's global smartphone sales for the first time in June and July. The company is only behind Samsung in sales. The Verge reports: Figures haven't been released yet for August, though Counterpoint indicates sales for that month also look strong. However, it's worth noting that with Apple's new iPhone releases just around the corner, the iPhone maker is almost certain to get back on top in September. Researchers at Counterpoint also point out that Huawei has a weak presence in the South Asian, Indian, and North American markets, which "limits Huawei's potential to the near-to-mid-term to take a sustainable second place position behind Samsung." Its strongest market is China, and it's also popular in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Still, Apple doesn't have much to worry about; Counterpoint says the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus remain the world's best-selling smartphones, while Oppo's R11 and A57 claimed the third and fourth spots, respectively, followed by Samsung's Galaxy S8, Xiaomi's Redmi Note 4X, and Samsung's Galaxy S8 Plus. Surprisingly, despite overtaking Apple in global sales, none of Huawei's phones appear on the Top 10 list.

67 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. nothing surprising by gravewax · · Score: 4, Interesting

    " Surprisingly, despite overtaking Apple in global sales, none of Huawei's phones appear on the Top 10 list. " only surprising if you are ignorant of the market. Huawei make a shit ton of different model phones. They could easily become Number 1 and never have a phone in the top 10. haven't touched their phones myself but I hear mostly good things about them, it is their tablets that interest me.

    1. Re: nothing surprising by fubarrr · · Score: 1

      I have Huawei Maimang 5, a good but overpriced mid-range phone.

      As I understand, the model has like 10 different names and minor modifications that are sold as different models

    2. Re:nothing surprising by Freischutz · · Score: 4, Interesting

      " Surprisingly, despite overtaking Apple in global sales, none of Huawei's phones appear on the Top 10 list. " only surprising if you are ignorant of the market. Huawei make a shit ton of different model phones.

      Nokia did that too, I hear it worked out great for them.

    3. Re:nothing surprising by Timothy2.0 · · Score: 1

      " Surprisingly, despite overtaking Apple in global sales, none of Huawei's phones appear on the Top 10 list." I was thinking this is what positions Huawei for even further growth. I mean, to be #2 in the market and have none of your products in the the top 10 means there is a big target for the company to rally around. That kind of goal-setting tends to spark innovation in a firm. Huawei's built rock-solid products for a while, so it's pretty exciting to see what the coming years will bring them. Of course, that all hinges on whether they pursue the goal of top 10 products...they could just as well keep doing what they're doing and enjoy their extant success.

    4. Re: nothing surprising by rainmouse · · Score: 1

      Wonder if that's to protect their phones from being knocked off the market via patent disputes.

    5. Re: nothing surprising by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      It's because they have manufacturing capacity to sell phones specifically tailored for each niche and still remain profitable.

    6. Re:nothing surprising by KingBenny · · Score: 1

      mh, i paid about 60 for mine i think. It's a bit low on internal memory but i find that a plus so far. Keeps me from loading it with 90% crApps ... small, compact ... it makes calls and runs messenger apps ... i think it has a little light too which is good for a late night homecoming :p

      --
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  2. Not surprising by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    > Huawei, surpassed Apple's global smartphone sales for the first time in June and July

    Why would most people and Apple fans purchase an iPhone in June or July, provided that the new iPhone is to be announced a few weeks later?

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    1. Re:Not surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Or purchase an iPhone at all, when there are so many better options.

    2. Re:Not surprising by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

      I'd hazard a guess that most people who purchase an iPhone are just doing so because they heard they were good and don't have a flying clue when the new ones are announced.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    3. Re:Not surprising by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Why would most people and Apple fans purchase an iPhone in June or July, provided that the new iPhone is to be announced a few weeks later?

      You have that backwards. Apple enjoys a 1 quarter spike in sales on the month of a new phone. Their sales are very much flat for the rest of the year with the month before a new product announcement being only marginally lower than the preceding months. Huawei overtaking Apple in June and July means they are also quite likely to beat apple January, February, March, April .... etc

      In some cases it's not even lower. Depending on the leaks and interest driven for the new phone. E.g. The quarter before the iPhone 6 launch actually had better sales than earlier in the year.

    4. Re:Not surprising by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Apple enjoys a 1 quarter spike in sales on the month of a new phone. Their sales are very much flat for the rest of the year with the month before a new product announcement being only marginally lower than the preceding month.

      Except that's not historically true. The month before has always been marginally higher. Also since Apple does not break down sales by month, how can you quantify that there is a spike in the "month of a new phone"?

      There's a reason why Apple typically announces new phones in the fall: holiday sales. Q1 for Apple will always be tend to be higher than any other quarter as it ends the holiday season.

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    5. Re:Not surprising by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      Completely missed the point, clearly didn't read the article

      I remember back in the day when we had decent trolls who would actually read the article and then incisively cut down posts made here. Had you done so yourself, you'd have been aware that the article said...

      However, it’s worth noting that with Apple’s new iPhone releases just around the corner, the iPhone maker is almost certain to get back on top in September.

      ...which is exactly what the OP was talking about.

      Frankly, I'm disappointed. As you just demonstrated, the quality of the trolls on Slashdot has diminished significantly in recent years. We deserve better than you. But, to answer your question, the fact that you're all we've got could indeed be taken as evidence of the slow death of Slashdot.

    6. Re:Not surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Because there aren't any other options if you want a proper phone.

      Have you actually tried both, to understand what you are talking about?

  3. Who are they? by The123king · · Score: 1

    Who are you? Huawei?

    --
    If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
    1. Re:Who are they? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Who are you? Huawei?

      It is pronounced (roughly) Wah way. There is no "who" sound.

      It is a good name in Chinese, since the "hua" hanzi is shorthand for "China" and the "wei" hanzi can mean "action" or "achievement". So it means "Chinese action" or "Chinese achievement".

  4. Re:What I'm REALLY looking for is by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There are enough people just in my circle who prefer the 4" iPhone SE over the larger iPhone models... I'd expect someone on the Android side of things will eventually go after that market as well. I'm kind of surprised Samsung hasn't done it.

    I had the 5.5" 6 Plus for a couple years, but like you said - the size was a bit much. I eventually replaced it with the 4.7" version, which I like because I can one-hand my phone again now.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  5. Re:What I'm REALLY looking for is by Kopp · · Score: 1

    Sony was making smaller versions of their flagship phones who actually had decent specs (Z1/Z3 compact) unlike Samsung S* mini that where a clear downgrade compared to the normal version But that's almost all. It's even hard to find Android phones in less than 5", let alone a good one.

  6. Not surprised; they make good products. by Bearhouse · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I finally managed to wean my wife and kids off iPhones, which were ruining me with each upgrade cycle / theft / breakage.
    Android has finally gotten "good enough" to be a viable iPhone competitor, and the Huawei phones are great at less than half the price.

    1. Re:Not surprised; they make good products. by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      When a $600 phone is broken or stolen, it's (depending on your income) a very bad day or a disaster. When a $200 phone is broken or stolen, you can loose it again 4 more times before you get to the same $1200.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:Not surprised; they make good products. by Chryana · · Score: 1

      Furthermore, a 200$ phone is also less likely to be stolen. Actually, anything else than an iPhone is less likely to be stolen.

    3. Re:Not surprised; they make good products. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      I use an exponential pricing model. Each time my kids lose or break a phone, I spend half as much on the new one. The next time my daughter loses hers, she's getting a $30 flip-phone.

    4. Re:Not surprised; they make good products. by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      My daughter has a $10 candy bar phone :)

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    5. Re:Not surprised; they make good products. by green1 · · Score: 2

      "finally good enough"???? uh-huh...

      Android has been far superior to iPhone in every single way since... well, always. it's not How do you claim something is "finally good enough" to beat something that it's been better than from day 1? Apple has never caught up to Android on features, usability, performance, or price since they first launched. And so far, I've seen no indication that they ever will.

    6. Re:Not surprised; they make good products. by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Android has been far superior to iPhone in every single way since... well, always

      Even back when it was going to be nothing more than a Blackberry clone? Okay, Fandroid.

  7. World's Largest Smartphone Brand by n329619 · · Score: 2

    I can't wait to see a guy tries to fit a new 20" Huewai Smartphone in their pocket.

  8. No surprises by houghi · · Score: 1

    Surprisingly, despite overtaking Apple in global sales, none of Huawei's phones appear on the Top 10 list.

    They have more phones at the same time on the market, instead of just one. That gives people more options. That way you can ACTUALLY be different.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  9. Re:What I'm REALLY looking for is by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

    Alcatel has some nice phones in smaller form factors, I personally prefer the larger phones myself but if they want a smaller android phone that would probably be the company to go for. I personally prefer Alcatel because you can trivially root them WITHOUT having to use any third party malware like kingoroot, you can literally take an Alcatel out of the box and using nothing but their own installed app have the phone rooted in under 3 minutes.

    --
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  10. We get these articles every year by mccalli · · Score: 1

    Just before a new release and in the dying days of Apple's current flagship model, some article pops up saying that they've been overtaken and their sales are dropping/tech being eclipsed by some new phone/are the cause of impending thermonuclear war.

    Compare like for like across the sales cycle. As the summary says, look again in about October'ish or whenever the new phones from Apple are available for purchase. That is - if you actually care about such things as which global position your phone manufacturer has.

    1. Re:We get these articles every year by green1 · · Score: 1

      Considering Apple has a positively miniscule overall share of the smartphone market compared to Android, it seems rather silly to try to cling to "oh but they'll beat that one other brand one month every year!"

      I know you're desperate to claim that your team is winning, but let's face it, Apple's sup-par, over-priced, garbage just doesn't dominate the market the way you seem to think it does.

    2. Re:We get these articles every year by mccalli · · Score: 1

      Just read this - see, this is what I'm talking about. I couldn't care less if Apple is number 1, 7, 346 or 65535. So long as it works for me and is likely not to go bankrupt, that's fine. Whereas you appear to be very heavily invested in hating a company that you likely don't use. Why? What benefit does that give you?

  11. Apple vs Huawei by DrYak · · Score: 2

    " Surprisingly, despite overtaking Apple in global sales, none of Huawei's phones appear on the Top 10 list. " only surprising if you are ignorant of the market. Huawei make a shit ton of different model phones

    Yup, my reflexion too.
    It's easier for Apple to be top selling phone - even if they sell in much smaller volume - when they basically only sell one single phone in 2 variations.
    Huawei might sell a much bigger total volume, but divided by hundreds of models, none of the phone will individually beat any of the top 10 sellers.

    Same situation with operating system regarding iOS vs Android:
    back then's Apple smartphone were the top seller, but Android was (and is still today) the most popular OS even if no phone with it did beat any phone with iOS.
    simply there were dozens of android phone manufacturer, so even if total installation did beat iOS, none of them did individually beat Apple in volume.

    --
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  12. Nokia and the smartphone by DrYak · · Score: 1

    Nokia did that too, I hear it worked out great for them.

    It *did* work great for them back in the dumb-phone and feature-phone era.

    Management just completely fucked up everything afterwards regarding smartphones :
    - They dragged the aging symbian platfrom way too much. ("But hey, it has always worked until now, so it's a safe bet !") (~yeah sure. And maybe Palm should have stuck to PalmOS even longer~)
    - They let go the R&D departement which was until that point striving to make nice smartphone/tablet OS (the Meamo/Meego line with N700, N800, N900, and the first large scale public N9, etc.) and would have actually helped Nokia become relevant in the smartphone era. ("But hey, it's burning money, let's leave the burning ship for shareholder's sake !") (on the other hand that team manage to escape the burning ship on a small jolla (pun intended by them) to survive and put an interesting OS on the marked)
    - They decided to ged in bet with Microsoft. ("But in the business world you're never wrong to go to Microsoft !" (Or was it IBM ?~) )

    End result :
    "we didn't do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost"

    They kept doing stupid shit that would sound "a safe bet" to an MBA, but didn't make any sense.
    (And the biggest part of these decision was taken by microsoft shills such as Elop)

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:Nokia and the smartphone by Freischutz · · Score: 2

      Nokia did that too, I hear it worked out great for them.

      It *did* work great for them back in the dumb-phone and feature-phone era.

      Management just completely fucked up everything afterwards regarding smartphones : - They dragged the aging symbian platfrom way too much. ("But hey, it has always worked until now, so it's a safe bet !") (~yeah sure. And maybe Palm should have stuck to PalmOS even longer~) - They let go the R&D departement which was until that point striving to make nice smartphone/tablet OS (the Meamo/Meego line with N700, N800, N900, and the first large scale public N9, etc.) and would have actually helped Nokia become relevant in the smartphone era. ("But hey, it's burning money, let's leave the burning ship for shareholder's sake !") (on the other hand that team manage to escape the burning ship on a small jolla (pun intended by them) to survive and put an interesting OS on the marked) - They decided to ged in bet with Microsoft. ("But in the business world you're never wrong to go to Microsoft !" (Or was it IBM ?~) )

      End result : "we didn't do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost"

      They kept doing stupid shit that would sound "a safe bet" to an MBA, but didn't make any sense. (And the biggest part of these decision was taken by microsoft shills such as Elop)

      I always figured that scrapping the Meamo/Meego line and hiring a Microsoft executive was what really finished them off.

    2. Re:Nokia and the smartphone by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2

      By the time of Nokia, everyone should have been wary of partnering with Microsoft especially when it came to mobile devices. The failure of the Zune and Kin and the stagnation of Windows Mobile should have been a red flag.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  13. Re:What I'm REALLY looking for is by DrXym · · Score: 1
    Most phone operators have Android phones from €50 contract free and up. Something upwards of €100+ tends to be a day-to-day usable device. Cheaper devices tend to not have much storage on them.

    The biggest problem for Android by far is that many manufacturers including Samsung and Huawei are compelled to fill their phones with crapware and replace the perfectly functional default launchers, diallers etc. with their own crappier equivalents. In some cases they even double up the normal apps with their own for no good reason. Then the mobile operators want their turn stinking up the phone by adding even more crapware.

    Therefore, if I were looking for a cheap handset I'd first look for one which can be flashed with a custom firmware to remove all this garbage.

  14. Re:What I'm REALLY looking for is by The123king · · Score: 1

    I'm still toting an iPhone 5

    --
    If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
  15. yes but still... by supernova87a · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As much as I dislike almost all phone manufacturers, I will still grudgingly trust Apple more than the others when it comes to securing my private information on my devices against apps, 3rd parties, and hackers doing things that I don't know are being done. Huawei -- what do you want to bet that they take any of that shit seriously? Cmon, even Google doesn't police its apps and infrastructure well, what are the chances that a down-the-rung OEM does?

    1. Re:yes but still... by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      Yeah I only have a few Apple products and loathe all their proprietary connectors and accessories which would make it seem weird I went with an iPhone but I just haven't seen the continuing security patches in other brands. Perhaps with Google doing their own phone now that will change. If Windows phone hadn't tanked it would've been nice to see what sort of lifecycle those would have had, if phone OSs were generally supported as long as desktops I'd be much more comfortable trying whatever brand.

  16. Re:Apple still #1... by The123king · · Score: 3, Informative

    It might be an old source, but Apple seem to still trounce Samsung on profit margins...

    God knows how though, samsung's phones are expensive to buy and cheaply built compared to Apple's. Maybe labor costs are a factor...

    --
    If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
  17. Nokia didn't ignore smartphones by sjbe · · Score: 5, Informative

    No nokia ignored the smartphone market and clung to a dying OS that nobody wanted way too long to the point they were reliant almost completely on dumb phone market,

    Not correct. Nokia very much did NOT ignore the smartphone market. The problem was that their product offerings were not well aligned with what it turned out customers actually wanted. Nokia was for a long time the number one seller of "smartphones" even before Apple introduced the iPhone. The problem was that once people saw the iPhone the game was different after that and Nokia wasn't able to catch up. They were selling smartphones the whole time but the problem was that they weren't selling the smartphones that people actually wanted post-iPhone.

    Then Nokia made the asinine decision to announce the switch to Microsoft's OS close to a year before they actually had a product ready to ship. Basically they announced that their current products that they were selling were dead on arrival so who is going to buy a phone with an OS you know isn't going to get updated or supported?

    1. Re:Nokia didn't ignore smartphones by Freischutz · · Score: 1

      No nokia ignored the smartphone market and clung to a dying OS that nobody wanted way too long to the point they were reliant almost completely on dumb phone market,

      Not correct. Nokia very much did NOT ignore the smartphone market. The problem was that their product offerings were not well aligned with what it turned out customers actually wanted. Nokia was for a long time the number one seller of "smartphones" even before Apple introduced the iPhone. The problem was that once people saw the iPhone the game was different after that and Nokia wasn't able to catch up. They were selling smartphones the whole time but the problem was that they weren't selling the smartphones that people actually wanted post-iPhone.

      Then Nokia made the asinine decision to announce the switch to Microsoft's OS close to a year before they actually had a product ready to ship. Basically they announced that their current products that they were selling were dead on arrival so who is going to buy a phone with an OS you know isn't going to get updated or supported?

      Nokia just seemed to have this kind of carpet bombing approach to the range of phones they offered: "Fuck market resarch, let's just make dozens and dozens of models of phones and maybe one of them will be what the customer wants." Apple, Samsung, HTC et-al went the other way, designed targeted products and .... well where is Nokia now?

    2. Re:Nokia didn't ignore smartphones by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Not correct. Nokia very much did NOT ignore the smartphone market. The problem was that their product offerings were not well aligned with what it turned out customers actually wanted

      Nokia proved that being first mover isn't always an advantage. They released their first smartphone in 1996 with a massive 4MB of RAM (the minimum requirement for Windows 95, though in practice 8MB was a more realistic minimum and 16MB was recommended). They redesigned their kernel (EKA2) in 1998 to allow the UI and the baseband to run on the same ARM core, giving hard realtime and isolation guarantees to the baseband, which became irrelevant when small ARM cores became cheap (modern SoCs have a huge number of M-profile cores, so adding something like an M5 or M7 to run the baseband is of negligible cost). A lot of their APIs were designed for environments where 4MB of RAM was a lot.

      In contrast, iOS is basically the same kernel that they use on laptops and a very similar window server and set of userspace APIs. Apple's mobile UIs are actually less memory-saving than their desktop ones, because AppKit inherits a lot of optimisations from NeXT workstations with 8MB of RAM that are simply not worth it on an iPhone with gigabytes (and counterproductive, because they consume extra CPU to save RAM, which ends up being worse for battery life).

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    3. Re:Nokia didn't ignore smartphones by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Android does get updated and supported. The problem has always been how long varies by manufacturer, model, carrier, etc. Some models are supported for years. Some of them are lucky to get updates six months after release.

      --
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    4. Re:Nokia didn't ignore smartphones by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      That's the problem: you can't really know when you buy an Android. Generally the bigger manufacturers and the best selling models get longer support. Also the more expensive models tend to get longer support. But that's not a guarantee. If we look at just Samsung, some models within the last several years will get Oreo but some will not. For example Samsung Galaxy S7, S8 models are will get Android Oreo but S5, S6 will not. Also for some models, Samsung has not said for sure.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    5. Re:Nokia didn't ignore smartphones by MercTech · · Score: 1

      Nokia was dying long before the iPhone. They stayed with the candy bar phone with a 1" LCD monochrome screen when Motorola went to color screen flip phones. Poof went the market share.

      --
      NRRPT/RCT
  18. Selling lots of units is "easy" by sjbe · · Score: 2

    It's "easy" (for lack of a better word) to sell lots of units if you don't give a shit about making a profit. The tough bit is to make a lot of profit while still selling a lot of units. So far only Apple and Samsung seem to have figured out that trick in the smartphone era.

    1. Re:Selling lots of units is "easy" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      From what I hear, Huawei earns a reasonable profit from its phones but bleeds money elsewhere.

    2. Re:Selling lots of units is "easy" by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      The estimated cost to build an iPhone 7 was broken out when it was still new and a bleeding edge phone cost Apple about $225 to build including parts and labor.

      FTFY. We don't know a lot about what it costs a company to manufacture a smartphone especially for a company like Apple that has components that no one else has.

      Being based out of China makes it even cheaper. If you think all these manufacturers aren't making a profit, you're crazy.

      That isn't the claim. The claim is that only Samsung and Apple has figured a way to makes lots of profit while selling lots of phones. That claim isn't new or original to the OP.

      Phones are only loss-leaders for the carriers.

      Many manufacturers would probably disagree with you on that point. Like all manufacturers, they have to build certain number of product on the premise that they are sold later (months, years later). If a model (or models) don't sell well, who do you think eats the loss? The phone carrier? Sometimes but many of them have contracts where they don't eat the loss but return the phones back to the manufacturer.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  19. One magic ad slogan from Number 1 by hyades1 · · Score: 1

    I think I can help Huawei move past Samsung into first place. All they need is a friendly, catchy slogan...something that will really speak to people. How about...

    Huawei: at least you know our back door is for more than batteries.

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  20. Re:What I'm REALLY looking for is by MightyYar · · Score: 1

    They have the Samsung A series in Europe (I just borrowed one while I was in France). I liked it, but it's not available in the US. You can buy the international version for around $250 but it won't work on all US frequencies.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  21. Not everyone cares about the latest version by sjbe · · Score: 2

    Why would most people and Apple fans purchase an iPhone in June or July, provided that the new iPhone is to be announced a few weeks later?

    Millions of people (including Apple customers) don't actually give a shit about having the latest and greatest. My father has an iPhone and it's a fine choice for him but he's never been on the latest version. He's always 1-2 editions behind whatever the latest is and he's fine with that. There are millions of people just like him. For someone like me or presumably you, you are correct - I would not buy a new iPhone three weeks before a new version is released because there is a reasonable chance I might upgrade if I like what I see.

    1. Re:Not everyone cares about the latest version by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Waiting makes even more sense if you're not buying the latest. The price of the older models drops a lot as people sell their old iPhone to buy a new one in the month or two after the release of a new model.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  22. Re:Apple still #1... by alexo · · Score: 1

    [...] planned obsolescence [...] apple is still number 1 in all those things.

    Google stopped providing Android updates, on the Nexus 5 two years after it was released, and security updates another year later. I bought mine a year after it was announced, giving me two years of security updates before Google gave me the finger.

    Meanwhile, my daughter's iPhone 5S (bought used for about a hundred loonies) is still receiving updates, even though it was released a month earlier than Google's Nexus 5.

  23. Re:Xiaomi is the one to watch by alexo · · Score: 1

    Can't it be rooted and reflashed?

  24. Re:Apple still #1... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

    Maybe labor costs are a factor...

    iPhones are made in China, while Samsung has shifted most of their production to Vietnam. So they should win on labor costs.

  25. Support by JBMcB · · Score: 1

    I've heard anecdotally online and from friends that Huawei's support is sub-Samsung. Meaning you'll get a few security patches, and maybe an OTA point release upgrade for Android, but that's about it.

    Could be wrong, but usually support is the first thing to be cut to make a tablet or phone cheaply.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
    1. Re:Support by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      One of their phones and three of their tablets are supported by LineageOS. At this point, I've given up on first-party support from any Android vendor. None of them support the software for anything like the lifetime of the hardware, so if if you don't want it to die prematurely then third-party support is the only thing that matters.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  26. Re:What I'm REALLY looking for is by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1

    I've been using the Alcatel One Touch Idol 3 for a couple of years. Very nice phone, and at an excellent price. I like the 4.7", but others in the family prefer the 5.5" version. The 5.5 does have slightly better specs (cpu and/or memory), so it's a little faster. The 5.5" is just to big for me.

    The latest is the Idol 5S, which seems to only come in a 5.2" form factor, and it's a bit pricier. Still a nice phone for the money, and I'm sold on Alcatel's quality.

    --
    "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
    --- Jerry Garcia
  27. Nokia Production Line by del_diablo · · Score: 1

    At first, that line is reasonable. Instead of gambling on a flagship model, you do a diverse form of gambling.
    And i guess it worked out, the massive amount of lineage forking in Nokia models is sorta amazing, and so is the ascetic.
    But this isn't what is talked about, what is talked about, is how Nokia in a post iPhone world, made a bunch of terrible decisions, allowing Microsoft to eventually buy out the phone part, and then waste it, and nobody was the wiser.
    Your post is not addressing the arguments of sjbe, so its a terrible post.

  28. Re:Apple still #1... by Moof123 · · Score: 1

    All our Apple widgets get their update notifications about the same time (within 24 hours, faster if you tell it to check). My Nexus 6 seems to get OTA updates about 2-3 MONTHS after I see a press release about it.

    Earlier this years there was a mandatory down-rev from 7.1.1 to 7.0. Now 7.1.1 is back, but after 3 weeks since the press release I still have no update, even when I manually tell it to check, and I don't expect it to show up for many more weeks.

    I had very sour Android experiences from Sony and Samsung with lower end phones (still more phone than I needed if they didn't have so much crapware that they broke themselves), so I went with a pure Google solution with the Nexus 6 (as pure Google as was available at the time), and frankly the whole experience is still lousy compared to my wife's iphone experience. So while Apple's products are outrageously expensive, the just is no equivalent after-sales experience to be had in Android land.

  29. Re:What I'm REALLY looking for is by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

    What I love about my Acatel (I abuse phones so I went for the One Touch Flint and was amazed by the quality, all day battery life and even plays 3d games quite well) is how easy it was to root without any bullshit malware like kingoroot. It was less than 3 minutes from unboxing the Flint before it was rooted, hell I didn't even have my sim card in it!

    Making it easy to root the device if the user wants to? Gives them a BIG thumbs up from me, and anybody who has gone through hell trying to root a phone that isn't from a major manufacturer will know how fucking awesome that is!

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  30. Some don't care by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Waiting makes even more sense if you're not buying the latest.

    True but people often don't care that much and need a phone right now. If you aren't concerned about whatever is in the next one and you need a phone today then you are probably going to buy a phone today even if you could save a little by waiting. I'm not saying it's the most sensible course of action but a lot of people simply aren't that concerned with their smartphone.

  31. Seasonal iPhone Sales Drop-Off by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    Let's see how Huawei (the name just trips-off the tongue!) fares against Apple in about a month, after the new iPhone models are debuted...

    https://www.apple.com/apple-ev...

    The timing of this Slashdot "News" article is quite well orchestrated. Just like the FUD Article regarding Apple's alleged "Production Issues" also seen today on Slashdot.

  32. Nokia software by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Nokia proved that being first mover isn't always an advantage.

    That was well understood loooong before Nokia but your point is quite correct.

    Nokia never really was very good at certain types of software, specifically the user facing parts of it. I owned a series of Nokia phones for several years and the interfaces on their phones were poor for anything but the most basic of phone operations. They routinely build phones which technically had features like email or web browsers but they were so awkward to use as to be useless. It's what I call checkbox marketing - they could claim they had that feature without lying but the actual feature was nothing more than the most minimal version of it imaginable - useless in the real world. I bought a Nokia "smartphone" around the same time as the early iPhones. On paper they were roughly equivalent but in actual use there was no comparison. The email and web browser on the Nokia were effectively useless. Eventually they started making phones more in the model of the iPhone but by then it was too little and too late.

    I think the problem was that Nokia thought their customers were AT&T, Verizon, etc. Apple (and later Google) understood that the real customer to worry about was the end user, not the wireless phone companies. Nokia designed phones that physically were solid or at least interesting hardware-wise but they never made the investments (until too late) to do the same for the software. At the end of the day that is what killed them along with some weapon's grade stupid management decisions relating to Microsoft. The hardware in the iPhone and comparable Android phones isn't anything Nokia couldn't do. The secret sauce is the software and the network effects (ecosystem) that go along with it. There wasn't room in the market for more than 2 or 3 platforms once the network effects took hold and Nokia didn't figure out the right formula until it was too late to matter.

    1. Re:Nokia software by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      I think the problem was that Nokia thought their customers were AT&T, Verizon

      I suspect part of the reason for this is that Nokia's customers were and still are AT&T, Verizon, and so on. Even after they sold their handset business, they're still selling a lot of the back-end infrastructure (which has much higher margins and less annoying customers). The handsets, to them, were just part of a system that they were selling to a network operator, not a device owned by an individual.

      At the end of the day that is what killed them along with some weapon's grade stupid management decisions relating to Microsoft

      I'm still not convinced that the decision to go with Windows Phone was particularly bad. My partner had a Nokia Windows phone and it was a nice device with a good UI and solid hardware (and the Nokia Here maps app was actually good). If they'd gone with Android, they'd have been stuck in a race-to-the-bottom in a market with razor-thin margins were Google is the only company that makes serious money. They had nothing internal, because they had six competing internal replacements for S60, all of which were more focused on sabotaging the other five groups than on producing something to compete with Apple or Google. The surprising thing was that Microsoft, a company that achieved a monopoly position by doing everything in its power to encourage third-party development for their platform, completely failed to attract third-party apps to Windows Phone.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  33. Nokia and Microsoft by sjbe · · Score: 1

    I'm still not convinced that the decision to go with Windows Phone was particularly bad.

    The decision was fine. How they executed it was profoundly idiotic. They announced that they were switching to Microsoft in February 2011 but didn't have an actually product with Microsoft's system until November 2011. Basically they told everyone they were killing off their current offerings nearly a year before they had the replacement ready to ship. That's just weapon's grade stupid especially given how little traction Microsoft had managed to achieve against Apple and Google.

    If they'd gone with Android, they'd have been stuck in a race-to-the-bottom in a market with razor-thin margins were Google is the only company that makes serious money.

    Google doesn't make serious money off of Android and never really has. Look at their financial statements if you need proof. Samsung does ok but Android for Google is more of a defensive play to keep competitors from locking them out of the mobile ad market where they actually make their money. Kind of like Amazon's tactics with Kindle, they don't have to make money on Android directly to have it be worth their while. That's why Android phones can be done on the cheap because Google doesn't need a big markup unlike Apple or Microsoft. (the downside being that they have every incentive to track you closely and sell your information to advertisers)

    The surprising thing was that Microsoft, a company that achieved a monopoly position by doing everything in its power to encourage third-party development for their platform, completely failed to attract third-party apps to Windows Phone.

    I don't think it's so shocking since they were really years late in getting something competitive with iOS or Android to the market. I don't care how dominant you are, you cannot give competitors like Google or Apple that much of a head start. And the market dynamics in mobile are different than the ones in PCs where Microsoft achieved their dominance so it was never going to be an easy translation for them.