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Your Love of Your Old Smartphone Is a Problem for Apple and Samsung (wsj.com)
The smartphone industry has a culprit to blame for slumping sales: Its old devices remain too popular. From a report: Flashy phones of yesteryear, particularly Apple's iPhones and Samsung's Galaxy S handsets, are getting refurbished, and U.S. consumers are snapping them up. Many shoppers are balking at price tags for new phones pushing $1,000, and improvements on latest launches in many cases haven't impressed [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source]. As more people hold on to devices longer, new smartphone shipments plunged to historic lows at the end of 2017. "Smartphones now resemble the car industry very closely," said Sean Cleland, director of mobile at B-Stock Solutions, the world's largest platform for trade-in and overstock phones, based in Redwood City, Calif. "I still want to drive a Mercedes, but I'll wait a couple of years to buy the older model. Same mentality." Another trend borrowed from the car industry that has helped consumers get around sticker shock: leasing. Instead of buying new phones, Sprint and T-Mobile allow subscribers to effectively lease them, allowing them to trade up for the latest device. That option, though, hasn't yet gone mainstream.
[...] Second-hand phones long found their way to Africa, India and other developing markets. But now, U.S. buyers represent 93% of the purchases made at second-hand phone online auctions run by B-Stock, compared with an about-even split between the U.S. and the rest of the world in 2013. Samsung and Apple together sell more than one out of every three phones globally and capture about 95% of the industry's profits. U.S. consumers, spurred by two-year carrier contracts and phone subsidies, were upgrading every 23 months as recently as 2014, according to BayStreet Research, which tracks device sales. Now, people are holding onto their phones for an extra eight months. By next year, the time gap is estimated to widen to 33 months, BayStreet says.
[...] Second-hand phones long found their way to Africa, India and other developing markets. But now, U.S. buyers represent 93% of the purchases made at second-hand phone online auctions run by B-Stock, compared with an about-even split between the U.S. and the rest of the world in 2013. Samsung and Apple together sell more than one out of every three phones globally and capture about 95% of the industry's profits. U.S. consumers, spurred by two-year carrier contracts and phone subsidies, were upgrading every 23 months as recently as 2014, according to BayStreet Research, which tracks device sales. Now, people are holding onto their phones for an extra eight months. By next year, the time gap is estimated to widen to 33 months, BayStreet says.
They're trying to force us to upgrade to a better service, because we've been using this one too long. They're just trying to learn from Apple.
I don't think they even knew it was down. I waited a full day and then I sent an email asking when it would be back up and ten minutes later it is working!
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
If I think $1300CAD is too expensive for a MacBook Air, you can imagine what I think about iPhone prices.
#DeleteFacebook
Want to sell your new model for $1,000? For me it's simple. Put back the audio jack, make it a bit thicker and stronger. Add the capability to routinely swap micro-SD cards and I'll gladly pay $1,200. I feel like the new smart phones are still trying to market sexy styling ahead of swiss army knife capability...much like cars.
The marketing makes one feel attached (emotionally) to their Phone Choice. The people now are "invested" in that particular phone. They spend money customizing it with a case, and stickers, and become even more emotionally attached. It is a very "personal" device.
Now you (Apple, Samsung) want to take it away from me? What are you thinking???!!!!
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
I don't understand consumers. The iPhone 8 is so much better than the iPhone 6. It is 2 better. Who wouldn't drop $800 for 2 better?
They could release OS updates, that intentionally degraded performance of old phones, and when caught they could just claim that they did it to help out people with old batteries?
Naw... too far fetched.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I wonder if I'd be more likely to buy an iPhone 7 or 8 if it had a headphone jack. I wonder if I'd buy an S8 if my finger wasn't covering the screen and registering false touches when I hold it. Just because something looks good doesn't mean it functions well for me. I'll be staying on old tech for a while simply because the newer options are more concerned with design than functionality.
Sprint and T-Mobile allow subscribers to effectively lease them, allowing them to trade up for the latest device. That option, though, hasn't yet gone mainstream.
How is this new?
I've been buying and selling devices on Swappa for several years now. I encourage anyone who wants a quality device at a fair price to check it out.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
It is more of the fact that consumers are balancing their need for features with the price they are willing to pay for those features. Once the price tag zoomed over $900 for a smartphone, a lot of people started waking up from the reality distortion field. Why pay $1000 for something when you can get the features you need at a price you find a lot more reasonable?
My guess would be Slashdot uses memcached (like many websites), and they didn't have it properly locked down (like many websites). For the last few days, open memcached instances have become the amplification tool of choice for DDoS attacks, so some websites and hosting farms have been having trouble as they try to lock down their memcached instances.
Damn, can you send Congress an e-mail asking if they realize that Donald Trump is president?
It's funny because the car industry now looks like the old smartphone industry!
My phone is primarily for calls, texting, taking photos/videos and putting on social media and a limited number of emails (mostly in the cases of business emergencies). I'm not a big app guy.
My iPhone 5 (no letter extension) works perfectly for this and I am still getting decent battery life - except for the case where it gets dropped in a blender, why would I consider anything else?
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Then my continued reliance on a Samsung Knack U310 (https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Knack-Phone-Verizon-Wireless/dp/B0069S8PB8) must be driving them berserk. Better sound quality, plus I often get 2 bars when my wife and her IPhone get no service.
My Nexus 6 is only 2 years old and Google decided it won't get security updates in Oct of 2017. Their suggestion was to pay $900+ for a new pixel phone, so I gave them the middle finger and breathed new life into my N6 by installing LineageOS. I'm glad I did, it has been working great. Google's attempt to forcefully deprecate my phone ahead of its time just hardened my resolve to fight tooth and nail to keep it alive as long as possible.
$200 is my limit for a smartphone.
I want:
-replaceable battery
-headphone jack
-usb and bluetooth, WiFi and 4G
-Camera
-GPS
It just has to be "good enough". The camera in the smartphone is crap, the speakers are crap, the software is crap, even on the so-called high end models.
I don't need NFC, I don't need to Pay Apple, or Pay Samsung, or Pay Google to pay for things.
I need to make and receive calls.
I need to take "good enough" photos, I have an SLR for everything else, or even an old point-and-shoot
I would like to listen to music, on cheap headphones available anywhere
I would like to make and receive calls using a cheap bluetooth headset
I would like to be able to navigate, using basic maps, like Google Maps
Why pay $1000, or even $500 for that?
Heck, I have a $49 tablet that can do most of that, and add google voice, and now I even have a phone.
Location doesn't have free WiFi? must be a s**thole or something.
I'm not going to "pre-order" anything. I'll let you work out your quality issues, supply issues and buggy crap first. Why don't you pre-ship me a phone, and if I like it, i'll pay for it.
I have personally no need for one and looking at the prices of new models they churn out, I never will.
I'm sitting here with a Galaxy S5 on my belt... It would be interesting to learn if the obvious nature of this article has reached the actual decision makers, or if it's still perking up. -- and by the way; If you're out there decision makers, the proper conclusion is that your "new features" are not compelling. Higher res screens that are thinner just don't draw customers. ( if they did, the lifecycle would still be 23 months). Nothing, but nothing, beats actually knowing what your customers what. -- Of course, who am I kidding... the obviously take away they will make is that they should make shotty products that fall apart after 23 months.
___ I don't respond to Anonymous Cowards, and I Never Mod them UP.
I have an iPhone 6 Plus, which will soon be 4 years old. It works fine. (I expect it will work better when I get the update that will stop throttling me.)
I recently cracked the screen, and I see that I can order the parts to do the screen and the battery at once for less than 1/5 the cost of a latest/greatest iPhone. I'll be doing that.
The phone companies' problems are now that they can't push new features that make the phones better in any really meaningful way. They're at the point laptops reached 10 years ago, where unless it actually breaks, you can use it in perpetuity.
They need to innovate if they want people to buy, but they just aren't doing so. And part of it is that we have everything we currently need. My 4 year old phone does everything I need it to do. I'd probably have a little fun with some new features, but I'm not doling out $1000 for negligible benefit. (Not to mention to downgrade to the headphone adapter but that's a different rent).
You want people to spend money? Give them something they want, instead of something they already have.
Why is this a bad thing, other than for Samsung's and Apple's bottom lines? Keeping devices longer is a green option -- less e-waste being exported and dumped in developing countries. Also, manufacturing itself has environmental and energy costs. Same with shipping. Glad the industry is finally going green, even if it's against its will.
Apple and Samsung are now eating a big ol' dose of reality.
You're holding /. wrong.
I went one better. I sent the asylum a note letting them know Pelosi, Schumer, and Schiff were loose.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
I'm quite sure they know Hillary lost the election. Get over it.
I think both Apple and Samsung are very unrealistic in expecting that a device costing that much should require replacing every two or three years. I pay less for my laptop and expect at least 4 years out of it. Then you have Apple throttling because of aging batteries? Are you shitting me? You tell me you can't make a battery even last two years? Sorry Apple and Samsung, but your products don't scream out quality worthy of the price.
Is it a bigger problem for Apple and Samsung if consumers don't like their latest and greatest products, or is it a problem for consumers that Apple and Samsung are out of touch with what consumers want?
they want us to buy new cell phones
/duck
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Those Dems just aren't on the loose - they are protecting America from the deranged traitor in the oval office.
I have a phone on the wall in my basement from 1981. It has a rotary dial. It is puke yellow with a Mr. Yuk sticker on it. It just works.
That people actually stop wasting $1000 every year for the next I-Bullshit-with-a-new-spying-backdoor?
When my Samsung J-1 Ace dies, I'm going back to a flip phone. And with a flip phone, I won't have to deal with a facebook app that's impossible to get rid of unless I jailbreak the phone.
The facebook app has a tendency to re-enable itself. It's a shit zombie app and I have to come to the conclusion that facebook is unethical for doing such sleazy things with their apps.
The smartphone sector is stagnating just like the PC market did a decade ago. People aren't replacing them because your old phone performs well enough as it is and the"features" on new phones don't justify the price tag. A lot of these "features" aren't even specifically hardware improvements, but software features that could just as easily be ported to older devices. Animoji for example could just as easily be done on older phones, It doesn't need Apples "bionic" chip. Yeah it probably works better with the chip. Other apps have had this kind of AR functionality for years *cough* snapchat
What does a new top of the line phone do better than my Note 4 from years ago?
The only people buying now are those that need to replace broken phones, or those who see their phone as a status symbol and have to always have the newest on launch day. So yeah it has basically turned into the car business.
These would not have happened under CmdrTaco
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Consumers are finally figuring out what I did about 5 years ago. You don't need "the latest and greatest" smartphone every two years. The $200 Samsung G3 from 2016 is a perfectly fine phone in 2018. Why upgrade to some $1000 insanely expensive phone?
Phones are just the latest status symbol, and the status is loosing steam. The low end has gotten very good, and there's little appeal to the high end. Electronics are doing what they've always done, become commodities. People have turned to fit-bits, and other electronic junk they really don't need, but think is "cool" to show off their tech-sav and conspicuous consumption.
It's a phone. I don't need it to do run a million apps or have the computing power to spy on me, I need it to make calls, and it doesn't do that right half the time. Why would I give them more money? It took a year for the lease on the current one to be paid off, I'm sure as shit not committing to another $70+ price tag on a mobile phone bill (let alone $150/mo with the price of a new phone factored in.) Hell, this thing has a screen that cracked the day I got it 2 years ago and the new ones are even more fragile and even more packing with processing power which will only be used to spy on me. As long as it's a brick I can lay on the table to have a reason to explain to someone that I do have a phone, but missed their call because of the shit service, it's fucking good. I seriously consider canceling the plan every month as it is, and probably would if not for people texting me.
Exactly! We're so fucking insecure about ourselves we need to pay Apple $1000 every 12 months to feel good about ourselves.
How can we live without the approval of Apple and their hip fanbois?
95% of the profit goes to Apple and Samsung. In other words, buy something else if you want to buy a phone, not a brand image.
... fail to shed any tears for these companies.
What did you expect people would do when they shell out upwards of $700 for a smartphone? Toss it after a year--maybe two--just so you can keep your shareholders and some financial industry analysts happy?
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Smartphones reached their peak several years ago. Today's phones are simply overpriced. There's just no need to ever buy a new smartphone for more than $400 or $500 dollars and there's certainly no reason to spend $1,000 on one. This is why I think the best new iPhone today is the SE, a $350 phone that's good enough for almost anyone who wants to use an iPhone. I'm sure things are similar on the Android side. I'll continue using my 4.5 year old iPhone 5S until it dies.
http://www.asymco.com/2018/02/...
Dideu argues the average life of a cellphone in large part represents the satisfaction of the user with that device. And in particular, the long life of each Apple device represents the substantial satisfaction of the great majority of users of those devices. So if Apple makes money from the use of any iPhone in their Services and app sales, Apple doesn't see this as the problem that a handset maker such as Samsung sees it.
He quotes Deming:
Dr. Edward Deming once said that the numbers that best define a company are two factors that do not appear on any financial statement. These factors are the value of a satisfied customer and the value of a dissatisfied customer. These factors must be multiplied by every other number in a financial statement in order to assess the prospects of the business. A high satisfaction leads to repeat purchases and referrals, growing the business; while a low satisfaction leads to ending relationships and a repulsion of potential new customers.
So,
the FAILED I-FONE-X is a clear example of how to fuck things up.
Face it, many people realize they dont need WHAT THEY DONT NEED. All the crap the X does, do we really need that?
the features and functions the X bring, are they a necessity?
Apple is bitching that, no one is buying their Grand Fiasco. Or, are they saying that Cant understand why no one is buying their crap..
Well, I can sum it up, and have that re-inforced with numbers and facts..
Crap, Bullshit, lacking in value, even the stupidest mother fuckers evolve.
I wonder how many Apple Ifone fuckers have evolved to a Galaxy User?
If anything, Samsung would be pissed because of Apple's decision to halt production of the Ifone-x, and thus do not require the parts manufactured by Samsung, like the SCREEN.
i have better things to do, like take a nap.. ttyl..
Newer phones are getting increasingly over-priced while removing features and making anti-consumer design changes. Meanwhile, manufacturers are trying more and more underhanded tactics to try and encourage/force users to upgrade sooner than they want/need to.
So yes, fuck you right back, Apple and Samsung.
Not long ago, you HAD to buy a high-end phone to get a decent user experience. But now, any midrange at $200-$300 has what it takes to run very well and do everything 99% of the users need.
Circumcision is child abuse.
It wasn't just Hillary. Everyone lost (except Trump). Conservatives didn't even show up (about 95% of people voted against Johnson) and not many liberals showed up either (as you mentioned, Clinton lost too, though at least she did better than Johnson). It was the least political election in the country's history. :(
My iPhone 4 was a great advance over my original iPhone. My 5S was a big improvement over my 4. My 5S still works nicely, with the latest iOS, and there isn't really that much in the new iPhones that entices me. (In the meantime, they made everything but the SE too big to fit in my shirt pockets.)
We reached a point where four-year-old computers were good enough for almost everyone, and PC sales flattened or dipped. We're doing the same thing with smartphones.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
I'm considering upgrading from the 6+ that I got new 3.5 years ago to a two-year-old 6s+ with more storage than my current model. I think the inductive charging on the 8+ is cool, but that's not worth losing a headphone jack over.
my opportunity to freely express myself with the potential persecution and hangings and such
more important: my current phone HAS the features I need and want, there is literally no phone in existence that offers something I want but don't have. I'm keeping this phone for a while; sure, eventually I'll need a new one - it might break, I'll lose it, or maybe eventually and upgrade will offer something I want. But most likely that will be a while. Phones now are essentially feature complete, they do everything needed, and excepting when a replacement is needed due to damage, people just don't need to upgrade.
When the first game changer iPhone was released back in 2007, it was originally released for $599, and quickly dropped to 399us. Adjusted for inflation, (using http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/), that would be $716.07 to $476.98. The current iPhone X starts at $999. According to the Verizon website, the monthly fee to finance that same iphone starts at $47.91 for two years. The end user doesn't see the final amount, they figure, it's only $47.91 per month. It's not so bad. What they don't realize is, after two years, the cycle starts all over again, since the phone starts to go old, go bad, and they want the next sexy thing. And by then, the monthly subsidized fee for that new phone is no longer 47.91, it's most likely going to cost more! Why? Why not? They can get away with it with price creep! Eventually the customer will say enough is enough. They'll keep their phone longer, or procure a used phone from different avenues.
I guess what I am trying to say is, the customer is just as much to blame as the carriers and manufacturers. If they stopped acquiring these heavily subsidized phones, carries would be more interested in being more competitive in other avenues for revenue, instead of relying so much on financing of subsdized handsests. And in return, handset manufacturers would be more reluctant to increase the cost of handsets beyond the cost of inflation, for very minimal feature and function improvements, and be more competitive with other manufacturers from various angles.
Take laptops for example. 20 yeras ago, buying a mediocre laptop with minimal features would be next to impossible for under $1000. Now, a very functional one can be hand for half of that easily, cash and carry from your local BestBuy. And that's before inflation adjustments! And there is still an amazing market for the premium laptop market, such as the Macbook Air, SurfaceBook, etc. The current cell phone industry is so stacked against the consumer, it's not fair anymore, and as this article clearly outlined, we are starting to get fed up. Something has to change.
If they already know that, plus the invasion of cheaper chinese brands, why the fuck would they launch an entire new wave of phones that are too expensive for most people to buy?
Fuck you Apple and Samsung, you brought this on yourselves.
Sorry, but I don't give a fuck.
I'm sorry that your business model is predicated on the irrational notion we all buy a phone every year.
I'm sorry that we've all reached the point where what we have is fine.
I'm sorry we're not here to pad out your bottom line.
I'm sorry you think we all feel we need to have the latest version of your product, which is only slightly different from the old one.
I'm sorry that you think you can project growth over an indefinite period of time and expect it to come true.
I'm sorry that I'm not fucking sorry.
Corporations and the stock market these days operate on irrational principles: that we all will buy every shiny new toy every year and that they will sustain growth indefinitely even if that is mathematically impossible.
The reality is people have been pointing out that this obvious fact for some years, and the price of a new phone represents a significant chunk of an individual's disposable income -- and there's very little reason to upgrade for most people.
This may be a "problem" for corporations who have failed to account for reality, but it's not my fucking problem.
I have other things to spend my money on, thank you.
Maybe they're using an old phone as a webserver?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I know the headline is tongue-in-cheek, but if smartphone makers actually blame customers it is very much Who Moved My Cheese?
They're going to have to focus on delivering improvements at reasonable cost, rather than the best technology at no-matter-the-price.
To use the car analogy, Apple and Samsung have been lucky enough to have a Ford-sized market with Mercedes-sized prices until now. Now that customers have realised that smartphone technology is mature enough that the improvements are small and incremental, the smartphone makers have to deliver improvements at Ford-sized prices for a Ford-sized market.
There are reasons why Ford doesn't sell too many self-driving, highly stylish, highly-automated, very comfortable, luxurious, prestigious cars: it's because their customers can't (or won't) pay enough for that. Instead they make cars with mature, cheaper, technology and if the technology isn't mature enough to be cheap it's not in a Ford. Apple and Samsung are going to have to get used to making phones that way, and accepting the lower revenues per device and lower sales rates that come with it.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled"
So my last new wonderful, top of the line, latest and greatest phone I bought died just before my two year contract was up, so I bought an older model phone (different brand) on Amazon that was supposed to work with my provider. It was supposed to be a temporary replacement until I could buy a new, latest and greatest phone.... but long story short, it's smaller, slower, and everything I actually need in a phone, so I just decided to just keep it.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
For an iPhone at least, it could give you an easy way to transfer files between the phone and a computer
That already exists, it's called AirDrop, it's all local and does not uses iCloud. Much nicer to use than a microSD card, which you would have to dig up a reader for on the computer.
It also does not require a network connection, as it can work either over WiFi or Bluetooth.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Not giving you the phone with two year contract is a big problem for them.
I went one better. I sent the asylum a note letting them know Pelosi, Schumer, and Schiff were loose.
At the asylum they call those notes "applications".
Generally, this is the reason I refuse to upgrade phones other than price. If the new phone is $1,000 I expect that much added feature to replace what I have. I'm rocking a Samsung Note 4 and it does literally everything I need, and until it fails/cracks/stops performing in some way I'm not going to switch. I got that phone new, it's 4 years old and still does everything a Note 8 would do as far as I can tell. That's the reason you can't sell new phones - their is a dearth of innovation and the old ones are 100% of the functionality of the new. In fact, other than a newer processor the camera on the new model is worse, it is only slightly larger on screen, and has a bit more ram that I'm not even using all of anyway. Why would I upgrade? It makes sense for me to wait until the last possible minute to do so both for this reason, and the reason that they will have all the kinks worked out by the time I swap. At that point, it makes sense for me to buy the second to newest model refurbished and save like $900.
...for a Palm Treo!
A nasty problem for Apple and Samsung. A wonderful problem for my bank account. I am fine with this trade-off.
So many crappy keyboards.
Google keyboards are so bad, they autoincorrect correctly spelled things, and for minor misspellings, adds them to the dictionary! It likes substituting N and B for space and visaversa.
There was an HTC phone with a great slider that was branded for Tmobile... It was newer than the G2.. The G2 was good, but the other tmobile phone was better... dual core and better keyboard layout...
Make a slider keyboard phone again and I'll probably buy it.. it's ok if it's a bit big! It's ok if it's an add-on (MotoZmod?) Just do it.. Do it now... take my money and give me a phone with a usable keyboard!
Apple is promoting in making old hardware useless by showing apps in the store that don't run on my phone anymore. This makes it a hassle to find apps that still work under IOS7 (iphone4). Why not do the sane thing and show only apps that can be installed on your device?
They could also offer older versions that still run under IOS7, but on the other hand that may be bad for security.
exactly this. smart phones are good but they no longer need to be any better, and certainly there is no good reason to keep pushing new models every year or two for the stupid prices these companies want. Frankly its amazing that they managed to milk what they did out of this industry, but at some point surely more people are going to realise there are no compelling reasons to get a new phone. I suspect a huge majority of owners of smart phones dont need any functionality more than that which entertains your 4 year old. I know I dont.
All this analysis seems to have missed one very big factor. US carriers used to subsidize the phones to the point where the phones used to be free or near-free every 2 years or so. Today those subsidies are gone, or at least are not keeping up with the prices of phones going up. My family used to upgrade with Verizon to new phones every 2 years. Today that will run us ~$500/phone, so we don't do it (even with buy one get one free, a two $1000 phones cost $500 each). A family of 5 would have to spend an average of $200+ per month to upgrade every 2 years. Why are people surprised they prefer to hang onto their phones longer? Combine that with no new "must have" features, and of course people will hand onto their old phones, they do everything they need. Nothing cool enough in new phones to pay $200/month - you can almost lease a car for that much.
Its not a love for old phones its hate for the new phone prices. Unless your a narcissist who's self worth is driving by the image of having the latest phone why get one. Aside from the price there is little difference between a 5 year old phone and todays phone, There is NO killer apps that only works on a new phone. New version of the OS offer little features and security fixes for most of us.
These apply to the majority of phones out there...
Multi-day day usage with single charge - Removed
Hardware keyboards - Removed
User replaceable batteries - Removed
Hardware buttons - Removed
Phones that are actually think enought to hold - Removed
Phones that can be used in one hand - Removed
3.5 Audio Plug - Removed
Here are the features that are on the chopping block:
Expandable Memory Card Slot - Removal Pending....
No good deed goes unpunished.
This wasn't a problem back when AT&T, Verizon, etc. all gave heavy discounts to customers who re-upped their contracts. But when they ended those phone subsidies and then expected us to shoulder the full cost of the phone things went to pot.
Just like how Intel lost its motivation to really innovate on CPUs before AMD rose again, Apple and the Android makers have lost that same motivation. They just have to outdo each other by razor-thin margins. Now they have to actually compete with each other and they're still not doing it. Incremental upgrades don't mean crap to us.
Couple that with features certain models lack like a removable battery, the headphone jack on iPhones now, and so forth that it makes these incremental upgrades virtually worthless. But discount it down to like $300-400 every two years and maybe I'll reconsider.
your guess would be incorrect
the memcached amplification is a result of people sending spoofed queries to memcached servers which have UDP exposed to the internet without firewalling. there is no prerequisite that slashdot (or whomever is being attacked) needs to run memcached.
you sound like an idiot. stop talking about things you dont understand properly.
I think all the new phones are shit. Reason is that all new functions are not necessary and no one really use them.
Oh and BTW i've got a dual xeon setup with 128GB DDR3 Ram for 1000 bucks. Idk who is willing to pay 1000 for a iPhone or Samsung Phone xD
BRING BACK THE REMOVABLE BATTERY! I keep replacing my aging Note 4 with the same model because I'm not going to buy another phone of yours that won't let me swap the battery out. The recent Note 8 issue never would have happened if the battery was removable. Sure I have to buy branded OEM versions like Anker or Powerbear because Samsung batteries are counterfeited to death but being able to simply swap the battery when it is low is a critical feature. Otherwise you have to lure people like me with better phones with more ram, internal storage, and cpu power; the screens are big enough already.
I went one better. I sent the asylum a note letting them know Pelosi, Schumer, and Schiff were loose.
And now you are again posting from your padded cell.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
No shit. How else would they sell you the same worthless rehashed marginally changed trash each year if you were attached to it?