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'It's Time to End the Yearly Smartphone Launch Event' (vice.com)
Owen Williams, writing for Motherboard: Thursday, at a flashy event in New York, Samsung unveiled yet another phone: the Galaxy Note 9. Like you'd expect, it's rectangular, it has a screen, and it has a few cameras. While unveiling what it hopes will be the next hit, it unknowingly confirmed something we've all been wondering: the smartphone industry is out of ideas. Phones are officially boring: the only topic that's up for debate with the Galaxy Note 9 is the lack of the iconic notch found on the iPhone X, and that it has a headphone jack. The notch has been cloned by almost every phone maker out there, and the headphone jack is a commodity that's unfortunately dying. However, the fact that we're comparing phones with or without a chunk out of the screen or a hole for your headphones demonstrates just how stuck the industry is.
It's clear that there's nothing really to see here. Yeah, the Note is a big phone, and it has a larger battery too. It's in different colors, it's faster than last year, and it has wireless charging. Everything you see here is from a laundry list of features that other smartphone manufacturers also have, and the lack of differentiation becomes clearer every year. It's the pinnacle of technology, and it's a snooze-fest. This isn't exclusively a Samsung problem: Every manufacturer from Apple to Xiaomi faces the same predicament. The iPhone's release cycle that Apple trained the world to be accustomed to, with splashy yearly releases and million-dollar keynotes, is clearly coming to an end as consumers use their existing phones for longer every year.
It's clear that there's nothing really to see here. Yeah, the Note is a big phone, and it has a larger battery too. It's in different colors, it's faster than last year, and it has wireless charging. Everything you see here is from a laundry list of features that other smartphone manufacturers also have, and the lack of differentiation becomes clearer every year. It's the pinnacle of technology, and it's a snooze-fest. This isn't exclusively a Samsung problem: Every manufacturer from Apple to Xiaomi faces the same predicament. The iPhone's release cycle that Apple trained the world to be accustomed to, with splashy yearly releases and million-dollar keynotes, is clearly coming to an end as consumers use their existing phones for longer every year.
You could just ignore new product launches. If you're happy with your current phone, keep using it. The reason they do the yearly updates, is because people buy them.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Surprised it's lasted this long. The reason we're not seeing "innovation" is because a smartphone is a smartphone is a smartphone. We're pretty much topped out on what the useful purpose a smartphone is for. Everything else is just maybe nice to have, but not absolutely necessary. However, I'd like to see more advancement on the camera side. Like a real optical zoom in a reasonably sized package.
If your phone needs to be exciting, you need to get a life.
I think we're about to see a hasty retreat in the average smartphone price.
My girlfriend recently picked up a Nokia 6.1 - it's fast enough, it's got a good enough camera, a good enough screen, enough memory and it's a pretty good looking phone. It's $250. Certainly there are people who'll have some need for the top-of-the-line, but for the vast majority of people that's a perfectly good phone.
I really think that's the direction things will trend. The "entry level" phones will steadily advance and the "flagship" ones will argue about screen notches and stuff like that. I can't see myself buying another flagship one, and I'm sure i'm not alone.
How about releasing a smartphone with a removeable battery (include a spare with the cost of the phone), a headphone jack, and *gasp* a clamshell slide out keyboard!
What's old is new and what's new is old!
Good- I don't want any more of what is recently called "innovation." I am ready for CHOICE instead. Give me a SMALLER, not LARGER phone. I don't care if it is a bit thicker because I want better battery life and serviceability.... and would be happy to have a replaceable battery at that. Give me a headphone jack and no buttons or sensors on the back. Give me regular UPDATES to fix annoying bugs and security flaws.
If giving me that is "boring", the boring is great. Bring it on.
I don't want to lose all my connectors, nor have a huge phone, nor a fragile/ultra thin phone with poor battery life and impossible to service batteries, nor a 100MP camera, nor notches, nor stupid OS mods and forced bundled crapware, nor something that costs twice as much as it should.
The main distinguishing feature for me in a smartphone is plain stock Android. No non-removable bloatware from marketing partners, and no manufacturer's customizations for the sake of customizations. I don't want to learn Samsung's way of doing the same thing, and then re-learn Motorola's way of doing the same thing, etc.. You can't avoid Google apps with Android, but I can avoid all other crap on my phone, so until Samsung/etc. can offer a decent phone that runs plain stock Android, I'm sticking with the Pixel line.
Also it has to support Project Fi. Fuck all cell phone carriers combined, the less I have to deal with any of them, the better.
They could add infrared cameras, laser distance sensors, air quality sensors, and maybe a better way to adapt accessories to the phone such as a low powered connected hardware keyboard designed and produced by the manufacture.
The Caterpillar S61 phone does a number of those - FLIR camera, air particulate sensor, and a measuring app which does way more than just give you distance. It also has incredible battery life (mine has been sitting for over a week and still has over 50% battery), and is ruggedized to MILSPEC for being dropped (5' to concrete) and being underwater (10 feet for over an hour). In fact, you can even go into "underwater mode" which deactivates the touchscreen, and modifies the camera for underwater use.
Disclaimer: I love that fricking phone!
Reading code is like reading the dictionary - you have to read half of it before you can go back and understand it.
It's interesting how you can date a TV episode or movie by the tech. My wife and I have been working our way through all twenty seasons of "Midsomer Murders" and have reached the point where their cars look more modern than ours (they have built in GPS touch screens) but they're still using flip-phones. I'm pretty sure that season was shot in 2008.
The phone form factor thing is fashion, not function. I wouldn't be surprised if the huge, razor thin, bezel-less phone looks as dated as 1970s bell-bottoms in a few years. They're not really comfortable to use or carry, and the thinness drives all kinds of design limitations.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
There's a shit ton of stuff that can still be added to a phone, but it's not "innovation", rather "improvement".
Some time in 2017, mobile phones have reached a point (in terms of power) where they can indeed be used as "pocket desktops". There's enough raw power in them to act as such. All we need is the required improvements, and most of those are software-based, rather than hardware-based.
A couple months ago I played with a Samsung S9+ for a couple of days, and when I needed to charge it I once plugged it into the USB type C of a Lenovo port replicator. It so happened that I had an USB stick connected to the port replicator, and I was amazed to find out the phone detected the port replicator, knew it had audio output capabilities and also detected the USB stick. It could read data off the USB stick but errored out when writing on it.
That got me thinking: the protocol worked. The hardware was compatible. The proper software implementation of all the possible features was missing. So there's the slew of opportunities right there: develop software to leverage your phone's power in the desktop application area. Yeah I sound like a marketing dude but I'm not, I just really look forward to see that happen. Unfortunately, politics and agendas might get in the way, but wouldn't it be cool to come hone, slam your phone into a dock and have a mouse, a keyboard and a couple monitors linked to that dock, complete with Internet access, LAN access, etc.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)