Smartphone industry is in 'recession'! Could it be possible we have *gasp* reached 'peak tech'? The smartphone biz is now in a slump, according to two number-crunching outfits. After estimating that year-on-year sales worldwide fell 8 per cent in Q3 this year, Strategy Analytics has declared that the handset segment is "effectively in a recession". Sales in Q3 were 360 million worldwide, the analyst said. UK economists …
"Could it be possible we have *gasp* reached 'peak tech'?"
We are just showing up that actually we have run out of imagination.
Let's face it. Race to the bottom. There is only so much bandwidth of information we can take in through a letterbox. We don't really need *more*.
Manufacturers are short sighted, dealing whatever must have in the refresh cycle to get that years profits up to appease shareholders. Truly originaly and useful products are fewer and far between (Gemini) .
So lets think of the next great idea! I propose a new operating system first. One that doesn't try and borg the world Or change layout every few cycles. Efficiency being the keyword.
Maybe a new approach to how it is charged. I propose alcohol. Running low? Buy your device a drink for the evening.
Howard might be thinking of Peck Teak a Formica-like "space-age" plastic laminate from the late 1960s that was going to be used by boatbuilders in sailboat decking to alleviate the worldwide shortage of teak hardwood, until it was discovered:
a) That when wet, Peck Teak is almost frictionless
2) That the only glue capable of bonding Peck Teak to the hull of a boat was derived from White Rhino horn and had a persistent smell when exposed to water described those who encountered it as "like a pub toilet after teenagers have been drinking Snakebite all night"
*) That when all was said and done, even under the best conditions cladding a boat in Peck Teak gave it all the ambiance of a backstreet Soho knocking shop.
Why should I upgrade my Galaxy S8? It's so fast, and does everything I need. I'd still actually be with my S7 Edge if I hadn't wrecked the screen when it was a year or so old.
For the first time since around 2004, I won't be upgrading my phone at the end of my contract. There's no new features, so why would I? The notch you say? Fuck off with that.
Exactly! I could have, and almost did, write nearly the same thing.
And I believe that we are NOT at peak tech, just at peak imagination. These things are COMPUTERS, so put a usb-C port on every device and lets start treating them like one. They can do soo much more than what they do, they just need to interface to the world and support more substantial apps...
This is pretty much where I'm at as well. Although I'm not giving up on the smartphone concept, neither Android nor iPhones are things I am comfortable with anymore, and I won't be buying any in the future. I'm about halfway through building my own 4G smartphone, running plain-jane Linux. That will be my next daily phone once I've completed it, or my current phone dies, whichever comes first.
"And what really happens if your current phone dies before your home built phone's ready."
My home-built phone is functional right now. It's not where I want it to be, but it can do all the phone-related things as well as a feature phone at the moment. I'd be fine using it on a daily basis while I complete the rest of the features.
I haven't put my build up on the net anywhere at the moment, but I'll seriously consider doing that at some point in the future. There are a few such projects on the net right now, although they're all a bit on the basic side, but they do give you a starting point. It's hard for me to recommend any of them in terms of a "how to" guide, though. You're better off searching for and reading them all, so you can learn the various issues involved.
Or, do what I did and just dive in blindly. :)
This is a new build. The proof of concept was cobbled together using prebuilt modules (raspberry pi, 4G cell card, etc.), but the final form will be a PCB of my own design, professionally made by a small-run PCB manufacturer, all fitting into a 3D printed case. The total cost of this thing is right around $400.
Today is the day I am activating an iphone. A phone given to me by a friend who had nothing but pity for me and my ancient Nokia.
However, like the unwanted knitted pullover from gran, I'm using it so as not to appear ungrateful.
I'm slowly crawling up the learning curve, fathoming out how it works, so I might then disable everything I have no need of. Which is akin to getting current book qualified in domestic power circuitry just so I might turn off a PIR floodlight. The one that aggressively punctuates an evening with non event exclamations.
So far, all I feel for this new contrivance is hate. Pure unadulterated hate. My friend tells me it will change my life. Well gonorrhoea is equally life changing, while the process of getting it, is much more fun.
That, I believe, sums up the situation. The phone I have does what I want, I will keep it as long as it works.
Just like the PC market, phone makers have been surfing the wave of improving technology, but that wave has crested and is now retreating from the beach. "Improvements" are now confined to a new notch or not, the jack or not, and the only thing that seems to be coming is the insanity that is wireless charging.
Meh.
Don't knock wireless charging. The only reason I'm considering a new phone right now is that the USB port has worn out after several years of constant abuse. Even if I have to be careful about what chargers I get, at least I could have a charger at home and at work with the result being that my next phone lasts several years longer than my current one.
"How do you continue to use the phone when the battery is gone? Hold the wireless charger to your head?"
In many cases, you have both wired and non wired options so if you still need to use your phone, you can plug it in. In my case however, it's not often I'm charging my phone when using it (once every other month maybe) and most of the wear happens when I plug my phone in at night and unplug in the morning and plug it in at work again and unplug before I go home so I can eliminate the vast majority of the wear and tear by switching to wireless charging.
"How do you continue to use the phone when the battery is gone? Hold the wireless charger to your head?"
You can always pull the cable from the wireless charger and plug it directly into your phone.
However, if you use one of those magnetic mounts to hold your phone in the car, it will involve having a chunk of ferrous metal on the back of your phone or in the phone case. When used with a wireless charger, this will heat your phone, as opposed to charging it.
I was a late adopter of wireless charging (not Apple late, Nexus 6)... It was ok... Having a little holder on my desk that topped up my phone during the day was nice.
Eventually the 3 year old Nexus 6 expired (battery finally gave up, and I couldn't find a replacement which I could be 100% sure wasn't a Chinesium firebomb), so I bought a Pixel 2 XL. My main requirements were prompt updates, big screen, good stereo speakers, and a good camera.
No wireless charging, oh well... I still put it on the now disconnected stand, but I discovered something; when you've got a good battery in the phone, and a modern chipset sipping it very gently, you don't actually need a daytime top-up! I don't even plug it into the car during the commute.
I'll more than likely keep the Pixel 2 until it too wears out. I don't see anything in the Pixel 3 or others that I "must have"... And that includes the wireless charging.
There is just nothing new. The only "feature" that's appeared in the last few years is bigger and bigger screens, which has lead to notches. I'm sure I can't be alone in thinking that a bit of bezel isn't a bad thing... A bit of spare space for your fleshy hands to hold it properly, a bit of cushioning between the screen and the hard ground you've now drop it on (because you couldn't hold the bezel-less phone properly!)... crash tinkle tinkle... New phone please!
Oh, hang on... I think I've just worked out their sales plan!
My mind boggles at the mentality of spending a thousand local currency units on a piece of technology in which one may change the battery only by substantially destroying the device withe the aid of chemicals and devices outlawed by international treaty.
When I consider that it is not unknown for the pusher manufacturer to update the microcode of older units to artificially nerf battery performance, my wallet creaks with self-tightening.
If the metal gets scratched then you can buff it out, cover the spot in primer, repaint it, & not have to replace the car. If the plastic gets crunched then you can replace just that single part, not the entire car. You probably won't get a headphone jack with the radio, but then you're not allowed to drive with them on in the first place. You can replace the battery, the rubber, the gaskets, the glass, & nearly everything else without having to replace the entire fekkin car.
If Apple made cars they would shave all the bodywork down to mere milimeters, call it sexy, downplay the lack of crash protection, remove the steering wheel "because it takes up too much room", expect you to drive by Voice Control through Siri, refuse to let you use anything other than official Apple brand gas, Apple approved mechanics, & probably dictate what clothes styles you were allowed to wear while driving it.
If Android made cars they'd run ad campaigns to upsell every new model, claim they would support it for the life of the car, then reneg on their promise the nanosecond the marketing department got a new one to hype. Mechanical updates? Software update to fix the fact that the radio only gets a single station? They'll tell you a fix is coming & then drop you like a white hot brick.
I think my next one will be the cheapest, most craptastic, used beater I can find. I know it won't get fixes, won't get updates, & nobody will care if I tinker with it... Now you get to decide if I mean cars or phones. =-D
At leas when a car battery dies you don't have to replace the whole car... nor even send it to a repair centre
Tell that to my mom's car, which has a battery under the back seat with no visible way of getting at it. My dad was going to replace the battery when it started having problems but couldn't figure out how to get at it, so he took it to the dealership...
My car required me to buy an extra long torx screwdriver to get at the screws holding it down.
Not just Citroen/Peugeot. Not just now.
Halfords bloke took several minutes, two kinds of tool and some gentle swearing to replace bulb on daughter's Peugeot 108 at the weekend. OTOH a few years back my late mother-in-law's ageing Honda would have been easy to change, had the bulb not been tucked forward and surrounded by razor sharp steel edges. I changed that for her once But I had to change the dressings on my hands and arms twice to prevent the blood staining the furniture and my clothes.
"nor even send it to a repair centre."
True, if all you care about is swapping out the battery. Completely false (at least around here) if you have any intention of ever potentially claiming warranty on the new battery: it is officially invalid for all cars, all batteries and all sellers unless you have the stamp of a repair centre confirming they checked your charging circuit as functional with the new battery.
My current phone is a flagship from 2016, I'm vaguely looking at replacements in case the battery life gets any worse and because occasionally it's nice to get new shiny. Certainly for my use case any mid-range phone now exceeds my current phones performance, so why spend the extra £3-400? Plus they're less likely to come with a sodding notch.
My current phone is a flagship from 2016,
Still using a 2013 Motorola Droid Razr, about the only thing I need to do with it now is buy a new battery (which actually *CAN* be changed by end-users). When my wife was using it, the power would drain quicker, but once I took it over and disabled everything I possibly could, it started holding a charge much longer.
I presume I'll keep using it until we change cell providers next spring.
It'd make a change to see a young person without head bent, lost in a little screen in front of them, but heads-up and paying attention to what's around them.
One upon a time - until around Jobs's death - a new Mac OS was to be looked forward to for its useful new functionality. Now, with a 'new' OS every year, the first questions are: "What won't work now? What functionality have they removed that I rely upon"?
I saw someone comment here a while back that computers were 'done' about 10 years ago, and developments since then have been distracting and unnecessary. Certainly, all Apple has done since 10.7 is dig the iCloud tentacles more firmly into the guts of the OS. Now, new developments are all for Apple's benefit, not the user's. And Microsoft, with its telemetry and constant auto-updates?
I rest my case.
'It'd make a change to see a young person without head bent, lost in a little screen in front of them, but heads-up and paying attention to what's around them.'.
Why, though? I don't have a problem with a young person doing this, say, on a train - from your external POV you'd object to them reading a book, as for some reason you expect rapt attention at all times.
Almost all of the complaints I've seen like this are veiled digs at youth itself. All the Millenials gossip. Finding the youth insufferable is just a hallmark of reaching a certain age ourselves :)
For the wast majority of people living ordinary lives "what's around you" is incredibly, soul-crushingly boring and I see no reason to waste any attention on it unless I'm driving, walking, or am engaged in something else necessarily requiring my attention. I may have 99 issues with some of the things "millennials" do or think but this isn't one of them.
I will upgrade my Pixel 2 to a Pixel 3 for one reason - the 3 supports some newer LTE bands which are relevant in my location.
Other than that, I see no feature on the Pixel 3, or any other phone, that would make me want to upgrade. I've lived happily without these features and I don't see a reason to waste money on them. Plus, I hate all the new design trends.
Wake me when there is a self-healing, flexible screen that folds.
And this what I've said before (and received several down-votes as a result): Steve Jobs kicked the smartphones into high gear. Ever since the iPhone he's managed to push the developers and engineers of something physically new, like the iPad and Apple TV.
Since he's left, what have Tim done? Nothing. The only thing "new" with the new selection of iPhones are the stellar prices.
Apple is digging into their old warehouses and resurrecting the Apple Mini. Yipee.
Since the introduction of the iPhone, we've seen a lot of technologies which employs related technologies (to the iPhone) into their products. Good examples are the touch screen and BLE. Almost everything we see now is touch screen. Nearly all product right now support BLE.
I am really disappointed that Tim Cook has "lost" the edge Steve Jobs accomplished with the introduction of the iPhone.
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Samsung clinging on to first place with 20 per cent of the market globally – but declining, with its relative shipments falling 13.3 per cent year-on-year. Huawei and Xiaomi are growing faster than their rivals, with 14.4 per cent (2nd) and 9.2 per cent (4th) of the global market share.
Market seems to be quite clear that pricing your phone at nearly a grand, stuffing it full of bloatware and forcing some ridiculous assistant on people is not the way to go.
If only more phones came with wireless charging. Yes I know some people consider it pointless, but I prefer it to fiddling with the cable not to mention usb sockets in phones are not the most robust.
There are people out there who call every mobile an iPhone ( even when it isn't). Buying a new shiny (probably i)thingy to be seen with the latest smartest plastic box has kept the market rolling for years. No different, other than in cost, to wearing deliberately torn jeans. But it's harder to roll when the damn things cost up to a grand. Especially with the world looking rather insecure at the moment. Almost no one needs the latest, most powerful mobile phone. Or even all the power in the previous one. It's like buying a Nikon to take holiday snaps. - Almost literally since it's often the camera that is the selling point. Talking to people who are somewhere else seems to be a minor application.
Phones are getting less relevant to me, I dont want thinner, I want various jack plugs they suit MY uses, I want better battery and enough storage for MY music.
I dont want streaming, it doesnt work well in my location. I dont want bluetooth earbuds, I wear over ear folding skullcandys - and I dont want another thing to have to charge.
So there is nothing to persuade me to upgrade from my trusty iPhone 6+, and when it evetually dies I will probably start to divest myself of Apple gear, they clearly dont want customers like me, even with a 27" iMac and and Ipad Pro, I buy stuff that suits me, not some ideal dictated by a designer hipster totally out of touch with the real world.
Next phone will prpbably be a droid with Lineage os on it, and the desktop? I already have Linux Mint on my laptop.
Apple have lost the plot, and will lose customers across the board as people stop buying into the ecosystem.
Samsung have lost me as a customer forever due to lousy customer service and poor quality hardware.
Ignoring the already more discerning techies here.
For the masses. The Smartphone is no longer either a novelty or something to get excited about, no matter how new.
The Honeymooon phase is well over, people have gotten used to the ubiquity, the Smart phone has mostly become 'just the way the world works'.
However I don't think the mass market has yet got to the point of finding the damn things a needy attention grabbing for no good reason annoyance yet.
Hopefully they will do before the various slow witted Gov.s shovel all basic services over to one phone platforms apps only.
as : if they release another mobile phone I'll puke.
The "Honeymooon phase IS well over", we have autonomous vehicles to prove it. The number of People/zombies succumbed to the device whilst driving has risen to alarming levels, sufficient to override the worry about unleashing a mobile software enabled device with the capacity of many horses at it's control.
a daylight readable screen. If Dell Streak 5 inch could do it, why not something else. Not all of us live in caves or only come out at night. Until I have to, I will keep my old phones including a dumb phone that does not run the java abomination of Android. It just works. Battery is also easily changed.. Simple camera that does well even in harsh light conditions. Also 7 years old and survived years of motorcycling in rain, hail and dust with Oz summer heat under black leather.
I changed my phone this year only because I wanted Galileo support (for professional reasons). If it wasn't for that, I would have continued to use my three year old phone, which was already a two year old model when I bought it. Non IT folk typically don't need to change their phones unless stolen or broken - five year old smartphones have decent cameras and can use popular apps for social media, navigation, etc. Some still change their phones only so they can be seen with the latest gadget but most seem to have realised that this is a mug's game and that a flashy but inexpensive phone case can disguise the model and age of their mobile.
If I can't tell the difference between 720p and HD video on my phone's 5.5 inch display, do I really need 2K/4K resolution?
They want to liven up the market? How about a phone where the core OS *ONLY* contains the bare minimum functionality needed to make it work on the network(s) of your choice. Sure, they can bundle in other extras, but they should be *completely* removable (much the way the bloatware on pre-MSWin8/10 machines from Dell, HP, et al used to be). *Especially* since some of those built-in, unremovable apps end up being for obsolete, cancelled services. Make the phone thick enough that you don't live in fear of bending it if you breathe on it wrong. Stop with the mega-sized screens with no bezels; doesn't matter if it's a 4" screen or 5.5, there's still a limit to how much I'll ever be able to see there with my fuzzy eyesight, or do on the screen with my big hands. That's what I have a 10" tablet for.
Maybe decent stylus support on ALL phones; the stylus on the PalmOS architecture was way more useful.
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