A Top Apple Writer Explains Why He Ditched His iPhone For A Samsung Galaxy S3

[silvarios]

Carnos Jax wrote: Among the geeks/techies/nerds etc. But it was appealing to this subset of society that has kept widespread adoption of technology at bay for so long.

How do people pushing forward the technology to the masses somehow limit such technology from reaching the masses? There was nothing hard about using a Palm phone when compared to the PCs (either WIndows, Mac, or Linux distro) that people were already using on a regular basis.

There's nothing wrong with someone expressing themselves in written form, especially in something so well reasoned and carefully considered. A tech writer writing about tech isn't something to be puzzled over, is it?

100 million Symbian smartphones shipped before the iPhone was even launched. Probably more by the time the iPhone launched, but that's the number given in late 2006. The masses were already buying phones, a lesser amount were smartphones, but even with the lesser amount, smartphones were selling in the tens of millions. If you consider the feature phones or near smartphone category like Sidekicks and S40 Nokias, the numbers are even larger. If you add up the number of higher end feature phones, smartphones, and PDAs, I think you'll find more non iPhone influenced devices out there than you imagined.

One of my clients, an older lady who isn't afraid of her computers, but not comfortable enough not to need my occasional assistance, had a PDA for years before the iPhone was announced. My dad, admittedly a guy who likes technology and a programmer later in life, had a smartphone in 2001 or so, Palm powered Kyocera, and then didn't have another smartphone until around 2011, an LG Android. There's a lot going on in this industry pre and post iPhone.

[DP]

silvarios wrote:
[quote=Pam]
I had an Android (Incredible) for 2 years before I got my iPhone 4s (been about 1.5 years now). I was extremely relieved to switch. Everything is so much easier and straight forward on the iPhone. Sure a larger screen would be better, but I don't think it'd fit in my back pocket any more. Where are people putting these things?

Wait, you are comparing what was a two year old Android phone to what was a brand new iPhone? Wouldn't comparing one of the top Android phones with a newer version of Android be a better comparison? I don't still dislike iOS because of lack of copy/paste, folders, voice dialing, MMS, good camera, or lack of third party multi-tasking as they no longer apply.
I too have an Incredible and have really liked it. I think it's more user friendly than an iPhone. But I had to get a new phone as some apps I wanted were for Android 4. I got a Droid RAZR and (when I get it set up properly-not the phones fault) I like it a lot. The screen is larger than the whole iPhone. My wife has an iPhone 4 and I have issues figuring things out on it. I agree that iPhones are getting stale.

[Carnos Jax]

silvarios wrote: How do people pushing forward the technology to the masses somehow limit such technology from reaching the masses?

I'm not sure I follow your question here.

silvarios wrote: There was nothing hard about using a Palm phone when compared to the PCs (either WIndows, Mac, or Linux distro) that people were already using on a regular basis.

So says the techie. ;-) Moreover, many people didn't use PC's (like my parents) or were very timid about their use (instead relying on the throngs of geeks/computer specialists at shops or otherwise known to them, to deal issues--which were very common--with or manage their machines). Not an ideal situation.

silvarios wrote: There's nothing wrong with someone expressing themselves in written form, especially in something so well reasoned and carefully considered. A tech writer writing about tech isn't something to be puzzled over, is it?

Never said it was. Just that his reasons/situation appeals more to the techie/highly capable user than the unwashed masses.

silvarios wrote: 100 million Symbian smartphones shipped before the iPhone was even launched. Probably more by the time the iPhone launched, but that's the number given in late 2006. The masses were already buying phones, a lesser amount were smartphones, but even with the lesser amount, smartphones were selling in the tens of millions. If you consider the feature phones or near smartphone category like Sidekicks and S40 Nokias, the numbers are even larger. If you add up the number of higher end feature phones, smartphones, and PDAs, I think you'll find more non iPhone influenced devices out there than you imagined.

No, this is the same impression I have. But for as much people that used them, it was still uncommon to see them. The VAST majority had just regular old cell phones.

silvarios wrote: One of my clients, an older lady who isn't afraid of her computers, but not comfortable enough not to need my occasional assistance, had a PDA for years before the iPhone was announced. My dad, admittedly a guy who likes technology and a programmer later in life, had a smartphone in 2001 or so, Palm powered Kyocera, and then didn't have another smartphone until around 2011, an LG Android. There's a lot going on in this industry pre and post iPhone.

I didn't (and wouldn't) dispute that. But as I mentioned already, for the vast majority it was 'inaccessible' and hence they stayed away.

[tenders]

I thought this was a thoughtful point:

Presenting a consistent and logical experience across the device for the majority of all users is important, particularly when you think about the large percentage of technophobic users and the added percentage of users who don’t ever want to be bothered.

Noted. Why should I give half a damn about any user but myself? I try to be a good social citizen, but I have never thought “Though this unalterable factory setting frustrates me and makes this device more difficult for me to use, I shall suffer proudly, knowing that this device’s lack of customization features makes it less confusing to some new mobile phone user who still doesn’t understand why there’s no dial tone.”

[silvarios]

Carnos Jax wrote:
[quote=silvarios]How do people pushing forward the technology to the masses somehow limit such technology from reaching the masses?

I'm not sure I follow your question here.
Read your post again. I said someone was expressing an opinion and it was interesting to know what kind of technology a tech writer uses for his personal gear. You mentioned something about how tech people prevent the masses from using tech. No idea how that can be true.

Carnos Jax wrote: [quote=silvarios]There was nothing hard about using a Palm phone when compared to the PCs (either WIndows, Mac, or Linux distro) that people were already using on a regular basis.

So says the techie. ;-) Moreover, many people didn't use PC's (like my parents) or were very timid about their use (instead relying on the throngs of geeks/computer specialists at shops or otherwise known to them, to deal issues--which were very common--with or manage their machines). Not an ideal situation.
Disagree. Mass market computer saturation had already happened by the 2000s.

Carnos Jax wrote: The VAST majority had just regular old cell phones.

That was the same, even after the iPhone was released. It is seven years later, 2013, where smartphones are expected to surpass other phone shipments. I know quite a few people who barely use their smartphone as a smartphone, but when smartphones are free on contract or $100 or less off contract, hard to pass up a better device on the rare occasion they actually use the phone as more than calling, messaging, email device. Many non smartphones run apps, do web browsing, email, mapping, data tethering, etc. My S40 Nokias were quite the workhorse and that class of phones still exist. Shoot 9 million full touch Nokia Ashas were sold last quarter alone, that doesn't count other Asha phones or any basic Nokia phones. I would consider those devices to be smartphones because they are darn near close enough, but some people still consider S40 phones to be feature phones.

Carnos Jax wrote:
I didn't (and wouldn't) dispute that. But as I mentioned already, for the vast majority it was 'inaccessible' and hence they stayed away.

Here in the States, they may have stayed away because the free on contract phones were not smart phones for many years. The first iPhone was $500 with a two year contract. Consequently, it sold poorly. Also, data services on phones were limited for a long time. It wasn't hard to have a web browser on a phone, but slow data ensured WAP for browsing, it wasn't all about specs of the devices. As much as the devices improved, the networks made great leaps as well.

[(vikm)]

Funny, I hate... not just can do without that big old honking, drive-in-movie-like screen size of the Samsung..., but hate how big it is. For me, it's a non-starter (and part of the reason why i still use my 4 as I feel it is the perfect size. Not just for my non-sausage finger using preferences, but I attend a lot of concerts and half the show is blocked out because of the Android folk toting that oversized screen along with them (usually stuffed in a backpack or on the back of a mule) and breaking it out to record the concert or holding it up for a picture. It's never seemed so big to me. It's like they are at the beach and forgot their sunscreen or trying to freak people out about an apocalypse by blocking out all visible light (except for that generated by... did I mention that big screen?). I dread the day Apple caves in to those that lack either dexterity, normal sized fingers or average or better eyesight and makes an even larger screen. I may get there someday, but I'm not there yet. Hopefully they'll wait until then ;-)

Funny he mentions the Walmart thing because I feel as if Samsung (from the people I see using them, to the commercials, to the actual "cheap-y" feel of the phone) is so obviously trying so hard to not come off like that than one can't help but give off the feel. It was a silly comment for him to make.

[mrlynn]

tenders wrote:
. . . makes it less confusing to some new mobile phone user who still doesn’t understand why there’s no dial tone.”

There isn't a dial tone?

Oh wait. There's no dial tone when I call on my old Motorola flip phone, either.

Come to think of it, I don't understand why.

Maybe that's why cell phones still seem foreign to me.

/Mr Lynn

[silvarios]

(vikm),
Beauty of Android is there likely is a manufacturer making a phone with a smaller screen. True, it may no longer be the top specced device, but that is true for Apple as well, with the 4 and 4S slotting below the bigger 5 in specs and size of screen. Would be neat if Apple and others offered a higher specced device in the smaller screen size.

[Carnos Jax]

silvarios wrote:
[quote=Carnos Jax]
[quote=silvarios]How do people pushing forward the technology to the masses somehow limit such technology from reaching the masses?

I'm not sure I follow your question here.
Read your post again. I said someone was expressing an opinion and it was interesting to know what kind of technology a tech writer uses for his personal gear. You mentioned something about how tech people prevent the masses from using tech. No idea how that can be true.
Ah, I see. What I was referring to is the fact that in the computing tech world, the products are designed by techies. And historically, for whatever reason, the design of the interface strongly reflected their perspective (look at many consumer electronics such as VCR's and TV's as another example). Many of the concepts required to operate these devices are foreign to the average layperson.

silvarios wrote: [quote=Carnos Jax][quote=silvarios]There was nothing hard about using a Palm phone when compared to the PCs (either WIndows, Mac, or Linux distro) that people were already using on a regular basis.

So says the techie. ;-) Moreover, many people didn't use PC's (like my parents) or were very timid about their use (instead relying on the throngs of geeks/computer specialists at shops or otherwise known to them, to deal issues--which were very common--with or manage their machines). Not an ideal situation.
Disagree. Mass market computer saturation had already happened my the 2000s.
I didn't say that saturation hadn't occurred (and wouldn't 100% dispute that). What I said specifically was that for most people, they commonly had issues with the machines that many times hobbled their experience. I should know, as among most of my friends and family, I'm known as a computer 'guru' (though I'd never describe myself as such) and most of these people would have to come to me with their issues (in many cases I referred them to a professional as I don't know how they could've cobbed up their PC's so bad)).

silvarios wrote: [quote=Carnos Jax]The VAST majority had just regular old cell phones.

That was the same, even after the iPhone was released. It is seven years later, 2013, where smartphones are expected to surpass other phone shipments. I know quite a few people who barely use their smartphone as a smartphone, but when smartphones are free on contract or $100 or less off contract, hard to pass up a better device on the rare occasion they actually use the phone as more than calling, messaging, email device. Many non smartphones run apps, do web browsing, email, mapping, data tethering, etc. My S40 Nokias were quite the workhorse and that class of phones still exist. Shoot 9 million full touch Nokia Ashas were sold last quarter alone, that doesn't count other Asha phones or any basic Nokia phones. I would consider those devices to be smartphones because they are darn near close enough, but some people still consider S40 phones to be feature phones.
Not the same. Even though they might have not surpassed, the number of people that have them have jumped SIGNIFICANTLY. It is far (and outright from what I've seen) more common to see smartphones in use since the debut of the iPhone.

[sekker]

Whatever floats your boat.

These are all just tools, and the difference between iOS and Android in both software and quality hardware is getting smaller and smaller on the small tablet front.

I look forward to the first Jony-designed iPhone where he's had a chance to be in charge of both hardware and software.