Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

China smartphone market suffers hard-landing, shipments decline 21% in Q1 2018

canalys.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 187 posts

Re: China smartphone market suffers hard-landing, shipments decline 21% in Q1 2018

#111

Post by fireattack »

jdietrich wrote: post #63
klodolph wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People upgrade because what they have becomes worse as time goes on. Maybe you don't get OS updates any more and you can't run apps you want, maybe you do get OS updates and your phone is now slower. Maybe your battery charge lasts less than a day and you don't know you can replace your battery or don't want to. Some people I know almost always end up with cracked screens and upgrade rather than repair, and some othe…

The Chinese market is different. Chinese carriers offer minimal subsidies, so most customers are paying close to full retail for their phones and aren't tightly coupled to a two-year upgrade cycle. Used phones are a popular choice for value-oriented customers. Repair is the norm rather than the exception, so most customers will replace a cracked screen or a weak battery rather than just disposing of their phone. Labo…

WeChat is 165MB (just the app, not including anything else) on my phone.

Don't know where you get that 60MB number.

Re: China smartphone market suffers hard-landing, shipments decline 21% in Q1 2018

#112

Post by pjc50 »

jcfrei wrote: post #88
nopinsight wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, the US' total private and public debt amounts to 3.5 times the GDP as well but few seem to have as much concern over its debt as they do China's. Also, the UK appears to have a similar level of private debt as the US, and only a bit less public debt. On public debt alone, China:UK:US is 66:85:107 percent of GDP, according to the IMF. So what is the reason for major concerns over one but not others? Dev…

As the parent noted China has a very high debt to GDP ratio. But more importantly it's really hard to tell in China where the state ends and real capital markets begin (well, they probably don't exist outside of Hong Kong). The Communist Party certainly has a saying when it comes to Chinese banks extending loans to Chinese companies (as a part of their 5 year plans, etc). The US on the other hand has a well regulated…

I don't think depreciation of a currency that isn't fully convertible in a country that's a net exporter is going to be a massive crisis.

(Also, weren't people worried at one point about the huge amount of US government bonds owned by China?)

Re: China smartphone market suffers hard-landing, shipments decline 21% in Q1 2018

#114

Post by bluGill »

melling wrote: post #81
bruceb wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There will always be people who want the best, but good enough solution serves most people. Smart phones have reached a point where most are at least good enough. A flagship Samsung is say $700. That is $500 more which is more than a couple bucks a month. Clearly well worth for you but probably not for a good portion of society.

You’re talking in generalizations. Got any data to back up your claims? The average selling price for iPhones keeps increasing, and it’s over $700. If you’re talking about global markets then of course, $200 phones have always been more common. That’s why Android has 80% market share.

The article backs them up. People in China are no longer seeing phone upgrades as worth it. At one time new hardware made your experience better. My last phone is a downgrade from the previous one (I physically broke my flagship just after the warranty expired so I got a mid range phone to save money), and I can't tell the difference.

Re: China smartphone market suffers hard-landing, shipments decline 21% in Q1 2018

#115

Post by ProAm »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #96
ProAm wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahh yeah makes sense. I wish it was closer to being the OnePlus5T range of being $500-600USD vs what its priced at. Then it's a no brainer to purchase but now being so expensive and untested on US LTE bands its too risky (and our government says not to by Huawei for national security reasons).

I don’t think the government says not to buy huawei phones. They are more worried about routers and back end telecommunication equipment, which is their main market.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/14/17011246/huawei-phones-sa...

[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/13/chinas-hauwei-top-us-intelli...

Re: China smartphone market suffers hard-landing, shipments decline 21% in Q1 2018

#116

Post by supertrope »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #95
supertrope wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt they will inflate BOM by $100. Excessive RAM also hurts battery life.

RAM and flash are different things. More of the latter won’t hurt battery life very much.

I think parent poster is referring to DRAM. 8-16GB of NAND is low even for budget phones. Desktop-like docking implies the need for 64-bit worthy amounts of DRAM.

Re: China smartphone market suffers hard-landing, shipments decline 21% in Q1 2018

#117

Post by supertrope »

ajross wrote: post #100
Johnie wrote: post #90

See: * Bass Diffusion Model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_diffusion_model * Diffusion of Innovation Model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations These models have been fairly accurate in forecasting diffusion of innovation. While many of the innovators have started to exit and move on, this leaves the imitators around in a slowing market. Apple has been surprisingly good at being the forefront…

> Apple has already moved onto the next technological innovation: Apple Watch and wearables. Seriously? Are there any number at all to show that wearables are a growth bet at this point? The Apple Watch (which entered the market three years ago !) has had an uptake at least an order of magnitude lower than the iPad, the last "next technological innovation" that turned out not to be. Tablets were hot for a while, but…

I wonder how much of AAPL growth is iPhone sales volume and how much is investors anticipating the next big product category. A cable TV disrupting service hasn't materialized thanks to content owners fear of repeating iTunes's dominance and effective resistance. Cars are hard to build. Medical devices are highly regulated.

Re: China smartphone market suffers hard-landing, shipments decline 21% in Q1 2018

#118

Post by supertrope »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #103
kerng wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Apple is struggling on trying to figure out what the next big thing could be - its definitely not yet watch and wearables.

Cars. Absolutely no doubt they need to be in that industry.

How would Apple improve ease of use or add high tech functionality?

Re: China smartphone market suffers hard-landing, shipments decline 21% in Q1 2018

#119

Post by supertrope »

jordache wrote: post #94
supertrope wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO WeChat is bloated. While the app itself only uses n MB, it stores all chat history and embedded multimedia on the device itself. Eventually each group chat will hog >1GB. I uninstalled after they made the app refuse to run without constant GPS permission.

anecdotal feedback though.. your objection to them needing gps permission doesn't stack up at all against the robust platform wechat has become, which hundreds of millions depend on for everyday transactions. So the OP's point of people in China mainly needing WeChat is 100% relevant. While your side comment about what a single user doesn't like about wechat is 100% irrelevant.

Foreign competitors are banned. If I lived in PRC I'd probably have to suck it up and use it.

Re: China smartphone market suffers hard-landing, shipments decline 21% in Q1 2018

#120

Post by supertrope »

kccqzy wrote: post #99
supertrope wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO WeChat is bloated. While the app itself only uses n MB, it stores all chat history and embedded multimedia on the device itself. Eventually each group chat will hog >1GB. I uninstalled after they made the app refuse to run without constant GPS permission.

I'd rather prefer a chat app that stores all chat history and media on my device instead of some cloud. On my iPhone WeChat starts fine without having the location services permission.

They just need to add automatic chat log pruning. 16GB of 32GB of storage fills quickly.
Post reply on HN