The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR • Hacker News Board

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#251

Post by princekolt » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:11 PM UTC

lsc wrote: post #207

interlocutor wrote: post #173

Apple's problem is that their rate of innovation has slowed down. iPhone generates over a 100 Billion dollars in revenue. Per year. If any company has the resources to innovate it is Apple. Apple, here are some free ideas. Some of these ideas go beyond the phone and into cell networks. If Google can do that ( https://fi.google.com ) why can't Apple? - Improve cellular reception. We are now heavily reliant on our cell…

>- Improve cellular reception. We are now heavily reliant on our cell phones, yet half the time our cell phones don't work because we are inside a building or not close to a tower and so on. This needs to be fixed ASAP. Everyone wants to buy the cheapest cellphone plan, then they complain when it doesn't work in buildings. Your location matters here, but at least in the more enclosed bars in san jose, AT&T and T-mobi…

> My phone keeps trying to use wifi rather than connecting to my cellular network.

This already exists and it's called "Wi-Fi Assist". It's disabled by default but you can enable it by scrolling all the way down in the "Mobile Data" settings menu (after all the apps).

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#252

Post by saagarjha » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:12 PM UTC

shanghaiaway wrote: post #242

simonh wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, apart from the latest iPhones having the best screens ever, the quickest most convenient and most secure unlock mechanism ever, the best computational photography ever, the fastest mobile CPUs ever released and overall being 2+ years ahead of their nearest competition, that was all a few months ago. Old news. What have Apple done for us just now?

They skimped on RAM. No finger print scanner. Falling behind in photography. Poor OS.

> They skimped on RAM.

How so?

> No finger print scanner.

It’s not like they didn’t replace this with something else…

> Falling behind in photography.

By what metric? iPhone is still competitive with leading Android flagships, as it always has been.

> Poor OS.

“Poor” is not a very descriptive word.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#253

Post by saagarjha » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:16 PM UTC

telltruth wrote: post #143

georgespencer wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Greg Joswiak, Apple vice president of product marketing, told CNET in an interview Wednesday that the device has “been our most popular iPhone each and every day since the day it became available.” https://www.cnet.com/news/apples-iphone-xr-has-been-its-top-...

I'm wary of these type of claims by Apple. They seem carefully craft such claims to be factual in some twisted sense but not reflective of actual state of things. For example, at every announcement they have claimed that their customer satisfaction is 96%. This is very hard to believe despite of battery gate, headphone jack removal etc. Almost every release they say they broke record which is technically true but the…

> at every announcement they have claimed that their customer satisfaction is 96%. This is very hard to believe despite of battery gate, headphone jack removal etc.

I think you’re failing to account for the fact that most people just use their phones and enjoy them as long as they work and do what they want it to do. The “gates” and outrage you mention comes from a small and vocal portion of Apple’s customers.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#254

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:19 PM UTC

saurik wrote: post #246

jakobegger wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they even fixed the biggest UX blunder of the iPhone, which is placing the volume buttons and sleep button on opposite sides of the device, just to make it look symmetrical. Symmetry is the worst for user experience. It's a bit embarrassing when you are trying to turn the volume of your headphones down, and accidentally trigger the "emergency SOS" feature which makes a loud claxon sound, which you can't hear beca…

I find this confusing, as to me having the buttons on different sides of the device ensures that I never make a mistake as the buttons are nowhere near each other.

[deleted]

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#255

Post by saagarjha » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:19 PM UTC

inferiorhuman wrote: post #194

jinushaun wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! You hit the nail on the head! The iPhone needs to be split between iPhone Mini, iPhone and iPhone Pro, instead of current model of “last year”, “this year medium” and “this year large”. As much as I wanted to love the iPhone SE, it always felt like last year’s model. It wasn’t a differentiated product that had a proper update cycle. A lot of people in the community were hoping for a proper update to the SE. I al…

> As much as I wanted to love the iPhone SE, it always felt like last year’s model. It wasn’t a differentiated product that had a proper update cycle. A lot of people in the community were hoping for a proper update to the SE. I have an SE and appearance aside I disagree. It had the guts of the current model including touch id and performs quite well for me. Now, sure, it feels a little bit left behind. Maybe. It's s…

> It had the guts of the current model including touch id

IIRC iPhone SE does not have the second generation Touch ID sensor that iPhone 6s does.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#256

Post by saagarjha » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:21 PM UTC

samatman wrote: post #87

paultopia wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this is right. The interesting thing is that this problem doesn't seem to exist with the Macbook line, where there's clear differentiation: you can get the super blazingly fast monster, or you can get the really tiny one that actually needs to be less powerful in order to fit in the tiny case without having like 10 seconds of battery life. Though the Macbook/Macbook Air thing they just introduced muddies that a…

Agreed, AFAIK the only difference between the Macbook "escape" and the Macbook Air is that the MBA has TouchID and the classic shape. Probably means they'll discontinue the non-touchbar MBP in the next round.

> the only difference between the Macbook "escape" and the Macbook Air is that the MBA has TouchID and the classic shape

MacBook Air has newer processors.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#257

Post by marbletiles » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:21 PM UTC

lsc wrote: post #218

marbletiles wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider the iPod: the differentiation was about things people would care about, like size, capacity, portability, style, etc. You weren't made to feel cheap just because you entered at the lower price points. You wanted an iPod Mini, and it made sense that it cost less than the Classic: you were still getting "the best" version of the thing you desired. Same story with the Mac: buying the iBook didn't make you feel…

>So how else can they differentiate? Making a small phone won't really fly - while I'd love an SE-sized XS, the Chinese market they need to win back wants its phones big. Do you remember, back in the day, when the smallest IBM thinkpads were way more expensive than the less-small IBM thinkpads? I understand big phones are king if you only have one device. If I wasn't carrying like five devices all the time, I'd also…

I agree totally. But this is partly Apple's bind: a phone like you're describing appeals to rich Westerners with multiple primary devices and that's just too small a market for them now. Their pressing corporate need is to make a device that will help them grow in China, maximising their take from the billions who don't have multiple devices.

In the olden days, when Apple was much smaller, they were ironically freer to just make the best device possible because success would be meaningful in very small markets. The OG iPod saved them despite selling relatively tiny numbers. Nowadays, markets that used to matter significantly to Apple -- education, media, creatives -- are allowed to wither and die because they are a blip on the bottom line.

I don't see what could change that, though. They now prioritise growth/financials/share price over pure products in a very calculating way, but what corporation doesn't? You need an exceptional mandate to do otherwise, and only the Bezos's and Jobs's of the world get those.

So the pity is that as a result we'll continue to see Apple pushing hard into services and (probably) media, because that's where it can smell growth. That might keep the numbers up, but I suspect it's going to transform what Apple is even further away from the "make great products" company we knew into ... something else. (Probably something less great, given their track record with services, tbh.)

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#258

Post by whywhywhywhy » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:22 PM UTC

sytelus wrote: post #146

protomyth wrote: post #5

I cannot help but think that an iPhone XR mini would have been a great seller if it hit the $450 range. I just don't understand Apple these days, its like they have reverted to the early 90's where they kept jacking the price until even the loyal customers had to exit the ship. I had so believed they would repeat the iPod strategy and start at the top end and slowly squeeze the market by introducing models that fille…

Competing on price is not in Apple's DNA and that's a good thing for a company that obsesses on providing top end user experience. But eventually all products and innovations become commoditized and providing differentiation becomes harder every day. A primary thing that has kept Apple alive 'n kicking is establishing new product categories and exploit first mover advantage to the fullest. Mac > iPhone > iPad > Watch…

> and that's a good thing for a company that obsesses on providing top end user experience

Do they actually do that though? Feels like BOM reduction exercises like removing the short power cable from their $3000 laptops and headphone dongles from their $1000 phone, laptops still shipping with painfully low space that triggers space warnings on their OS after you add just a few files to them (complete nightmare if you work at a company that cheaps out on laptops).

Feels like the user experience is actually secondary to maximizing ASP and minimizing BOM.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#259

Post by saagarjha » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:26 PM UTC

skookumchuck wrote: post #103

woranl wrote: post #70

Why is Apple diluting their brand? What happened to the simple product line? iPhone X this and iPhone X that is simply bad marketing. Are there product driven people in Apple anymore?

Worse, my iphone says it is an MG5W2LL/A whatever the hell that is.

It’s an iPhone 6. You’ll notice that Apple will market it that way, instead of by its model number.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#260

Post by tyfon » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:29 PM UTC

Ntrails wrote: post #215

lsc wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>- Improve cellular reception. We are now heavily reliant on our cell phones, yet half the time our cell phones don't work because we are inside a building or not close to a tower and so on. This needs to be fixed ASAP. Everyone wants to buy the cheapest cellphone plan, then they complain when it doesn't work in buildings. Your location matters here, but at least in the more enclosed bars in san jose, AT&T and T-mobi…

> Everyone wants to buy the cheapest cellphone plan, then they complain when it doesn't work in buildings. Your location matters here, but at least in the more enclosed bars in san jose, AT&T and T-mobile are super unreliable; Verizon works fine. In the UK we have one set of physical lines, owned and run by BT. BT has to, by law, lease the lines out to sub providers at it's own "internal" costing rate so that there i…

Here in Norway we have two mobile networks (Telenor and Netcom). Telenor is the old state company like BT, that used to be called Televerket. They also own most of the physical lines like in the UK. Netcom is the only privately started company that acquired a license in the 90s.

When Telenor were privatised the license required them to sell capacity at cost to other operators. The same license requirements hold for mobile towers so all the small operators can piggyback on their infrastructure at cost. The result is that we have over 50 operators competing on services and add-ons while having approximately the same base network quality.

This is largely the case for ISPs too and it works great I think.