Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023 • Hacker News Board

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#51

Post by causi » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 5:33 PM UTC

Lord-Jobo wrote: post #8

coffeebeqn wrote: post #3

I wonder how many of these were really doing anything novel ? Or are they basically buying a half finished android kit and slapping a logo on it

A few were, definitely. LG stands out as the biggest innovator to leave the market. Less competition in the android market is a problem, in my view. Most people's interests are covered between Pixel and Samsung, true. But what happens when google gets greedy and decides to lock the Pixel bootloader? Where the hell will people who want a privacy oriented phone go? stuck with pinephone or fairphone? Even Samsung has be…

Not to mention picking a Pixel phone has always meant making hardware choices you may or may not find acceptable. It used to mean being stuck with a muddy POLED display and bizarre hardware issues that crop up four months in. Now it means a Tensor chip that consistently underperforms its Snapdragon counterpart and whose poor Mali drivers essentially keep you from any kind of serious game emulation.

The smartphone market gets less and less diverse.

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#52

Post by giantrobot » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 5:40 PM UTC

cbozeman wrote: post #10

doubled112 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sums up my feelings with smartphones, and a lot of other areas that used to be exciting in tech. They’re “finished” products. I don’t expect massive innovation going forward, just slow, incremental changes.

Could not agree more. The candy bar format is probably as good as it can reasonably be expected to get given our current technology. One day, we may have the phones from The Expanse , but for right now, an iPhone 15 or a Galaxy S23 or a Pixel 7 are as good as they need to be.

> The candy bar format is probably as good as it can reasonably be expected to get given our current technology.

Technology and of course human eyes, hands, and heads. There's a lower limit to the length of a phone and still have the capability of a phone which is the mean distance between peoples' ears and mouths. You also can't make a phone too small or else the screen won't be readable.

Even if you could get the iPhone 15's electronics to fit a chip the size of a grain of rice the body of the phone needs to fit a head and needs a screen for an interface. The antenna would still need to be sized such to be tuned for the right cellular frequencies.

That's not to say candy bar phones are the perfect form factor. It's just ergonomics and physics will play a part in devices no matter how compact the technology.

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#53

Post by kspacewalk2 » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 5:42 PM UTC

heywhatupboys wrote: post #33

granshaw wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously why don’t these Chinese companies hire someone for 30mins to come up with a more reputable sounding name?

Not everything caters to the American sensibilities. Different cultures regard different things as professional.

If you want to successfully sell to Americans, catering to American sensibilities sounds like a no brainer.

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#54

Post by hef19898 » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 5:43 PM UTC

Zak wrote: post #37

distract8901 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're way, way too cheap and low-spec to even consider as a daily driver. I'd love to pay like $500 for a pinephone with hardware from 3-4 years ago.

As someone still daily driving a Pixel 4A, I'm curious as to what people need from their phones that hardware from 3 years ago can't provide. Newer phones have better cameras, but otherwise it seems like they just do the same things a little bit faster. The value argument is valid of course, but much like PCs, major phone manufacturers get a lot of their profit from bundling crapware so it's inevitable for one that d…

I replaced my Pixel 2 XL only after I cracked the display twice and CalyxOS ended support. That, and a too good to refuse offer for Pixel 7 from my carrier. Still have the old one around as back up, as it works perfectly fine, as it did before.

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#55

Post by soperj » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 5:48 PM UTC

Kirby64 wrote: post #21

soperj wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> stuck with pinephone or fairphone? What's wrong with these options?

Compared to a pixel, they're budget phone specs missing some fundamental quality of life stuff that other phones have offered, usually for years. The fairphone 5 seems a bit closer to flagship specs, but it still clearly misses the mark and also seems priced at flagship levels. Pinephone is just a junk budget phone, although at least it's priced much lower.

> fundamental quality of life stuff

As someone who used a Galaxy S3 for over a decade and has now "upgraded" to a friend's old S9, I can't understand this at all. What kind of quality of life stuff am I missing out on? I'm missing having a removable battery, but at least it has a sd card.

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#56

Post by slothtrop » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 5:48 PM UTC

cbozeman wrote: post #10

doubled112 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sums up my feelings with smartphones, and a lot of other areas that used to be exciting in tech. They’re “finished” products. I don’t expect massive innovation going forward, just slow, incremental changes.

Could not agree more. The candy bar format is probably as good as it can reasonably be expected to get given our current technology. One day, we may have the phones from The Expanse , but for right now, an iPhone 15 or a Galaxy S23 or a Pixel 7 are as good as they need to be.

Meanwhile I can't even get a new querty phone that performs well. I get that it's more niche, but this was solved years ago. I guess patent hell is partly to blame.

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#57

Post by mmanfrin » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 5:54 PM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #34

granshaw wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously why don’t these Chinese companies hire someone for 30mins to come up with a more reputable sounding name?

Not dealing with any trademark issue and other copyright stuff is probably worth the weirdness to them.

Has that ever really stopped them before though?

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#58

Post by mcphage » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 5:54 PM UTC

heywhatupboys wrote: post #33

granshaw wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously why don’t these Chinese companies hire someone for 30mins to come up with a more reputable sounding name?

Not everything caters to the American sensibilities. Different cultures regard different things as professional.

Yeah, good point. Some cultures don't have... uh... names?

Hmm.

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#59

Post by stonogo » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 5:54 PM UTC

soperj wrote: post #11

Lord-Jobo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few were, definitely. LG stands out as the biggest innovator to leave the market. Less competition in the android market is a problem, in my view. Most people's interests are covered between Pixel and Samsung, true. But what happens when google gets greedy and decides to lock the Pixel bootloader? Where the hell will people who want a privacy oriented phone go? stuck with pinephone or fairphone? Even Samsung has be…

> stuck with pinephone or fairphone? What's wrong with these options?

The pinephone is just not a contender. It still can't reliably wake up from sleep on an incoming call. The SMS subsystem gets 'stuck' and you stop getting messages.

Nothing wrong with the fairphone, though, I've been happy with it.

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#60

Post by fatfingerd » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 5:56 PM UTC

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #53

heywhatupboys wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything caters to the American sensibilities. Different cultures regard different things as professional.

If you want to successfully sell to Americans, catering to American sensibilities sounds like a no brainer.

From the article:

> Small brands capitalized on the market’s transition from 2G to 3G/4G, benefitting from strong entry-tier demand, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America.