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

US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

counterpointresearch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 339 posts

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#101

Post by ThrowAwayChris »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #73

It's hard to feel positive about upgrading my phone when every new phone seems to remove things I want while adding stuff I don't care about. My S10e is a reasonable size in my pocket. It has a headphone jack. It has an SD card slot. Any new Samsung phone I buy will be missing these things, and I'll be forced to pay hundreds of dollars extra to increase the on-board storage that will still be far less than the 512GB…

I bought my S10e for 450AUD ($300US) on clearance six months after it was released. I've replaced the factory rom, and the battery once.

There's nothing on the android market like it, it's only slightly larger than the iphone 12/13 mini that's also discontinued. Small phones with all the bells and whistles aren't made anymore by anyone. I will be very sad when I can't get parts.

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#102

Post by simmerup »

cabirum wrote: post #52
izacus wrote: post #33

Note the negative tone about having our phones actually work longer, last longer and be usable longer without draining our money just to keep the threadmill rolling. Imagine how pissed the car industry must be now since most people drive cars for 10-15 years instead of replacing them once per few years like iPhones.

That is what EVs are for. Replace the battery every few years and replace your car whenever a new incompatible plug standard comes out.

Silly point when you consider that manufacturers love the fact that an ICE vehicle has to go into the garage for new parts every few months

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#103

Post by ajross »

xnorswap wrote: post #23

I just "upgraded" my phone and for the first time my new phone is worse than my old one. I only upgraded because I noticed my old phone (Huawei P20 pro) was no longer getting android updates and I was concerned for the security of it. My new phone (pixel 8) feels worse in almost every regard. I can't even customise the home screen as much ( Literally cannot remove a link to Chrome and other google apps ). Given it's…

> I can't even customise the home screen as much ( Literally cannot remove a link to Chrome and other google apps ).

Uh... I'm not following here. You definitely can. What are you trying to do, exactly? It's true you can't uninstall the apps, because they're in the ROM. But you can absolutely use whatever you want on your home page.

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#104

Post by faeriechangling »

VancouverMan wrote: post #14

I know a number of people, myself included, who have been waiting for the return of decent mid-range phones before getting a new one. Right now, there are very few options for people who want a reasonably sized phone, offering reasonably good performance, at a reasonably low cost, with reasonably good durability, with reasonably long software support, from a reasonably trustworthy manufacturer.

As people go longer between upgrades, phones depreciate less, the phones become more durable and better supported; their price sensitivity ought to go down not up.

I also don’t see all that much reason to wait when you can always get an old model of phone. I also see tons of competition at the mid-range of the market anyhow.

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#105

Post by _fat_santa »

ravenstine wrote: post #7

Not surprising. Phone upgrades in the last 5 years have been barely worth it. I'll be to first to criticize and mock The Google, but I've been plenty happy with my refurbished Pixel 5 that I not only plan on running it into the ground but getting another one if it finally croaks or loses too much battery capacity. Yes, I could just get the latest Pixel when that happens, but why switch from a phone that I know intima…

I'm starting to get nostalgic for the early days of smartphones (2008-2014 or so), back then every year the phone you upgraded to was miles ahead of the previous generation device. I remember walking into the Apple store a few weeks after the iPhone 3GS came out and being blown away by the performance compared to my iPhone 3G.

Phones have gotten way better since then but they also became boring and commonplace. Back then all the power users either jailbroke if they were on iOS or installed CyanogenMod if they were on Android. My 3 fondest memories of that time were:

1. Getting BiteSMS on my iPhone 3G: BiteSMS was an alternative SMS app that offered quick replies, something the native messenger didn't offer until a year or so later. I felt so cool at school when my friends saw the pink logo on my dock instead of the green one.

2. Hacking Multitasking on the iPhone 3G: IIRC when iOS 4 came out alongside the 3GS, the 3GS has multitasking but they never backported the feature to the 3G. When I jailbroke iOS 4 on my device it gave me the option of enabling multitasking. Once I enabled it I realized why Apple didn't backport the feature, the 3G was so down on power compared to the 3GS that it completely crawled to a halt if you had more than 2 apps running.

3. Around 2011 I got a Samsung Galaxy S2 and after installing various ROM's and quite a bit of hacking I got Google Wallet to work on the device. I remember the first time I tapped my phone and paid for something it felt like magic. Now we all take it for granted with Apple Pay and Google Pay but back then there were barely any terminals to even tap your phone so getting to do that felt like black magic.

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#106

Post by nkozyra »

llm_nerd wrote: post #99
nkozyra wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The vast majority of Apple users don't upgrade year over year. I agree with that. But young people - for whom status symbols carry the most weight - generally upgrade their iphone in less than two years at a clip of ~50%. > And are you claiming that Samsung or Pixel owners aren't doing the same? I didn't claim that. I don't know. But it's less of an investment and far less of a status symbol.

"But young people" Can you cite your source? Like what does "young people" mean? Many young people with iPhones have old devices with broken screens. I can find a Gallup survey from 7 years ago claiming an upgrade rate every 2 years (actually they answered "whatever my provider supports", which isn't as relevant now), but notably the differences were much bigger between generations in 2015. Now many would be hard pre…

> Can you cite your source? Like what does "young people" mean?

Sure. 18-24

https://www.phonearena.com/news/How-long-do-iPhone-users-tak...

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#107

Post by samsolomon »

whalesalad wrote: post #92
samsolomon wrote: post #80

I upgraded from an iPhone 12 Pro to an iPhone 15 Pro for the camera. I've got some large upcoming trips and felt the improvement was worth it. I love that now I only need a USB-C cable—that simplifies things a lot. Day-to-day it doesn't feel that different. Slightly faster and slightly longer battery life. If it wasn't for the camera improvements I probably would have stayed with the 12 Pro for another few years. App…

The Pro iPhones are in a different league. I can't go back now.

The main thing is the camera. I've got a Sony mirrorless that I've only taken out a handful of times since I got the 12 Pro.

I'm planning to sell or give the Sony away now. The workflow from my iPhone to Darkroom/Photomator on my computer via icloud is so much easier than dealing with transferring photos from the camera. Plus I'm not carrying around a bulky camera.

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#108

Post by kernelbugs »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #73

It's hard to feel positive about upgrading my phone when every new phone seems to remove things I want while adding stuff I don't care about. My S10e is a reasonable size in my pocket. It has a headphone jack. It has an SD card slot. Any new Samsung phone I buy will be missing these things, and I'll be forced to pay hundreds of dollars extra to increase the on-board storage that will still be far less than the 512GB…

Also a S10e user here. I've been eyeing the Asus Zenfone 10, but it's unfortunately not available in the US for most mobile networks here. Truly a shame that not many are making small phones, and those that are are not paying attention to the US market.

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#109

Post by lallysingh »

pbmonster wrote: post #54
VancouverMan wrote: post #14

I know a number of people, myself included, who have been waiting for the return of decent mid-range phones before getting a new one. Right now, there are very few options for people who want a reasonably sized phone, offering reasonably good performance, at a reasonably low cost, with reasonably good durability, with reasonably long software support, from a reasonably trustworthy manufacturer.

> want a reasonably sized phone I think that's the biggest problem. If you accept >6" screens, you'll find a phone that hits most of those criteria. But if you want a smaller phone? iPhone 13 mini from 2021 or Pixel 4a from 2020. And I still would call those large, one-handing those screens is uncomfortable even with large hands. You want an actual small phone, around 5", like the early iPhones? Fucking XZ2 Compact f…

If it wasn't for the price I'd recommend a folding flip phone. I've had a folding phone for 2 years and all I have had to change out is actually the screen protector every year. It doesn't like the flexing, but they are cheap and take 5m to swap

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#110

Post by deelowe »

cabirum wrote: post #52
izacus wrote: post #33

Note the negative tone about having our phones actually work longer, last longer and be usable longer without draining our money just to keep the threadmill rolling. Imagine how pissed the car industry must be now since most people drive cars for 10-15 years instead of replacing them once per few years like iPhones.

That is what EVs are for. Replace the battery every few years and replace your car whenever a new incompatible plug standard comes out.

Total cost of ownership for evs is vastly lower than ices. The number of mechanical parts is two orders of magnitude less for an ev.
Post reply on HN