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

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

#221

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

major505 wrote: post #215
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…

And new phots are super expensive. You are paying more in the phone than your work notebook, something is terrible wrong with that.

That's why I drag out my upgrades as long as I can. If I want a decent upgrade it's gotta be higher end, and if it's higher end it's gonna be >$1000 CAD (if not ~$1,500). If I have to spend that much, I'm going to try to get it to last as long as possible so that I get the value out of the current phone AND the greatest improvements possible before plopping down that money down again.

The phone makers did it to themselves with the prices.

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

#222

Post by addcommitpush »

NickC25 wrote: post #213

I have an iPhone 11. I've had it for a while. I have no need to upgrade. Every feature I want in a phone, I have in my current phone. I miss the days of old, when phone lifecycles were similar to video game consoles - a new model was released every 3-4 years, with a massive leap in technological power. Even if you factor in Moore's law, there's little reason to release a new slew of phones every year, especially sinc…

If the company releases every year, you can always buy the lastest tech when you decide to buy. If it only releases every four year, unless you just happen to be in need of a new phone the exact year of the release, you're buying (slightly) older tech.

> Rather than giving everyone a significant reason to switch every few years, the industry seems to think that releasing new models with incremental differences every 9-14 months is the best way forward. It's dumb IMO.

There's a significant reason to switch every few years because (current model vs model of a few years ago) are quite different, even if (current model vs last yeast model) are not.

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

#223

Post by shrubble »

Older ZTE phone ($100) on earlier Android - I can install an SSH/rsync app and pull files down to my desktop easily.

Newer cheap Samsung phone ($100 but lower quality) - can no longer install any such app due to new Android policy, and it has a cheap band of plastic holding the screen in - after 1 drop I had to use tape to keep the screen from flopping out of the "tray" it is nestled into.

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

#224

Post by timeon »

parl_match wrote: post #124
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 have an iPhone 13 mini, the last <5" flagship phone you can buy. I'm not particularly tied to the iPhone ecosystem, but when this dies, I don't know what I'm going to do.

I'm starting to think about combination smart watches + dumb phone. But I have no clue how the smart watches actually are. But smartphone seems to be targeted for people that do not use laptop/desktop that much.

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

#225

Post by Balero »

huytersd wrote: post #183
ronnier wrote: post #13

Phones are feature complete. No huge compelling reason to upgrade. If you work for a living then it makes no sense to spend money on upgrading if you already have a relatively newish phone

It would be nice to have full LIDAR based 3D scanning on phones, one for better imaging and two to provide datasets for 2D to 3D LLMs.

You have to admit that is an extremely niche requirement.

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

#226

Post by seydor »

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…

Former S10 owner here. It had an audio jack, and an SpO2 meter (which is useful to a family member), and FM radio (used it a lot when doing farm work). The S22 has none of those, and it is heavier. Feeling so cheated by phone ~~makers~~ grifters is making me very careful with any of my next purchases. It's as if the market has reached a peak and the only thing they can think of is scraping the bottom of the barrel.

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

#227

Post by Axsuul »

Apple needs to make the upgrade experience better, still. Having all the apps and settings transferred is one thing, but having to re-login to all my apps and add all my Apple Pay cards again is extremely tedious and painful. I get why it's like that due to security implications but there should be a happy medium or opt-in at least.

Making it more seamless should get more upgrade adoption.

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

#228

Post by hollerith »

itishappy wrote: post #204
hollerith wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this $15/mo plan you have is available to US residents, can you please share details?

I'm on the smallest Verizon prepaid plan. Just checked, and I'm misreading the specifics, as it's actually $25/mo for 15GB. Sorry! Starts at $35/mo, and includes a $10 discount for autopay. I was expecting an addition $10 rebate, but apparently I'd need to add an extra line for that.

Thanks.

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

#229

Post by QuarterReptile »

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #127
parl_match wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an iPhone 13 mini, the last <5" flagship phone you can buy. I'm not particularly tied to the iPhone ecosystem, but when this dies, I don't know what I'm going to do.

Same here, I am genuinely shocked they discontinued the mini series. Will there be another version of the SE maybe?

People hate the short battery life, and all the high-powered parts of a premium phone (to the extent that they do take more power) are thus even worse suited to the small battery. Incidentally, I'm starting to want something with less battery; mine lasts over two days, so it seems like I should get something smaller. Problem is, from what I understand, iPhones still do slow charging in 2023.

Re:iPhone SE, the newest one was announced March 2022, a refresh from the 2020 predecessor, so I think you should consider them an active product line with slower refresh cycle fitting a lower-price device.

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

#230

Post by freedomben »

COGlory wrote: post #202

What upgrade? There's not a phone on the market that's meaningfully more compelling than my Pixel 5a. Maybe if I gamed on my phone or something, it would matter? But my camera is already better than I could ever reasonably need. My processor is fast enough to do everything I need without skipping a beat. I don't really watch movies on my phone but the screen is still probably the best screen of any device I own. The…

Same. Pixel 5a will be my primary until it's unusable. It's the most perfect phone there is right now, and I've tried a lot of them.

Rear fingerprint sensor is amazing, especially with the case. I don't even have to think about it because my finger naturally lands there and it unlocks quickly and accurately while I'm lifting the phone. The in-screen fingerprint sensors are a giant pain in the ass that I have to think about and work for.

The camera notch is in the perfect spot all the way to the left so it doesn't interrupt the top bar. It has a headphone jack. The camera is pretty good and the phone size is good.

It would very much so be a downgrade for me to move to a newer phone.

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