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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

#291

Post by dangus »

Balero wrote: post #225
huytersd wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It does a bunch of really useful things, though.

It improves general camera performance by having an accurate depth scan. Things like portrait mode and object recognition benefit.

The Measure app is quietly one of the most amazing apps in existence. You can get an accurate measurement of anything anytime! The lidar sensor makes it far more accurate and less finnicky than on the non-Pro phones.

Obviously on its own it’s not worth an upgrade but it’s a great sensor to have on a phone.

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

#292

Post by meragrin_ »

mschuster91 wrote: post #195
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.

> 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. They have been for years, Western markets have been saturated for years - that's the reason why especially the German carmakers shifted all their attention towards China, the only place left that has enough wealthy people to afford their cars.

> Western markets have been saturated for years

The car market has not been saturated since 2020.

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

#293

Post by NeuNeurosis »

ajross wrote: post #265
NeuNeurosis wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a pixe6 and the OEM launcher has a date at the top you can't remove or change and a google chrome search bar at the bottom that you cant remove. You have to install a 3rd party launcher to remove them. https://www.stuff.tv/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/Goog...

Well, OK. The Google launcher app has... a Google search bar. But again that's just an app, and you can change it. And have been able to for years and years. What's the actual complaint here? I mean, the original complaint was that you can't install your own apps on the home screen. So how is it wrong that the mechanism to do so is to... install your own app? To be glib: The contention was that you can't change this…

"I can't even customise the home screen as much ( Literally cannot remove a link to Chrome and other google apps )." I was simply clarifying the point the OP brought up. You literally cannot remove that search bar from the homescreen https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/133065648/is-th... And my point stands, with the Pixel launcher you cant change either of the features mentioned. And an aside: Interesting how you made me and the OP sound deranged because we don't want to install a 3rd party service to customize the use of our phones. Great Convo

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

#294

Post by Dwedit »

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

No, there still is a reason to need to replace a perfectly good phone, and it is purely software related. Manufacturers stop supporting their OS for phones, leaving you with something obsolete with lots of security holes. App makers enforce a minimum version of Android.

Even if you can unlock your bootloader and install a new version of Android OS, you will still get screwed over by SafetyNet, good luck installing any banking apps.

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

#295

Post by lkramer »

warner25 wrote: post #269
lkramer wrote: post #256

My Motorola G7 from 2018ish had not received a security update since 2021, and was feeling a bit sluggish. I considered upgrading, but I'm not keen on throwing away ~£2-300 when there is nothing technically wrong with the device, so I finally made the effort to wipe the stock android and install Lineage OS last week, and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The only key thing which I almost messed up was t…

Interesting. I had a Moto G7 and I was happy with it for a year until I broke the screen and couldn't find anyone to repair it. I replaced it with a similar Moto G Power since the G7 was discontinued and I ended up in the same boat as you: Android security updates ended but it still works perfectly for my limited purposes. I can't stomach the idea of paying several hundred dollars for a new device when this one works…

Actually mine is G7 Power, it's perfectly supported by Lineage OS: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ocean/

Only thing that was a little tricky was that you needed to go to Motorola's website to unlock it, but once I grokked it, it took around 10 minutes.

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

#296

Post by lkramer »

lkramer wrote: post #295
warner25 wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I had a Moto G7 and I was happy with it for a year until I broke the screen and couldn't find anyone to repair it. I replaced it with a similar Moto G Power since the G7 was discontinued and I ended up in the same boat as you: Android security updates ended but it still works perfectly for my limited purposes. I can't stomach the idea of paying several hundred dollars for a new device when this one works…

Actually mine is G7 Power, it's perfectly supported by Lineage OS: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ocean/ Only thing that was a little tricky was that you needed to go to Motorola's website to unlock it, but once I grokked it, it took around 10 minutes.

I also realise I must have bought it in 2019, since that's the year it came out.

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

#297

Post by vel0city »

Glyptodon wrote: post #197
huytersd wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They cost about 20% more, for now. That’s not a ton considering you can break even on gas alone in 2-3 years, depending on how you drive.

I can't see how. New to new, a cheap ICE economy car can still run low $20s and your total fuel costs over 3 years will probably be under $2k. And even a cheaper EV like a Chevy Bolt won't make up the difference. It seems like the gap only gets worse when comparing higher up the price curve hybrids to their EV cousins.

At 13,000mi/yr (average US mileage), 30MPG, $4/gal, that's $1,733.33/yr.

Same mileage, 3.5mi/kWh, $0.12/kWh, that's $445.71/yr.

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

#298

Post by generalizations »

gpm wrote: post #194
generalizations wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically the LTE iWatches are a <5" phone, too.

Can you use them completely independently from an Apple phone? I thought not... Context: I'm not particularly interested in switching to Apple's phone ecosystem, but their watches seem to be superior to Android's and I am slightly interested in getting one of them.

With the newer iterations, you can. I bought a series 5 used off ebay and plan to try using it independently. It's obviously not going to give you the full functionality of a full-sized phone, but if we're talking minimalist phones I don't think that's the point anyway. Maps + (very) basic texting + phone calls.

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

#299

Post by randomdata »

ianburrell wrote: post #289
randomdata wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why is the stated main benefit lost?

The benefit is that you can use any USB-C cable for charging. You can also use any USB-C cable for data transfer at low speed, which is what the iPhone supports. With iPhone Pro, you can transfer at low-speed with any cable or high speed with USB3 cable. But most people would rather carry a cheap, light, 6 ft charging cable than heavy, expensive, 3ft for the rare case of transferring data.

But why is USB-C not a benefit of the iPhone 15, per the discussion? It has a USB-C connector, only limited by its USB2 implementation.

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

#300

Post by ajross »

NeuNeurosis wrote: post #293
ajross wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, OK. The Google launcher app has... a Google search bar. But again that's just an app, and you can change it. And have been able to for years and years. What's the actual complaint here? I mean, the original complaint was that you can't install your own apps on the home screen. So how is it wrong that the mechanism to do so is to... install your own app? To be glib: The contention was that you can't change this…

"I can't even customise the home screen as much ( Literally cannot remove a link to Chrome and other google apps )." I was simply clarifying the point the OP brought up. You literally cannot remove that search bar from the homescreen https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/133065648/is-th... And my point stands, with the Pixel launcher you cant change either of the features mentioned. And an aside: Interesting h…

> And an aside: Interesting how you made me and the OP sound deranged because we don't want to install a 3rd party service to customize the use of our phones.

Fair enough, but I was trying to phrase it as a gentle joke.

I mean... you're trying to "customize" them to make them use "3rd party services"! That's the whole point! That's what you want! You want something not-Google, and you're mad that the mechanism to do so is to... not use the Google app.

I mean, you get that that's hilarious, right? Do you get likewise angry (maybe you'd say "deranged") that Microsoft has a Bing search bar on the desktop, or non-removable OneDrive integration in the file browser? That Apple sets you up with an account by default when you unbox your iPhone?

In point of fact, and being completely serious here: of all the major-vendor client platforms out there, Google Android is by far the most customizable in the sense of "removing the vendor's own app integration". Go try to swap your browser on iOS. I really don't understand why you're so upset.

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