61–70 of 110 posts
This is why I sold my wife's Samsung and got her an iPhone again. I rather pay 700 for something made to delight me then 300 for something that can be used to show me crap apps
This is a false dichotomy. The Nexus 5 is $349 off-contract and has no bloatware. The Moto X is going on sale for just $300 off-contract tomorrow (the regular off-contract price being $400).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with your thinking, though I think we'd still have bloatware on phones even if there were more competition among wireless carriers. PC market is quite competitive, yet most computers come with bloatware. The difference is, they can be uninstalled, but I suspect that may be due to OEM licensing agreement with Microsoft, than the competition among PC makers. But at least with PCs, some of the revenue gained fro…
The main difference it that I can install a fresh copy of Windows or Linux on my PC and it works, while there is no such thing as "stock Android". It depends on the hardware, so the OEM have all the power.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with your thinking, though I think we'd still have bloatware on phones even if there were more competition among wireless carriers. PC market is quite competitive, yet most computers come with bloatware. The difference is, they can be uninstalled, but I suspect that may be due to OEM licensing agreement with Microsoft, than the competition among PC makers. But at least with PCs, some of the revenue gained fro…
The main difference it that I can install a fresh copy of Windows or Linux on my PC and it works, while there is no such thing as "stock Android". It depends on the hardware, so the OEM have all the power.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with your thinking, though I think we'd still have bloatware on phones even if there were more competition among wireless carriers. PC market is quite competitive, yet most computers come with bloatware. The difference is, they can be uninstalled, but I suspect that may be due to OEM licensing agreement with Microsoft, than the competition among PC makers. But at least with PCs, some of the revenue gained fro…
I think that if the market was fully competetive, everyone was fully informed and both customers and companies made optimal decisions, then most phone wouldn't have bloatware. Otherwise, it would mean that phones with bloatware are actually better than (perhaps slightly more expensive) clean phones. But I just don't think this is the case, bloatware simple doesn't have much real value.
With offer a you get a fast cpu, a weather app, and free surf between sunday 1pm and sunday 3pm. With offer b you get lots of ram, control your tv app, and cheap calls within our network.
I'm surprised that so many people believe in the free market ideology (e.g. market regulation is always wrong). The error in this type of reasoning is very simple. They first assume an idealized market model and then derive conclusions from it – but the idealized market is just too different from real-world markets. It's really that simple but many really smart people fall for it.
The idea that violence is perfectly justified just because somebody provided a shitty phone experience almost physically sickens me.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The main difference it that I can install a fresh copy of Windows or Linux on my PC and it works, while there is no such thing as "stock Android". It depends on the hardware, so the OEM have all the power.
CyanogenMod is the equivalent of installing a fresh copy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The main difference it that I can install a fresh copy of Windows or Linux on my PC and it works, while there is no such thing as "stock Android". It depends on the hardware, so the OEM have all the power.
What do the Nexus lines of phones come with?
I'm surprised that so many people believe in the free market ideology (e.g. market regulation is always wrong). The error in this type of reasoning is very simple. They first assume an idealized market model and then derive conclusions from it – but the idealized market is just too different from real-world markets. It's really that simple but many really smart people fall for it.
People seem to think that the free market will automagically drive towards their arbitrary measure of goodness because, in theory, if consumers share that arbitrary measure of goodness they won't buy something that doesn't offer that. But in reality, there is only one truism in free-markets, businesses need to make money and that sometimes runs contrary to whatever issue I personally think the market should optimize…
If there are many under-informed consumers, these will often select pseudo-randomly, and the few well-informed consumers will select well. The small number of well-informed consumers will often make the difference between a profitable product and an unprofitable product (especially in highly competitive markets).
In many cases, ill-informed consumers will pay for information about products which are significant to them; this is why "Consumer Reports" sells new and used car buying guides, as well as why video game reviews exist, and why Amazon.com has reviews.
In cases where purchases are less costly to the consumers, or a repeat purchase is involved, people will often correct based on personal experience and brand reputation, which is imperfect, but relatively effective.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with your thinking, though I think we'd still have bloatware on phones even if there were more competition among wireless carriers. PC market is quite competitive, yet most computers come with bloatware. The difference is, they can be uninstalled, but I suspect that may be due to OEM licensing agreement with Microsoft, than the competition among PC makers. But at least with PCs, some of the revenue gained fro…
The main difference it that I can install a fresh copy of Windows or Linux on my PC and it works, while there is no such thing as "stock Android". It depends on the hardware, so the OEM have all the power.
Within a couple days, I had removed whatever godawful contrivance was on there when I bought it in favor of CyanogenMod. Truly, the OEM (NB: the OEM here didn't even install the crapware) has all the power.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How much money do you reckon they saved on the laptop? How much is your time worth?
this is an unsourced data point, but I remember reading (on multiple ocasions) that OEM installs can cost something from 10 cents to a dollar. So even at the high end, you're maybe saving 10 to 15 dollars...
If they were really concerned about maximising consumer value, they wouldn't keep picking dumb prices that end in '9.99'.