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Samsung taking market share from Apple in U.S. as foldable phones gain momentum

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Re: Samsung taking market share from Apple in U.S. as foldable phones gain momentum

#181

Post by sky2224 »

dkobia wrote: post #46

I thought the idea of a folding phone was just a cash grab until I saw someone on the plane across the aisle from me interacting with one. It has been a while since I saw someone get so much enjoyment out of a device. The back and forth between folded and unfolded to read messages and watch movies/read a book was mesmerizing. It made me realize that this form factor could actually enhance the user experience in a mea…

The big future that I see for foldables is as tablets for note takers.

Microsoft and Apple have already proven that students are willing to shell out the money to buy $1000+ products just to take hand written digital notes on. If Samsung or someone else could create a foldable that's in the ~$1500 range that can fold out into the size of an ipad mini AND has a good pen usage and storage situation, I believe it will sell incredibly well.

It'd be so cool to be able to walk to a lecture with only your phone.

Re: Samsung taking market share from Apple in U.S. as foldable phones gain momentum

#183

Post by carlosjobim »

ZeroCool2u wrote: post #52
dkobia wrote: post #46

I thought the idea of a folding phone was just a cash grab until I saw someone on the plane across the aisle from me interacting with one. It has been a while since I saw someone get so much enjoyment out of a device. The back and forth between folded and unfolded to read messages and watch movies/read a book was mesmerizing. It made me realize that this form factor could actually enhance the user experience in a mea…

I genuinely think book reading is the killer app for foldable devices. A bigger screen for a movie or TV is nice to have, but not a game changer. When you have that much screen real estate you can get a really enjoyable experience reading a novel or just easily read a textbook or research paper in a way that's simply not possible on even the largest of what you might consider a typical size phone. Plus, you no longer…

Kindles and their competitors have pretty much perfected the devices for this market. They are cheap, high quality, and last long. The few people who like to read do not mind carrying a dedicated reader. However a foldable eink reader would be interesting.

Re: Samsung taking market share from Apple in U.S. as foldable phones gain momentum

#184

Post by ryandrake »

ACow_Adonis wrote: post #171
wffurr wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> android also doesn't have the same polish as iOS As someone who switched from using Android for many years to iOS for the iPhone Mini, this seems to be all about what you're used to. The lack of polish on iOS for many features, notifications and quick settings first among them, makes me crazy but not enough to deal with a huge phone. Android's had the notification shade with integrated settings since just about da…

As someone who has an android personal phone and an iPhone for work for several years, I literally do not know what the hell people mean by "polish", beyond just the informal emotional utterance that can be translated back to "what I'm used to". Half of the stuff in the iPhone is equally arbitrary and mindboggling as the android.

I think a lot of it is just tribal mysticism. One gets used to their preferred devices, and then they mentally imbue them with positive qualities, conjured out of their own imagination/biases. There was an article[1] a while back where the author was complaining that Android apps feel "inert and rigid," and lack "comfort, fun, and panache." Like, really? How is anyone expected to compare one app's "panache" with another one's? You're just used to one ecosystem's apps, and other people are used to another ecosystem's apps.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34611552

Re: Samsung taking market share from Apple in U.S. as foldable phones gain momentum

#185

Post by oblio »

seec wrote: post #59
jrs235 wrote: post #33

Personally I think they're ugly. They might have some functional advantage, that I don't know. I believe they're going to be the cyber truck of mobile phones, primarily a status symbol.

Yes but it's not ugly in the look/fashion sense, it's just ugly because it doesn't match a reality where it has a purpose. Either they have good form factor closed but they suck open or they have good form factor open but they suck closed. They could go with no external screen but it would be much more annoying to use. And I think it says something fundamental about smartphones, that Steve Jobs intuitively understood…

The Fold 7 is thin enough that it's a convenient phone when not opened.

Re: Samsung taking market share from Apple in U.S. as foldable phones gain momentum

#186

Post by creer »

crinkly wrote: post #162
creer wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you prefer to carry a dedicated camera in addition to a phone, aren't you a far outlier? To the point that one of the most common sayings in photography is "the best camera is the one you carry" (even when it's the sub-par one).

I think that's really that most people don't know or don't care enough about photography. Which is fine. That's up to them. But some of us do care. "The best camera is the one you carry" is about opportunistic capture of moments i.e. it's better to record them on anything than nothing. That doesn't always work. I've lost more moments than I gained on a smartphone camera which won't focus on what I want, does weird un…

That's fair. (Heading off topic:) My take on that saying is that I make art when the inspiration strikes. So I am often caught carrying a minimal amount of stuff but noticing something and wanting to play with it. My very mediocre 1st gen iPhone SE is indeed absurdly far in capabilities from my serious camera - but historically there have been far worse cameras. (And it has never been quite the same since I replaced the battery and I annoy my friends by tapping the phone so it will auto-focus.)

Re: Samsung taking market share from Apple in U.S. as foldable phones gain momentum

#188

Post by neya »

baby wrote: post #108

I switched to Android last year, from being a long time iPhone user, just for the fold. I got the google pixel fold 9 pro. I also got lucky as it's right when all the cool AI integration started (and it sounds like it doesn't really work on Apple). My first hand experience is that I will probably never be able to go back to a non-folding phone. The ability to get a small tablet on demand anywhere (subway, train, bed,…

I discovered something insideous after being in the iOS ecosystem. Apple still slows down iPhones, but not in the way you think - every year around their iPhone launch schedule, like clockwork, my iPhone 14 Pro Max slowed down just enough to make me think it was ageing, but not enough to suspect - after a lot of tests, it turns out, the reponsitivity of the touch was being reduced in software. So, the "smooth" iOS polished animations feel a bit laggy, but not enough to raise eyebrows. But, this is not even the worst part. I casually - out of pure coincidence discovered that Apple actually reduces the camera's clarity around their new iPhone launches. Particularly low-light performance. I thought I was being paranoid, but I'm a photographer and the hotel I walked across everyday in the evening had these beautiful hanging creepers which combined with golden lighting, always provided a pleasant sight. So, I loved taking pictures of it randomly until one day I noticed that regardless of the camera mode, the noise was insanely high and the pictures suddenly looked like they were taken from an old Android phone from 2015. I cleaned the lenses, had no cover, etc. I copied the images to my computer and the difference was clearly visible.

After a little bit digging, it turns out, I wasn't the only one. A lot of people had complained about the lagginess around iPhone launch dates. This is an old graph from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd....

This is actual data from Google trends: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=iphone%2...

You can clearly see a spike in as recent as September 2025. But, the camera data was the last straw for me. As a photographer who paid $1000+ for the iPhone Pro Max - supposedly their latest and greatest phone of the time, only to get screwed over by greed 2 years later, I had enough.

I sold the iPhone at a loss, got myself a Samsung Note and I actually took pictures of the same hotel again and the difference was stark. That really told me everything I needed to know about Apple's ethics. In contrast, I also have a Samsung S10+ from ages ago and it still functions flawlessly. The trade off clearly is privacy with the Android eco-system, but until we have a decent Apple alternative that's also privacy focused, I'm forced to accept this trade off.

Funnily enough, my iPad and Macbooks never get slowed down, even if it's 5+ years. It's only for the iPhones. I guess they view the iPhone as fast fashion or something, but the ethical component is not acceptable to me.

Re: Samsung taking market share from Apple in U.S. as foldable phones gain momentum

#189

Post by yepitwas »

abandonliberty wrote: post #159
lapetitejort wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Riffing on a comment I saw on one of LinusTechTip's "Switch to Android/Apple" videos: phone users misinterpret familiarity with intuitiveness and polish. Android is "intuitive" to me because I've been using it more than a decade. It's "polished" because I'm blind to the rough edges.

I was really surprised when I first got an iPhone. After all the hype about it being so intuitive and polished, it was just different. Some things better, some things worse. But Apple devices take a bit longer to go obsolete, and seem just a tiny bit less invasive as they don't rely on an advertising model for revenue.

It’s gotten worse. 6 and earlier, it was uniquely friendly and approachable.

Re: Samsung taking market share from Apple in U.S. as foldable phones gain momentum

#190

Post by MBCook »

cma wrote: post #174
MBCook wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard a stat the other day in the Dithering podcast, I’m not sure from where, that said that foldable phones are something like 1.7% of the market in the US. If that’s close it’s not why Samsung‘s market share increased so much. That was for ALL foldable phones of all brands. That wouldn’t make statistical sense. There are people who like foldable phones. Apple does not have them. And Samsung‘s market share went up…

I doubt they are making all of the impact, but are we comparing market share of newly sold phones to market share of all in-use phones, or the podcast was talking about newly sold?

I’m not sure it qualified. I’d assume in-use. But I doubt phones that get close to $2000 are popular enough to be a large percentage of new phones either.

Better than 1.7%? Sure. Better than 5% I doubt it.

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