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The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

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Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#271

Post by OJFord »

0x0 wrote: post #12
threeseed wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why people are so confused on this. Apple ships models that fill the lower price brands. It is the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 which are still supported and being sold.

Buying iPhone 7 or 8, ie a one or two year old phone, practically guarantees that you'll hit the end of the road with iOS major version update availability one or two years earlier, which means you'll have to buy a new phone one or two years earlier. Not sure if the $100 or so that you save is worth losing a year of updates. In other words - adding $100 or so buys you a whole 'nother year or two of usage on your curr…

Most people don't think or know about that though, it will just be 'oh I didn't get the update' at most when the time comes.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#272

Post by londons_explore »

walrus01 wrote: post #244
londons_explore wrote: post #228

I recently got a Umidigi A3 Pro [1] as my main phone. It's an iPhone X clone for $85. Is it as good? No. But it's nearly as good, and has the flexibility of Android (tethering when the carrier doesn't allow it, side loading 'dodgy' apps, multi-sim so I can always get coverage even indoors, hackable headphone volume, call recording without hassle). Overall, I'd value the iPhone and fake iPhone the same for my uses. An…

Beware of super cheap phones you find on AliExpress, in many cases the mediatek chipset ones, as a part of the "manufacturer" creating a rooted Android build for them, come with gaping security holes or outright backdoors. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/chinese-smartphone-might-serio...

Having spent some time reading Qualcomm/broadcom/mediatek patches, I don't really consider any Android phone to be secure against anything more than script kiddies. If you want security, you go iPhone or no-phone.

There are 'security by obscurity' benefits to having a minor brand though, simply because the attacker will probably have to adapt the exploit rather than use it straight off the shelf.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#273

Post by orloffm »

lettergram wrote: post #40

My wife and I bought an XS (for her) and XR (for me). We both had Nexus 6p and they were at end of life and wanted to get her a nicer phone for Christmas. Well, after playing with both the XR takes better photos, generally. In addition, the XR gets probably 30% more life on a single charge. Nothing else on the XS is really much better (outside of a couple nice to haves). So now she has the XR and I have the XS. ID re…

Just to note as a single lacking feature of XR: it doesn't have the ForceTouch, so one cannot easily move cursor around text.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#274

Post by marbletiles »

lsc wrote: post #266
marbletiles wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree totally. But this is partly Apple's bind: a phone like you're describing appeals to rich Westerners with multiple primary devices and that's just too small a market for them now. Their pressing corporate need is to make a device that will help them grow in China, maximising their take from the billions who don't have multiple devices. In the olden days, when Apple was much smaller, they were ironically freer…

too small a market? The US still has a staggering share of world GDP, and the per-capita GDP (remember, PPP doesn't matter from Apple's perspective) is much higher in the USA. I mean, the per-captita GDP in China is under $10K/yr. Not a lot of those people are gonna spend a grand on a phone. I think this is one of those situations where you count dollars rather than heads. My understanding is that the "next billion u…

It's the problem of subsitutes that matters in the US: what do rich people who want a small premium iPhone do when they can't get one? They likely don't go to Android, there isn't a small phone worth a damn there. They probably buy an iPhone, right? Likely an XS, since that's the smallest of the new phones. Apple isn't losing anything on them.

The market you're really talking about them capturing with a small premium phone is "rich people who have multiple devices and want a small phone and when they can't get one they buy an Android phone or make do with an SE". I'd wager that's small in most terms, certainly in Apple terms -- whether you're talking dollars or heads.

But what do the top-end Chinese consumers do when Apple doesn't have a phone that appeals to them? They buy one of the other flagships that run WeChat, and Apple loses them. That's big in Apple terms, missed-expectations-warning big.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#275

Post by londons_explore »

coredog64 wrote: post #248
londons_explore wrote: post #228

I recently got a Umidigi A3 Pro [1] as my main phone. It's an iPhone X clone for $85. Is it as good? No. But it's nearly as good, and has the flexibility of Android (tethering when the carrier doesn't allow it, side loading 'dodgy' apps, multi-sim so I can always get coverage even indoors, hackable headphone volume, call recording without hassle). Overall, I'd value the iPhone and fake iPhone the same for my uses. An…

Can you use cases made for the Apple as well, or did you have to find ones specific to that phone?

Button placement is different, so iPhone cases probably wouldn't work well. It comes with a basic case which covers all my requirements tho, and at the end of the day, I can smash it 14 times and still have paid less than the iPhone.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#276

Post by jhayward »

bshoemaker wrote: post #221
simonh wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, apart from the latest iPhones having the best screens ever, the quickest most convenient and most secure unlock mechanism ever, the best computational photography ever, the fastest mobile CPUs ever released and overall being 2+ years ahead of their nearest competition, that was all a few months ago. Old news. What have Apple done for us just now?

Oh wow, the best unlock mechanism. What a feature!

It's a major improvement over having to fingerprint unlock every time I pick up my phone. I can't speak for the comparative security of each, but as an ease-of-use feature it's a home run.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#277

Post by yoz-y »

xfitm3 wrote: post #265
llampx wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to love going to the Apple Store and playing with the new iPhones, iPads and Macbooks, especially soon after a new product launch. Maybe its just me getting older but it doesn't have the same appeal anymore.

I avoid apple stores at all costs. It’s crowded, long lines, and always located in a busy area or dense shopping mall.

I share your experience but I think that all of that shows that they are doing something right, having too many customers is hardly a bad problem to have.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#278

Post by rigidglobe »

jimmyspice wrote: post #261
rigidglobe wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have switched to android this year due to high iPhone XS price had it not been the “need” to stay in iMessages. When most of your friends are having a blue chat bubble, you don’t want to be “that guy”. iMessages is apples secret weapon and I’m surprised android hasn’t done their own iMessages api where all android can interoperable. Or at the very least why hasnt Samsung done their own? Finally, other secret…

> I’m surprised android hasn’t done their own iMessages api where all android can interoperable Google have tried this at too high a level (allo and duo). I guess the reason why it wasn't made for AOSP and instead put on the play store is because they want the masses to be using a Google product. A bit of a shame, since given android ownership rates a 'free' service like that over IP would be cool. Maybe the real pro…

interesting ! Google has strategists of all kinds in place, I wonder if they would make a stupid short term blunder of greed in owning an app over offering a free api for their business customers to compete against the apple juggernaut. The data ownership issue is real; seems to be a tough problem to solve given that not every manufacturer would play ball (why would Samsung want to yield their hard earned ecosystem to upstarts who plan to uproot them?). And also the security implications too, with so many smaller players in the android game (similar to fb issue with letting their other api users have access to user messages).

It does not seem possible for google to solve this problem for a long time, since they seem to rely on ad revenue to invest in their other businesses.

I don’t foresee apple going down any time soon due to that one issue that google has alone.

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#279

Post by yoz-y »

SyneRyder wrote: post #237
have_faith wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because they cost more to build Then they should offer models that are cheaper to manufacture, like the 5c. I'm surprised not to see a successor to the 5c. Maybe they are worried it would be too popular and gouge sales of flagship models negating some of their premium branding. I'm currently on a 6s and see no update path for myself, I would happily sacrifice faceID and some of the higher-end phone materials for a…

> I'm surprised not to see a successor to the 5c. Maybe they are worried it would be too popular... The 5C was a sales flop. In Australia, the 5S was outselling the 5C by eleven times [1]. Even in China, people were buying the more expensive iPhone rather than the plastic 5C one [2]. [1] https://www.smh.com.au/technology/australian-telcos-struggle... [2] https://techcrunch.com/2014/03/24/apples-iphone-5c-sales-sto...

Why people thought that the 5C was supposed to be a cheap phone for China is beyond me. Most people in China who can afford iPhones would not want to have "the cheap one".

Re: The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR

#280

Post by jhayward »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #72
lostlogin wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you want no Face ID or are you just happy to forgo it?

My problem with Face ID is how close I have to be to it to work — when sitting in its cradle on the dashboard, I can't face-unlock.

That's funny, because mine works flawlessly from the dash which is one reason I love Face ID.
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