iPhone6 will kill high end Android phones in the US

[Kaido]

iPhone6 will kill high end Android phones in the US

I'm predicting it will. The major reason why Android rose to prominence so fast in the high-end was the larger screens. It wasn't the software, apps, or any other reason IMHO. It was those big beautiful 4.5-6" screens. With that advantage completely thwarted I see no reason why any average consumer would choose a similarly priced Android phone over the iPhone6.

Anecdotally, I know a ton of friends who are jumping ship now that Apple finally caved in and delivered on the large screen goodness. What are your thoughts?

As an iPhone fanboy...nope. They are two entirely different platforms. One is an appliance to use as a tool (iPhone) and the other is basically a computer you can tinker with. I don't like to tinker with my phone, so I have an iPhone. If you really like to dig into things, Android is amazing. Root it, change the theme, tweak the settings, tons of you stuff you can't do without a jailbroken iPhone. Plus, Android always gets the latest hardware, so you always have the newest CPU, camera, and other techy features available, if you're into upgrading often.

I don't think it's so much Apple vs. Android anymore, as much as it is whether you want an appliance or a computer.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

Does that stuff play when you ask Google?

Gonna need to test that out at lunch. I've always been trying to play songs that are physically on my phone's sd card. Is there a way to get google music to store more than 25k songs?

edit: I just looked and its 20k songs actually.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

my thoughts are that I don't know a single person who has swapped from android to IOS or IOS to android in the past 3 years and I don't see that changing anytime soon

and besides paying me 10s or thousands of $ nothing is going to get me to swap to an iphone. id go to windows before I went to IOS

I swapped from Android to iOS last October.

 

[ControlD]

serious question - do android phones ever have lines and lines of people waiting to preorder and purchase them?

Why would there be? There are "flagship" Android phones being released all year long. Apple does it once a year. They get everyone all worked into a lather with leaked photos, hints whispered in earshot of bloggers, etc. Hold a huge event to push everyone over their emotional edge and then sit back and watch the madness ensue. It seems to be a good strategy.

Still, I wonder why it's so hard to wait a few weeks and just walk into your local store and get one once the madness has died down.

 

[Red Storm]

I don't think it's so much Apple vs. Android anymore, as much as it is whether you want an appliance or a computer.

I agree, though I'm an Android fan and I don't root. I do all my customizing through apps & widgets in the Play Store, no root required. It lets me use my Android phone with one hand better than my iPhone 5, that's just one example.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Gonna need to test that out at lunch. I've always been trying to play songs that are physically on my phone's sd card.

It should scan your card on boot and add them to the Google Music app.

 

[openwheel]

LOL seriously?

 

[Zaap]

have their been [any type of consumer product] that have this kind of craze around them?

What was the last thing I as a rational adult wanted to buy that had "boy-band playing at the mall" lines of rabid fans standing in days-long lines waiting for?

My car? Nope. Home A/V equipment? Nope. Computers? Nope. Cameras? Nope.

Phone? *Thankfully*... nope.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

It should scan your card on boot and add them to the Google Music app.

Well yeah, it does that. They are in the music app, but not in the cloud. Still can't play specific songs by talking to it. Hmm. I do think with some tweaking I could make this happen.

 

[WelshBloke]

Well yeah, it does that. They are in the music app, but not in the cloud. Still can't play specific songs by talking to it. Hmm. I do think with some tweaking I could make this happen.

"Ok Google. Play Iron Maiden The Trooper. "

 

[Anubis]

I swapped from Android to iOS last October.

yea and I don't know you

 

[Anubis]

Well yeah, it does that. They are in the music app, but not in the cloud. Still can't play specific songs by talking to it. Hmm. I do think with some tweaking I could make this happen.

TBH I don't know if you can upload local music to the cloud from the phone using google music ( I have to assume you can Ive just never done it)

I uploaded all my stuff from the computer, and yes the 20k song limit is killing me as well.

works fine with ok google play XXXX

 

[purbeast0]

Why would there be? There are "flagship" Android phones being released all year long. Apple does it once a year. They get everyone all worked into a lather with leaked photos, hints whispered in earshot of bloggers, etc. Hold a huge event to push everyone over their emotional edge and then sit back and watch the madness ensue. It seems to be a good strategy.

Still, I wonder why it's so hard to wait a few weeks and just walk into your local store and get one once the madness has died down.

all you had to say was "no".

and op is a moran.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

yea and I don't know you

Do you wanna? :sneaky:

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

TBH I don't know if you can upload local music to the cloud from the phone using google music ( I have to assume you can Ive just never done it)

I uploaded all my stuff from the computer, and yes the 20k song limit is killing me as well.

works fine with ok google play XXXX

That 20k limit alone may be enough to drive me away at this point. But, further research will need to be conducted.

 

[Commodus]

I'm not so sure on that. There are a number of things that the Note still does that the 6+ doesn't. It's a far better "productivity" device with the pen input, better use of multi screen and floating windows. Plus it still offers 2x the available storage out of the box that the 6+ does. And if that's not enough a dirt cheap SD card will bump that up even more. And battery life wise, I would think that the Note bests the 6+.

The storage may make a difference, but I think a lot of supporters tend to overstate the value Samsung brings to the table. People don't buy Galaxy Notes for the multi-window support (as useful as that is), and many don't even get them for the pen input -- it's mostly about that big screen.

Samsung isn't just phones. They have a huge portfolio of products they make. They will gut the price of a device to make it move or add incentives to get them off the shelves that Apple will not do. They'll eat $150 in phone revenue to take a sell away from Apple or sweeten the pot doing a 2 for 1 deal. Money still talks when it comes to consumers.

I can see Samsung doing this, but it's hard to say if it'd help. It both suggests that the device is somehow worth less and that the company is a bit desperate. Samsung started aggressively cutting GS5 prices relatively quickly, for instance, but the estimates I've seen still suggest that the iPhone 5s was still outselling it. All it takes is a lack of perceived value and a device suddenly faces an uphill battle in the market, no matter what the price.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Looks like there are apps that can do the voice control. I tried one, Utter, and it recognized my command fine. I'm going to drop it though because it requires you to say the artist and track name. Looks like there's a number of alternatives that I might look at:

Sherpa, Dragon, Maluuba, Assistant, Indigo.

I honestly wish Google was still in the truly "no evil" era since that Google would've made Voice Commands work and work with any music app at that.

 

[HumblePie]

serious question - do android phones ever have lines and lines of people waiting to preorder and purchase them?

Pre-order? Yes.
Line? No.

Why? Because of a better distribution system where there isn't a limited number of stores with a small supply except the apple stores to drive up consumer demand through herd mentality. I certainly pre-ordered my G3 as well as my previous HTC EVO 4g LTE phone. I was excited to get both of them.

But your argument is very much a strawman tactic where long lines don't mean squat to the point of the original post.

 

[tuan209]

I use to install custom ROMs on a weekly basis but ever since Kitkat, I havent "tinkered" with my phone much.

Right now I have a Moto X and the only thing Ive done with it is root...

I couldnt ever imagine myself going over to iOS. I just find the operating system cumbersome to use with settings within settings. iOS 8 has improved but not nearly enough.

Hardware wise, the Iphones are nice but I still perfer something like the Moto X in terms of ergonomics.

One thing I really like about the iPhones though is their overall camera system. I dont think the pics out of the iphones are leaps and bounds ahead of their Android counterpart, but as a package, software and hardware wise the iPhone's camera system is great.

 

[HumblePie]

As an iPhone fanboy...nope. They are two entirely different platforms. One is an appliance to use as a tool (iPhone) and the other is basically a computer you can tinker with. I don't like to tinker with my phone, so I have an iPhone. If you really like to dig into things, Android is amazing. Root it, change the theme, tweak the settings, tons of you stuff you can't do without a jailbroken iPhone. Plus, Android always gets the latest hardware, so you always have the newest CPU, camera, and other techy features available, if you're into upgrading often.

I don't think it's so much Apple vs. Android anymore, as much as it is whether you want an appliance or a computer.

I don't tinker with my phones anymore. Don't have to with the G3. It's sleek, sophisticated, and does a ton more than the iPhone 6 does. All without having to root or mess with stuff. There are actually more apps for it now, and apps that used to be skewed better on iOS, no longer are.

I use my G3 to do the following:

As phone.
Surf the internet.
E-reader
Nice camera
Very nice camcorder
Play games from Sudoku to Clash of Clans to Kritika
Watch movies
Stream movies from my phone to any DLNA device
Listen to music
Universal remote control with the built in IR blaster I can control any device in the house
GPS mapping
Voice control/commands
Banking needs from checking balance, transferring money, paying bills, and depositing checks through the phone.
Use the NFC Soft Card app to buy things just by swiping my phone now


That's what I use it for off the top of my head without ever having to "tinker" around with the phone at all. Just slap in an SD card for extra storage (splurged for a 128GB card), and install the apps I want off Google Play store. It's a fantastic device that has no noticeable performance issues at all. Better screen than the iPhone, better camera, and for me better apps. It's lighter, water resistant, and better built. Plus does things the iPhone 6 still can't do like the IR blaster. Just wish that it had a built in FM transmitter like a few other android phones.

 

[desura]

Exactly why OP is wrong.

Verizon and AT&T don't want Apple to "win" the high-end market. Top Android phones give them a higher margin and a bigger chance to push their shovelware/features.

They will lean on the salesforce to keep selling Android, and that is what will happen.

Well, they'll try. But most people will walk in, see the larger iphone, and be impressed. There is still a general preference for iOS over Android IMO (I personally prefer iOS as well).

It's kind of like the TV display thing, where all of the ones have their brightness turned up even though cinemaphiles insist on black levels. Now there's a bigger screen, and it's apple.

 

[badb0y]

Pre-order? Yes.
Line? No.

Why? Because of a better distribution system where there isn't a limited number of stores with a small supply except the apple stores to drive up consumer demand through herd mentality. I certainly pre-ordered my G3 as well as my previous HTC EVO 4g LTE phone. I was excited to get both of them.

But your argument is very much a strawman tactic where long lines don't mean squat to the point of the original post.

Wow....this is some next level ignorance man. You do know that Samsung sold 11 million Galaxy S5s in a month while Apple has sold 10 million iPhones 6s 3 days right?

There is a big difference between that and people buying straight out of contract phones. If anything the new financing options are for people who can't wait two years for a new high-end smartphone. They are not the OnePlus target market.



Except the Nexus nor any of the Chinese companies are making a dent in the US market. And its nothing like PCs- unlike PCs that just get BETTER with an online connection, these phones are pretty much worthless without a wireless plan. That means the subsidy option will always exist in some form, and so will messed up consumer pricing expectations.

We are seeing out of contract high-end Android prices fall, but that is a small part of the domestic high-end phone sales.

You don't understand what I am getting at and not sure why either. Samsung can keep improving their phone year after year but I think we have long past the point of that driving new phone purchases. The new Samsung phones has a QHD display, cool but is it really that different from the 1080p display used on previous Samsung phones? General consumers aren't going to keep buying new and powerful high end devices when previous ones do the same thing and certainly not when other companies offer similar specs for a cheaper price. You arguments were the exact same arguments people put forth for OEMs back in the late 90s early 2000s and looks where we are now.

 

[purbeast0]

Pre-order? Yes.
Line? No.

Why? Because of a better distribution system where there isn't a limited number of stores with a small supply except the apple stores to drive up consumer demand through herd mentality. I certainly pre-ordered my G3 as well as my previous HTC EVO 4g LTE phone. I was excited to get both of them.

But your argument is very much a strawman tactic where long lines don't mean squat to the point of the original post.

except i wasn't arguing anything - i was asking a question.

jesus christ some android guys get so butt hurt over anything apple. all 3 replies to a basic question i asked were people replying in a defensive manner.

 

[Imported]

I don't want to tinker with my phones anymore so I'm tempted to get the IP6. I haven't even upgraded my M7 to Kit Kat yet cause it honestly feels like a pain in the ass to do. I think I'll wait till the Nexus 6 is announced and decide then. I know I don't want a phablet though.

Things I'll miss: back button, my Play purchases and ES File Explorer. I'll most likely have to get a Nexus tablet of some sort so those purchases don't go to waste if I go back to Apple.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

except i wasn't arguing anything - i was asking a question.

jesus christ some android guys get so butt hurt over anything apple. all 3 replies to a basic question i asked were people replying in a defensive manner.

well, to be fair this should be expected from this type of thread.

I don't want to tinker with my phones anymore so I'm tempted to get the IP6. I haven't even upgraded my M7 to Kit Kat yet cause it honestly feels like a pain in the ass to do. I think I'll wait till the Nexus 6 is announced and decide then. I know I don't want a phablet though.

Things I'll miss: back button, my Play purchases and ES File Explorer.

Yeah, I'm past the tinkering stage too. My s3 is rooted and rommed but every time I get a freeze up or even a slight pause i think "damn it, I should be just sticking with stock because its more tested and bugs hammered out". And there is rarely anything I need to do anymore that requires a root...besides actually throwing a rom on there.