When your the best at what you do, it's easy to get complacent. Look at PALM and BlackBerry. Palm had the best scheduling SmartPhone on the Market and Blackberry had their legendary QWERTY Keypad. For those who are not familiar with what a QWERTY keypad is, look down at your computer keyboard and read the first line of letters. Yup, Qwerty basically means it's the same as a regular computer keyboard. Both of these companies are out of the SmartPhone manufacturing business. Not because of being overly proprietary or deceptive like Apple, but for thinking that they were the industry standard. I'm getting that "Deja Vu" feel like I have been here before sensation and I hope Apple doesn't think they are too big to suffer the same fate. After all, unlike their chief device competitors, Apple does not even make their own key device components. Amazingly, they buy their Super AMOLED iPhone X screens from Samsung, their biggest competitor. They are locked in a major lawsuit with Qualcomm, their primary processor manufacturer forcing them to also utilize Intel processors. I've always loved the stability and security of Apple's iOS. I never liked the fact that it seemed like I was two years behind the Google Android camp in respect to device technology though. Apple just admitted something that I would have never believed. They have been intentionally slowing down the processor speeds and performance of their iPhone 6s, SE and 7 series. Earlier this year, Apple had previously disclosed the fact that their latest iOS 11 would not support iPhone 5 and older models. There are hundreds of thousands of iPhone 3s, 4, 4s, 5, 5c and 5s models out there that, with a fresh battery would be as good as new. According to Apple, the reason that they slow down these models is the concern that the batteries wear out quicker and cause performance problems and/or shutdowns. Wouldn't it have been better to disclose this, or even better yet, make replacement batteries available for less than $80? After all, it's mostly the cameras and the processors that Apple keeps convincing us we need to "upgrade" to. Well, my 6s+ was plenty fast enough, until my last Apple iOS upgrade. The camera took fantastic pictures (like the one below) rivaling my Nikon Professional DSLR. I would still be using my 6s+ if it wasn't for the boneheads at Apple. What I find truly despicable is the fact that the iPhone 6s, 7 and SE series are not old or obsolete. They are being offered brand new today on Apple's website, as well as all of the wireless carriers. Despite this, Apple has been secretly baking in special software to slow down the processors on these devices. I suspect Apple's legal department is not going to have a very restful holiday this year. I wouldn't be surprised if all 50 states filed class action law suits. There has already been two suits I'm aware of filed in my home state of California. One in Los Angeles and the other in San Francisco. I'm glad I held on to my iPhone 6 phone for as long as I did. I'm not happy that I bought a new battery and found it still slower than when new but now I now why. All my fellow analysts feel that the iPhone 8 was obsolete before it even was released and doomed to fail for two reasons. While the entire Samsung Galaxy line did away with the obsolete bezels and LED screens in favor of full sized Super Amoled screens years ago on all models, the iPhone 8 still had the same lame screen and bezel that were on the iPhone 7, the iPhone 6s, and even the iPhone 6. To make matters even worse, Apple announced the the iPhone X, would arrive only a month after the iPhone 8 was released. Duh! I suspect that the carriers are now loaded to the gills with iPhone 8 models they cannot give away, but they are trying. Why else would they all be running BOGO deals. The good news... Samsung's S8+ is a pretty amazing model that actually out specks the iPhone X in many areas. Their SmartSwitch application made it super easy for me to move everything from my iPhone to Android including most Applications. It's not as easy to set up and optimize out of the box as an iPhone but once you do, you'll never look back. I hated the Samsung Keyboard but found the GBOARD (google's free keyboard) to blow the doors of even my iPhone's keypad. SIRI, ...sorry honey but I don't miss you one bit. I now have a whole team of virtual assistants. Alexa, Bixby, Cortana and Google' assistant. All out perform you and usually get it right on my first request. Yes, there is life after Apple and it's quite good.
3 Comments
Gary
12/23/2017 03:53:43 pm
I’m curious if you were backing up your iPhone over iCloud and what you do now that you’ve switched over. I am unfortunately Apple everything and enjoy how everything integrates with each other and wonder how to achieve the same result with switching to a Samsung/android device while still using my MacBook Pro?
Reply
Joel Saltzman
12/26/2017 09:56:45 am
I have two iMacs and a Mac Bool Pro and am very much still in the Apple eco-system. My iCloud/iDrive is just being used for Storage now. I'm using Samsung's cloud, Google's cloud, Drop Box, One SHARE, and one share for backups and accessing cloud docs. I have iCal set up to push events to my Google Calendar which I prefer to both Apple and Samsung's calendar. I really don't miss my iPhone at all and have not run into any roadblocks. The Samsung Smart Switch Application is pretty cool. I also prefer giving Samsung tech support remote access to trouble shoot settings and issues versus having to go to an Apple store and talking to a "genius".
Reply
Gary
12/31/2017 06:30:45 pm
That’s great news. Thanks Joel and happy next year to you and your family! Leave a Reply. |
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March 2021
CategoriesAuthorJoel Saltzman has over twenty years of wireless industry experience. He is currently CEO and Chief Wireless Analyst for Dr Wireless. |