Has the iphone changed much since its release?

[Fr0dders]

Are any of the above incorrect?

Yes

1) Cheapness - value is just one part of their appeal. The other part of their appeal is the functionality that the iphone cant offer - like the ability to get under the hood, rip everything out, rootkit the phone, install apps that let you do whatever illegal activies you want to do, turn it into a wireless AP etc...It gives users the sort of freedom they dont have with an iphone

2) they arent a rip off, but they are trying to cash in on the increase in popularity of smartphones that apple created by simpfying the smartphone into something that even jeremy clarkson can use (who has an iphone)

3) HTC / Android phones are very good phones in their own right. They perhaps dont have the same style as the iphone, but the sort of person who buys these phones doesn't care about that. They see themselves as rebelling against the apple sheep - despite the fact that in our straw pool of IT support staff - there are 2iphone users and 5 HTC desire users - and they claim the apple users are the "sheep"

 

[Redmelo]

Are any of the above incorrect?

Yes, all three.

- relative popularity of Android / HTC is that they are cheaper and therefore more attainable
Technically, this is correct. However - EVERY phone is sold cheaper than the apple phones. Are the production costs of the iPhones so high, no. Ever wonder why they are so expensive?


- virtually every smart phone released in the last 3 years has been a rip off of the iPhone - just uglier and not quite so able
You should look up what a smartphone is. For example I dont see many blackberry devices ripping off the iPhone.

- The fact that the Apple can dominate the smart phone market with only one model per year says it all IMO.
Yea, Apple does not dominate the smartphone market.

 

[n111ck]

Yes

1) Cheapness - value is just one part of their appeal. The other part of their appeal is the functionality that the iphone cant offer - like the ability to get under the hood, rip everything out, rootkit the phone, install apps that let you do whatever illegal activies you want to do, turn it into a wireless AP etc...It gives users the sort of freedom they dont have with an iphone

2) they arent a rip off, but they are trying to cash in on the increase in popularity of smartphones that apple created by simpfying the smartphone into something that even jeremy clarkson can use (who has an iphone)

3) HTC / Android phones are very good phones in their own right. They perhaps dont have the same style as the iphone, but the sort of person who buys these phones doesn't care about that. They see themselves as rebelling against the apple sheep - despite the fact that in our straw pool of IT support staff - there are 2iphone users and 5 HTC desire users - and they claim the apple users are the "sheep"

1 - you can (or will be able to soon) jailbreak an iphone

2 - they all look like the iphone (without the design) even down to the icon layout on some of them.

3 - are you serious??? Thats the lamest thing I have ever heard. Basically you are saying that HTC / Android phones are for emo types?

 

[n111ck]

Yes, all three.

- relative popularity of Android / HTC is that they are cheaper and therefore more attainable
Technically, this is correct. However - EVERY phone is sold cheaper than the apple phones. Are the production costs of the iPhones so high, no. Ever wonder why they are so expensive?


- virtually every smart phone released in the last 3 years has been a rip off of the iPhone - just uglier and not quite so able
You should look up what a smartphone is. For example I dont see many blackberry devices ripping off the iPhone.

- The fact that the Apple can dominate the smart phone market with only one model per year says it all IMO.
Yea, Apple does not dominate the smartphone market.

1 = design, support, quality - as with arguable all Apple products.

2 = Blackberry Bold

3 = which smart phone has outsold the iphone in the last year then?

 

[Fr0dders]

1 - you can (or will be able to soon) jailbreak an iphone

2 - they all look like the iphone (without the design) even down to the icon layout on some of them.

3 - are you serious??? Thats the lamest thing I have ever heard. Basically you are saying that HTC / Android phones are for emo types?

1)what percentage of users actually jailbrake their phone though ? it's not what they are about. Even once jailbroke you still cant hack about with things with the same sort of ease you can on a HTC. HTC users will argue you shouldnt have to break the EULA and install a hack to have control over a device you bought.Its not their phone, its yours, and you should be able to do whatever you want with it. And not need some 3rd party illegal (as apple see it) app to do it. And i see their point. But i don't need the functionality that sort of freedom brings.

2) Dont be daft !!! theres massive variation. If anything is a blatent iphone clone - it was the palm pre. And thats why it failed - miserably

3) eehhh ? WTF are you on about ? emo doesnt even come into it. A large portion of HTC users buy them BECAUSE its not an iphone. They see the army of iphone users as sheep - all blindly making crap purchases because they have been duped by the marketing. Theres some very posts saying just that above. These sort of people buy HTC phones as a way of rebelling against what they see as a fashion trend. Emo doesnt come anywhere into it

 

[Yas786]

2 = Blackberry Bold

LOL the Blackberry Bold is nothing like the iphone and neither is it trying to be one..first of all its not even a touchscreen.

The only Blackberry thats similar to the iphone would be the Storm series and even then they arent iphone like because the touchscreen technology in the Storm is completely different to the iphone ie you touch to select but click down on the screen to make it whatever it is your trying to do happen.

The only thing imo the iphone has going for it is the ease of use...i mean even my 7yr old nephew can pick up his mums iphone and start using it...its simple thats the good thing about the iphone. Other than that for me i wouldnt call it a smartphone in the strictest sense...it sits in between the dumbphone and smartphone criteria. I mean its taken them about 4 yrs to add multi tasking to the OS, last yr the big thing added was cut and paste and MMS...whereas other smartphones that have been out far longer than the iphone range ie SE P series of smartphones had all that from day one.

But other than that the iphone is a brilliant piece of marketing from apple end of and because of that apple can charge insane amounts for the phone.

 

[Deyvy]

On the simplicity point. Maybe straying off topic. My dad(70 I think now) who before was computer illiterate, didnt have the time or patience to learn how to use the internet/pc. Always travelling for work looking after his business.

Now has an iPad. Now he's showing employees spreadsheets and stuff.

Showing my dad and uncle the new iPhone you can see how easy for almost anyone to feel their way round it.

My dad asked me to get my uncle a Nokia E72 so he can get emails on the move. Teaching him how to use it was quite a mission.

The iPhone doesnt need to even come with an instruction booklet speaks volumes.

 

[Niir]

You cant look at the smart phone market as model focused (well you can if you Apple because you only rehash your handset once a year and because you only have one product you sell lots of it) Id be very interested to compare the total sales of say the Evo 4G, Incredable, Desire, Nexus 1, Galaxy S and Droid X which are all pretty equal (with plus and minus on each phone) to the iPhone in hardware/software. Im pretty sure it would be uncomfortably close to Apples sales figures.

to get a proper view of the smart phone market you have to focus on OS's not handsets. So its RIM (blackberry) Apple (iOS) and Google (Android) with Winmo/others trailing behind.

God im getting sick and tired of people praising the iphones gui, its just a list which gives little flexability, theres nothing stream lined about it its just linar.

The iphone is over priced because people are silly and think price = quality where as my desire was about £400 on release which i think its pretty good for the power under the hood, however the 4 is either £500 or £600 and you are a isheep if you think the iphone 4 is 100-200 pounds better than the desire.

you cant say touch screen phones copy the iphone..why? because having a big bit of touch sensitive glass is sooooo revolutionary and inovative? lol get real all smart phones are pretty much looking the same now a days, glass fronted slate with various cases on the back.

 

[FreeStream]

I do love some of the silly arguments in threads like these.

Some thoughts:

1. 95% of phone users could not give two hoots about if it can be rooted or not or if the system is closed, this forum is full of advanced users and hence one of their requirements is to have their phone exactly like they want it, the rest of the population however doesn't care.

2. Making purchasing decisions based on the fact apple have worked out a formula which means users flock to their phone and they earn billions is really a stupid thing to include. Why does it matter? Either the phone is worth it's price to you, or it is not. Criticising others or calling them fanboys because they have one is ridiculous. [Granted however some iPhone users do go rather OTT].

As for me, I have a 3GS, and will do until the 4GS comes out next year.

Other smartphones are nice but are they better than my 3GS? Not in my opinion...

God im getting sick and tired of people praising the iphones gui, its just a list which gives little flexability, theres nothing stream lined about it its just linar.

That's your opinion. However as an advanced user myself... it IS the best and simplest UI. It needs prettifying to match the W7 phones but thats about it...

 

[Niir]

On the simplicity point. Maybe straying off topic. My dad(70 I think now) who before was computer illiterate, didnt have the time or patience to learn how to use the internet/pc. Always travelling for work looking after his business.

Now has an iPad. Now he's showing employees spreadsheets and stuff.

Showing my dad and uncle the new iPhone you can see how easy for almost anyone to feel their way round it.

My dad asked me to get my uncle a Nokia E72 so he can get emails on the move. Teaching him how to use it was quite a mission.

The iPhone doesnt need to even come with an instruction booklet speaks volumes.

my 50 yr old mum who can just about do checking emails has asked about 3 questions regarding using her desire, and was off creating her own themes and layouts to suit her without any hassel.

ease of use is no longer a feature exclusive to the iphone.

 

[icedbullet]

I'd agree that the iPhone is very easy to use. 16 months ago when I was looking for a new phone I was going to get an iPhone (3G i think it was). When I went to the o2 shop (back when the iPhone was locked to o2 only) I found the prices and the tariffs to be ridiculously high.

So I kept looking and found the t-mobile G1. To me it was better then the iPhone (it came with native cut and paste etc...) and was free on contract. I got so much more for my money.

I'm not an android fanboy or an apple fanboy, I just like good value for money and good quality products. That's why I bought my iPod touch 3rd Gen as it's a great product, it was cheaper then the iPhone and didn't come with an overpriced contract. So I have the best of both worlds.

 

[Raikiri]

The iphone is over priced because people are silly and think price = quality

Have you had an iPhone 4 in your hand? It's glass and metal rather than plastic, the build is impeccable.

where as my desire was about £400 on release which i think its pretty good for the power under the hood, however the 4 is either £500 or £600 and you are a isheep if you think the iphone 4 is 100-200 pounds better than the desire.

When you consider a 32gb micro SD is £90, worst case scenario it's £110 more.

 

[Serial45]

I'd say the iphone has got much better since first gen. In pretty much all areas.

 

[Yas786]

Have you had an iPhone 4 in your hand? It's glass and metal rather than plastic, the build is impeccable.

It is...was very impressed when i saw one in the flesh last week in the apple st in regent st london...just a shame they messed it up with the antenna placing.

But its one of the best built phones i have seen in a long time...its very nice i have to admit.

 

[Niir]

yes i have, its aesthetic quality is there, its actual feel in the hand and ergonomic design is horrible compared to the slight curve/matt soft touch plastic on other handsets.

 

[FreeStream]

yes i have, its aesthetic quality is there, its actual feel in the hand and ergonomic design is horrible compared to the slight curve/matt soft touch plastic on other handsets.

Thing is dude, before the iPhone touchscreen phones were scarce and ****. Suddenly there are hundreds, so yes the iPhone did kick start the touch screen revolution.

As for the i4 being better than a desire I wouldn't know, but I know I wouldn't buy a desire because it doesn't do the things I want it to do. Does that make me silly for paying £100 more for a i4? [Would do if I hadn't got a 3GS at launch]

 

[Robert]

Sorry what did the iPhone 4 do that other phones hadnt done before?

And how exactly are other OS's especially Android less capable?

So HTC and Android are only popular because they are cheap...every word spoken as a true fanboy, sorry but thats how that sounds.

Actually in a recent cost comparison - the high end HTC devices cost pretty much the same as the Iphone.

I've just swapped back to the iphone 4 after using a Nexus One since february. Anroid's so close to IOS but at the moment IOS is just that much better.

The whole fit and finish of the iphone is superior.

In my opinion platform fragmentation's hurting Google whether they admit it or not.

 

[Amp34]

Woooo.. Getting heated in here.

It seems everyone is either a apple fan boy or a apple hater. If your impartial but give the iPhone some praise you're again called a fan boy etc etc.

Totally disagree with that. There are also those that couldn't give a **** and those (like me) who hate seeing people talking either **** or plain wrong. Unfortunately I normally get called a "hater" because I mention that people are wrong...

iPhone 4 does nothing new other phones before it didn't already do. But you can't say that about the original iPhone,

After the iPhone 2g, it was obvious every other phone company were consciously making devices which imitated the iPhones touch screen interface. This is where the phrase "iPhone killer" started coming about.

The iPhone4 has definately pulled something out of the bag, something that iPhones have really needed to keep up with the rest of the pack and become a very good phone. The 3g and 3Gs not so. They went along on their marketing and popularity and especially with the 3Gs were left behind.

As for the second comment. This is something that always comes up in threads like these and TBH it's plain wrong. Go look at the history of HTC for example. They were making touch screen phones years before the 2G came out. Their UI (Touch flo and sense) has been a gradual evolution over years as well, starting way before the original iPhone came out. Yes, there are certain companies that have just wholesale copied the iPhone UI, such as Samsung* but a large number of companies haven't, especially HTC. I'm not slating iPhones here, they did force the other manufacturers to consider smartphones as consumer devices not just business devices, which is why the smartphone market has taken off in recent years.

*But even then it's not so clear cut. Samsung phones like the Galaxy S could be argued to be following the standard Sansung UI, which has been out for years as well, unfortunately for them it looks very similar (too similar...) to the iOS UI.

I dont understand either side of the levels of emotion though when it comes to a phone.

I agree totally with that, I don't get the Android fanaticism either, or the Band fanaticism. Why anyone would queue up for days for anything is beyond me. Essentially anyone that queues up on the day of release to get something is a fanboy, along with anyone that preorders something as soon as the company let them...

You've completely missed the point behind what attracts people to the iphone. I was queing for the iphone on the day after launch day, and there ere all sorts of people in the queue. We had 20 something year old men, who like me, were best described as geeks, however, there are were also a wider range of 20 somethings as well, we had the sort of guy that loves himself, is a bit of a player, and is quite stylish. As well as that we had 30/40 something year old women, a 30 something year old business man who was phoning his client to cancel their meeting because he was taking longer in the iphone queue than he expected !

There are all walks of life, and the reason why normal people get the iphone is that they are attracted by its simplicity. In exactly the same way your mum is scared of crawling under the desk and messing about with cables (in case she "blows up" the average person on the street is scared by your average smartphone with all its bells and whistles and widgets etc.. They like itunes because it gives them one single program to get content onto their phones. You only have to listen to chris moyles on radio 1 harking on about how simple to use itunes is to realise it appeals to normal people ( who probably dont even know this forum exists) on a level the other phones cant match.

They dont care that the iphone cant be used to bluetooth music to their friends, because they probably dont have a clue what bluetooth is anyway. They dont care that the phone doesnt have an app that turns it into a wireless acess point because they wouldnt know what to do with it if they had it. Thats why, despite being less "functional" than other phones they still sell. Because the people who buy them dont know or wouldnt use the features that other phones have.

People perceive the marking and the hype as the sole reason iphones sell and its just so not. People know what they're buying, and yes the advertising brings in awareness, but its the quality of the UI, the ease of use, and the excellent hardware design that attracts people.

There are a hardcore of apple fans, who are big style geeks, and fully understand all the tech etc.. but go into an apple store and look at who'se buying these things and you'll see that represents a tiny minority of the average apple userbase. Its mostly average people, with normal jobs on the highsteet etc.. who just want a phone thats easy to use, stylish, and the fact its seen as very popular and a bit of an icon is probably a bonus for them. But its not the only reason. Your mum likes the fact its got a single app store, with 500,000 + apps in it, they like the fact you can download music, videos, films, podcasts, photos, ringtimes etc.. from itunes and just click sync and it all happens for them.

Its the apple ethos towards computing - you dont need to know whats going on under the hood and just trust the technology to get on with it. the other phones give that extra level of control - like the ability to rootkit it, install froyo on it etc.. but those sort of users are part of the same techie group minority that apple has. The reason apple phones sell so well is they appeal to more than that sort of usergroup. The HTC phones dont tend to.

So fanboys can only be 20 smoething geeky blokes? Wrong... Apple sell to a broad range of people and all those you mentioned are the stereotypical Apple buyers. If they weren't fanboys then they wouldn't be queueing up on the day or so of release, cancelling appointments just to get a phone... How do you know they don't have an entire Apple collection at home for example?

 

[Yas786]

As for the i4 being better than a desire I wouldn't know, but I know I wouldn't buy a desire because it doesn't do the things I want it to do. Does that make me silly for paying £100 more for a i4? [Would do if I hadn't got a 3GS at launch]

LOL so what does the iphone4 do that the Desire cant do??...surely it should be the other way round ie theres things the iphone4 cant do that the Desire can do quite easily without having the need to illegally hack the iphone.

 

[Redmelo]

1 = design, support, quality - as with arguable all Apple products.

2 = Blackberry Bold

3 = which smart phone has outsold the iphone in the last year then?

Are you serious or just trolling me because you ran out of arguments?

-Design, support and quality are three things that every other mobile phone manufacturer pays for too.
There is nothing in the design, support or quality which justifies the 30% or more people have to pay for the iPhone. Should there be any, please list them (just saying they are better wont do!). By the way, did you know that the iPhone 4 components cost less than $190?


-Right, have you ever even seen a BB Bold?


-I did not say that any smartphone outsold the iPhone. I said that Apple do not dominate the smartphone market. And they dont.

Share of 2010 Q1 smartphone sales to end users by operating system, according to Gartner is as follows:

Symbian 44%
RIM 19%
Apple 15%
Android 10%
WinMo 7%
Linux 4%
Other 1%

FYI

Smartphones sold in 2009

Nokia 67.7 million
RIM 34.5 million
Apple 25.1 million <--- not on top
HTC 8.1 million
Samsung 5.7 million



You are a perfect example of a blind apple follower, n111ck. Sorry.
Where are you getting your information from?