The Verge: Apple Bias Is Real

[lopri]

http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/23/9381325/apple-bias-iphone-reviews-day

The funny thing is that everyone's right. Readers are right to claim that the iPhone is treated differently from other smartphones, and reviewers are correct in doing so. Apple makes more in quarterly profit than many of its mobile competitors are worth, and the success and failure of its smartphone plays a large role in shaping the fate of multiple related industries. The iPhone is reviewed like a transcendental entity that's more than just the sum of its metal, plastic, and silicon parts, because that's what it is.

It is a reviewer's manifesto. No longer wanting to be "politically correct." No longer wanting to feel guilty or ashamed for saying things against what he learned to be right.

Seems apt for the current political climate. I hope other reviewers follow suit.

 

[senseamp]

iPhone is a good product, but a reviewer needs to be objective and check his biases, not embrace them. Otherwise he is just telling readers what they already believe, not providing new information on goods and services. This is how situations like VW cheating could go on for many years. Journalists buy into the hype and fail to critically examine claims.

 

[lopri]

I do not disagree but I also believe in disclosure.

 

[vi edit]

I'm having troubles calling this "Bias". Influence is probably the more appropriate term.

 

[senseamp]

Disclosing biases is good, and may be good enough for a blogger. But not good enough for a reporter. Reporter needs to be aware of his biases, and keep them in check in order to be objective. Not simply look for confirmations of existing biases.

 

[lopri]

I'm having troubles calling this "Bias". Influence is probably the more appropriate term.

Conflicts of interest and double standards surely qualify for, at a minimum, appearance of bias. In any case, it is the reviewer himself invoking the word so in my opinion the credit is due.

Disclosing biases is good, and may be good enough for a blogger. But not good enough for a reporter. Reporter needs to be aware of his biases, and keep them in check in order to be objective. Not simply look for confirmations of existing biases.

Reporters are not going to retire upon realizing their biases, so disclosure may be the next best thing.

 

[SAWYER]

The verge and a lot of these tech sites/writers are so far up their butts it is unbelievable.

 

[blankslate]

I wonder if this means that since iPhones are held up to a different level that the reviewers will take Apple to task for failures? I doubt it.


...

 

[Midwayman]

Most of that article can be explained by the fact that apple users are more profitable to cater towards. Follow the money. If android users were as likely to spend money they would overwhelming favor android since is has a much larger installed base at this point.

 

[vi edit]

Most of that article can be explained by the fact that apple users are more profitable to cater towards. Follow the money. If android users were as likely to spend money they would overwhelming favor android since is has a much larger installed base at this point.

That's exactly why I felt like influence was a better term than bias. It's not that a lot of those business decisions are made because they think apple is better. They do what they do because there's half a billion iOS devices out there and those owners are willing to pay for them.

It's no different than movie studios trying to get a PG-13 rating on a movie. They don't think that it makes for a better movie than a R rating could. It's that the audience triples in size that they can reasonably market and sell tickets to.

 

[ThisIsChrisKim]

Well, in a lot of ways, Vlad isn't wrong. The world has embraced Apple iPhone as the be all and the only phone that matters for the majority of the market. It's pretty unprecedented to see something hit the market like this and it's surely interesting to see how it is front and center in the eyes of consumers. There's nothing really like it.

That said, it's not "the best" because saying as much is a bit disingenuous as everyone's needs, desires, and wants are different. There's a type of phone for everyone and there's many different niches that fulfill most of these areas now from top to bottom.

 

[blankslate]

Most of that article can be explained by the fact that apple users are more profitable to cater towards. Follow the money. If android users were as likely to spend money they would overwhelming favor android since is has a much larger installed base at this point.

I think it's also partly because Apple rarely tries selling a cheaper version of their flagship phones. I seem to recall a couple of years ago where they introduced iPhones with plastic backs as "entry level" devices, I don't think they sold well. Don't sell anything less than a flagship phone and your phones get the status symbol aura.

Whereas android phones come in flagship, mid-tier and entry level devices so you get all of the advantages and disadvantages there for buyers and manufacturers.


....

 

[WelshBloke]

The verge and a lot of these tech sites/writers are so far up their butts it is unbelievable.

Tis true.

Didn't theverge.com stop all commenting on their articles recently because they didn't like their own readers disagreeing with their writers?

 

[blankslate]

Tis true.

Didn't theverge.com stop all commenting on their articles recently because they didn't like their own readers disagreeing with their writers?

Sadly, people tend not to be able to disagree without being disagreeable anymore.



....

 

[poofyhairguy]

What a useless editorial. Basically is justifying the iPhone bias because Apple's influence in the tech industry. Talk about building a strawman.

Everyone KNOWS that the iPhone is the market leader, and until Apple does something a large segment of the world (including tech journalists) doesn't know that capability exists within the tech industry. Some of that is justified- mobile payments weren't really a thing before Apple Pay- and some of it is not- like the people who claim Apple legitimized the concept of a large screen phone.

What this article IGNORES, quite blatantly in my opinion, is the responsibility of tech journalists to judge iOS devices ON THEIR OWN MERIT within the perspective of other iOS devices. For example, does The Verge review of the iPhone 6+ last year mention ONCE that it being a 1GB of RAM 64 bit phablet device means that it will probably be laggy before a freaking 2013 iPhone 5s will? Nope. Or in their iPad Air 2 review was it mentioned ONCE that the iPad Air 2 is the only iOS device with 2GB of RAM and therefore will have a longer life than your average iOS device? Nope.

The bias isn't that Apple is judged by a different standard, the bias is that iDevices are technology products judged by non-technical standards by tech journalists! It is crazy. Everyone wants to act like the hardware doesn't matter, but again and again we see it does, even for iDevices. The iPad Air 2 didn't get split screen this year because Apple is magic, it got split screen because of 2GB of RAM. But instead it gets billed as a feature of iOS 9 rather than what it really is- proof that the iPad Air 2 was the best iOS purchase one could make in 2014.

Apple is the one who wants to abstract the hardware from the "experience," and tech "journalists" like the Verge are implicit in that process. It is all to Apple's benefit, as that allows them to build in obsolescence (like last year's 1GB of RAM or the iPad 3's SoC) without anyone calling them out on it. And unfortunately the last guy really calling out Apple for what the hardware is (or is not) was hired by them.

iPhones are great products and people have a lot of reason to give them the benefit of the doubt. But bad tech journalism gives the impression to normals that EVERY iDevice is as safe of a bet as any other iDevice and we all know that isn't the case.

 

[cbrunny]

This is why:

riding the iPhone’s coattails to sales is now a proven business strategy

Substitute "sales" with "clicks" and you have The Verge's entire business plan.

 

[Mopetar]

Reporters are not going to retire upon realizing their biases, so disclosure may be the next best thing.

If a person comes to realize a bias and does not take that into future consideration, they're not acting very intelligently. If you realize that your perceptions have been colored, you should work to correct them.

If an investor was knowingly choosing investments based on what they know to be a biased perception, they should be fired because they're not doing right by their clients. Gut feelings are fine, but if you know you only have that gut feeling due to your own biases it's not trustworthy.

That said, it's not "the best" because saying as much is a bit disingenuous as everyone's needs, desires, and wants are different. There's a type of phone for everyone and there's many different niches that fulfill most of these areas now from top to bottom.

Best in the sense that if you pick some number of arbitrary individuals, for most, the iPhone would be their personal best phone.

There's some person for whom the best phone is a $50 flip phone that just does calls and texts and doesn't have a data plan, but that doesn't make smartphones lesser than they are, it just means we have a niche far outside the norm.

Apple could likely afford to lop $200 of the price of their devices and still eek out a reasonable profit. If they were to do that, it would probably wipe out many of the other manufacturers assuming Apple could meet the demand. We wouldn't even be having this conversation were the iPhone that much less expensive as perhaps the biggest complaint against Apple is that while they make a great product, there are other companies that can get you something 90% as good for 60% of the price.

Sadly, people tend not to be able to disagree without being disagreeable anymore.

One must also keep in mind that there are those who need to realize that just because someone is disagreeing with them does automatically imply that said person is disagreeable.

There seem to be a lot of people these days with thin skin who take any form of disagreement as some form of personal attack against them and react disproportionately.

I think to some degree this stems from the shoddy reporting that we're seeing with the rise of tech blogs where individuals are treating their own (probably biased) opinion as thought it were a universal truth and then reacting poorly when the flaws in their reasoning are brought to attention.

 

[sweenish]

I hate how vox will refer to themselves as either reporters or bloggers based on whatever suits them being #### the most.

I quit vox years ago. Quit gawker just before that. I realize I'm not the mainstream, but it's really sad that they still get as much coverage as they do, especially outside of their own sphere, like here.

 

[Commodus]

Everyone KNOWS that the iPhone is the market leader, and until Apple does something a large segment of the world (including tech journalists) doesn't know that capability exists within the tech industry. Some of that is justified- mobile payments weren't really a thing before Apple Pay- and some of it is not- like the people who claim Apple legitimized the concept of a large screen phone.

What this article IGNORES, quite blatantly in my opinion, is the responsibility of tech journalists to judge iOS devices ON THEIR OWN MERIT within the perspective of other iOS devices. For example, does The Verge review of the iPhone 6+ last year mention ONCE that it being a 1GB of RAM 64 bit phablet device means that it will probably be laggy before a freaking 2013 iPhone 5s will? Nope. Or in their iPad Air 2 review was it mentioned ONCE that the iPad Air 2 is the only iOS device with 2GB of RAM and therefore will have a longer life than your average iOS device? Nope.

The bias isn't that Apple is judged by a different standard, the bias is that iDevices are technology products judged by non-technical standards by tech journalists! It is crazy. Everyone wants to act like the hardware doesn't matter, but again and again we see it does, even for iDevices. The iPad Air 2 didn't get split screen this year because Apple is magic, it got split screen because of 2GB of RAM. But instead it gets billed as a feature of iOS 9 rather than what it really is- proof that the iPad Air 2 was the best iOS purchase one could make in 2014.

You'd be asking a bit much of a review to start speculating on how a device might fare years down the line. It's definitely wise to critique limitations that could have an immediate or near-term impact (like 16GB of base storage), but it's up in the air as to whether or not a 6 Plus will be laggy, say, in 2016. Point out the extra RAM and how it could futureproof a device, but don't declare a crisis before you know it's going to happen.

And I'd actually argue that a good review tries not to get bogged down in technical details. They influence things to a degree, but what really matters is whether or not a device will make you happy. We've seen more than a few phones that have all the right specs, but ultimately let people down because of hard-to-quantify things like ease of use and real-world performance. You have to take a step back and see this broader picture, or else a review ends up being little more than a set of benchmarks.

 

[Aikouka]

iPhone reviews become more of an "event" because Apple made them into an event, and it's a smart thing to do. Creating a hubbub around your product only pulls in the curious people that may never have paid attention to begin with. It also helps that while iPhone and Android phones are all smartphones, you only get a new iPhone once a year. I think Samsung has been trying to do something similar with trying to differentiate themselves so they can reach that sort of "cult status".

 

[sm625]

I dont think anyone is really arguing that they're not decent phones. But by god they are so unbelievably overpriced. How is an iphone possibly worth 9 times more than a LG G2 you can buy off swappa for $100? lol there's no way. It's purely a handout to a wealthy corporation. I dont care about the prices of Samsung and LG phones because, like they say, they dont make that much money. So you know the money you spend on those phones isnt going right into the pockets of a bunch of stupid greedy shareholders. It goes all the way down the line to pay engineers, suppliers, assemblers, people like you and me, and that's a good thing, somethign to feel good about. It is a simple matter of principle. Why would I or any other reasonable rational person want to give $300-$500 to a bunch of greedy apple shareholders? Who is that stupid? Who would buy a car or a washing machine that was so overpriced that the company's stock is trading at 20 P/E? Nobody, really. There is too much technical arbitrage in commodity items like phones and cars. The products simply arent different enough for one to command such a high premium over another. Eventually that kind of rampant stupidity comes to an abrupt end. Apple stock could very easily be trading at $40 in 3 years, with a P/E of 8-10. And that is about where it should be in a healthier market.

 

[Midwayman]

I think it's also partly because Apple rarely tries selling a cheaper version of their flagship phones. I seem to recall a couple of years ago where they introduced iPhones with plastic backs as "entry level" devices, I don't think they sold well. Don't sell anything less than a flagship phone and your phones get the status symbol aura.

Whereas android phones come in flagship, mid-tier and entry level devices so you get all of the advantages and disadvantages there for buyers and manufacturers.


....

That could be part of it I suppose. I'm mostly going by the app store numbers that show iOS users are far more likely to spend money in the app store.

 

[blairharrington]

I dont think anyone is really arguing that they're not decent phones. But by god they are so unbelievably overpriced. How is an iphone possibly worth 9 times more than a LG G2 you can buy off swappa for $100? lol there's no way.

That's a weird comparison. Used G2 could have an old battery. Plus I imagine the new S iPhone's will blow it away camera-wise.

Not saying the price of an iPhone is worth it, but the G2 isn't a great comparison IMO.

I could argue that the Moto Pure should give any future phablet owners a pause when you realize it's $400 at retail. The 6S Plus starts at $750.

 

[Artdeco]

Tis true.

Didn't theverge.com stop all commenting on their articles recently because they didn't like their own readers disagreeing with their writers?

It was pretty bad, the Android pro faction was posting porn and crap in the comments during the last iPhone release.

The forums are open for comments on articles, but they keep pretty tight control over them. Some articles are allowed comments, for instance this one by Vlad S., allows comments, but you'd know that if you clicked on the link and read the full article, right?

 

[WelshBloke]

Some articles are allowed comments, for instance this one by Vlad S., allows comments, but you'd know that if you clicked on the link and read the full article, right?

Yes I'd know if I did that by why would I do that?

Would I still have to wade through endless clickbait about gender politics and modern culture to read an article that I'm not that interested in?