Wired - Focusing on Hardware Is the Wrong Way to Compete With the iPhone

dougp

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May 3, 2002
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Here's a link to the article: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/09/smartphone-hardware-experience/

This month promises a smorgasbord of smartphone launches — we’ve already seen shiny new handsets introduced by Samsung, Nokia, and Motorola. Apple and HTC are right around the corner. But for today’s smartphone customer, most of these guys are going about it all wrong.
Smartphone makers continue to focus their product launches on one thing: hardware. Impressive specs, mediocre specs, processor specs, camera specs. A hundred names and numbers dutifully recited onstage or listed out in a press release — and forgotten by their audience in a few weeks’ time.
“Consumers, especially high-end consumers, continue to value hardware specifications and design but only when they work together with the software to deliver a superior experience,” Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi told Wired via e-mail. “Technology for the sake of technology does not sell anymore.”
It’s not the hardware that matters so much these days; it’s the full experience the device provides. This is why Apple spends the bulk of its launch events and advertising budgets talking about user experiences instead of hardware specs. Given the choice between asking consumers to do the math on dots-per-inch resolution or simply imagining how sharp their kids’ photos will look on a Retina display, Apple chooses the latter.
“Apple’s approach to advertising is different to most as it lets features such as Siri and FaceTime, as well as apps, bring the iPhone and iPad to life,” Milanesi said. Doing this lets potential customers start to imagine themselves using the device, rather than trying to figure out what the battery-life numbers really mean.
A few years ago, the latest and greatest hardware made significant improvements over the last. Just look at the differences between, say, the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4, or the Samsung Galaxy S II and the original Galaxy S. Yes, the iPhone 4S and Galaxy S III improve on their older brethren, but the internal hardware upgrades are largely less perceptible to the casual user.
Another example: Most handsets are now based around a multi-core processor. But quad-core models don’t necessarily outshine their dual-core counterparts. Same for camera tech — the 5-megapixel camera on the iPhone 4 has remained competitive with many higher-specced shooters on newer handsets.
With statements like Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside’s “We believe that faster is fundamentally better” during the launch of his company’s three new 4G LTE Droid Razr handsets last week, it’s clear smartphone makers are still using individual hardware features to gain consumer favor.
Last week, Nokia and Microsoft introduced a pair of Windows Phone 8 devices that focus on high-end specs and emerging technologies to set themselves apart from the competition. The Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 contain such “exclusive” features as Qi wireless charging, NFC, and built-in optical image stabilization. Nokia emphasized these services and hardware like the Lumia 920′s 8-megapixel PureView camera to separate itself from competing Windows Phone handsets like the Samsung ATIV S.
“It’s hard to win over smartphone users,” IHS analyst Wayne Lam told Wired. “Apple has the first-mover advantage of making the terms and expectations of what a smartphone can do, and has very keenly done that.”
But some competitors are catching on. With the Galaxy S III, Samsung tried to focus on software features such as its Siri-like S Voice and its NFC-based data-sharing system, S Beam. And although Nokia spent much of its latest launch event detailing the hardware, the company also focused on how the camera features and maps integrate for a seamless user experience through its Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, and City Lens capabilities.
As in the tablet space, Amazon would make a worthy adversary for Apple if it debuted its own smartphone, since it can control the complete software and hardware experience from top to bottom. The company has shown with its Kindle Fire tablets that it places a heavy emphasis on useful software services rather than hardware features.
“Overall, I think vendors are trying to move toward more of an Apple approach,” said Gartner analyst Hugues de la Vergne. “But at the end of the day, a lot of these guys are still traditional hardware players and are going to differentiate based off of improved hardware and technology.”

I have to say that I agree - most of my friends & family really don't care about specs, but more about the features they always "think" they will use. Microsoft really pushed in that direction initially with the WP7 launch, and we can see that they are making a push in that direction again, both with the Surface as well as a unified ecosystem in terms of cross-device application availability.

It's funny running through the Android UI thread and seeing people bicker over something as simple as a date selector and also have a few screenshots show up of people's customized UI - a lot of them are very "Apple-esque" with widgets. Widgets are great, but I rarely used them on my Android handset when I had it - well, everything but quick-toggles. I realized that I'd much rather be in a fullscreen application than looking at a small widget on the "desktop." I prefer the cursory glance of the WP tiles over anything but the lack of a great appbase really hurts them. This is something Microsoft has really pushed, and you could see it last year when they were doing the challenges in terms of "time to information availability."
 

Puddle Jumper

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Nov 4, 2009
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Microsoft tried not focusing on hardware and WP7 was a dismal failure and has essentially no market share even after a few years on the market.

On the other hand Samsung did focus on the hardware and is the worlds largest smartphone manufacturer and the only one other than Apple that makes a significant profit.
 
Oct 25, 2006
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I don't know how you like live tiles but not like the much more information dense and more useful widgets.

Also, Properly configured widgets beat the windows phone every time in that challenge.
 

Strk

Lifer
Nov 23, 2003
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Microsoft tried not focusing on hardware and WP7 was a dismal failure and has essentially no market share even after a few years on the market.

On the other hand Samsung did focus on the hardware and is the worlds largest smartphone manufacturer and the only one other than Apple that makes a significant profit.

MS didn't focus on the hardware, but the phones were still pretty crappy though. The second generation ones were definitely a better selection, yet limited to two carriers. And to make matters worse, the best of the bunch (Lumia 900) was limited to at&t. The next group should be interesting though.

And sure, Samsung is adding a lot of bells and whistles to their phones, but looking at their recent commercials, they're advertising what the phones can do, not what's powering them (like the texting and watching movies commercial that keeps airing).
 

dougp

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May 3, 2002
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Microsoft tried not focusing on hardware and WP7 was a dismal failure and has essentially no market share even after a few years on the market.

On the other hand Samsung did focus on the hardware and is the worlds largest smartphone manufacturer and the only one other than Apple that makes a significant profit.


Microsoft still isn't focusing on hardware - but their manufacturers are.

Also, Samsung focused on hardware - but like I said, the normal user doesn't care about a quadrant score or how their phone handlesdecoding a 720p MKV file, or even expandable storage. Samsung has a lot of handsets that are sold well undercost - that's what increases market share.

I don't know how you like live tiles but not like the much more information dense and more useful widgets.

Also, Properly configured widgets beat the windows phone every time in that challenge.

Well, I also didn't have a lot of live tiles setup because I know what I want/need from my phone. As for widgets beating the WP challenge, they had to be setup specifically to do that - basically you had to "stoop" to Microsofts level of their challenges in order to beat them. Yet I think you missed my point there - I was pointing out that MS wasn't trying to sell any hardware specs, they were pushing the end user experience.

I think the best example right now is the SG3 commercial where they show pulling the pictures out of a video. I think that's a neat feature, something that really grabs the attention as opposed to a quad-core vs. dual-core phone for the end user.
 

vshah

Lifer
Sep 20, 2003
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well, even if it's the wrong way, it seems to be working just fine.
 

dguy6789

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2002
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Better hardware is a huge reason for why Android is outselling iPhone. I'd be rich if I had a dime for every time in the past two years someone who has only used an iPhone saw my large screen Android device and fell in love at first sight. Even Apple knows hardware sells. They spend significant time at keynotes talking about the new camera and graphics chip and whatever else may be improved in the new iPhone.

Win Phone 7 sales is what happens when you try to make the hardware take a back seat and only promote software.
 
Last edited:
Feb 19, 2001
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Better hardware is a huge reason for why Android is outselling iPhone. I'd be rich if I had a dime for every time in the past two years someone who has only used an iPhone saw my large screen Android device and fell in love at first sight. Even Apple knows hardware sells. They spend significant time at keynotes talking about the new camera and graphics chip and whatever else may be improved in the new iPhone.

Win Phone 7 sales is what happens when you try to make the hardware take a back seat and only promote software.

so really a big screen is all that matters then. it's the tangibles. it's still not about massive amounts of RAM and CPU power.
 

dlock13

Platinum Member
Oct 24, 2006
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so really a big screen is all that matters then. it's the tangibles. it's still not about massive amounts of RAM and CPU power.

Exactly. The internals don't matter to the average consumer. They just want a 'pretty' device.
 

TuxDave

Lifer
Oct 8, 2002
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/agree. People didn't get why people still bought the iPhone because they only looked at hardware. Now look at how people will most likely buy only Nexus devices even if the hardware isn't better than newer Android devices. They want the better Google software support and it paid off by getting Jellybean earlier.
 

ilkhan

Golden Member
Jul 21, 2006
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Easy, go look on any mobile provider's site and look at handset costs.

So, source: my ass and common sense.
You're confusing "subsidized" with "under-cost".

On topic, it relies on both. Hardware without software will be clunky (though possible to vastly improve as shown by early Android handsets). Software without hardware will be slower than balls. Enough hardware, with great software, is the winning strategy.
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
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/agree. People didn't get why people still bought the iPhone because they only looked at hardware. Now look at how people will most likely buy only Nexus devices even if the hardware isn't better than newer Android devices. They want the better Google software support and it paid off by getting Jellybean earlier.

The Galaxy S3 is the best seller AFAIK, not the Nexus.

Trying to compete with the iPhone needs some clarification. Is the article talking about an individual Android phone selling as many units as an iPhone? Even though I believe the S3 somehow managed that, it's an unrealistic expectation. Want a new iOS phone? Get the one and only new/current model. Want a new Android phone? You've got a variety of choices. Having those options is going to hurt each Android competitor, but it's a good thing for consumers.

Apple should always be the individual sales leader, because they only offer one new model.
 

TuxDave

Lifer
Oct 8, 2002
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The Galaxy S3 is the best seller AFAIK, not the Nexus.

That could be due to a bigger launch or lower price subsidy. But again, just observing from my friends, a bunch of them chose the Galaxy Nexus for their upgrade device even with the SGS3 out for sale. They just got tired of rooting, installing custom ROMs, tweaking, etc... They just wanted the best experience they can get on an Android without having to do much.
 

Zaap

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Jun 12, 2008
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The Galaxy S3 is the best seller AFAIK, not the Nexus.

Trying to compete with the iPhone needs some clarification. Is the article talking about an individual Android phone selling as many units as an iPhone? Even though I believe the S3 somehow managed that, it's an unrealistic expectation. Want a new iOS phone? Get the one and only new/current model. Want a new Android phone? You've got a variety of choices. Having those options is going to hurt each Android competitor, but it's a good thing for consumers.

Apple should always be the individual sales leader, because they only offer one new model.
Exactly. But don't bring up obvious facts.
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
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That could be due to a bigger launch or lower price subsidy. But again, just observing from my friends, a bunch of them chose the Galaxy Nexus for their upgrade device even with the SGS3 out for sale. They just got tired of rooting, installing custom ROMs, tweaking, etc... They just wanted the best experience they can get on an Android without having to do much.

Well if they're among the R&R (Root & ROM) crowd then yeah, it definitely makes sense why they'd go Nexus. But the overwhelming majority of users don't do that. Majority of my friends have Android, only one of them has a Nexus (the others all recently switched to the S3) and none of them root/rom.
 

TuxDave

Lifer
Oct 8, 2002
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Well if they're among the R&R (Root & ROM) crowd then yeah, it definitely makes sense why they'd go Nexus. But the overwhelming majority of users don't do that. Majority of my friends have Android, only one of them has a Nexus (the others all recently switched to the S3) and none of them root/rom.

Meh, I guess it's another case of different folks, different experiences. They didn't all R&R but they just wanted the "peace of mind" that they will get all the latest goodies.
 

Puddle Jumper

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Nov 4, 2009
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That could be due to a bigger launch or lower price subsidy. But again, just observing from my friends, a bunch of them chose the Galaxy Nexus for their upgrade device even with the SGS3 out for sale. They just got tired of rooting, installing custom ROMs, tweaking, etc... They just wanted the best experience they can get on an Android without having to do much.

The S2 and S3 have both outsold the Galaxy Nexus by a huge margin.
 

dlock13

Platinum Member
Oct 24, 2006
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The S2 and S3 have both outsold the Galaxy Nexus by a huge margin.

That's because Google pays for the marketing of the Nexus. Verizon will air a few commercials since it's on it's network but won't invest much in it. Samsung goes all out and advertises their S2, S3, Note, and Note 2 everywhere.
 

vshah

Lifer
Sep 20, 2003
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Easy, go look on any mobile provider's site and look at handset costs.

So, source: my ass and common sense.

apple also sells $49 and $99 handsets. supposedly the 3gs will be $0 on contract after the launch of the 5.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
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Makes sense since the same SoCs power phones from Samsung, HTC, Moto, LG, Huawei, ZTE, etc. Right now, the current crop of high end LTE enabled phones are almost entirely Snapdragon S4s, putting them all on relatively equal footing.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
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apple also sells $49 and $99 handsets. supposedly the 3gs will be $0 on contract after the launch of the 5.

Those are contract prices. I believe dougp was referring to MSRP, which is closer to the ~500 mark.
 

vshah

Lifer
Sep 20, 2003
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Those are contract prices. I believe dougp was referring to MSRP, which is closer to the ~500 mark.

i asked him about that, he mentioned going to the carrier sites and looking at pricing which led me to believe that he was referring to subsidized on-contract pricing.
 

Munky

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Feb 5, 2005
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I stopped reading at "the 5-megapixel camera on the iPhone 4 has remained competitive with many higher-specced shooters on newer handsets." You mean that overhyped camera that over-saturated the crap out of every color and until it glows in the dark is "competitive?" Give me a break.