Technology

Who would have thought that the stagnation in development means people don't want to buy a new phone for a 2% better camera every year. I recon we gonna see anti repair hitting new heights tho cos u gotta squeeze money out of people somehow.

A sign that the smartphone has reached maturity, I guess. People don't feel the imperative to upgrade any more. That's good for the planet!

Everyone is currently poor as shit.

That's what happens when you keep increasing the price without adding value.

Blame greedflation. Phones should be cheaper now, not thousands of dollars.

Phone price keeps going up but my paycheck keeps going down with inflation

They should really stop over saturating the market by releasing new models every year with little to no meaningful upgrades.

Even mid-range phones nowadays are good enough to last long after they stop receiving updates, it therefore makes little financial sense (for the average consumer) to buy the newest model every year, not even touching on the environmental impact.

We've hit the wall of diminishing returns. How much power do you need to run lemmy?

Ive got a 4k oled 144hrtz panel in my phone... to read lemmy.

And my pixel 6 is considered aging.

If you're upgrading your device every single time a new device comes along, you're just chasing clout and status. They rarely, if ever, have significant performance upgrades or new features that make sense in upgrading when your current device is perfectly fine.

it's amazing that in capitalism a company has to always show numbers rising like there is no physical upper boundary. The most logical and efficient economic model

I understand 'worst sales' but 'worst performance' doesn't really fit. It's in my opinion this is a fantastic performance on the market. With right to repair, longer software support, some models with replaceable batteries, we can use the phones longer and make the industry more sustainable and consumer friendly. For the last years already, the model feature upgrades were marginal and it's fine that way.

In the future, I'd hope for further technical and regulatory development in that direction, resulting in further reduced annual sales numbers.

Good. We should be using our phones for longer.

It's almost as if, they haven't fundamentally updated smartphones in almost a decade, and now they want $2000 for them.

Also, it's almost as if we've been in a recession for a year. Regardless of whether or not the government wants to call it a recession, we've had numerous back to back quarters with negative GDP growth. That's literally a recession.

They doubled the price while removing core features like headphone jacks and microSD.

The people who bought phones as a status symbol ran out of money and the people who are advanced users are sticking with their old phones that are simply better until planned obsolescence forces them to buy another older model.

Have they considered releasing another hard to hold glass slab exactly like the previous one?

Phone plateaued 5 years ago for the average user.

I have a one plus 6. I'm on it for hours everyday. Reading. Browsing. Listening. No gaming. Lots of pictures.

My online data ran out long before my phone data - for pictures.

Phone runs fast. No more updates so nothing changes on me anymore.

I have zero reason to update. Would I like a better camera? Sure. But not for 1200$ I don't.

Could my battery last longer? Yeah. Sure. But I can replace it if I want for 20-40$

My next phone will probably be a refurbished last Gen phone. Nothing more then 400 I imagine.

Good. They should never have been that high anyways

Lmao stopped upgrading years ago...

When this 5 yo phone kicks the bucket, I'll upgrade to a 4 yo model for cheap

Literally not missing out on anything and saving a fucking bag doing it

Maybe they should bring back some form-factor diversity that niche consumer segments could gravitate toward, instead of every manufacturer targeting only the largest (and blandest) portion of the pie and ignoring the rest of it. If it's not clear, I am holding out for some decent "mini-sized" Android option.

like desktop PCs

like DVD players?

no innovation, no need for a new device

apple seems to have quit innovating and google is just a fat fuck that is so lazy their core product search has gotten shit.

nokia nokia lol

Every major company releases the same phone year after year and the only significant change is the price. I don't mind using the same phone for few years.

Waiting on replacement batteries to come back. Also 1k is a no way from me.

finally some positive news.

Mine is 5 years old, a Samsung S9. Other then the shorter battery everything seems to work just fine.

Partly because everybody's finances are stretched pretty thin, but also partly because phones got Good Enough like 6 years ago and so at this point you basically replace one when it breaks and replacement cost exceeds repair costs unless you're an enthusiast who demands the latest and greatest.... which is why the lucrously short support window for security patches on most Android devices is obscene. I know the technical reasons for them, but they're still unacceptable.

Well.. do we all need to change our perfectly fine, advanced and fast pocket computer every year just to have always the latest -> IMO No.

Good for the environment that it's a bad business year.

Cause they keep making them shittier and shittier. Like I can't replace my battery like a fairphone, replace all the parts, have a microsd slot and fingerprint reader like the older phones. People complaining about size and weight. Check out the Samsung S5, what was fucking wrong with that? Worked fine and waterproof. Fucking bitchasses keep complaining about how it's not possible when it's been done for many years already.

Maybe because the only "innovations" that can be made to the smartphone is new cameras and new form factors, and only one of those is being focused on

I used to buy a new Pixel every year, but for what? Holding out on my 5 while it still works.

It is amusing how cell phone companies want people to think about their products like a fridge or video game console, yet are shocked when people seem to only want to buy a new one every 5-10 years or more when the old one breaks.

Two cents on the headphone jack issue folks bring up all the time. The convenience of 3.5 mm is great and valid. Totally agree.

However, I use and own a lot of wired higher end headphones and a dongle DAC is just better audio quality than the 3.5mm jack. Let me explain.

3.5mm jacks means the phone's on board DAC is doing the work and outputting an analog stereo signal. You are stuck with whatever, typically sub-par, DAC is built into your phone. Yes, some phones have better DACs than others, but it is a challenge to sort out and is often not a priority for most manufacturers.

With type C dongle you can escape your phone's limitations and use dongles with audio features like fully balanced audio because the signal stays digital from your phone to the dongle. Personally, I'm a fan of 4.4 mm balanced connection, as most of my headphones will run balanced. This is something I could never do with 3.5mm alone.

DDHifi, XDUOO, ifi, etc makes some great 'audiophile' - dumb title but you know what I mean - DACs.

I often don't hear this side of the issue discussed.

Everyone is poor from inflation and a million different subscription services and smartphone makers haven't done anything new in years so there's no point in getting a new phone unless the old one breaks.

My Samsung phones keep "mysteriously" going to shit after 18 to 22 months so I might try an iPhone when my current one shits the bed. Hopefully they will get their head out of their ass and reduce/remove the cutout.