iPhone X Is the latest wave of attacks on iPhones and iPhone byers orchestrated?

[boltjames]

Apple users are fanboys. Android users are jealous. Everybody knows that.

Then there's this tidbit:

iPhone users don't know a damned thing about Android as it's not something they'd consider. Sure, you have the 1% that are enthusiasts in this forum and you have the 1% who buy used smartphones off Craigslist and they may dabble, but the remaining 98% wouldn't touch anything other than an iPhone with a 10 foot pole.

The ecosystem is fantastic, ease of use is off the charts, 100's of retail stores are there for quick local service, and the year over year incremental features have been steady. Android doesn't exist to us.

 

[adamhenry]

^^^^^^ James is 100% correct in my case. I could not care less what a droid does or doesn't do at any price. I despise using windows PCs. I really like my Apple watch. No droids for me.

 

[Hieveryone]

I’ve heard rumors of companies trying to influence opinion on large forums before, but I never really believed them. But with an insane number of posts trying to convince people to return iPhones, not to buy the X, how Face ID somehow doesn’t work and finger scanning is better, etc. - I’m starting to wonder if this is somehow, hm, motivated by an outside factor.

I’m sure there are people who genuinely disagree with a lot of Apple’s decisions, but in all the years I don’t remember this forum ever having so many calls to leave the iPhone. Certain users are even starting multiple threads with the same theme. People who buy iPhones are insulted daily. “Cultists”, “Blind”, “Ignorants”, “Even if Apple asked for their fingers, they would still buy them”.... Also, words like “scandal” and “lies”.... I’ve never seen it this bad.

We are witnessing how social media can be abused to influence entire elections, why would this be any different? Am I being paranoid here?

Don’t undermine the voice of many people who are genuinley upset about some iPhones becoming slow.

 

[44267547]

The ecosystem is fantastic, ease of use is off the charts, 100's of retail stores are there for quick local service, and the year over year incremental features have been steady. Android doesn't exist to us.

What iOS is, Is exactly what makes it successful, it's simplistic and intuitive. I know many complain that there are not enough customization options and it stagnant, but its something that works as intended.

One thing I see undermined, is that Apple stores are usually fairly lucrative where someone can travel if they need service or questions, where Samsung stores are few and far between, where you have to call-in for everything.

 

[Altis]

What iOS is, Is exactly what makes it successful, it's simplistic and intuitive. I know many complain that there are not enough customization options and it stagnant, but its something that works as intended.

One thing I see undermined, is that Apple stores are usually fairly lucrative where someone can travel if they need service or questions, where Samsung stores are few and far between, where you have to call-in for everything.

It sure used to be easy and intuitive.

Setting up a 12" iPad Pro for my parents for Christmas showed me just how unintuitive it has become.

Even just downloading an app proved not obvious since even on the large display, the download button was a little cloud-shaped icon the size of my pinky nail. To new users, things like this aren't easy to find.

I gave up trying to get the photos to sync through iCloud from the phone to the iPad. Everything shows enabled and set up but nothing transferred, nor did Notes for some reason.

 

[rainafterthesun]

I’d like to think of it as nature correcting itself

I will probably never leave apples ecosystem (dmnthem) although the ios11 was very very close to making me consider the possibility.

And I don’t want or need to push my Love for Apple onto everyone else.

I don’t need Apple to become a monopoly with cellular phones.

It’s already too dang expensive imho.

And I really don’t want to be carrying the same phone as every Tom, dick and joe.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

It sure used to be easy and intuitive.

Setting up a 12" iPad Pro for my parents for Christmas showed me just how unintuitive it has become.

Even just downloading an app proved not obvious since even on the large display, the download button was a little cloud-shaped icon the size of my pinky nail. To new users, things like this aren't easy to find.

I gave up trying to get the photos to sync through iCloud from the phone to the iPad. Everything shows enabled and set up but nothing transferred, nor did Notes for some reason.

Yeah I got rid of my iCloud subscription and just have the basic allowance. It’s just too buggy and unreliable so I went back to using Google Photo and Google Drive. There’s some serious flaws with iOS 11 and it seems to be taking an age for Apple to sort it out.

 

[44267547]

There’s some serious flaws with iOS 11 .

Serious in the sense of what's said on a tech forum or Serious what's said for those around you who use iOS every day? I don't disagree iOS 11 has been stellar, but I'm also not willing to say it's not been serious issues that mitigated experience for those so I know who use iOS 11, or I don't hear any general complaining about iOS 11 outside a tech forum.

it seems to be taking an age for Apple to sort it out.

But I would rather have Apple take the time to sort something out to make it right versus continually push updates side-by-side for issues that are not being addressed. I want slow and steady, not fast and sloppy.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Serious in the sense of what's said on a tech forum or Serious what's said for those around you who use iOS every day? I don't disagree iOS 11 has been stellar, but I'm also not willing to say it's not been serious issues that mitigated experience for those so I know who use iOS 11, or I don't hear any general complaining about iOS 11 outside a tech forum.

In the sense of experiencing it for myself and the fact a lot of people I know discussing things like poor battery life, lag and apps freezing. It’s been the buggiest release I’ve known and I’ve used iOS since iOS 5. I don’t remember this much complaining before among friends, family and colleagues? I remember iOS 7 was a bit of a dog when it first came out but we didn’t have severe battery drain like this.

I doubt you’ll see as many issues on the iPhone X but I don’t know anybody who uses an iPhone X. On normal iPhones it’s had a serious effect on performance.

But I would rather have Apple take the time to sort something out to make it right versus continually push updates side-by-side for issues that are not being addressed. I want slow and steady, not fast and sloppy.

It’s clear iOS 11 was at least 6 months too early to be released. Apple are still not on top of the issues now heading into 2018.

I think consumers would have appreciated them taking a little longer rather than pushing an underperforming beta as a general release. It was rushed for the iPhone X as releasing that phone on iOS 10 would have been even more underwhelming than it already was IMO.

 

[Sir Ruben]

It would be in rival companies interest to flood forums and comments sections with negative comments about their competition. Especially when the competition is still the market leader with an incredibly strong world class brand.

Basically they will latch on to something small and hire people to spam the internet with comments about it over and over again, day and night. YouTubers looking for clicks will then make vids about it, and tech sites will will make articles about it for the ad revenue, eventually general news websites will make an article about it for the non techie masses which spreads the overblown, poorly informed information even further.

While this might go unnoticed by many, social media is a very strong vessel, and really does harm companies. The same is happening with movies with the critics overly critical scores damaging the box office. We are all influenced by biased media every time we use the internet, and almost everyone will click on something if it sounds negative or has some huge revalation about the latest gadget or movie.

 

[DNichter]

Then there's this tidbit:

iPhone users don't know a damned thing about Android as it's not something they'd consider. Sure, you have the 1% that are enthusiasts in this forum and you have the 1% who buy used smartphones off Craigslist and they may dabble, but the remaining 98% wouldn't touch anything other than an iPhone with a 10 foot pole.

The ecosystem is fantastic, ease of use is off the charts, 100's of retail stores are there for quick local service, and the year over year incremental features have been steady. Android doesn't exist to us.

Definitely accurate for me. I would never consider an Android phone, but I am certainly aware of the OS. I am yet to see any convincing reasons to consider the other side though.

 

[aevan]

Don’t undermine the voice of many people who are genuinley upset about some iPhones becoming slow.

As I mentioned earlier, some people are genuinely upset about Apple products all the time. This felt different. But, as @maflynn said - it’s probably that people just want Apple to fail for some human psychological reasons.

We have become a culture of haters and critics.
[doublepost=1514464910][/doublepost]

I think plans to throttle a 1000+ phone and call it a feature is unforgivable

There are no plans to throttle any iPhone. As long as the components are healthy and working as they should, there will be no throttling.

You have to realize, if Apple really wanted to do the planned obsolescence thing, half their engineers would look for a job elsewhere. People like that take pride in their work. There are numerous articles about that, look them up.

Here is a nice quote from John Gruber

And at the engineering level, I’ve heard from multiple Apple sources over the years that even if such a dictate were issued from on high, it would result in a revolt. If some shortsighted senior executive demanded that an iOS software update render older iPhone hardware artificially slow, the engineers tasked with the job would almost certainly object. Even if some unscrupulous engineer were willing to implement such a booby trap, how would they keep other engineers on the team from noticing it, fixing it, and figuring out who was responsible?

The entire article is here: https://daringfireball.net/2017/12/iphone_battery_throttling

It’s a good read.

 

[brian3uk]

But, as @maflynn said - it’s probably that people just want Apple to fail for some human psychological reasons.

Apple has become too big and popular. It’s just like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon, and the cable cos. They get so big that people have limited alternatives so the actions of the company have a larger impact on people who have nowhere to go. It’s the old serf/lord situation all over again. The tech lords are getting very close to the line that we serfs will tolerate. Younger people are already getting tired of Facebook and leaving it to their adult family. Twitter is struggling and will run out of money eventually if they don’t change. We’ve all heard about cord cutters. People’s attitudes towards large tech monopolies are changing and it will affect them all, Apple included.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

On both sides....

Strange it may seem, we are in a Mac Forum.
What other side are you talking about?

 

[kdarling]

Judging from other sea changes in the world, it's all part of the growth of younger generations who have no decades long loyalty to any company or high ideal.

Which I suppose is good, except that it's also made them think that companies should likewise show no loyalty back for either customers or employees.

(Insert boilerplate comment that the world has gone to hell since we were kids.)

 

[boltjames]

Apple has become too big and popular. It’s just like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon, and the cable cos. They get so big that people have limited alternatives so the actions of the company have a larger impact on people who have nowhere to go. It’s the old serf/lord situation all over again. The tech lords are getting very close to the line that we serfs will tolerate. Younger people are already getting tired of Facebook and leaving it to their adult family. Twitter is struggling and will run out of money eventually if they don’t change. We’ve all heard about cord cutters. People’s attitudes towards large tech monopolies are changing and it will affect them all, Apple included.

Good post, but what you are really describing are the financial differences between the classes and how Apple is a luxury brand. For almost a decade, carrier discount pricing on iPhone's down to $99 or $0 made many people think it wasn't.

It's not an attitude towards large tech monopolies. It's young people and those earning below the average annual household income threshold realizing that as they get older careers matter and money matters. Not liking Facebook (seeing their peers bragging), putting Twitter at risk (they don't want to pay for it), living in mom's basement (they don't want to pay rent), dropping Cable (they don't want to pay for it), longing for an electric vehicle (they don't want to pay for gas), etc. etc.

We used to call this the lower middle class. I guess today we call it "it's not my fault it's the fault of big business".

 

[DNichter]

Good post, but what you are really describing are the financial differences between the classes and how Apple is a luxury brand. For almost a decade, carrier discount pricing on iPhone's down to $99 or $0 made many people think it wasn't.

It's not an attitude towards large tech monopolies. It's young people and those earning below the average annual household income threshold realizing that as they get older careers matter and money matters. Not liking Facebook (seeing their peers bragging), putting Twitter at risk (they don't want to pay for it), living in mom's basement (they don't want to pay rent), dropping Cable (they don't want to pay for it), longing for an electric vehicle (they don't want to pay for gas), etc. etc.

We used to call this the lower middle class. I guess today we call it "it's not my fault it's the fault of big business".

That's a good point to make. I see young people all the time come through my business with a sense of entitlement, looking for handouts without any real sense of work ethic. I think this translates to your point exactly. Nice things cost money? Who would have thought. That's certainly not Apple's fault for running a good business.

 

[Archer1440]

Don’t undermine the voice of many people who are genuinley upset about some iPhones becoming slow.

To the contrary, it's the many astroturfers who are "undermining the voice" of the few people actually experiencing issues due to any software adjustments.

 

[boltjames]

That's a good point to make. I see young people all the time come through my business with a sense of entitlement, looking for handouts without any real sense of work ethic. I think this translates to your point exactly. Nice things cost money? Who would have thought. That's certainly not Apple's fault for running a good business.

Spot on again, DN.

I manage a large group of senior and junior executives and my mind is constantly blown by the awful work ethic and sense of entitlement those between the ages of 21-32 demonstrate. Heard our Christmas party was "not inclusive" because we didn't allow 300+ people to each bring a partner to an event already costing us $20,000. Had a recent college graduate come in my office and tell me she was disappointed in my company because she was there 10 months already and hadn't gotten promoted. Almost had a work stoppage because another company in our building allowed people to bring pets to work every day and we didn't.

The senior executives would laugh at the nonsense but this is the next generation that's going to run this country and we just shake our heads in disbelief. The good news? I'm raising my kids as aggressive 1980's yuppie capitalists, they're going to have a much easier path to the executive washroom with all these lazy whiners to compete against.

 

[DNichter]

Spot on again, DN.

I manage a large group of senior and junior executives and my mind is constantly blown by the awful work ethic and sense of entitlement those between the ages of 21-32 demonstrate. Heard our Christmas party was "not inclusive" because we didn't allow 300+ people to each bring a partner to an event already costing us $20,000. Had a recent college graduate come in my office and tell me she was disappointed in my company because she was there 10 months already and hadn't gotten promoted. Almost had a work stoppage because another company in our building allowed people to bring pets to work every day and we didn't.

The senior executives would laugh at the nonsense but this is the next generation that's going to run this country and we just shake our heads in disbelief. The good news? I'm raising my kids as aggressive 1980's yuppie capitalists, they're going to have a much easier path to the executive washroom with all these lazy whiners to compete against.

I see the exact same stuff on my end. I'm 32 so I am just on that edge of being grouped in with the same bunch, but I started out with a completely different mindset. Work hard and you will be rewarded. I wasn't looking for handouts along the way and now 10 years into my career, I've been very successful. When I have children, I'll be sure to raise them the same way. It's unfortunate that this sort of entitled attitude has crept so much into our society, but it's just something we'll need to adjust to. Or not. Those without the proper work ethic will simply be left behind. I know what I would prefer. And just to specify with anyone else reading, this is by no means a blanket statement - I also see people in this age group that have a great work ethic and will be rewarded because of it.

 

[brian3uk]

Good post, but what you are really describing are the financial differences between the classes and how Apple is a luxury brand. For almost a decade, carrier discount pricing on iPhone's down to $99 or $0 made many people think it wasn't.

It's not an attitude towards large tech monopolies. It's young people and those earning below the average annual household income threshold realizing that as they get older careers matter and money matters. Not liking Facebook (seeing their peers bragging), putting Twitter at risk (they don't want to pay for it), living in mom's basement (they don't want to pay rent), dropping Cable (they don't want to pay for it), longing for an electric vehicle (they don't want to pay for gas), etc. etc.

We used to call this the lower middle class. I guess today we call it "it's not my fault it's the fault of big business".

Personally, I think Apple has become too big to think of themselves as a luxury brand anymore. They wouldn't be pushing animoji, messenger stickers, carpool karaoke, games, and their new tv/movie ambitions if they were still just a luxury electronics brand.


I disagree about the facebook statement, it's the older 40+ folks with jobs and lives that are still using facebook, and it has devolved into constant advertising, fake news, and adult stuff. It used to be college kids chatting, posting party and vacation pics, and they liked it.(i did) When it expanded and the adult world encroached then the youth lost interest. (because hell would rain down if you don't friend your aunt betty and like her asinine posts) They didn't age out of it, the olds took over. Even people my age, 35, who have been using it since the beginning are losing interest because we knew it when it was better. My parents love it, and my young cousins hate it because they only know the current iteration.

I don't want to derail this thread into politics with the rest of your comment but I think socio economic issues are more complex than either of us understand, and we will see something big happen in that space within the next 10 years.

 

[boltjames]

Personally, I think Apple has become too big to think of themselves as a luxury brand anymore. They wouldn't be pushing animoji, messenger stickers, carpool karaoke, games, and their new tv/movie ambitions if they were still just a luxury electronics brand.

Wait, so wealthy people don't like sending emoji's, using stickers, playing games, and watching media? I can't tell you how many times a week my trophy wife is doing all of the above with her trophy wife friends either in yoga class or at wine tastings.

Apple doesn't compete for the Best Buy budget consumer, that's been their MO since 1980. They don't make $499 MacBooks, they don't make $29 Media Streamers, they don't sell $59 Smart Watches, they don't sell $79 Tablets, and they don't offer $99 iPhone's.

And, by the way, they never did. That $0 iPhone or that $99 iPhone with the bigger storage were only at those low low prices because big wireless carriers like Verizon and AT&T were in an arms race to acquire subscribers. Point being, Apple hasn't changed its stance on the low end, the carriers just stopped paying for the free ride. It's funny how on your list of selfish and egregious 'big businesses that are going to get their comeuppance in the next ten years' you didn't mention a single wireless carrier when they are the ones who priced you out of an iPhone, not Apple.

 

[brian3uk]

Wait, so wealthy people don't like sending emoji's, using stickers, playing games, and watching media? I can't tell you how many times a week my trophy wife is doing all of the above with her trophy wife friends either in yoga class or at wine tastings.

Apple doesn't compete for the Best Buy budget consumer, that's been their MO since 1980. They don't make $499 MacBooks, they don't make $29 Media Streamers, they don't sell $59 Smart Watches, they don't sell $79 Tablets, and they don't offer $99 iPhone's.

And, by the way, they never did. That $0 iPhone or that $99 iPhone with the bigger storage were only at those low low prices because big wireless carriers like Verizon and AT&T were in an arms race to acquire subscribers. Point being, Apple hasn't changed its stance on the low end, the carriers just stopped paying for the free ride. It's funny how on your list of selfish and egregious 'big businesses that are going to get their comeuppance in the next ten years' you didn't mention a single wireless carrier when they are the ones who priced you out of an iPhone, not Apple.

Luxury: an inessential, desirable item that is expensive or difficult to obtain.

Any middle class bloke can get an iphone just like you, so its not luxury sorry. They sold 212 million last year alone, thats a regular consumer commodity, not an exclusive item. You might want it to be a symbol of your superiority but its not.

I am not priced out of anything. My overall cell phone bill hasn't changed much, the only carrier change was the way they handle the accounting for the phone. The customer always paid the cost of the phone in the end.

 

[boltjames]

Luxury: an inessential, desirable item that is expensive or difficult to obtain.

Any middle class bloke can get an iphone just like you, so its not luxury sorry. They sold 212 million last year alone, thats a regular consumer commodity, not an exclusive item. You might want it to be a symbol of your superiority but its not.

I am not priced out of anything. My overall cell phone bill hasn't changed much, the only carrier change was the way they handle the accounting for the phone.

Your definition is of a luxury item not a luxury brand. A car is not a luxury, but a BMW is a luxury car and a Kia is an economy car. Luxury brands sell commodities but they sell them with lux features in lux showrooms at lux prices.

Not many middle class bloke's (your words) are going to want to spend $1250 for an iPhone that used to cost them $99 or $349 just last purchase cycle two years ago. Especially if you have a family. I just bought 4 iPhone X's for myself, my wife, and my boys. With Apple Care and tax, that's $6,928.

The customer always paid the cost of the phone in the end.

Completely incorrect. Carriers paid for the discounts, not the customers. I myself am proof of this, my phone bill hasn't changed since 2011 for my family of 5 the only thing that's been the variable is the cost of the hardware. I paid $0 for my daughter's iPhone 5C and she costs me $35 a month with AT&T. When I went to replace the 5C the least expensive iPhone was the 6 and it cost me $349. My monthly service didn't go down when they started charging real money for the phones. The carrier subsidies were ended.

 

[Puddled]

You bought both your children $1750 iphones?