Yea, it's crazy that I have some budget Android phones that have dual sim and other features most flagships in the US don't have.
It’s crazy but I think we can surmise it’s due to Apple. Google is copying Apple’s strategy so closely it’s like they bought a template. Give people a very narrow set of features, but make sure they’re good quality and charge a premium to get high margins. I can’t blame Samsung for following along.
These budget phones you speak of are marketed to India and China and other countries where many people are very price conscious but also demanding of versatile features. The competition is fierce so they expect a lot for their money.
The companies have to cut corners somewhere so often the materials or the camera won’t be “premium” and the hardware and software support will be sparse to nonexistent, but the specs and features will be amazing.
We do see the Chinese companies offering some amazing phones for low prices but we need to keep in mind how much help the Chinese government gives them so they can absorb the costs better than more independent companies can.
At the other extreme we see Apple got like a bloated tick level of successful trickling out features to us and slowly emphasizing margins over quality components We still don’t have stereo recording capabilities. The mic still isn’t the best. They’ve gimped Qualcomm modems to match Intel modems due to a battle over costs.
The phone is really not that good, I mean I make almost all of my calls on my Pixel or Samsung once I realized not all cell phone calls have to be plagued with crackle and distortion. Granted, my 8 Plus and the X are much improved. But as recently as iPhone 7 Plus, on a call I could swear it was still 1996 and my husband and I were on our old Nokias.
But until I jumped over the wall of the garden, I genuinely believed when I bought an iPhone I was getting the best of every feature and component available and getting the cutting edge of technology, but refined. And most of my friends still think that, despite having massive issues since iOS 11. They can’t understand why I’m experimenting with Pixels and Samsungs.
I have a friend who is completely underwhelmed by his X. But when I try to show him my Android phones he backs away and shakes his head and says “Nah, I’m an iPhone guy.”
I hear that a lot. “Ah, I only use Apple stuff.” That’s fine if you know why. But most people I talk to don’t know why. They’ve just been doing so since Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone. That was the end of that. Even though IPhones and Apple products aren’t simple and intuitive anymore and just about everyone I know now is having problems with their iPhones, especially the ones over a year old.
I still think very highly of Apple products but I do believe Apple did let some complacency set in. And I think they know they can get away with taking features away and offering the bare minimum as long as they sell it as “the future.” Hey, it seems to be working. Warren Buffet is as bullish as ever on AAPL. Their customers are still as devoted as ever despite some being disgruntled about various things.
Anyway, I think Samsung takes some cues from Apple when marketing to the US and doesn’t go all out to court us because we have demonstrated we don’t seem to mind paying through the nose for whatever a company decides to offer, if it’s marketed right. We’ve got a lot of protectionism going against the Chinese upstarts so...hello 64GB and single sim phones.
