Smartphone sales down 22 percent in Q2, the worst performance in a decade::North American sales are bad for everyone, except, miraculously, Google.
Good. We should be using our phones for longer.
Waiting on replacement batteries to come back. Also 1k is a no way from me.
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The problem with the Fairphone,beside the price point, is the fact that it is not state-of-the-art now and that will be annoying in the future. The mediocre Battery life and the decision not to include wireless charging is one of these points, the camera,etc. as well.
I really looked forward to the FP5 but decided against it for these reasons.
Would that really help? I remember that each brand had their own custom battery sizes, and it would only sell the remaining stock once the phone was no longer on the store shelf. I only know Nokia had some standard form factor for batteries.
Batteries were phone specific but it wasn’t a big problem to find them. I bought several for my Note 3 and it allowed me to use the phone for a long time.
I’m not really surprised, smartphones kinda hit this point of “good enough for most people’s purposes” 3-4y ago and short of an actual reason to upgrade like the 4g-5g switchover there isn’t a lot of incentive for most people to throw down $400-1k for a new phone every couple of years.
I would have happily kept my OnePlus 7T for a few more years if the network switchover didn’t require new hardware.
Personally I don’t need a faster smartphone at this point, if anything motivates me to buy a new one it’s usually better radios, better battery runtime and better cameras. The rest of the gewgaws don’t matter much for daily use.
Agreed
This market stagnation was what got me to buy a Fold. Every 3-5 years of the same size slabs, just imperceptibly “faster”. Then came something new finally. Same as my pixel 2xl, I’ll have this till the battery or screen starts to go.
It’s more tied to the change of the business model.
Phones used to be subsided by the plan and the 2 year contract lock in, so if you didn’t upgrade every cycle you were effectively leaving money on the table.
This is why the market accelerated so quickly compared to any other class of hardware.
As the 2 year contract fell out of favor (thanks largely to T-Mobile), you had 2 year heavily discounted payment plans tied to device trade in that took their place, but these were opt-in as opposed to the previous model which was built in to every contract.
While the economy was strong, the depreciation on your current device and effectively FOMO on maximizing its trade in value kept the system driven at similar numbers.
But as purses have tightened, suddenly the outlay on increasingly expensive devices with lower trade in values for past devices is a racket people are opting out of.
It was never really about features as opposed to status and reup indicators. Most of the rest of the world has more like 3 year phone replacement cycles for the past decade, and have been fine with the same feature parity per model year as US phones.
I’m honestly surprised the 2 year thing kept going as long as it did.
Which phone did you upgrade to? I also have the 7T and quite happy with it except for brightness outdoors
I hit fleaBay and bought a used 9 Pro. All I really wanted out of the upgrade were newer radios (5g + AX wifi) and better cameras. I think I paid around $350, if my track record holds I’ll keep it for 2-3 years then do the same again for the same reasons. I’ve been halfway looking at a 10 Pro/T or an 11 model for better battery runtime (Snapdragon 888 is a bit of a battery hog for the performance) but I don’t really have a reason to upgrade yet.
Maybe they should bring back some form-factor diversity that niche consumer segments could gravitate toward, instead of every manufacturer targeting only the largest (and blandest) portion of the pie and ignoring the rest of it. If it’s not clear, I am holding out for some decent “mini-sized” Android option.
Unihertz being the only one even trying…
Phone plateaued 5 years ago for the average user.
I have a one plus 6. I’m on it for hours everyday. Reading. Browsing. Listening. No gaming. Lots of pictures.
My online data ran out long before my phone data - for pictures.
Phone runs fast. No more updates so nothing changes on me anymore.
I have zero reason to update. Would I like a better camera? Sure. But not for 1200$ 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.
I upgraded from a 7 to a 14 pro and while it doesn’t hang up on the newer OS as much (a problem the 7 developed over its lifetime), it’s not really an appreciably better experience overall. The camera is nicer.
Plus you can probably run stock Android on the op6 if you wanted to run Android 13
On the 7 Pro, stuck on the oneplus navigation gestures, pop up front facing cam. Fully working phone, still no other phone to replace it when it comes to having a screen without a bump. And I can get a free phone through work, but there isn’t one I want yet…
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.
Same. Been rocking a refurbished iPhone 11 for a couple years now, works just fine. Couldn’t care less that I don’t have a 14 or 15. It’s a phone. I use it for texts, browsing, and the occasional call (I don’t like to talk on the phone.) I don’t need a phone as powerful as a laptop. Most people truly don’t.
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.
Well there are foldables, which are growing as category, but I don’t know if it makes a net difference and anyway they’re too small to make a difference currently.
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.
what dongles do yoy reocmmned and why, link them here
finally some positive news.
Ya. No shit. Baseless inflation is tough on most people. If everything weren’t so expensive, maybe people would have more money for things they don’t actually need.
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.
Stagnation in development, wages, >$1000 flagship pricetags.
Rise in inflation, cost of living.
Weird!
Perhaps at that point the consumer will opt for the repairable options.
Hmm its crazy that almost like rampant consumerism isn’t the most efficient thing to do
I think thats whats going to happen. Fairphones are mid-range, but a midrange phone is enough for everything nowadays. The only reason I want to switch my phone right now is because the fingerprint sensor is broken
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!
Time to start development on rectal computers.
It’s internet capable!
Those are called remote controlled sex toys and already exist :)
Neuralink!
(Shudders)
Analink?
Those are called remote controlled sex toys and already exist :)
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.
Worst performance of trying to get your money.
Honestly, how much better can they get? I love to have the latest gadgets as much as the next guy, but I’ve got bills and shit too.
Still rocking my Pixel 4a.
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.
Just realize that iOS is NOT like Android at all. Some people can’t make the switch. Also, the cut out is not noticeable in daily use. The app I’m using right now isn’t showing it. It’s a non-issue in reality.
I recommend the Fairphone 5. 5 year warranty, 10 year software support, and user replaceable parts like the battery.
I really want this phone, but unfortunately I’m in the US
FP4 works just fine in the US btw… perhaps the FP5 will too?
I’ll definitely take a look at whatever Fairphone is out when it’s time to replace my S23 Ultra.
