What makes phone a success?
 

What makes a sexy phone? What makes a purchase decision?

My observation of it is that firstly come the numbers you read on the reviews. First choices are made here.

Then come the important physical first impressions which can be a show stopper for many. Checking the build quality and the jewel factor. Curved glass, metal finish, joints etc.

After that comes the OS first impression where a fluent experience will buy off many. I think first iPhones sold here?

Only after all of this will come the so called ecosystem and software availability. We've already placed the phone ranking in our minds after the first three experiences and it takes more effort in this to change it.

Only technically or otherwise oriented people will make it other way around and most of us willingly or unwillingly sort our selections according to the above preferences.

It is vital for Jolla to be present and looking at it's best in some high end phone models. That sends a message straight to our hearts surpassing all rational thinking :)

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

Available software first. No Whatsapp- no sale. Which is unfortunate.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

iPhone had no whatsapp when it started. It was driver by the sexuality which attracted users and users attracted applications.

Nobody cares about whatsapp if the phone is crap because nobody wants to be second class user. On the other hand if the phone is something people desire it gets more users which creates more pressure to create applications.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

- The product that looks fashion and sounds hi-tech, like "retina" or whatsoever;

- Product that is ultra thin and needs external battery to use daily;

- The product can have availability of 100million junk apps and in-app-purchase games;

- Product that takes edited, smoothern skin selfie and colour saturated rear camera

- Product that is easier to understand by some stubborn minds, for example, a home button that can go back to home. And also make sure that all the apps user opened previously looks like running in the background

What a great product!!

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

When iphone started there was no whatsit :p

You cannot really compare the situation 12 years ago to what happens today; back then the current killer apps did not exist.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

You all seem to forget the most important desirability factor, which is the brand.

Why is it so that my son wants specifically Air Jordan shoes and not the arguably same quality generic label foorwear from supermarket?

Why is it that my wife is (not so) patientently waiting for the HMD Nokia 9 launch before purchasing a new phone even as her current device is flaking off the seams... :)

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

Mediocrity.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

That is true, but brands come and go. I remember very well the time when Samsung was a fridge company.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

Good point! I remember when Nokia was a phone giant! Wonder what went wrong?

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

What makes phone a success?
shi*ty os- (crapdr*id) and more than enough ram (6gb or 8gb) :D:D

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

Marketing.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

How about all of the above and a little luck!

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

Here is another aspect of a success story...

http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/27/tech...ory/index.html

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

The brand is the MAIN factor. Then comes the outer finish. The models do not differ much on the first view. And all of them look the same when theres a silicon case around. And honestly, who cares about hardware other than camera, number of cores and clock frequency?

I think for the mass, the phones which are cheap to get from your provider as bundle are the most successful. If the phone is advertised well you'll probably pay some extra money.

For me it was the hardware keyboard in the past. Now it's the OS, even if it's jailed in a poor device. But....you can ssh on it :D

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

What makes a phone a success?
All the things the above "Brains" have mentioned....
and one other thing...

What makes a phone a success? ...
why....the Production..
the making of the phone ...physically...
is a success...unto itself.
everything after that...
the os ..software..support..etc..
is all the follow-through.

Many phones never get near to production...

I could name at least one or two off the top of my head...

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

Even better, apps were never even the intention! They simply turned out to be pretty good at generating money out of thin air, and the rest is history.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

Hardware keyboard (especially if it is comfortable to type on) and Linux-ish OS (webOS-LunaOS, Sailfish, Maemo, Ubuntu...; or ability to multiboot at the very least). Unique design is a plus (BlackBerry Passport looks very interesting, because of square display and touch-keyboard), locked firmware is a minus. Oh, and given current 2G-off crisis, I want "concealed" USB ports so that cellular connectivity would be not hardwired into the device, but put into a replaceable USB stick. Would make the device much thicker, probably, especially with 4+ concealed USB ports (don't want sticks to be conspicuous / easy to lose / getting in the way of holding the device and using it).

Thank you. Best regards.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Per aspera ad astra...

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

That is a very good idea; having a device with internal slots for USB sticks makes a lot of sense from both security and extendability viewpoint; I had thought about this myself before. You could stick in not only modems but all range of other USB-niceties! :D

However there are quite a few practical problems with that approach; as you say it would make a device lot thicker, I'd say it is only practical in almost-laptop sized devices.
Another mechanical constraint is how large a space to reserve for each stick; USB devices vary in size a fair lot. Also in case of modem-type sticks, you need to design the enclosure so that the antennas get decent radiating environment.
There is also the fact that separate devices on USB bus consume more power than integrated solutions, this also suggests that the solution is only usable on larger devices with high-capacity batteries.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

The problem is that if you can write a bash script or solder you are way out in the <1% of tech users, you are not a market you are a market breaker.
While the engineering department at a few places has gotten out of control (ie. Nokia Maemo group, Sharp Zaurus, etc)and made something THEY(also 1%ers) think is kickass, this is not what the market wants.
So first who is this apparently anti-user restrained awesomeness market?
Not users, but the mobile telephone companies who farm the users for their money, these companies also get some coercion for backdoors and illicit access from the security services of many nation states, even/especially those of alleged democracies.
Did you think that those 'free' phone for a year or so on contract were a gift? I wonder if even 10% of people actually go out and buy the phone they want vs taking the 'gift' of a new phone from a predatory mobile network.
When you create an uncontrolled hacking friendly device that enables users to do something simple and obvious like USB/Bluetooth tether it is reducing the value of that customer who is to be squeezed to the max for profits.
I would love a phone with a true 100% FOSS GNU/Linux OS including drivers, I want the hacker buss or USB ports even if just several USB power/data pads or pins and an internal hub to hack awesomeness into my pocked comm and computer device.
Maybe we can influence someone like Bunny Huang who knows Senzhen China and cares not only for the prolific hardware hacks of Senzhen market stalls but also the western wing of our movement which has made a cult around also sharing those improvements as embodied by the GPL, staving off a premature post-purchase EOL for good hardware which falls behind updated APIs and security holes. Produced in Senzhen where manufacturing is cheap and clones of successful hardware drive the market a great device with community OS support will get all of the inexpensive hardware support we need in exchange for everyone from corporate engineers to anonymous hungry geeks hacking both the hardware design and software side from duct taped old Linux laptops and cantenna'ed wifi.
All I ask is that when that line of epic devices begin to build I want a serial line out and a POCSAG pager service module so my phone
can be radio silent until I choose to activate out signalling services. I want no shared connection between the CPU or memory and the untrusted modular cellular modem. I want all of the hackability to be aimed in my direction, not a menu of vulnerability for others from black hats, to greedy corporations, even antidemocratic government agencies to use against me and the surrounding population.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

This varies from country to country.

In finland for example it was previously (when 2G was the hot thing) illegal to sell operator-locked devices, hence operators did not offer "free" or cheap devices but the competition between operators and independent vendors was true. People always paid the full price on a device and bought a network contract separately.

For 3G the rules were relaxed a bit, on the assumption that it would help 3G to gain faster marker penentration; it was possible to bundle a phone with a service, but operators still had to give you the same price if you wanted to buy just the device which kept the prices from diving to the bottom.

I think this system is pretty fair and makes the pricing of devices and services more transparent; the end-user benefits from competition and freedom of choice.

I am fairly surprised that some countries that are supposed to be major forerunners of freedom do allow for monopolistic practises from operators... :D

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

USB bus may be more power hungry, but it's also more standard and obviously more secure (not sharing memory between modem and other things). Sizing of USB sticks is an issue, yes. I would have hoped that they are small enough to hide completely inside USB port, but it may be more difficult for antenna-equipped USB modems. Antenna reception may be challenging, too.

Edit: Ben Nanonote is fairly close to 100% FOSS, I reckon.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

Taking a few minutes to Learn something new every day is fun:
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_NanoNote

copyleft hardware planet

"Quest for camp stove fuel" was an intriguing story...
but the cake goes to:

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

I very much agree with Jolla's old motto:

Unfortunately, at the end what they delivered was just a new smartphone.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

It was a start. However what's listed in this thread is a recipe for how to become a niche instantly and a memory even quicker.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

Oi!



10 chars

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

Yes. Brand is definitely an important factor in purchase decisions. I mean, I could bring you a phone called 'Pononi' and tell you that it has good specs. You will be skeptical at first but if I tell you former employees of Nokia were involved in it manufacture then may be you might give it a chance.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

What can you say about iPhone? Who likes it?

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

what make a phone success?

buyers.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

I would love to be able to own an iphone like all my daughters friends who rightfully bully her for not being available on vital apple services like "find my friend" and imessage.
(AT THE AGE OF 9 YEARS FF****S)
Also apple being the forefront of openness, them sticking with their founding principles since day one and how closely they listen to their userbase makes it irresistible to offer my familys soul on steves altar and join that elite religion one day.
For different reasons i can not afford all of this, but i will never give up my dream.
meaning: i really really do not like the current attitude of both, the company and most of its customers
Too you a warm welcome and thanks for joining talk.maemo, the place where all but one question are taken serious ;)

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

You [insert expletive here]! I clicked that during a quiet period at work! :D

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

"What can you say about iPhone? Who likes it?"

I don't like it at all.

I don't like the devices.
I don't like the os
I don't like garden walls or prison ones.
I don't like the corp. philo
I don't like Apple's business practices with the use of labour practices...amoungst other things...

This is the last place to talk of apple or other corps that are anathema to linux and its philos and practices and principles.

I suggest going to the Windows forums ...and ask the same question of their followers of Apple...and see what happens...
Or go to android forums and talk of Windows and stir a pot there.
see what happens.
Better still...
Go to the Apple forums and ask the same question of the competing devices and os's ...
I am curious how long it will take before they catapult your flaming corpse out of their forum...

we are an easy going community ...and open minded...
and unlikely to flame ...or cause a fist-fight over competing devices and os's ...
But I do not think you will escape un-burnt from the competing forums.

definitely....asking everyone here what they think... in a linux community... think of "evil-in-corporate" ...
I will most assuredly tell you my view.

Re: What makes phone a success?
 

I really like colorful phones. Now I have green :)