You could argue that there were smartphones before Apple’s iPhone hit the stage, but you’d be drawing a long bow. The iPhone fundamentally changed what we expect a phone could do, by making it a mini computer with a phone attached – and then something more. Since then, every smartphone has been a reaction to the Apple juggernaut, and the success of manufacturers has ranged from the abysmal (everyone except Samsung) to the successful-but-with-significant-caveats (Samsung).
Click here for the best deals on the new Samsung flagship – the Galaxy S3, or call Optus on 1300 137 897!
One phone to rule them all
Apple sells 1 in 3 smartphones in the world, but collects about 3 in every 4 dollars made in the business. That’s mostly thanks to their holistic model – they design the phone, they secure manufacturers to build the phone, they sell the phone in their own retail stores, they make the software, and they collect 30% of all money made on 3rd party software. And they also design, make, sell and service a good portion of the accessories market. Their relationship with 3rd party sellers and partners is frosty- not because the products don’t sell (they do) but because Apple cuts them in for a tiny fraction of the business, and then screws them down on every aspect, from discounts (nope) to associated branding (got an apple seed in your logo? COURTROOM, NOW!).
But it’s hard to argue with success. Apple made twice as much money on phones last quarter with their 12 month old 4S model than Samsung did with a lineup of brand-spanking-new superphones. And that’s with wild speculation of a new, huge update in just a few months.
Spaghetti Sauce
Malcolm Gladwell, a Canadian journalist and author, is famous for a number of pop-psychology paradigms, including the ’10,000 hour rule’ (the idea that the difference between a natural genius at a task, and a normal person becoming a genius, is about 10,000 hours of hard work).
Another model of his is the Ragu Spaghetti Sauce story. In a nutshell, he described the activities of Ragu in the 1970’s, trying to make the perfect spaghetti sauce- the right mix of spice, flavor, adherence to the fork, etc. But during the testing, they found out that people liked chunky tomato sauce, which wasn’t even sold then, and was only included as an outlier to the more normal range of sauce options. This led to the introduction of chunky sauce, and then a very broad expansion of Ragu’s line to include all the possible combinations. The ensuing wild success of this model is roughly why we have 70 flavours of gum and 12 different Mars Bar variations. In other words, don’t try to make the perfect product; instead, make a product line that caters to everyone’s varying tastes.
As it turns out, this model doesn’t necessarily work with electronics. At least, not smartphones.
It worked to a certain degree with laptops. The idea was that most laptops were considered too complicated, too packed with bells and whistles, for most people to justify the price tag. So manufacturers started making ‘netbooks’, budget laptops that had enough grunt to allow for browsing, video playback and word processing. They sold like gangbusters, and every manufacturer now has a wide range of laptops to meet every consumer.
It worked for a good ten years with mobile phones. Nokia, Sony Ericsson and eventually Samsung got by producing a cornucopia of handsets with the same components and slightly different form factors.
But with smartphones, Apple set a wildly different precedent. What they understood was that most netbooks, budget laptops and mobile phones were all junk. They all worked badly- in fact, that was part of their business model! People thought that cheap = simple.
Which is completely wrong. It takes an awful lot of hard work to make a computer; it takes vastly more to make that computer easy to use. What Apple recognized was that the more expensive a phone or computer got, the easier it was to use. That represented the amount of refinement involved. Non-savvy users were clamoring for cheaper, because they thought that meant simpler. After a few years of trying to type a text message with a number keypad, or typing a report on a plastic laptop with a poor, 8 inch display that was so light it bounced around when you typed, people were ready to pay a bit extra for quality. Apple delivered that in a big, big way, and then charged less for it than people give them credit for. In fact:
Optus 2006
Vodafone 2009
As you can see, a ‘smartphone’ was $45 on a $99 monthly plan before the iPhone landed. When the iPhone came about, Vodafone could give it to you for free on a $79 plan. Even fancy dumphones (like the Motorola RAZR) cost more than that prior to the iPhone. Apple killed the middle market, making the choice very stark. You could have drug-dealer-quality ‘burners’ to buy outright for $50, or you could own a bit of the future by going on a contract and paying a little extra.
Re-creating the middle market
When Android came along in 2009 to challenge the new breed of smartphone, its open source model allowed manufacturers to recreate that middle market. Cheap handsets could be manufactured by the barrelful, with a user experience that was close enough to the iPhone to satisfy most basic needs.
But once again, they were off the mark. Android was a tech enthusiasts dream in its early stages, and a complete nightmare for the penny-pinching set who thought all technology was the same anyway. It was the exact same problem – Apple wasn’t charging more for bells and whistles, it was charging more for an apparent lack of bells and whistles.
As such, cheap Android phones (and cheap Windows Mobile phones) now litter 2nd drawers everywhere, not to mention landfills.
The Premier Android Market
In the last 12 months, the manufacturers have finally cottoned on to the fact that what people want in a smartphone is a Brand. They want ‘THE’ phone, not just ‘A’ phone.
Motorola did this first, with their DROID line. This followed Motorola’s model of releasing a big blockbuster handset every few years, rather than a confusing heap like Nokia did. The DROID was overshadowed by HTC’s Incredible, before HTC went off the deep end and started releasing 365 phones a year. HTC also developed the first Nexus, the phone with Google’s direct input to be the official ‘Google Android Phone’.
But it was the Samsung Galaxy S, with its surface similarity to the iPhone, that galvanized a bonafide hit for an Android-run phone, and for Samsung. The sequel Galaxy S2 further drove the point home – people want a great smartphone, not just a smartphone.
Comparison of budget Android phones to flagship models
At this point, every manufacturer of Shiny Black Rectangles that runs the Android operating system has a standard bearer, a phone that demonstrates their hardware prowess. Each manufacturer also has plenty of dross still on the market, to supposedly cater to the budget crowd.
Of course, ‘Dross’ is relative. Most carriers have worked out just how badly last years crop of anything-goes Android handsets can dilute their product line, and have shifted to a more streamlined approach. Still, most carriers have a hangover model to attract attention away from the intimidating latest-thing.
HTC One X vs HTC Sensation XL (Vodafone 1300 106 571)
The One X is about the best Android phone on the market. Through Vodafone, it’s available for free on the $49 plan, or for $12 on the $29 Plan.
The Sensation XL is one of HTC’s last efforts before they cut their line just down to the superstar One brand. It’s $0 from the $29 plan and up.
Verdict: Ok to go for the bargain, but not necessary. The Sensation XL still has the features of a current smartphone, with a big 8MP camera, Android 4.0 (maybe not out of the box, but it is available) and a 4.7” screen.
But really, no-one should be on a $29 plan – these low-ball plans are exactly the type that entice customers who don’t realize how much they’re gonna use their phone. $180 credit, at 90c a minute, equals less than 3 hrs of talk time in a month – much less, when you consider a 40 cent flagfall for each call. And txt messages. And 200MB of data is nothing on a phone that can stream music and videos, use real time maps videos and download apps – because why the hell would you get a phone like that, to not use it, amirite?
Samsung Galaxy S3 vs Samsung Galaxy Ace (Dodo 1300 768 194)
Dodo uses the Optus network and doesn’t offer free handsets lightly- but their plans are hard to beat, offering huge value and security.
On their $59.90 plan, the superstar S3 is a hard-to-swallow $17 a month, making the total plan $76.90. But you get Unlimited calls and text to any network, including 13/1300 numbers, and 2.5GB of data. That’s a proper plan- one that can really replace your home phone or even a cheap VoIP phone, with no risk of ‘bill shock’. They even give you $100 credit for international calls, at pretty good rates (eg. Calls to the UK are 55c, so you’d get about 2.5 hours talk time. Calls to India are $1.20, so you’d get about 1.5 hrs. Not too shabby).
For only slightly less, ($70 a month) Dodo will give you The Galaxy Ace, a conspicuously ‘budget’ version of the Galaxy line. It has plenty of good specs, like a decent camera and expandable memory, but no Android 4.0 for this guy. And a ho-hum display. BUT! You get a free Nintendo 3DS., the 3D gaming system that TOTALLY isn’t made redundant by most smartphones.
Verdict – It looks tempting, doesn’t it? Maybe you Dad wants an entry level smartphone, but your nephew wants a 3DS. Get it done! But no. The Galaxy Ace running Android 2.3 will frustrate most entry level users, and it’s not powerful enough for upgrades beyond that. It’s not a bad phone at all, but $5 a month more gets you a phone that should (hopefully) be good for years. And the S3 is bigger, which is usually a big selling point for older or novice users – bigger icons and more real estate helps to disperse the mystifying tangle of icons and widgets.
And your nephew has enough toys.
LG Optimus L7 vs Nokia Lumia 710 (iPrimus 1300 137 794)
Here’s where you can take advantage of a struggling firm trying to gain lost market share. LG has been flagging about a while, never really getting a big name in mobiles outside its native South Korea. Unlike Samsung, Motorola, HTC, Nokia, RIM and even Sony, LG has never quite had a breakthrough hit. It came close with its Prada and Viewty phones, which were light years ahead of the competition in early 2007, and got smashed by the iPhone just as they were about to explode in popularity. They still haven’t quite recovered from that.
Nokia, of course has the arguably more difficult road ahead. It went from being the giant of the mobile world to a ‘whetever happened to those guys?’ afterthought in just 5 years. Their attempts at re-emerging before running out of cash, by partnering with Microsoft’s Windows Phone, is still in the starting blocks.
The LG Optimus L7 is LG’s attempt at hanging with Samsung and HTC. It’s not gonna cut it. 5MP camera, 4GB on board storage, mediocre screen. Nice design, and a clean cut skin of Android that will appeal to new users. It runs Android 4.0, but it might not have the grunt to support further upgrades.
The Nokia Lumia 710, on the other hand, does not intend to compete with higher end Androids. Its big brothers, the Lumia 800 and 900, are suited to that task. The Lumia 710 is targeted as a budget phone, and runs Windows Phone 7.5 – and that’s all it ever will run.
But…both phones are free on the iPrimus $39 No Worries plan. And frankly, the 710 is better. The Windows Phone layout, though a tad buggy, adheres more closely to a ‘less is more’ ethos than even Android 4.0. This isn’t really a battle of Big Phone vs Little Phone. These are both little phones.
The plan itself is pretty good - $39 gets you Unlimited SMS and MMS, Unlimited calls to other iPrimus Mobiles, $700 credit to other numbers and 2GB data.
Verdict: Either or. Both good for people looking a cheap, easy to use handset. But you know what? For $9 or $10 more, you get your pick of a Lumia 800, Samsung Galaxy S2 (which still has quite a bit of life in it), a Samsung galaxy Nexus (way overlooked phone, runs a pure version of Android 4.0) or a Motorola RAZR.