
Why Xiaomi, Lenovo, and Huawei Can't Compete with Apple - williswee
https://www.techinasia.com/xiaomi-lenovo-huawei-compete-apple
======
contingencies
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the first mobile device
manufacturer to commit to making ad-hoc and mesh networking fully available to
developers in a functionally secure fashion will profit immensely. It will
certainly herald a major shift in mobile. Why the hell can't your phone talk
to your TV talk to your computer talk to your wife's phone within an app?
"Send this music to friend", "Play this game with whoever's on the smart-TV",
"auto-share my RSS reads with family and friends", etc.

Now, I'm no lawyer and I'm not interested in digging through Google's Android
licensing fortress, but even if there are issues there, if there's a place in
the world where a company can make the requisite API extensions happen and
have them reach a mass-market product regardless of legality, it's China. That
company will win the developing world low end smartphone segment, because
cellular data simply doesn't exist in an affordable, user friendly and decent
performance manner for most of the developing world's population.

It will bring a return of SMTP/UUCP-style store and forward. It may be the
apple in the developing world's eye.

Closest thing out there right now seems to be
[http://developer.servalproject.org/dokuwiki/doku.php](http://developer.servalproject.org/dokuwiki/doku.php)

~~~
kayoone
Nobody is doing that because it's very complex. You will need a lot of mature
open standards or a set of proprietary ones to talk to the devices around you
like that. Ironically this already works best within the Apple ecosystem. If
you own an iPhone, Mac and Apple TV the integration to hand off calls and
stream audio/video around etc is pretty good, while on the open side of
things, stuff most of the time kind of works and breaks to often.

~~~
signal11
The other company that _should_ be able to do this well is Samsung (they make
TVs, phones and other consumer electronic items). In reality (and I own a
Samsung Smart TV and have owned Galaxys) I felt their software was extremely
crappy and I just ended up avoiding it.

~~~
contingencies
Actually I used to work for Samsung, and I've been to their HQ in Suwon,
Korea. It's a very corporate corporation, not an engineering corporation. I'd
expect someone like HTC or a Chinese competitor to crack this nut first.

------
bbayer
I am using both iOS and Android phones. Both have good and bad points. I am a
hacker and sometimes I need Android's customization features. Most of my
colleagues prefer Android because of it is hacky nature like me. But the
reality is my wife cannot use Android. She had to tweak lots options that she
don't ever need. Even my 1.5 years old kid can use iOS more effective than
Android because it is much more responsive and well designed. UI is much more
consistent that 1.5 years old kid can figure out how to do slide to unlock.

Apple producing hardware and software together and both of them equally
important and should be complementary for success. I think that is why they
cannot steal customers from Apple.

~~~
m0skit0
My baby has 11 months and can slide to unlock my wife's HTC Android phone.
That point was useless, but yeah, Apple users are usually not hackish nor need
all the customizations and power user options Android offers (without talking
about rooting and custom ROMs world). This is probably similar to Windows/Mac
vs Linux discussion, although still my wife has zero technological skills yet
uses Ubuntu on her laptop with zero issues. I still think that Apple products
are way overpriced but they still sell because of a perfect marketing hype
campaign. It is true that Apple really excels at making the right product from
existing ideas, but still overpriced, and IMHO highly overrated. It's just not
worth the price. I would go for Android/Linux every time even if I didn't need
the flexibility they offer.

~~~
zuppy
I don't think you understand why some of us are buying Apple products. I've
started with a developer job 15 years ago, I am a pro user (actually I've
started programming while I was in the 5th grade, in '94).

I still get a console on Mac and I'm using it every day. What I don't want to
do, though, is for me to start working for the computer, I want the computer
to work for me. After years and years, I've reached a point where I just want
the stuff to work. I still do like tech and I'd rather spend my time on
investigating new technologies than tinkering with settings.

For me it's cheaper to buy Apple and get the free time. There's nothing wrong
with other choices, though.

~~~
m0skit0
I really cannot grasp what you're talking about. I power up my Ubuntu PC at
work (I don't know about your Mac, but mine takes like 3-5 seconds to boot, it
is 3 years-old and costed less than 1000$) and start working. Right now I have
2 browsers open with ~10 tabs, 3 IntelliJ IDEA instances running, Thunderbird,
Skype, 2-3 console instances, at least one VMWare machine running some Windows
version, a PostgreSQL GUI client, a couple of SQLite GUI clients, distributed
in 4 virtual desktops and using 2 monitors. Everything is running fine and
smoothly. And last but not least, I can fine tune everything and anything to
my liking. I don't like menus on the top taskbar? Gone. I don't like the
desktop manager? Gone. I don't have to abide to whatever someone thought was
better for me, because everyone has unique tastes and preferences. But I'm
probably missing your point.

~~~
minikites
>And last but not least, I can fine tune everything and anything to my liking.
I don't like menus on the top taskbar? Gone. I don't like the desktop manager?
Gone.

This is what you don't get. Apple users don't want to have to do this, so they
buy something that fits their desires right off the bat with OS X or iOS.

~~~
m0skit0
Read again: "if I don't like it I can change it". Note: "if" and "can". I
highly doubt millions of people using OSX have the exact same opinions and
desires and tastes. This is just like Iranian president saying there ain't no
gays in Iran, or Kim Jung-Whatever saying all men should cut their hair like
his because that's how hair is supposed to be cut. I've tried OSX and there
are a lot of things I don't like, but guess what? I can't change it. I have
forced myself too many years into submission on Windows but I'm not going to
be forced to use something I don't like or doesn't suit my working habits
anymore just because some overrated guru said so. I surely can try it for a
while to see if it is really better that way but if I still don't like it, I
want to be able to change it. And this is what I'm talking about: freedom.
Freedom to choose to change it or not. This is what you don't get.

------
whyagaindavid
>So yes, Chinese handset makers did quite well in 2015. But >can they climb
that cliff? Could they actually beat out Apple? >No. At least not in the sense
of eating into Apple’s >specific chunk of the market.

>They may be able to boost their numbers by picking up more >users in
developing regions, but none of the three is >likely poaching any of Apple’s
market anytime soon.

The author must change the title. why have it different to what is written in
the article. None of these handset makers compete with Apple.

@author Rolls-Royce, Aston martin do not compete with Fiesta. Thanks

~~~
efes
I don't know what gives you that idea. Huawei is like a Ford of chinese
phones. Just because they have a fiesta doesn't mean they don't also compete
with rolls royce at their highest end.

I think the article is giberish because of the marketing feel good about
ourselves nonsense: Picture a person who wears a kravat, not sure what a
kravat is? See! Apple wont lose their shirt by being unable to compete with
the 4 times larger Android marketplace and whatever circuses it spins off.
Those markets will be dominated by players like Huawei and will inevitably be
putting compatibility pressure on Apple's 20% over time.

Also, Rolls Royce is a little footnote in a more successful company with a
larger demographic today which is itself not all that great. That Apple still
will have fans is more likely to get them to jump in that shrinking hole of
past prestige based pricing like they did for the 1990s.

~~~
oblio
Rolls Royce is now owned by BMW. If you're calling BMW "not all that great", I
wonder what your standards are :)

~~~
efes
Market share.

~~~
sbuk
Meaningless. As proven by iOS.

~~~
efes
Ah, the threat to iOS is a non-threat because they are immune to their
market's Ford Fiesta like Rolls Royce, which was bought out by BMW for lack of
marketshare, which is pushing Mini hard for to get back into a larger
marketshare before they are out scaled. But all of that is a mistake because
BMW is like iOs and iOs proves that dwindling marketshare in a maturing market
is irrelevant, like it was for MacOS.

I must be immortal since everyone who is like me has successfully cheated
death, and they are immortal because they are like me. :)

------
touristtam
> Quick, picture an iPhone user. You’re probably picturing somebody young-ish,
> urban. Somebody who likes a simple user experience that doesn’t change much
> from model to model. Somebody who admires good industrial design, and who
> has the money to fit a $600-$800 phone into their budget.

iPhone are so mainstream, so isn't so clear cut anymore.

~~~
josteink
> Quick, picture an iPhone user. You’re probably picturing somebody young-ish,
> urban. Somebody who likes a simple user experience that doesn’t change much
> from model to model. Somebody who admires good industrial design, and who
> has the money to fit a $600-$800 phone into their budget.

More like the author pictures that. Maybe because that's how he would like to
be projected, through his own iPhone-ownership?

I picture my grandma who would be confused by a more advanced and
sophisticated interface and a device capable of true multitasking.

Also my boss, who needs help setting up video-mirroring in the conference
room, every single time. Basically, when I think iPhone-owner, I think
unsophisticated and technically inept.

But I'm willing to admit that this is _my_ projection and I'm not going to be
naive enough to assume this is how it's generally for everyone else. For
instance every developer I know has Android, but again I'm not going to draw
any general conclusion based on my limited data-sets.

~~~
rahoulb
(I can't believe we're still having this conversation but...)

My take on it is this:

With Linux, Windows and Android, when something goes wrong, you may be able to
fix it.

For example, my wife's HTC One M8 received an OTA update that bricked it. I
googled it, and started trying to fix it. 8 hours later it's still bricked,
but I've found a couple more articles that I will try next.

The same happens when I use a Linux box and it goes wrong. Or a Windows box
and it goes wrong.

When a Mac goes wrong, I generally spend no more than an hour trying to fix
it. Either it works or I run out of options.

When an iOS device goes wrong, I generally spend about ten minutes trying to
fix it. Google a solution, it either works or it runs out of options.

To some people, the Android situation is preferable - I can fix it myself and
it's a problem I want to solve. So I'm happy to spend the time looking into
it.

Personally, I spend all my working day fixing technical problems. I don't want
to spend any more time chasing solutions. I'm actually grateful to iOS for
giving me a binary yes/no answer within minutes.

~~~
cbeach
> When an iOS device goes wrong, I generally spend about ten minutes trying to
> fix it. Google a solution, it either works or it runs out of options.

If my iPhone was bricked by a software update and I couldn't fix it, I'd
simply take it to one of the many nearby Apple Stores, and (going by previous
experience), they'd fix it or replace it without fuss.

Try taking your HTC One M8 back to Carphone Warehouse if you ever get in
trouble. I'd be interested to see how their service compares.

~~~
josteink
Note everyone is missing the _point_ of my post (and I'll have to accept blame
for that), but still...

> Try taking your HTC One M8 back to Carphone Warehouse if you ever get in
> trouble. I'd be interested to see how their service compares.

I'd just load it up with fastboot and reflash the firmware image. No need to
go to a store of any kind. 5 minutes and done :)

~~~
rahoulb
And I'm 8 hours in to that process. Not 5 minutes. I've learnt a load of stuff
I never knew about Android in the process, but the facts are it still doesn't
work and I've wasted several hours.

And yes that's my fault. I probably started out by doing the wrong things and
wasting a load of time. But I'm not stupid, I just didn't know where to begin.

~~~
josteink
My point, was that _I_ am not stupid enough to assume the rest of the world
has to be exactly like my immediate surroundings. Unlike author of the article
submitted here.

It's a very weak base for an article.

------
est
On a side note, apple got 17.0.0.0/8, only a handful of companies can compete
with that.

~~~
mkj
Is there actually anything interesting they do with that address range that
they couldn't do with say 65k of IPs (like other companies might get)?

------
diezge
Simplicity is actually the _opposite_ of unsophisticated.

For example nearly every developer I know uses a Macbook Pro - they aren't
"technically inept" (that's quite arrogant btw), they are just more interested
in getting stuff done as opposed to spending 10 hours setting up a Linux
distro no one has heard of just to make themselves feel l33t...

~~~
dang
This is the sort of dismissive comment that produces embarrassing flamewars
like the below. If you're going to post about something tribal, please edit
out snark like "just to make themselves feel l33t". And please don't escalate
when someone takes what you said the wrong way.

We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11102696](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11102696)
and marked it off-topic.

~~~
diezge
The fact that you're blaming me for sticking up for people who are dismissed
as inferior due to the tech the use, and after reading the comment chain,
speaks volumes about the kind of people who frequent this site, and the kind
of person you are too. Could you just ban this account please

