Pixel 4 will blow iPhone out of the water?
Ohh hyperbole, you amusing friend of mine!
With Pixel 4 leaks everywhere, some (probably Google friendly, or at least anti-Apple) sites have been proclaiming that the Pixel 4 will decimate the iPhone.
And I stop and laugh. And then ask "What does that even mean?"
Friends and family who have iPhone's... well they don't seem interested in leaving the Apple ecosystem for any reason. None of them even seem particularly enthusiastic about the products any more. They just fear change. They'll stick with the devil they know. Incidentally, also the devil whose ecosystem they've dumped a ton of time and money into.
And given that, what would a victory for Google or Android actually look like?
For transparency, I believe the reverse is largely true as well. Though, I imagine 3rd party handset makers screwing things up royally every once in a while means that regardless of any success the Pixel 4 brings, Android on the whole is more likely to lost to Apple than gain from them.
When I examine the arguments though, the claims largely seem to be around features and component quality. But, that creates a hard rectify reality. With so many more vendors and phone models, iPhone's have never really held onto the crown in any particular area for long and often new releases don't even change the leaders.
With things like camera quality, battery life, resolution, etc... Apple is typically up there, but almost never the top these days. And, often times there are competitors with flagship devices that trounce the latest iPhone in more ways than they lose. And so, in that sense, we don't even really need to wait for the Pixel 4. We've already seen what happens when someone delivers an overall superior product; nothing.
As best as I can tell, the Pixel 3 still beats the latest iPhone in a number of key areas. So, we don't even need to wait for the Pixel 4 to have a 1st party device. Again, nothing happened.
The kind of victories touted here are empty ones.
I prefer Android over iOS. Any day. But I'm a pragmatic in this. Specs, new features, style. None of these things are going to do much to change fortunes for Apple.
Humans aren't so open minded once they align with a certain camp.
People may want to point to Apple's rise in the PC space. But, they haven't really risen. At least, not in the ways which matter to this debate. They are still a puny fraction of the market, and most of those aren't converts, the majority of the numbers come from buyers who grew up with iPhones and always liked Apple over Microsoft.
Put another way, people didn't shift to Mac from Windows because of any inherent superiority. They largely stuck with the faction they started out in. To the point where most people I know own an iPhone and Windows PC. But then, people my age grew up when basically all computers were Windows and we also went through the period in time when smartphones really became a thing and iPhone was leading the charge.
And I don't think this has gone un-noticed. I think the big push around wearables and finding the next big thing isn't as much about swaying people from existing factions to their side as it is about being at the peak of the next major trend so that new consumers adopt the rest of your ecosystem before they adopt another.
So, while this sounds like a round about way of getting there, my point is; the Pixel 4, regardless of how awesome or terrible it is relative to the latest or upcoming iPhone is unlikely to have a huge impact on sales on either side.
With Pixel 4 leaks everywhere, some (probably Google friendly, or at least anti-Apple) sites have been proclaiming that the Pixel 4 will decimate the iPhone.
And I stop and laugh. And then ask "What does that even mean?"
Friends and family who have iPhone's... well they don't seem interested in leaving the Apple ecosystem for any reason. None of them even seem particularly enthusiastic about the products any more. They just fear change. They'll stick with the devil they know. Incidentally, also the devil whose ecosystem they've dumped a ton of time and money into.
And given that, what would a victory for Google or Android actually look like?
For transparency, I believe the reverse is largely true as well. Though, I imagine 3rd party handset makers screwing things up royally every once in a while means that regardless of any success the Pixel 4 brings, Android on the whole is more likely to lost to Apple than gain from them.
When I examine the arguments though, the claims largely seem to be around features and component quality. But, that creates a hard rectify reality. With so many more vendors and phone models, iPhone's have never really held onto the crown in any particular area for long and often new releases don't even change the leaders.
With things like camera quality, battery life, resolution, etc... Apple is typically up there, but almost never the top these days. And, often times there are competitors with flagship devices that trounce the latest iPhone in more ways than they lose. And so, in that sense, we don't even really need to wait for the Pixel 4. We've already seen what happens when someone delivers an overall superior product; nothing.
As best as I can tell, the Pixel 3 still beats the latest iPhone in a number of key areas. So, we don't even need to wait for the Pixel 4 to have a 1st party device. Again, nothing happened.
The kind of victories touted here are empty ones.
I prefer Android over iOS. Any day. But I'm a pragmatic in this. Specs, new features, style. None of these things are going to do much to change fortunes for Apple.
Humans aren't so open minded once they align with a certain camp.
People may want to point to Apple's rise in the PC space. But, they haven't really risen. At least, not in the ways which matter to this debate. They are still a puny fraction of the market, and most of those aren't converts, the majority of the numbers come from buyers who grew up with iPhones and always liked Apple over Microsoft.
Put another way, people didn't shift to Mac from Windows because of any inherent superiority. They largely stuck with the faction they started out in. To the point where most people I know own an iPhone and Windows PC. But then, people my age grew up when basically all computers were Windows and we also went through the period in time when smartphones really became a thing and iPhone was leading the charge.
And I don't think this has gone un-noticed. I think the big push around wearables and finding the next big thing isn't as much about swaying people from existing factions to their side as it is about being at the peak of the next major trend so that new consumers adopt the rest of your ecosystem before they adopt another.
So, while this sounds like a round about way of getting there, my point is; the Pixel 4, regardless of how awesome or terrible it is relative to the latest or upcoming iPhone is unlikely to have a huge impact on sales on either side.
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