Smartphone sales down 22 percent in Q2, the worst performance in a decade::North American sales are bad for everyone, except, miraculously, Google.
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
Wouldn’t really say it’s “midrange”, it’s expensive AF.
Price wise maybe not, but they were referring to the hardware specs being mid range. Updates have always been Androids biggest issue and continue to drive people to the major brands.
Exactly, price is higher of course but specs are midrange. But buying a phone for 700€ and then using it for 5 years is a lot better than buying one for 400€ for 2 years
Same. I’m hopelessly addicted to unlocking with my fingerprint!
Happened to desktop PC’s a couple decades back. Once there’s no reason to buy a new PC or phone, you stop buying a new PC or phone. Before that buying a new PC every few years meant less lag and needed ram/hard drive space.
Something not long ago reminded me of Weird Al’s “It’s All About The Pentiums” from 1999. And I went through it line by line to see what holds up and what doesn’t. Best line: “Your motherboard melts when you try to send a fax.”
There’s an entire verse dedicated to the joke of how quickly computers became obsolete, which just isn’t a thing anymore. A decently spec’d desktop can last a decade in service now.
I remember a great AMV to that song. Always loved me some W.A. White n Nerdy was a real banger. Also, I heard “I think I’m a Clone Now” way more than “I think We’re Alone Now.”
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!
Does it have Bluetooth?
It’s all about the vibration alert
Those are called remote controlled sex toys and already exist :)
Neuralink!
(Shudders)
Analink?
For an in depth analysis of your shit
Monitor your shit cycle with the new iFart
That could actually be useful (IBD gang)
Thats the fountain pen I keep in my butt
Isn’t that essentially what that one chess player was accused of?
Those are called remote controlled sex toys and already exist :)
Wait… a few days ago I read something about smart toilets using anal prints and internet connectivity. So rectal computers are not too far off.
I don’t understand the use case of such an invention
For example you have a a bidet, and several people in your household. Each person likes the water temperature differenr, or their anus is in a different position. Usually, one has to configure those settings manually each time they poop. Well, no more with the anal print identifier (API). You can sit, relax and do your business, the API will read your anus print and adjust the temperature and water aim automatically.
Thank you!
I keep talking about how my API makes my defecation that much better and truly understands my shit better than I could have hoped for and my coworkers keep slowly backing away from me. I don’t understand why they are so scared of what an API can do for them and the ease of their work on the toilet.
Everyone is currently poor as shit.
Or, maybe, people realized that there is no reason to get a new phone every year.
They are not mutually exclusive, tbf.
True, but the calculation probably include also less expensive models, which make probably the big part of the market.
And even for a low price smartphone there is no necessity to buy a new one every year.Then I agree, actually probably there is way less people that can put 1000 or more $/€ on a phone every year.
poor people are poor as shit
rich people who are richer off the backs of poor people are not poor as shit
Sure, but even rich people don’t buy more than two phones, if they have one for personal and one for business.
And one for infidelity
I have plenty of disposable income. But why would I spend hundreds and hundreds on a new phone when I just got a Pixel 5 off eBay for $100?
Non essential spending is still through the roof. People are buying all the extra shit still.
“The average sell price is up from $663 to $738 year over year, indicating it’s the premium phones that are selling, and all the cheap vendors are getting shut out.”
Totally disagree with the article’s assumption, I’d say you are more correct. No one wants to or has that much money to pay for ridiculous prices, so sales are tanking. The few who can, or must buy a new phone certainly aren’t going to buy something with no staying power when hundreds of phone makers have coke and gone in the last decade.
That’s what happens when you keep increasing the price without adding value.
You mean removing a headphone jack, SD storage options, and removable batteries aren’t added value? I know they claim it makes your phone more waterproof, but I don’t wanna use my phone in the pool, I just wanna listen to some headphones without charging them.
No no no. Your phone might be waterproof, but we don’t condone the usage of the phone near bodies of water. Intentional submersion of the phone voids the guarantee (actual language on the guarantee of a IP67 waterproof phone).
I find hilarious* that they claim their phones is waterproof while shoving a water sensitive sticker that triggers with the small hint of humidity to deny warranty.
*infuriating
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I miss the jack, and I can still replace a battery if need be (have the equipment and no how) but no SD card slots is a real kick in the nuts. I’m keeping my n20U.
The new Google 9 comes with 4 wheels so you can drive it without carrying it. We had to remove a bunch of features to fit the wheels and rc antenna, stuff like the phone capability, installing non-Google content, and anything that could prevent ads, Firefox is no longer something you can use, but it’s worth it for zoomy phone functionality.
Also there’s a subscription fee now or you have to listen to ads before your call.
Oooo does it have a foldable screen that no one asked for?
I had a non-waterproof iPhone from 2009-2021 and never had an issue. I hate apple’s BS excuse to sell airpods.
And coming out with a new one every year despite it being the same as last year’s
The ea fifa sports of consumer electronics.
Despite it being WORSE than last year. I went from a iPhone 10 Plus to an iPhone 11 after dropping my phone in used motor oil and fucking up all the speakers/mics. I didn’t realize that I’d be getting a MASSIVE downgrade in image quality. Comparing the photos they take side by side, the iPhone 11 looks like a 4 MP camera from a decade ago. EDIT: OK guys, I get it, I was wrong. It was an iphone 8 Plus, not 10 Plus.
There was no iPhone 10 plus…
There was, until some feckless schlub dropped the prototype into used motor oil
hahah that’s about the sum of it. Never keep your phone in your shirt pocket when changing your oil. This is bugging me, maybe it was a 10 Pro? I haven’t thought about it since I retired it from use. It was an iPhone 8 Plus
Don’t keep your phone in your shirt pocket, period. Most shirt pockets won’t securely hold a US dime let alone today’s 4 pound, 8 inch long smart phones.
It was an iPhone 8 Plus. The only thing I like about the iPhone 11 camera is low light performance vs. the 8 Plus. But nearly everything else about the 8 Plus cam seemed better. Image sharpness, noise, telephoto more desirable to me than fisheye, etc.
lol no worries I was just thinking you meant an XS Max which would be the equivalent to a 10 pro max. Going from that to a regular 11 would be a relative downgrade.
Idk I jumped over to Apple with the 12 and the camera on that was better than my pixel 4XL. I got a 15 pro max now and it blows the pants off my 12.
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Phone price keeps going up but my paycheck keeps going down with inflation
Blame greedflation. Phones should be cheaper now, not thousands of dollars.
I told everyone that once contracts for cell phones were replaced with payment plans, companies would start gouging their customers with higher phone prices because the customers could now “afford” it.
Greedy ain’t the right word imo.
I don’t know why people still use the big carriers. Subsiding the phones and getting an upgrade every 2 years was the reason to use them. Now they just add the cost of the phone to your bill.
The brilliant thing is they’ve gone from “We’ll buy the phone, but there’s a $200 ETF” to “we won’t buy the phone, and there’s no ETF. But now if you cancel you owe us $1,000.”
If you think you’re not using “the big carriers” in the US I’ve got news for you: you are using the big carriers. They are all either owned or leasing bandwidth from the big carriers. It’s nothing more than an illusion of choice.
If they are cheaper or different in any meaningfully way, it’s still worth it. Not sure if would be considered an illusion of choice or not, unless you want to boycott them of course. Not American though so not sure how different they are.
But for example I am on a cheaper carrier owned for the most common carrier here in Spain which is quite expensive. And it’s cheap as fuck compared with the main one and unless you want their tv deal it has 99% of the same services for a fraction of the costs.
Phones are also much more mature of a product than 10 years ago. When the iPhone first came out every year was a major leap in core functionality. Now, everything is so good that it’s not that big of a deal if a phone is a couple years ago. Just like it’s not a big deal when a computer is a couple years old.
Exactly what I was coming to write. Who could have thought that rising notably the prices would have led to less sales?
You can still buy a Moto G for like $200 that is better than an old high-end phone in every way and runs Android like a champ. Only flaw is short support lifespan.
Phones is basically cheaper now. Features that only found on high end now on low end. SD 4 is insanely good (4g2 is an underclock 730). Very few reason to shell out 1000$+ for phones now
We’ve hit the wall of diminishing returns. How much power do you need to run lemmy?
Ive got a 4k oled 144hrtz panel in my phone… to read lemmy.
And my pixel 6 is considered aging.
Pixel 6, look at Mr. Monopoly over here. I just got a 5 off eBay for $100. In fact, my last 6 or 7 phones came from eBay. Can’t imagine why I would pay for the latest and greatest.
Tmobile gave it to me for free after they shitcanned 4g during the Sprint merger. They had to give out new shiny 5g phones to appease users.
Do you put something like lineage on it? I replaced my 5 with a 7a just because it no longer gets updates as of this month I believe it is
GrapheneOS, definitely worth checking out!
I got an iPhone 14 pro as an upgrade (contract). Had a pixel 6 before, wish I had stayed on the 6 to be honest, the 14 pro is amazing but I barely use it for anything.
You need at least 2 pixel 6’s to run a lemmy… sorry 😞
I think Apple said the new iPhone could run console quality games… but who wants to play a game like that on a phone?
Pixel 6 has 1080p90 OLED but ok
Its a 6 pro my Bad
That’s 1440p120
They should really stop over saturating the market by releasing new models every year with little to no meaningful upgrades.
Even mid-range phones nowadays are good enough to last long after they stop receiving updates, it therefore makes little financial sense (for the average consumer) to buy the newest model every year, not even touching on the environmental impact.
They could try innovating, I couldn’t give a shite about the cameras really. If I want to take proper photos I’ll get a DSLR. I’ll never want their smart processing of pics either.
Give me cool features again.
For me the camera was a selling point. I was tired of hauling around a dslr on my trips. I find that the smart processing is good enough 90% of the time and I don’t want to both haul the camera and handle the post processing anymore. I’d rather just have 90% quality photos of my family and spend more time with them. Hire a photographer for weddings, etc, but really the smart processing is pretty impressive for day to day and even trips.
I mean this right here: I miss those glorious days in the late 2000s when phones were fun. You could buy a phone that fit your lifestyle. If you text and email a lot, get a phone with a keyboard. Take a lot of photos? Get a camera phone. Like listening to music? Here’s a media phone. Like games? Here’s a gaming phone. Just want a thing that can make phone calls that will last a month on a charge because you don’t use it much? Here’s a regular old flip phone.
Nowadays you don’t even have a real choice in size. Want a small phone that’s easy to fit in a pocket because you usually have a laptop with you anyway? Get bent!
I was considering getting a mirrorless camera and a compact lens setup for traveling with my family. After a week of researching I stayed with my phone. It’s a huge pita (especially once you consider post processing) and the only situations where you will really need one is low light or evening pictures, and nature photography.
So no, hauling a dslr and 3kg of lens is not really a solution, especially with a kid in one arm. My phone is several years old (Oneplus 7 Pro) and the only thing I wish it had was modern camera and software to match.
My phone’s camera is complete shit and I still don’t bother with my DSLR for the reasons you describe.
Unfortunately for you, you’re in the minority. People have proven they’ll upgrade for better cameras.
See how I said “I”, that means it’s a personal view so the statistics for the masses don’t matter…but also this post is about declining sales.
You made zero substantive input to this conversation.
No need to be rude.
This is the reply of someone with nowhere else to go, there is no need to be rude just as there is no need to be relevant I guess.
You were snarky initially and it was unnecessary, you get back what you put out.
My intention wasn’t to be snarky. Sorry you took it that way. 🤷🏼♂️ Get outside and enjoy the day instead of bickering with me. I’m just some stranger on the interweb. Let it go. I’m not worth it. lol.
I had a lovely day, it was a stunning day on the Danube. Hope yours was just as nice.
Like what, though? What is a need you have that your smartphone does not currently serve?
In 2017 I bought a Lenovo P2. It had a midrange processor, 64gb of storage (pretty decent for the time), amoled screen, audio jack, 5100 mAh battery, and a price tag of €350.
I only had to charge it every other day, video looked amazing and it was decently prized.
I want my phone to be usable with a dock where I can put in a keyboard, mouse and screen to use as a PC like the steam deck.
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But infinite growth!
The policy of a cancer cell
I still have a hard time comprehending that the current economic mess has just collectively refused to understand/plan/account for the concept of market saturation.
That’s why Apple has been putting in a lot of features to target China, and built a factory in India (because they need to make a certain percentage there to sell there at scale). The US and European markets may be saturated, but they still see a lot of people in places like China and India where they hope to grow market share. I assume Africa will be added to that list at some point.
If you’re upgrading your device every single time a new device comes along, you’re just chasing clout and status. They rarely, if ever, have significant performance upgrades or new features that make sense in upgrading when your current device is perfectly fine.
Phones also aren’t special anymore. Like the days where phones were flashy and people needed the best/newest phones are gone. Everyone knows everyone has a phone, nobody cares what phone it is. It reminds me of like 2004-2008 when laptops were a big deal and then everyone had one and it became a tool and people stopped caring what you had.
I had an iPhone day 1 in 2007 and it was pretty crazy. I was at a store looking around and being ignored by all the sales people. I pulled my iPhone out and checked my email real quick, and multiple sales people came over to check on me. At the bar some girl asked to try it and said it was better than a puppy for getting a girls attention. The cell phone kiosk in the mall would always hassle people to try and sell cases; when they asked what phone I had, I told them an iPhone and instead of trying to sell me a case, they just freaked out and wanted to see it.
I didn’t even flex it or show it off. It all just kind of happened, even being pretty low key.
To be fair the vast majority of people don’t do that and just buy a new phone after a few years when theirs is becoming too old, has issues or lacks useful features
Most people upgrade when their battery is shot.
Planned Obsolescence / E-Waste Entropy seems to have been the main reason I upgraded to a new phone for like the last three phones I’ve owned. Eventually the phone just devours all the processing power and makes it feel bad to use, or the battery stops charging or depletes in hours even while idle.
That’s why I miss the days when you could just take the old battery out and put a new one in.
Hopefully EU legislation should bring that back in the coming years, I believe they’re working on such law at the moment
already enacted, vote went through in July. However the “come to force” of the earliest part of the regulation is 2025 and the replaceable battery mandate come to force date is 2027. However I would assume stuff starts going with replaceable battery 2025-2026, since by 2027 it’s illegal to not have that for on sale item. So one would transition year or two early to have ones retail and supply chains empty of the old non-replaceable stuff to avoid having unsold stock or get hit with punishment for being caught selling non regulation items*. So you want the replaceable battery products designed and in production before 2027.
Also one key I would point out, that is often left out. It doesn’t only cover phones. It covers pretty much all battery powered electronics. SO lots of those other small electronic gadget with built in Li-ions will start sprouting battery covers or possibly moving back to their old power of choice, banks of AAs. Since those are inherently replaceable. Well plus non-recycleables aren’t covered by the regulation. However also the maker can argue their green credibility with “well customer can put rechargeable AAs in it. Then it’s a replaceable battery product.”
* Well in reality one’s retail partners would refuse to accept the stuff for sale, since upon it being on sale at their shelf it’s now their ass on the firing line by regulators.
This. The sealed phone is the #1 reason why people are getting new phones and contributing to the eco waste.
It should have never been allowed to happen. I promise you there is a way to make a phone with a removable back waterproof. They just don’t make it because they want you to replace the phone every two years.
They also haven’t rushed to make longer lasting batteries, say 4 years, for the same reason.
You don’t even need a hardware change to make batteries last long, capping charging at 80% and slowing the fast-charging will do that, both of which can be done in OS software. They just need a “battery protection mode” option for people who keep their phones plugged in a lot.
I just buy refurbished or “New-Old-Stock” 2-year-old flagship phones off ebay for $100 or so bucks every other year.
In fact I think smart phones peaked 3 or 4 years ago and we’re going downhill now. The manufacturers remove features that people like in favor of objectively worse ones (lots of people loved having the fingerprint reader on the back, now it’s either gone entirely or under the screen for some stupid reason?, then of course headphone jacks are going extinct).
When is the last time a smart phone had a major improvement over it’s predecessor? And I mean like, “This one didn’t have a camera, this one does.” Especially since they’re converging on the same 5.7" black rectangle.
I like the finger print reader under the screen
it’s amazing that in capitalism a company has to always show numbers rising like there is no physical upper boundary. The most logical and efficient economic model
It drives me insane how many people turn a blind eye to the funny numbers needing to always go up. Every “investor” will tell me how the market has never not recovered; how I’m the fool and surely not them for trusting in the system.
I hate that my retirement depends on a 401k, or money that constantly depreciates.
Constant growth at all costs. In the short term at least. Whether that works out in the long run or not…
Good. We should be using our phones for longer.
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.
When the whole western society has been force fed that “we must consume else our economy will collapse”, not continously outselling (and throwing away barely year old work) is bad, this is the result.
Worst performance of trying to get your money.
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.
And with one graph that argument is out the window.
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.
"There are some of you who want phones that are easier to fit in a pocket, but we’ll break the deal we made with Satan if we ever build 4 inch phones again, so here’s a 6 inch phone that bends in half. The screen is so soft your stubble will ruin it and the Earth’s atmosphere is too coarse for the severely complicated hinge to survive a month. That’ll be $9900.
Except whenever a manufacturer, including Apple, tries to market a phone that’s smaller than the average size, nobody buys them.
The only people who actually want smaller phones are some very loud people on the internet.
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…
Asus Zenfones are (relatively) small phones and they’re pretty decent.
The dimensions of the ZenFone are basically the same as the iPhone or S23, so it doesn’t represent a meaningful alternative to mainstream form-factor options imo.
