In Asia's trend-setting cities, iPhone fatigue sets in

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/27/us-apple-asia-idUSBRE90Q0IV20130127

by 6thSigma • 13 years ago

45 37 13 years ago

reuters.com

mturmon• 13 years ago

Some ideas I got from this article:

"I bought an Android phone to differentiate myself from the superficial drones carrying iPhones."

"Nobody wants an iPhone any more, because everyone has an iPhone."

Too many anecdotes, not enough data.

seanmcdirmid4• 13 years ago

> "I bought an Android phone to differentiate myself from the superficial drones carrying iPhones."

If they really wanted to be different, they should buy a Windows Phone...

Its hard to say where the truth is. There should be some fatigue over iPhone, but the Android alternatives aren't "good", who wants a second rate phone even if everyone else has the first rate one? Will people start wearing offbrand northpeak jackets because northface jackets are too popular?

alwaysinshade• 13 years ago

> > "I bought an Android phone to differentiate myself from the superficial drones carrying iPhones."

> If they really wanted to be different, they should buy a Windows Phone...

A phone shouldn't be something that defines you as an individual.

herval• 13 years ago

The problem with that is the windows brand is not exactly associated with status. I'm pretty sure these people that buy "androids to differentiate themselves" are buying "sexy" brands - eg moto Razr or the galaxy III. (I know a couple of people that did and said just that)

mattgreenrocks• 13 years ago

I think I liked it better when phones weren't a thing so you didn't have ridiculous lines of thought like the above.

Yeah, I did.

NoPiece2• 13 years ago

I agree. Another anecdotal claim is, "Singapore and Hong Kong tend to be, from an electronics perspective, leading indicators on what is going to be hot in Western Europe and North America, as well as what is going to take off in the region."

That may be true in some things, but it wasn't true of iPhone adoption. How about some good examples where Singapore and Hong Kong lead trends that became big in Western Europe and North America?

cageface6• 13 years ago

Having lived in Asia for the last two years I don't find this hard to believe at all. There's an energy in the air here I don't feel anywhere in the U.S. and Europe.

America's global cultural hegemony is pretty much guaranteed to diminish over time too. As more and more of the Asian middle and upper classes emerge they're going to drive demand for Asian cultural products. You can already see this happening with the global appeal of Korean pop music and Hong Kong cinema, for example.

newplagiarist• 13 years ago

I think part of the problem when discussing fashion is that it is a qualitative discussion and not quantitative. It's really hard to gather or generate data on fashion appeal, or any other art form really.

If you're asking for localized sales figures even those could lag behind by several months of the fashion trend. Which can start off in small trend setting circles and expand as word of mouth spreads on what is in. So, I think data this early would not be as pertinent to the conversation as it would be several months down the line to see if this articles thesis is justified.

acchow• 13 years ago

I'm culturally Asian and have a great number (>50) of relatives living in Asia (mostly Hong Kong). My cousins sound exactly like this...

jpxxx• 13 years ago

So there's a stupendous expansion in sales of mid-range and low-range Samsung/Android devices, an Android-first carrier affiliate says Apple is stupid, people with Android phones want Android apps, and marketing dilettantes are tired of seeing the rabble using -their- status phone.

Doomed, Apple doomed. Sell sell sell. Steve Jobs dead. Flop doom flop sell doom.

cageface6• 13 years ago

I think this article highlights a legitimate weakness in Apple's one size fits all product line. Smart phones are as much luxury fashion accessory as communication tool now. Like other luxury fashion items people believe they're making some kind of statement about themselves by choosing one product over another. And there's not really that much you can say about yourself by choosing the same single iPhone model that Apple sells to everybody else.

I really think this year is going to be pivotal for Apple. They can recover their momentum if they broaden their product line and demonstrate some vision in UI. If they continue to stubbornly cling to the tactics that brought them their recent successes they're going to continue to slide. They are, to some extent, a victim of their own success. Android 2.x was so rough that Google didn't stand to lose much in a bold redesign and they leapfrogged iOS with ICS. Apple has a huge userbase used to iOS as it looks and works today and they risk alienating them if they make the changes they need to make to stay relevant for another product generation.

As much as I criticize some of their decisions I hope they do show some new life because iOS is currently the only mobile platform that enables the kind of real-time multimedia apps I want to write.

jarcoal• 13 years ago

Creating a bunch of different iPhone product lines sounds like a great way to confuse the rest of us that don't care about the fashion statement.

I think they need to work harder on making iOS more customizable, that should help satisfy everyone.

ksec2• 13 years ago

Yes. The problem is, there are two screen size for iMac, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air and iPad.

And yet they only have 1 for iPhone. I dont agree with different product line either. But Just 1 more, 1 more larger screen size. There are a world of people who NEEDS to use their both hand anyway. ( As the article points out, those who actually needs to write their languages instead of typing it. )

snogglethorpe2• 13 years ago

> iOS is currently the only mobile platform that enables the kind of real-time multimedia apps I want to write

Why aren't such apps (not sure exactly what you mean) "enabled" in Android etc?

cageface6• 13 years ago

The main issue is unacceptably high audio latency and the complete lack of any kind of MIDI stack.

There's some hope that the audio issue at least might be fixed in 4.2 but even if it is it will be a while before developers can comfortably require that API level.

vor_3• 13 years ago

To put it simply, in Android's current state, you will never see a competitive Garageband clone due to the latency and missing features of the audio technology in the OS.

svachalek• 13 years ago

Having tried both systems from early times, I've never been able to like Android due to the cheap look/feel of the devices, the horrible battery life, the clunky missed-the-point UI decisions everywhere. But times change, and I have to say when my contract is up, I am sorely tempted to get one of those big Samsung screens. iOS is starting to look really dated and the half-hearted updates we're getting lately don't give me much confidence that Apple is running out in front of where the smartphone market is going anymore. I would love to be surprised this year, but we'll see...

cageface6• 13 years ago

Android wasn't really comparable to iOS until ICS. If you haven't tried a modern Android phone running 4.1 or 4.2 you haven't seen what it's really capable of.

I think the iPhone 5 is still a physically nicer device than any current Android phone but that's more than offset by the larger screen and superior flexibility and efficiency of the Android OS.

adamjernst• 13 years ago

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." – Yogi Berra

snogglethorpe2• 13 years ago

I don't think that (awesome) quote is really relevant.

The point is not that the iphone isn't popular, it's that with popularity come changes in the way it's perceived, and that will affect its future momentum in some places.

When the iphone came out, it was very much an exclusive fashion item; when everybody has them, it's not exclusive. Whether it's still viewed as a "luxury" good is probably more complex—some brands have been surprisingly successful at retaining their luxury image despite widespread adoption—but given carriers offering completely subsidized iphones, it may be an uphill battle.

Not everybody cares about such perceptions, but there are definitely cultures where many people do.

None of this seems surprising, or particularly controversial to me...

BenoitEssiambre• 13 years ago

I don't understand why these articles all ignore the one main Android strength which is that it is a much less restrictive OS than the other mature mobile OSs.

Apple, in particular, imposes a 30% cut in profits on everything that is run on their devices and decide what users are allowed to run or not!

Although the general population aren't necessarily aware of this, it has a huge impact on the trend setting enthusiasts and early adopters.

The masses are not that clueless either. Just the other day I was talking to an non techy parametric, someone pulled out an iPhone and he went on a rant about how Apple controls their devices and takes away freedoms.

I don't understand why this isn't ever mentioned in the media.

eshvk• 13 years ago

> Although the general population aren't necessarily aware of this, it has a huge impact on the trend setting enthusiasts and early adopters.

Trend setting enthusiasts are not necessarily the same as early adopting technical people.

vor_3• 13 years ago

> Apple, in particular, imposes a 30% cut in profits on everything that is run on their devices and decide what users are allowed to run or not!

Not to get too snarky here, but piracy is so rampant on Android that it's practically unprofitable to target as a platform unless you already have a well-known product or get extremely lucky. Granted, one could argue that those things are required to see a profit on iOS as well, but at least you have a reasonable enough guarantee that the vast majority of people using your app have paid you for it.

> Although the general population aren't necessarily aware of this, it has a huge impact on the trend setting enthusiasts and early adopters.

In what way is Apple's 30% profit cut having a huge impact on users and what is your source? I don't see how such a developer issue has any relevance to the general public. If you're referring to the control over what users install, I think you're greatly overestimating the technical prowess of the general public and their desire to install custom software on their cell phones. These are things only techies care about, and they are outnumbered by the people who just make phone calls and post to Facebook.

> The masses are not that clueless either. Just the other day I was talking to an non techy parametric, someone pulled out an iPhone and he went on a rant about how Apple controls their devices and takes away freedoms.

With all due respect, one person random about freedoms on their smartphone is hardly "the masses".

sebilasse• 13 years ago

Pirating iPhone apps in SE Asia is rampant as well, at least in Thailand. Most people don't pay for apps.

bane• 13 years ago

I have yet to see or hear of anybody with an iPhone in the Seoul area. I know they are out there, but an incredible minority. The lack of NFC and a local market version that supports the ubiquitous over the air digital TV (which is so common even in-car GPSs let people watch TV while they're stuck in traffic) [1] makes them more or less a non-starter. [2]

But I'm not sure how much of a signal Asia's fashion trends are towards western markets, I mean the Turbo Engine, X68000, MSX and VCDs and MiniDiscs (among others) were all very popular in various parts of Asia, but DOA pretty much everywhere else.

1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Multimedia_Broadcasting

2 - this is more or less the solution http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/koreas-iphones-become-more-powerf...

maguay• 13 years ago

Except in Bangkok, where I live, the iPhone is still by every indicator the most wanted phone. You see iPhones more often, the iPhone 5 is the most predominantly advertised device by carries themselves, and the iPhone 4 is cheap enough that plenty of people I know have said they considered a cheap Android but decided to go for an iPhone 4 instead.

If Apple has any problem, it's that the iPhone 4 is good enough for many people.

vor_3• 13 years ago

Is this like Wired's infamous "Japan Hates The iPhone" story from three years ago? Both stories are based entirely on anecdotes and marketshare percentages, which are percentages of a total--it doesn't mean sales are going down.

Overall, a very weak article lacking convincing evidence of any sort of trend.

fpgeek• 13 years ago

As someone who lives in Singapore, I have a completely different take on this. I don't see what's happening as iPhone fatigue. I know plenty of people who still have and love their iPhones. Instead I see this as Asian vendors (Samsung, in particular, of course), doing a better job of understanding the Asian consumer and figuring out how to make phones they want more.

In my opinion, the original Galaxy Note illustrates this perfectly. When it launched in the US last year, I remember the parade of terrible reviews (it's too big, too awkward to use, you'll look stupid talking on the phone, who wants a stylus, etc.) and the piles of mockery from Apple fans. But from my vantage point I knew they were missing something. The Note had launched a few months earlier in Singapore and I had seen Singaporean consumers "get it" almost instantly. In retrospect, it's clear Samsung had seen something about Asian consumers that made the Note worth trying - and they were right.

b1daly• 13 years ago

One thing I think is interesting from purely a perspective of watching the the competition between iOS and Android and their respective strategies.

In my mind the elephant in the room (or the emperor's lack of clothes) is the screen size of the iPhone. Clearly there is demand for and utility in larger screens. Yet Apple has argued that the smaller screen is a feature not a bug. They changed the size in a way that didn't obsolete existing apps (which was sensible).

But they have also made a big deal about the hi res retina screens.

I've wondered if the simplest way for them to up the size of the screen is to go with lower resolution, keeping the same number of larger pixels. This could maintain backwards compatibility on apps. Since the resolution is already so high, it seems to me this would be a fine solution (would love to hear some engineers perspective on this).

But this would force them to back track on two claims of technical superiority: smaller screen and higher resolution.

After using devices with larger screens, the iPhone screen feels tiny, harder to read on, and harder to do things on the web with. (I agree that it's fine for making calls and texting.)

It feels like a situation that could turn quickly against the iPhone and all of a sudden nobody wants a phone phone whose form factor was determined by the state of the art five years ago.

Again, I'm just observing it as a fascinating case of strategy and tactics among two giants engaged in fierce competition.

ksec2• 13 years ago

1.Hong Kong never was, and never will be the trend setter. Dont know who make this BS up but he properly dont have a clue about the Region. And neither Singapore will.

2. The Point about Chinese Writing and Video are mostly true. As a Phone, and purely as a phone it is rather hard to argue about the quality iPhone offers. Indeed Single Handed operation is important if not the most important factor. However these days they aren't using it as a phone anymore. Phone has neglect into a relatively 2nd class function. The region ( I mention the region as CJK, and some other countries close by; ) uses Whatsapp, ( or other type of IM that most of US and EU users never heard of ) more to communicate then calling. While it is extremely popular to use iMessage in US and EU. This isn't the case there. Writing, ( Specific to Chinese, since Japaness and Korean has a comparatively simpler and default input method ) is harder on a iPhone with a smaller screen. Since IM is used more often then Calls this create another barrier for users compared to a larger screen, and much better selection of input method on Android devices.

The Video Part as well. Compared to US and EU users. CJK regions are very used to Subtitle. ( Yes even the video is in their own languages. And of coz all the Hollowood movies will have subtitle as well ) Now imagining watching Video on iPhone compared to a Wider devices with Subtitle. The Subitle would have taken significant amount of space.

3. It is hard to explain the Korea Pop to everyone. KARA, Super Junior or Girls Generation. If you dont know them dont worry. You properly know Psy from Gangnam Style. The pop culture, mixing in the 10 times more advertising budget from Samsung compared to Apple. It is not hard to understand why these are more popular region where K-POPs are hot.

But knowing Apple. Chances of Releasing a bigger iPhone is slim or next to zero. I was hoping they release a 3.8" and 4.34" with iPhone 5. But Since they took the 4" size that is likely to be the case in the foreseeable future. And even if they did release a bigger screen size version. It properly wont be called an iPhone then.

In Asia's trend-setting cities, iPhone fatigue sets in

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