Poll - Are tech reviewers Prima Donnas?

Are *Most* Tech Reviewers Prima Donnas?

  • Yes

    Votes: 44 88.0%
  • No

    Votes: 6 12.0%

  • Total voters
    50
  • Poll closed .

Bkr11

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I can't help but think they are, and furthermore many of them review from their perspective (the hardcore user that likes to think they have the latest and greatest tech) vs. that of the average user.

I'd like to drop Lumia 900, iPhone and Android in the lap of a casual smartphone user (user of email/web/facebook/twitter/a couple other apps) and see what they have to say.
 

AndreaCristiano

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For one they dont look at things objectively two they dont look at real world use. Phones should be compared to daily usability not against another phones specs. It should be on a scale of use, practicality, versatility, and what kind of user the phone suits best.
 

apoc527

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Android has sold well for one reason: the carrier salespeople pushed it to casual people. MANY of those casual users were not happy with their Android sets and got rid of them on their next upgrade cycle.

The other reason Android sold well: they had a wide variety of price points, particularly cheap ones. Casual users do not buy $299 smartphones (barring a REALLY pushy salesguy).

If AT&T pushes the Lumia 900, absolutely the reviews of prima donna tech reviewers will be completely meaningless.
 

AndreaCristiano

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Android has sold well for one reason: the carrier salespeople pushed it to casual people. MANY of those casual users were not happy with their Android sets and got rid of them on their next upgrade cycle.

The other reason Android sold well: they had a wide variety of price points, particularly cheap ones. Casual users do not buy $299 smartphones (barring a REALLY pushy salesguy).

If AT&T pushes the Lumia 900, absolutely the reviews of prima donna tech reviewers will be completely meaningless.

90% of the average people do not even listen to or frequent any of those sites just us techies thats it
 

apoc527

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By the way, support for my claim that many people weren't happy with Android is both anecdotal and proven by stats. In my own family, everyone with an Android has gotten rid of them except for my dad, and he's waiting for something else (but is on Verizon).

As for the stats, Apple overtook the top sales spots and for Q4 2011, the iPhone 4S, 4 and 3GS were the top selling handsets in the US respectively and Android lost marketshare to iOS. Only at 4th place does an Android device show up (Galaxy S 2). Add in the fact that HTC started to do poorly financially after several quarters of stellar growth and performance, and it's clear that the Android honeymoon period experienced by the industry is grinding to a halt. Currently, only Samsung is showing any real health in its business with Android. Motorola was bought by Google, HTC had to "quietly reinvent" itself and the rest of them (LG, Huawei, etc) are barely blips on the radar.

I, for one, welcome Android's fall from grace, but that's largely because of my entirely irrational hatred of all things Google right now (ok, it's not ENTIRELY irrational--I think they have become evil and arrogant).
 

apoc527

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Are you really using the term "casual" positively?

Why wouldn't I be? Is there something wrong with the "casual" user? That description fits the vast, vast majority of potential smartphone buyers, after all. Power users are a rare breed, just as hardcore gamers are. There's a reason the "casual" games market has exploded in the past 4 years and it's not people like us!
 

AndreaCristiano

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Why wouldn't I be? Is there something wrong with the "casual" user? That description fits the vast, vast majority of potential smartphone buyers, after all. Power users are a rare breed, just as hardcore gamers are. There's a reason the "casual" games market has exploded in the past 4 years and it's not people like us!

point which I agree with wholly. Most on here forget the majority just want their phones to work, they dont even know how or why it does
 

tekhna

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By the way, support for my claim that many people weren't happy with Android is both anecdotal and proven by stats. In my own family, everyone with an Android has gotten rid of them except for my dad, and he's waiting for something else (but is on Verizon).

As for the stats, Apple overtook the top sales spots and for Q4 2011, the iPhone 4S, 4 and 3GS were the top selling handsets in the US respectively and Android lost marketshare to iOS. Only at 4th place does an Android device show up (Galaxy S 2). Add in the fact that HTC started to do poorly financially after several quarters of stellar growth and performance, and it's clear that the Android honeymoon period experienced by the industry is grinding to a halt. Currently, only Samsung is showing any real health in its business with Android. Motorola was bought by Google, HTC had to "quietly reinvent" itself and the rest of them (LG, Huawei, etc) are barely blips on the radar.

I, for one, welcome Android's fall from grace, but that's largely because of my entirely irrational hatred of all things Google right now (ok, it's not ENTIRELY irrational--I think they have become evil and arrogant).


Uhh, these stats?
ComScore: Android's US market share passes 50 percent, BlackBerry OS and WP7 slide -- Engadget


Overall, 104 million people were deemed smartphone owners, representing a full four million person uptick since just last month. Over on the platform side, Android managed to surge from 46.9 percent in November of 2011 to 50.1 percent, while Apple rose from 28.7 percent to 30.2 percent at the expense of RIM and Microsoft; those two managed to lose between two and three percent of their market share over the same period, but we're guessing the tide will turn for Microsoft as soon as that hotly-anticipated Lumia 900 gets to shipping. Eager for more charts and call signs? Head on down to the source.


Sure looks like people are abandoning Android...
 

apoc527

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Uhh, these stats?
ComScore: Android's US market share passes 50 percent, BlackBerry OS and WP7 slide -- Engadget


Overall, 104 million people were deemed smartphone owners, representing a full four million person uptick since just last month. Over on the platform side, Android managed to surge from 46.9 percent in November of 2011 to 50.1 percent, while Apple rose from 28.7 percent to 30.2 percent at the expense of RIM and Microsoft; those two managed to lose between two and three percent of their market share over the same period, but we're guessing the tide will turn for Microsoft as soon as that hotly-anticipated Lumia 900 gets to shipping. Eager for more charts and call signs? Head on down to the source.


Sure looks like people are abandoning Android...

Haha, ah well. Looks like things changed. The article I read was touting Apple's increases at the expense of Android stats, but clearly that didn't last.
 

tekhna

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Haha, ah well. Looks like things changed. The article I read was touting Apple's increases at the expense of Android stats, but clearly that didn't last.

Yeah, I want WP7 to succeed but it's sort of difficult to imagine how that happens when Android gains more market share in a few months than WP7 has total. It's not at all clear to me how WP7 succeeds given the current market. But competition is good.
 

AndreaCristiano

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Uhh, these stats?
ComScore: Android's US market share passes 50 percent, BlackBerry OS and WP7 slide -- Engadget


Overall, 104 million people were deemed smartphone owners, representing a full four million person uptick since just last month. Over on the platform side, Android managed to surge from 46.9 percent in November of 2011 to 50.1 percent, while Apple rose from 28.7 percent to 30.2 percent at the expense of RIM and Microsoft; those two managed to lose between two and three percent of their market share over the same period, but we're guessing the tide will turn for Microsoft as soon as that hotly-anticipated Lumia 900 gets to shipping. Eager for more charts and call signs? Head on down to the source.


Sure looks like people are abandoning Android...

why are you on this forum if you is say negative things about this phone, OS and act obnoxious to the members
 

apoc527

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Ok, I did check out the link and I'm glad I did. Some of the stats are REALLY interesting and show just how in the minority we tech blog frequenters are:

Less than HALF of all US smartphone users downloaded and used an app...

Less than HALF even used the phone's browser!

Just over a third accessed a social site or blog...

Just under a third played games,

And just under a quarter played music on their phones.

That's kind of striking, isn't it? 50% of potential smartphone buyers won't care about the "ecosystem." 75% of potential buyers won't care that iPhone uses iTunes. 66% don't care that Angry Birds Space isn't available on WP7. And, incredibly, just about half won't notice if IE9 is a bit slower than Chrome or Safari!

If you measure WP7's capabilites by how phones are being used, I think MS and Nokia have a lot to be proud of and a lot to look forward to! It's all about what the carrier sales reps push.
 

apoc527

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Yeah, I want WP7 to succeed but it's sort of difficult to imagine how that happens when Android gains more market share in a few months than WP7 has total. It's not at all clear to me how WP7 succeeds given the current market. But competition is good.

See above post by me. It's all about the carrier sales reps. Period. People are not buying phones because they have quad-core processors and 500,000 apps available. They buy a phone because the sales rep says, "hey, this is a good phone." Thanks for the link, those comScore numbers were fascinating!
 

tekhna

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Ok, I did check out the link and I'm glad I did. Some of the stats are REALLY interesting and show just how in the minority we tech blog frequenters are:

Less than HALF of all US smartphone users downloaded and used an app...

Less than HALF even used the phone's browser!

Just over a third accessed a social site or blog...

Just under a third played games,

And just under a quarter played music on their phones.

That's kind of striking, isn't it? 50% of potential smartphone buyers won't care about the "ecosystem." 75% of potential buyers won't care that iPhone uses iTunes. 66% don't care that Angry Birds Space isn't available on WP7. And, incredibly, just about half won't notice if IE9 is a bit slower than Chrome or Safari!

If you measure WP7's capabilites by how phones are being used, I think MS and Nokia have a lot to be proud of and a lot to look forward to! It's all about what the carrier sales reps push.

So then the question is, why does on phone succeed and another doesn't? It can't be as simple as what reps push, that seems too easy. Sprint pushed the Palm Pre hard, and the phone freaking tanked. I think in the end it really is about a phone being a status symbol, legible to other people, and to date Windows Phone hasn't been that. Buying a phone is an aesthetic choice, and so with any luck the aesthetic upheaval Nokia has introduced into the market that'll change things. Given the stats you provided, RIM should still be ruling the roost--it does everything a consumer wants it to do. And we know how that's working out. I think the criteria we use to decide on phones simply isn't what most consumers use.
 

AndreaCristiano

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Ok, I did check out the link and I'm glad I did. Some of the stats are REALLY interesting and show just how in the minority we tech blog frequenters are:

Less than HALF of all US smartphone users downloaded and used an app...

Less than HALF even used the phone's browser!

Just over a third accessed a social site or blog...

Just under a third played games,

And just under a quarter played music on their phones.

That's kind of striking, isn't it? 50% of potential smartphone buyers won't care about the "ecosystem." 75% of potential buyers won't care that iPhone uses iTunes. 66% don't care that Angry Birds Space isn't available on WP7. And, incredibly, just about half won't notice if IE9 is a bit slower than Chrome or Safari!

If you measure WP7's capabilites by how phones are being used, I think MS and Nokia have a lot to be proud of and a lot to look forward to! It's all about what the carrier sales reps push.

proves our point the majority could care less about specs, ecosystems etc etc
 

AndreaCristiano

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So then the question is, why does on phone succeed and another doesn't? It can't be as simple as what reps push, that seems too easy. Sprint pushed the Palm Pre hard, and the phone freaking tanked. I think in the end it really is about a phone being a status symbol, legible to other people, and to date Windows Phone hasn't been that. Buying a phone is an aesthetic choice, and so with any luck the aesthetic upheaval Nokia has introduced into the market that'll change things. Given the stats you provided, RIM should still be ruling the roost--it does everything a consumer wants it to do. And we know how that's working out. I think the criteria we use to decide on phones simply isn't what most consumers use.

ok here is a prime example. If you ask android guys about the iphone, it is under specked, under customization, no multi tasking and a tiny screen yet it is the most successful phone on the planet.
Marketing, ease of use
 

apoc527

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So then the question is, why does on phone succeed and another doesn't? It can't be as simple as what reps push, that seems too easy. Sprint pushed the Palm Pre hard, and the phone freaking tanked. I think in the end it really is about a phone being a status symbol, legible to other people, and to date Windows Phone hasn't been that. Buying a phone is an aesthetic choice, and so with any luck the aesthetic upheaval Nokia has introduced into the market that'll change things. Given the stats you provided, RIM should still be ruling the roost--it does everything a consumer wants it to do. And we know how that's working out. I think the criteria we use to decide on phones simply isn't what most consumers use.

No, RIM failed because it didn't realize what consumers wanted. Until the iPhone, smartphones were for businesspeople and techies. The iPhone made smartphones mainstream. Apple did well because it built off its iPod base (Steve even introduced the iPhone by using iPod metaphors). The iPhone is now an established brand that sells itself.

THe reason I brought up high vs. low margin is that you'll all note that only Apple is enjoying record profits these days. This suggests to me that only Apple is really successful in pushing phones for $199 to a large number of consumers. Samsung does well with a few hits, but everyone else in the Android space has been struggling to make actual money, regardless of marketshare. A phone sold for $0 on contract or for just $50 is not making the OEM much money, but it certainly counts towards market share.

Thus, I submit that phones do well when they are (1) pretty, (2) cheap, and (3) pushed by sales reps. Except for the iPhone, that only really applies to the Galaxy S series and then it all goes rapidly downhill from there. Remember, I'm talking about specific phone models, not an OS in general. Blackberry tanked because the Storm was a piece of crap (my sister had several and they were awful) and it simply was never able to recover in the "slab phone" market. The number of new consumers that were coming to smartphones who wanted physical keyboards was very small, and the original Motorola Droid was able to capture many of them.

Remember, too, that Android was nothing until the Droid, which made it popular. That phone was pushed by carriers like nobody's business and they were successful in doing so. All subsequent Android phones have benefited from the Droid's initial popularity, and some OEMs, like Samsung, have been able to generate their own hits since then.

The Lumia 900 could very well be WP7s "Droid" insfoar as it's very noticeable and attractive, inexpensive, and the carrier has pledged to push it. Once it gets out there, the numbers will grow, the ecosystem will naturally follow, and there will be a true third competitor. I expect WP7 to mostly cannibalize from Android's current marketshare, but RIM may find itself a few more percentage points down towards zero before all is said and done.
 

apoc527

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Sprint pushed the Palm Pre hard, and the phone freaking tanked.

Sprint was just too small to save the Palm Pre. Additionally, despite a strong (in theory) OS, I personally never thought much of the Pre's design. Smaller screens and cruddy physical keyboards were not going to do well. By the time the Pre launched in June 2009, the iPhone 3G was out and had redefined what a smartphone was supposed to look like. Android did so well because it copied the iPhone and sold cheaper versions to consumers who couldn't afford the $200 iPhone.
 

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