This ranking will present the top 10 best smartphones (i.e. mobile phones supplemented with the functionality of a pocket personal computer) for December 2016. The rating is based on reviews in the Yandex market (only those smartphone models that scored at least 40% of the top fives got into the top 10). The technical characteristics of the smartphone were also taken into account (the amount of built-in and RAM, the quality of the main and front cameras, the quality of the display) and the price-quality ratio.
This list includes only flagships - i.e. models that are positioned by each manufacturer as the newest and best smartphones in the lineup. But the price is not affordable for everyone and can go up to 70 thousand rubles. However, this does not apply to Chinese manufacturers. The quality of their products is often not inferior to smartphones from American, South Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese brands, but the price is much cheaper. For example, the cheapest smartphone in this top belongs to a well-known Chinese brand and costs only 12.5 thousand rubles.
The rating includes the flagships of six of (American company Apple, South Korean Samsung and LG, Chinese Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE). The top ten global manufacturers also include Chinese brands Oppo, Vivo, TCL and Lenovo, but the products of the first three are not represented in Russia, and as for Lenovo, this company has focused in recent years on the budget segment, and produces flagship models under a subsidiary brand Motorola. which is focused mainly on the American market. Instead of Oppo, Vivo, TCL and Lenovo, the ranking includes leading Taiwanese manufacturers ASUS and HTC, the Chinese brand OnePlus, as well as the American company Google, whose Pixel smartphone, according to experts, has the best camera today, so it cannot be ignored.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 32Gb
The average price in Russia is 10,800 rubles. Buy Redmi Note 4 32Gb on AliExpress you can for 9 thousand rubles (delivery to Russia is free). Xiaomi unveiled Redmi Note 4 at a presentation in Beijing on August 25, 2016. Flagshipbeloved by buyers of the Redmi family, whose sales in the world have long exceeded 100 million devices,scored 59% of fives in reviews in Yandex-Market(cm.
In 2016, smartphone sales statistics read like a good detective. The leaders in smartphone sales were either Apple or Samsung. And the end of the year brought surprises.
In 2016, the situation on the smartphone market changed almost monthly. In the leaders of sales of smartphones in 2016, one or another brands were knocked out. Even the last quarter of 2016 presented surprises. As at the end of the first half of the year, a new leader appeared on the smartphone market in the 4th quarter, confusing the cards for all players.
Smartphone sales leaders in 2016: how did they close the 4th quarter?
The last quarter of the year began for the current leader in smartphone sales with a grand scandal - in October 2016 it was finally revealed that the new flagship and the main hope of Samsung is the most unsuccessful phone in the history of the Korean company.
By the middle of the fourth quarter, the mobile device market was hit by less impressive, but still unpleasant stories about an oversupply of smartphones in the warehouses of another sales leader - Apple Corporation. Insiders talked about unsold iPhone circulations, citing numbers ranging from 10 to 30 percent of the released batch.
Weak-minded analysts even talked about the decline of traditional brands, citing as an example for Korean and American corporations companies from China - Huawei and Oppo, whose sales statistics grew at an incredible pace. Vivo also showed good results.
Chinese companies that saw record sales of smartphones globally in 2016 are caught up. The best results were shown by Apple (78.3 million smartphones) and Samsung (77.5 million devices). The closest competitor, Huawei Corporation, managed to sell 44.9 million phones.
Smartphone sales statistics for the 4th quarter of 2015 and 2016
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2016, the position of Apple and Samsung looks as strong as never before, but if you dig deeper and compare the 2016-2015 smartphone sales rating, an interesting picture opens up before us:
1. First, the victory of the Apple brand becomes clear, which not only did not lose the pace of sales, but also increased the volume of iPhone sold copies from 74.8 to 78.3 million copies.
2. Second, Samsung’s failure turns from a predictable probability to a fact. The Koreans have not been able to digest the consequences of the release. Compared to Q4 2015, sales fell from 81.3 million to 77.5 million.
3. Third, the expansion of Chinese brands is taking on even more threatening features. Huawei increased sales from 32.6 million to 44.9 million smartphones, the Oppo brand from 14.8 million to 29.5 million, and Vivo from 13.3 million to 25.6 million.
As a result, comparison of the 4th quarter of 2015 with the same period in 2016 shows that, despite the still clear leadership of Apple and Samsung, it was the Chinese brands that showed the most impressive sales growth dynamics. Closing the "five successful" companies Oppo and Vivo have almost doubled sales of smartphones.
Smartphone sales ranking - results of 2016
Despite the strengthening of positions in the ranking of smartphone sales, it is too early to talk about the exceptional success of Chinese companies. However, all of these Oppo, Vivo and Huawei are growing faster than Apple and Samsung, and their market share is growing rapidly:
Samsung is indeed losing momentum in sales, but it still remains the most successful company in the world. True, the brand's annual sales fell from 319.7 million to 309.4 million smartphones.
Rushing to the top in the fourth quarter of 2016, Apple at the end of the year showed more losses than Samsung. Apple phone sales fell from 231.5 million to 215.4 million.
The situation with the Chinese tigers is developing smoothly. Huawei increased circulation from 107.1 million to 138.8 million smartphones, Oppo increased sales from 39.7 to 84.6 million, and the Vivo brand increased from 39.0 to 71.9 million.
The annual circulation shows that the situation with Apple is not developing at all the way the "magicians from Cupertino" would like. Samsung flinched, but resisted. Koreans are now making and selling more smartphones than all three Chinese Tigers combined. At the same time, it is impossible not to notice the enviable growth in sales of Huawei with the fantastic twofold dynamics of Oppo and Vivo. It looks like 2017 will be as exciting as 2016.
The Hong Kong Internet resource antutu.com periodically publishes data on the most popular Android smartphones in the world and in different countries, based on the number of devices that are tested in the AnTuTu Benchmark application, which is the most popular application for testing Android devices in the world. As for those that are very popular in the world, AnTuTu does not publish data on the number of iPhones in its tests, although it also tests these devices, and not only models on Android. It is worth noting that Apple does not publicly publish data on the sales of iPhones in different countries, so one can only roughly judge the popularity of a particular iPhone.
AnTuTu operates with the variants of device names indicated by the manufacturer, because of this it is often difficult to isolate a specific model from a whole line. For example, all models of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 line, regardless of the amount of RAM, the regular version or the Pro version, are marked by the manufacturer as Redmi Note 3. Therefore, when compiling this rating of the most popular smartphone models in the world, not only the data from the antutu.com report was used. 2016, but also Yandex-Market data on popular models from different families of smartphones. The top 10 includes devices from the South Korean manufacturer Samsung, the Taiwanese manufacturer Asus, as well as the Chinese manufacturers Xiaomi, OnePlus, LeEco.
Xiaomi Redmi 3
This model accounts for 1.09% of smartphones. The average price is 10 380 rubles. Xiaomi Redmi 3 received 74% of the top fives in reviews in the Yandex Market. Specifications: 5-inch screen with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels, Android 5.1 operating system, 16 GB of constant and 2 GB of RAM, there is a slot for an external memory card up to 128 GB (combined with a slot for a second SIM card). The main camera is 13 megapixels, the front one is 5 megapixels. Battery capacity - 4100 mAh.
The newest variant of the Xiaomi Redmi 3 line is the Redmi 3X (this model went on sale in the summer of 2016).
Xiaomi Mi4c 16Gb
The share of Xiaomi Mi4c accounted for 1.18% of devices. The average price in Russia is 8,990 rubles. You can buy Mi4c 16Gb on AliExpress for 5.9 thousand rubles (delivery to Russia is free). The model received 64% of fives in reviews in Yandex-Market. Specifications: 5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, Android 5.1 operating system, 16 GB of constant and 2 GB of RAM, support for two SIM cards. The main camera is 13 megapixels, the front one is 5 megapixels. Battery capacity - 3080 mAh.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 16Gb
The share of Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 accounted for 1.40% of smartphones. The average price in Russia is 11,360 rubles. You can buy Redmi Note 2 16Gb on AliExpress for 8.5 thousand rubles (delivery to Russia is free). This model received 73% of the top fives in reviews in Yandex-Market. Specifications: 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, Android 5.0 operating system, 16 GB of constant and 2 GB of RAM, support for two SIM cards. The main camera is 13 megapixels, the front one is 5 megapixels. Battery capacity - 3060 mAh.
ASUS ZenFone 2 ZE551ML 32Gb Ram 4Gb Most Popular Smartphone in Taiwan
ASUS ZenFone 2 accounted for 1.51% of devices. This model is especially successful in its homeland, where it took first place at the end of 2016 with a share of 6.56%. The average price in Russia is 15 490 rubles. You can buy ZenFone 2 ZE551ML 32Gb on AliExpress for 9 thousand rubles (shipping to Russia is free). This model received 49% of fives in reviews in Yandex-Market (see). The 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 has a high pixel density (up to 403 ppi depending on the model), so the images are incredibly clear. With a 5.5-inch display, ZenFone 2 is built to match a 5-inch smartphone. This was achieved by reducing the thickness of the bezel. Photo camera 13 megapixels, front camera 5 megapixels. In Super Resolution mode, ZenFone 2 captures four images at once at 13 megapixels, and then combines them into one photo, the clarity of which is equivalent to a 52 megapixel image. This smartphone supports panoramic (up to 140 degrees) selfies. Other characteristics of this model: 32 GB of built-in and as much as 4 GB of RAM, Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system, support for two SIM cards. Battery capacity - 3000 mAh.
ASUS ZenFone 2 is included in.
OnePlus3 64Gb
For a share OnePlus3 accounted for 1.57% of phones.The average price in Russia is 24,650 rubles. Buy OnePlus 3 64Gb on AliExpress you can for 23.5 thousand rubles (delivery to Russia is free). This model was released in June 2016 and immediately received the title of "flagship killer" due to its excellent technical characteristics and affordable price. To date, OnePlus3 64Gb has received 85% of the top fives in reviews in the Yandex-Market. Specifications: OS Android 6.0 (the manufacturer has already announced an update to the latest OS Android 7.0), 5.5-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1920x1080, 64 GB of permanent memory. While flagships usually have 3GB or 4GB of RAM, the OnePlus3 has an incredible 6GB of RAM, making it one of the most powerful and fastest smartphones in the world. OnePlus3 took first place in performance in the study of the AnTuTu resource in the first half of 2016, beating models like the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge or iPhone 6S by a large margin.
The OnePlus3 does not support an external memory card, although with 64GB of storage it is not particularly needed. The battery capacity is 3000 mAh. There is a fingerprint scanner. Support for two SIM cards.
The advantages of the model include incredible strength. The toughened Gorilla Glass 4, which protects the screen, passed the scratch resistance test (similar tests are carried out by the famous YouTube blogger Zach Nilsson). Representatives of OnePlus, to prove the strength of their flagship, took a bold step and dropped OnePlus3 from a flying plane at an altitude of about 230 meters (for comparison: the main building of Moscow State University is 240 meters high). The smartphone fell to the ground with the screen down, but this did not affect its appearance or performance in any way.
The OnePlus 3 has a 16-megapixel Sony IMX298 sensor with an f / 2.0 aperture, OIS, phase detection autofocus and a pixel size of 1.12 microns. The front camera has an 8 megapixel sensor. The Phonearena resource in July 2016 conducted a comparative test of the flagship cameras, as a result, the Phonearena editors gave OnePlus 3 the fourth place, it lost to HTC 10, LG G5, iPhone 6s and surpassed the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Sony Xperia X Performance. However, if we compare the cameras of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and OnePlus 3, then the OnePlus 3 clearly wins only as a front camera, the pictures from it are better than most of the main cameras of smartphones. As for the main camera of the Samsung Galaxy S7, the visuals are better than those of the main camera of the OnePlus 3.
5th place.
LeEco (LeTV) Le 2 32Gb
LeEco Le 2 accounted for 1.59% of smartphones. The average price in Russia is 13,500 rubles. You can buy LeEco Le 2 32Gb on AliExpress for 8.3 thousand rubles (delivery to Russia is free). The model received 46% of the top fives in reviews in Yandex-Market. Specifications: 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, Android 6.0 operating system, 32 GB of constant and 3 GB of RAM, support for two SIM cards. The main camera is 16 megapixels, the front camera is 8 megapixels. Battery capacity - 3000 mAh. There is a fingerprint scanner.
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Samsung Galaxy S6 SM-G920F 64Gb
Samsung Galaxy S6 (excluding Samsung Galaxy S6 edge) accounted for 1.72% of devices. The average price of the Samsung Galaxy S6 SM-G920F 64Gb is 35,990 rubles. This model received 63% of the top fives in reviews in Yandex-Market. Specifications: 5.1-inch screen with a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels, Android 6.0 operating system, 64 GB of permanent and 3 GB of RAM, support for one SIM card. The main camera is 16 megapixels, the front one is 5 megapixels. Battery capacity - 2550 mAh.
Samsung Galaxy S6 is included in.
3rd place.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 32Gb- the most popular smartphone in the USA and Germany
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge accounted for 3.61% of smartphones. The average price is 49,580 rubles. The new flagship from Samsung went on sale in early spring 2016 and at the end of the year became the most successful smartphone of the South Korean company. This model became the most popular in the United States, where it took first place at the end of the year. Every 10th Android smartphone in the US last year was the flagship of Samsung. AlsoGalaxy S7 Edge took first place in Germany and Hong Kong.
Today, this model has 44% of fives according to reviews in Yandex-Market (see). The technical characteristics of the next model, slightly curved for the convenience of users, pleasantly surprise: a 5.5-inch screen with an incredible 2560x1440 resolution, Android 6.0 operating system, 32 GB of permanent memory and 4 GB of RAM. Those for whom 32 GB of permanent memory is not enough can use the memory card slot and expand the memory up to 200 GB (iPhones do not have a memory card slot and have to be content with the initial one). If the previous flagship Samsung Galaxy S6 (like, by the way, all iPhones) supported only one SIM card, then Samsung Galaxy S7 got rid of this drawback and supports 2 SIM cards.
Battery capacity 3600 mAh. Working time without recharging in the talk mode is 27 hours, in the mode of listening to music 74 hours. There is a fingerprint scanner. There is support for Samsung Pay.
As for the camera, here we see the same characteristics of the matrix as the 6th afoyne: 12-megapixel main camera and 5-megapixel front camera. Samsung cites the following advantages of the camera in this smartphone: a lens of higher aperture (F1.7) and larger pixels of the matrix (1.4 microns) capture much more light, which allows you to consistently get clear and detailed photos even in low light conditions; smartphones support Dual Pixel technology: all pixels of the matrix have two photodiodes, and not one each, which allows the sensor to focus as quickly and clearly as the human eye, and Dual Pixel technology provides such fast and flawless autofocusing that you can capture even the sharpest driving in low light conditions; for the first time, you can capture motion in an animated panorama mode.
Portal w3bsit3-dns.com in a review of Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 32Gb writes: "Samsung made an interesting step by completely changing the camera after the success in the previous generation. Only after trying a new device in business, you understand that it was no coincidence, and no one in the Korean company would accept the decision to change the excellent module to the one that is worse. In the opinion of ordinary people, four megapixels (the Samsung Galaxy S6 had 16) are really lost, but an experienced amateur photographer will tell you that happiness is not in the number of megapixels. " "Samsung Galaxy S7 edge sets a new quality standard for cameras in smartphones for at least the next year. For excellent photos both day and night, spectacular videos, optical stabilization and many shooting modes, the editors of w3bsit3-dns.com marks the SGS7 edge with the" Nice Shot "sign."
You can also note the possibility of very fast wireless charging and full water resistance (you can shoot a video for 30-40 minutes at a depth of 1 meter under water). The always active screen will display useful information on the locked device. This feature is advanced enough to automatically turn off when the smartphone is in a pocket or bag, with the screen facing down, or when the smartphone is almost empty.
Xiaomi Mi5 32GB is the most popular phone in China in 2016
Xiaomi Mi5 accounted for 5.02% of smartphones. The average price in Russia is 16,500 rubles. Buy Mi5 32GB on AliExpress you can for 13.3 thousand rubles (delivery to Russia is free). Xiaomi's flagship model went on sale on March 1, 2016 and today has gained 68% of the top fives in reviews in Yandex-Market (see.
For 16 years, TrendForce has been studying the global market for various equipment, including the market for smartphone manufacturers. According to TrendForce, 1 billion 360 million smartphones were sold in the world in 2016. The ten most popular manufacturers (accounting for 81.1% of global smartphone sales) are represented in this ranking. It includes seven Chinese brands, two South Korean and one American.
10th place. ZTE. The Chinese manufacturer concentrated 3.5% of the global smartphone market in 2016, showing a slight increase compared to 2015, when it accounted for 3.4%. TrendForce predicts ZTE's share will drop to 3% in 2017.
9th place. TCL. The Chinese manufacturer, whose smartphones are not represented on the Russian market, controls 3.7% of the world market. In 2015, its share was the same, and in 2017, according to the TrendForce forecast, it will drop to 3.2%.
8th place. Lenovo. For the Chinese brand, which is well known to Russians, 2016 turned out to be unsuccessful: if in 2015 it was in 4th place in the world with a share of 5.4%, then in 2016 it dropped 4 positions down and its share accounted for only 3.7% world market. TrendForce forecast for 2017 is 3.8%.
7th place. Xiaomi (pronounced in Russian "Xiaomi"). Another popular brand in Russia also showed a decrease in sales compared to 2015: 3.7% of the market length versus 5.2% a year earlier. At the same time, Xiaomi dropped one position down. TrendForce forecast for 2017 is 3.8%.
6th place. LG. The South Korean manufacturer received 5.5% of the global market in 2016, showing slight growth (in 2015 it was 5.2%). At the same time, over the year, LG still dropped one position down. TrendForce forecast for 2017 is 5.5%.
5th place. Vivo. This Chinese brand is a sub-brand of the Chinese company BBK Electronics, which also makes smartphones under the Oppo and OnePlus brands. Only the OnePlus brand reached Russia, and Vivo (like Oppo) is not represented on the Russian market. Due to the rapid growth in sales in China and India, Vivo concentrated 6% of the global market share in 2016 (a year earlier it was 3.6%), moved up from the 9th place to the top five, displacing such brands as Xiaomi, Lenovo and LG. TrendForce predicts the Vivo brand for 2017 to grow further to 7.1% of the global market.
4th place. Oppo. Another subsidiary of the Chinese brand BBK Electronics. Oppo is still focused on the Chinese market and is little known outside of China. Nevertheless, the Chinese segment of the market is enough to control 7.2% of the smartphone market in the world as a whole. A year earlier it was only 3.8% and 7th place in the world. TrendForce predicts the Oppo brand for 2017 will continue to grow to 8.5% of the global market.
3rd place. Huawei. This Chinese brand, unlike the two previous ones, is well known in Russia. In 2016, Huawei achieved 9.6% of the global market share, demonstrating strong growth (in 2015 it was 8.3%) and halving the gap with the second-largest Apple. If in 2015 Apple and Huawei shared 10% of the global market, then in 2016 only slightly more than 5%. According to TrendForce forecast, Huawei will remain in third place in 2017 with a share of 11.1%, reducing the gap with Apple to 4.5% of the global market.
2nd place. Apple. The American iPhone maker became the main anti-hero in the smartphone market in 2016. The 7th iPhone did not meet the expectations of buyers and showed weak sales, as a result, overall Apple sales fell by 11.5% over the year, their share in the world market fell from 18.2% to 15.3%. TrendForce predicts for 2017 the apple corporation will retain its second place and 15.6% of the global market, but for this Apple will have to try and release the 8th iPhone more interesting than the previous one.
1st place. Samsung. The South Korean giant remains the leader in the global smartphone market year after year. However, in 2016, his reputation was somewhat tarnished due to the spontaneous combustion scandal of the summer flagship Galaxy Note 7, as a result of which Samsung recalled 3 million devices. At the same time, the success of the spring flagship Samsung Galaxy S7, which by the end of 2016 was among the three best-selling smartphones in the world, as well as good sales of the flagship of 2015 Samsung Galaxy S6 and other models of the company allowed it to remain the leader in the global smartphone market and lose sales in three times less than Apple: 3.3%. In 2016, Samsung accounted for 22.8% of the global market against 24.7% a year earlier. TrendForce forecast for 2017 is still number one in the world and 22.6% of the global market.
A long experiment called FireFox OS ended, Mozilla refused to continue developing its own OS. It appeared as a response to tenders from major European operators, in particular, Vodafone, they wanted an alternative to Android, but never received anything. Conceptual constructs that are not supported by technology always fail. And most importantly, the system was created as a competitor to Android, and not as a platform that gives the market something new. The result is logical, the account of closed projects of this kind was replenished by another company.
I wanted to include in Spillikins the topic about John Carmack and the trial of Oculus, in which the founders of the company lost $ 500 million and had to pay this money for violating the NDA, but in the end decided that the topic, although interesting, would not receive a wide response. This will not force Facebook to abandon Oculus and the company's technologies, and the story itself looks more like a successful attempt to earn additional and very noticeable money with the help of lawyers. Those interested can search for information, it is publicly available, it is more interesting to pay attention to the lawsuit against Apple regarding the deliberate breakdown of FaceTime a few years ago and forcing users to switch to the new version of iOS.
But we will start this issue with the results of 2016 in the smartphone and tablet market.
Results of 2016 in the smartphone market - the growth of Chinese vendors
Several research companies summed up the results of 2016 at once, let's look at the results from IDC, they were to some extent expected.
Both Samsung and Apple lost insignificant market volume at the end of the year, with Samsung this was due to the 4th quarter and the recall of the Note 7, while Apple lost the market for the first three quarters and made a leap in the 4th quarter, showing record sales for all time ... Many attribute this to the success of the iPhone 7/7 Plus, but judging by the Russian market and its complete opposite, namely the US market, this was achieved through sales of the iPhone 5s, it was the world's best-selling smartphone in Q4 2016. In 2017, it will be necessary to closely monitor Apple's sales, there is a persistent feeling that the company will discount many products in order to achieve sales volume, which they have never done on a massive scale before. But in any case, Apple will not be able to level the gap with Samsung, since it amounts to almost one hundred million smartphones in a year, Apple is not able to increase its sales in such a volume, and it does not set such a goal.
More interesting is the growth that Huawei has shown, it has adopted Samsung's strategy, is investing huge efforts in retail sales, and 2016 was a breakthrough year for the company in most markets. The peculiarity of Huawei is that they do not rely only on their native Chinese market, even if it is huge, but focus on sales all over the world. This is the right strategy as it avoids problems by not putting all your eggs in one basket.
By the way, it's time to remember those ads about Mac and PC, which were very funny and shaped the idea of the market in those years.
In third and fourth places are BBK Corporation, two brands, OPPO and Vivo, which grew primarily due to the Chinese market. Cumulative sales amounted to 176.7 million smartphones (and this is without OnePlus, then sales would be close to 200 million units). Growth for the year exceeded one hundred percent, which can be considered a record for a manufacturer selling millions of devices, this is a heavy load on production and logistics. Considering that the average cost of smartphones sold by BBK Corporation is not at all low (about $ 310, which is higher than that of Samsung!), We can say that the company has earned sufficient funds for further expansion into foreign markets. When will this happen? I think that in 2017 BBK Corporation will again try to go beyond China, this will be the sixth or seventh attempt. Can they get it right this time? This is the question. But the example of OnePlus shows that they have already learned how to work in foreign markets.
Look at the fourth quarter figures from IDC, they are also clear.
Strategy Analytics sees the market in Q4 and for 2016 in about the same way, the report can be found.
Here you can see what is happening with the tablet market, it is quite expectedly falling, and for both manufacturers of expensive and cheap devices.
The main question that can be posed at the end of 2016 is how much Huawei and BBK Corporation will grow in 2017. There is no growth at Samsung, in fact, they have reached the ceiling under the current strategy, at Apple there is a struggle to return to the 2015 level, which is likely. But in 2017 Apple has every chance to leave the second place in piece terms, as Chinese vendors will increase sales. The year promises to be interesting in terms of this competition. Especially when you watch how for the first time Apple is increasing its investment in R&D.
Intentional obsolescence of technology on the example of iOS - a lawsuit
One of the most popular conspiracy theories sounds like this: manufacturers specifically create their devices with programmed aging so that buyers change old models for new ones. Or a common joke about the iPhone - a new version of the iPhone comes out, the old one starts to work worse, it's time to change your phone. There was never any evidence behind these jokes, just the worldly wisdom of the crowd, which can be wrong. But in the US, Apple has filed a class action lawsuit alleging that the company deliberately "broke" FaceTime in iOS 6 and earlier in order to force people to upgrade to iOS 7 and save money on their maintenance costs.
Initially, FaceTime used two technologies, most of the calls were point-to-point, with no intermediate servers involved. For about 5-10% of the calls, servers from Akamai Techonologies were used, which was paid for the bandwidth, that is, in fact, the traffic passed through the system. In court on November 7, 2012, it was ruled that the point-to-point technology was based on patents from VirnetX, and Apple was forced to pay a $ 368 million fine. The company also stopped using this technology, as a result, all FaceTime calls began to be made using Akamai servers. From April to September 2013 alone, Apple paid up to $ 50 million for the use of servers, the load grew, and the company wanted to get rid of such accounts. In iOS 7, this technology was introduced into the operating system, it did not violate VirnetX's rights and did not require payments to Akamai. The problem was that most of the iPhone 4 / 4s users did not want to update their devices to iOS 7, as this would lead to a decrease in performance. According to the lawyers who made the claim, in April 2014, Apple simulated an error in the system, in particular, changed the validity period of the certificate, which expired earlier than it should have. The company publicly denied that this was a deliberate action, and argued that there was an error and it was necessary to update to iOS 7. At the same time, there was no unequivocal approval of these actions within the company, some employees believed that this version of the OS would negatively affect the performance of the iPhone 4 / 4s ... The lawsuit contains the specific names of Apple employees who were involved and made such a decision. Moreover, the cited correspondence, which became available within the framework of another court, from where this lawsuit appeared in principle. The text of the claim itself can be read.
Of the interesting things, I note that inside Apple, the shutdown of FaceTime was accompanied by the mailing of cartoons of its users, which ridiculed the inability to make calls after April 14, 2014. This stroke shows well the corporate culture of the company from the inside: they themselves created a problem - they themselves laughed at their users.
It is difficult to assess the prospects of a lawsuit against Apple, much will depend on the qualifications of the lawyers. But the fact is that Apple often loses in court in recent years, cannot defend its position. Remember the sensational case initiated by Jobs, that allegedly Samsung stole the design of the iPhone and a number of other developments of the company. Then on the side of Samsung sided with most of Silicon Valley, in particular, Google and Microsoft, so as not to list all the companies by name, since the list will be long. The jury ruled in a ludicrous ruling that Samsung must pay a fine of nearly a billion dollars. But after that, the company's lawyers have consistently proved that there is nothing like that and cannot be, the amount of claims was first halved, then twice again. At the moment, Apple's high-profile PR victory has not yet resulted in any significant payments from Samsung, this business continues, and it is unlikely that Apple will win in the end.
In the FaceTime lawsuit, lawyers very gracefully used everything Apple said about iOS 7, FaceTime and showed that Apple extolled this feature, making it one of the key features at the time of introduction. And then he took away the iPhone 4 / 4s from millions of users.
Perhaps what was revealed in court earlier and gave impetus to this lawsuit sheds light on how many companies solve their problems and compensate for miscalculations in product planning. They pass the problem onto the user. It is not worth demonizing Apple, I am sure that most corporations would do about the same when faced with a similar problem. All corporations expect that their decisions will remain behind closed doors, and users will not find out that they were deliberately dumped. But sometimes the secret becomes apparent, and at such moments many people turn out to be pale.
Systematic fall of Sony Mobile - market shrinkage in all countries
I'm not sure if you are following the fate of Sony Mobile or the sales of the big Sony, as I myself glance at the company with half an eye to mark the next milestones on the way down. The fact that Sony Mobile will not be able to survive with the chosen strategy, I talked about in a separate issue of "Sofa Analytics", the text can be reread, since in fact nothing has changed.
Sony released data for Q4 2016 (this is the third fiscal quarter for the company), it contains several interesting points that show exactly what is happening with the company and how it is leaving the phone market. During the 2015 financial year, the company was able to sell 24.9 million smartphones worldwide, the forecast for the 2016 financial year was initially given for 20 million units, then it was subsequently revised. Until the beginning of 2017, the company hoped to be able to reach the volume of deliveries of 17 million units, but in the end, they revised their forecast once again and announced that they would sell about 15 million smartphones for this fiscal year. Actually, they have one block left for this. Sales in the current quarter are down 35% yoy! Two years were the most successful for Sony Mobile, in 2013 the company delivered 38.4 million smartphones to the market, a year later - 40 million smartphones.
Moreover, sales are falling in Europe, Asia, the United States - in all markets where Sony is present. The Russian market for Sony remains one of the most significant in the world, it is one of the three most profitable - the company delivered 575,000 smartphones in 2016 calendar year (hereinafter, MRG data), which became possible due to the refusal of Euroset and Svyaznoy from Samsung technology. The end of the price war and the return of Samsung to all networks makes Sony smartphones not so necessary, plus problems with the implementation of a large batch in Megafon, which became one of the company's key customers in 2016. Prospects for 2017 are vague, in Russia the company will lose market share. At the moment it is 1.7% (sell-in), about 1.4% (sell out). To understand which companies Sony plays in Russia, I will list those who sell significantly more smartphones: Fly (excluding Wileyfox), ZTE, Lenovo, Alcatel, Huawei, Micromax, LG, Asus, Prestigio, BQ. Sony is only 12th in terms of shipments by piece. Companies such as HTC and Meizu are a little lower, while HTC is also falling, but Meizu is growing aggressively, however, like DEXP, Xiaomi. Sony Mobile has no chances for a cloudless future in Russia, since the pricing policy is inadequate, the product has already been forgotten by the mass consumer, and even aggressive promotion in networks does not allow it to go beyond 2% of the market. In fact, clinical death can be stated, the mobile unit can live on constant infusions, but is no longer able to feed itself on its own.
In monetary terms, Sony is not so bad, it is almost three percent of the Russian market, the company delivered goods for 7.5 billion rubles, and the average cost of a smartphone (wholesale price) was about 14,500 rubles. To understand this figure, I will give the average cost for Samsung, this is 9,200 rubles, and the average cost for Apple is 26,800 rubles, which is an absolute record due to the lack of budget models. For example, the same Lenovo, which had a not very successful lineup, has an average cost of a smartphone of 5,500 rubles.
The perception of the Sony brand as an expensive brand has disappeared, few are willing to pay a premium for the Sony brand, as a result, sales in the upper segment have dropped sharply. So far, the company is supported by devices up to 20,000 rubles. But if we look at the quarterly sales, we will see that the demand for them also gradually decreases from quarter to quarter. I am sure that roughly the same picture is observed in all countries where Sony operates. And this explains such an unexpected revision of the sales forecast, the destruction of brand perception is massive and has affected the whole world.
During 2016, Sony aggressively cut staff to improve its bottom line, and has made great strides in this. Having previously separated the production of sensors for mobile cameras into a separate division, the company hoped to benefit and make this area a priority. It seemed to me even then a utopia, since it was easy to imagine that competitors would start to press Sony with prices, and the same Samsung would give preference to its developments, and not to models from Sony. Samsung did even better: purchasing the minimum volume of cameras from Sony, they twisted the company's arms so that it gave its sensor technologies in exchange for these minimum orders, they simply had nowhere to run. See what's happening with Sony component sales.
There is no talk of any profit or noticeable success. At the same time, if we delve into the reports, we will see that the company's R&D costs have not decreased, they remain at about the same level. What does this mean? In my opinion, the answer is obvious - Sony is trying to preserve technology in order to have something to offer potential buyers. One of the factories for the production of modules for cameras in Sony has already been sold to a Chinese company, having bailed out money, the reporting has been corrected. I'm afraid that this approach to plugging holes will become the norm for the company, but the number of buyers is finite, as well as the desire to acquire distressed assets.
How long will the Sony Mobile epic last? The question is interesting, since the company does not have much room to maneuver. Sell the brand and rights to it to someone from the Chinese, for example, TCL Mobile (such an offer has already been made, but they have chosen Blackberry so far, will they be able to digest Sony in addition to Alcatel? I don’t think). Sony is very actively looking for buyers for their telephone line and for this they have been "combing" it in the last year and a half. The current production capacity is already surplus to Sony's sales volume and is costly to maintain. What does it mean? The cutbacks will continue and the company will fall even more in 2017. The only question is whether Sony Mobile will go below the volume of 10 million smartphones per year or not. So far, the trend is such that they are almost guaranteed to fall below this level. And there the company's management will accept that it is necessary to stop supporting this unit in the resuscitation mode.
And one more remark - there were a lot of people around me who loved the Sony style. But today I practically do not see the company's smartphones with them, and those who still use them talk about changing the brand. This is the sad news for Sony.
Charging the Gear S3 and a little about Samsung's Design accessories
It often happens that you try a device, write about it, and then indignant reviews start pouring in that something described is not in it. Last week I described two accessories from Samsung's Design line, they were created for exclusive sale in the company's online store - the focus was on the design, as the name implies, as well as the minimum cost, even in comparison with similar devices of the company. So far I managed to describe the Bottle Design column and wireless charging for two devices.
After describing the charger, I mentioned in passing that it supports charging the Gear S3. In support of Samsung, customers are told exactly the same thing, in fact, those chargers that are sold in stores do not wirelessly charge the watch. It looks like this to me - the watch dock is connected to the connector on the charging case, which created a certain misunderstanding. In the text of the review, he clarified this point in more detail.
It turns out that over the past few months, there has been a noticeable number of people who have managed to burn their watches with non-native wireless chargers. Samsung has always recommended using the complete chargers, for example, if you put the Gear S3 in a charger from the Gear S2, the screen will display the message "Non-original device", but the watch will charge, it just takes a little longer.
The original charger for the Gear S3 costs $ 40; I can't call it cheap or affordable.
Therefore, people who have forgotten such charging at home and went on a trip without it are looking for alternatives. They may not appear at all, since the choice is limited in ordinary stores, and therefore they buy what they have, checking on the spot if there is a charge. But even if there is a charge, this does not guarantee that your watch will not end up frying, and the repair will be at your expense, and it is expensive, charging is much cheaper. Output? Do not buy non-original chargers.
But why isn't Tray Design charging the watch? The answer lies in the fact that Samsung, it turns out, decided to avoid the problem, and if the external charging is too strong (read, fast), then they considered it necessary to turn off any indication that the watch is receiving energy. In native chargers, there is an identification of accessories, how it is implemented is not clear. But after detecting the charger, the watch will turn on the screen and show that it is charging. In other cases, they will not do this, although they will physically begin to charge (the inductor cannot turn off and not receive energy, such a possibility is simply not provided, whether there is a magnetic field or not). Putting the watch on the charger, you can accidentally burn it, so it is better not to carry out such experiments. The main thing to remember is that even if the watch does not show that it has recognized the charger, it can heat up and receive energy from it, so you should not throw them on the charging mat or area in a coffee shop.
Since we are talking about accessories of the Design line, I will say a few words about external batteries in the form of a teapot, they even have a "nose". The battery capacity is 5100 or 10200 mAh, it is supported at 5V output and up to 2.8A, which is very good by modern standards - for example, out of 10200 mAh you will get about 6000 mAh in charged devices, for example, my smartphone can be charged twice or almost twice ( I have a 3500 mAh battery).
I used this Tiffany color battery several times in public during the week, and several times I was asked what it is (I attached an LED flashlight on top for convenience). When people found out that the battery costs 2,490 rubles, they got the idea to buy one for themselves. It upset them that this is the price without a flashlight, for it separately you will have to pay 990 rubles.
I don’t know anything about your tastes, but the entire Design line turned out to be successful, and from the point of view of external aesthetics. Minimalistic in appearance, from well-chosen materials, in a word, I really liked how it was done.
For example, you can pay attention to a wired headset, which costs twice as much as regular headphones for Galaxy smartphones (those cost 990 rubles, this headset is 1,990 rubles). Calling the headset audiophile does not turn the tongue, it plays worse than Level In (2,990 rubles), but it has a definite plus - the resistance was selected in such a way that the sound level was maximized with Samsung smartphones. This is a very loud headset, I would even say deafeningly loud, listening to it at maximum is uncomfortable. Considering how the headset was protected with a braided cable, metal pads, it was clearly created for long-term use. But this is exactly a headset for conversations and occasional listening to music, first of all here they looked at the volume level, the operation of the microphone on the wire. Musical possibilities faded into the background. I don’t remember a single company that would create specially similar solutions for their smartphones, we always see a compromise - they try to do well both for speech transmission and for music, in the end it turns out not very good both there and there. Immediately, the headset was sharpened for speech, and it is very comfortable to speak on it in almost any conditions.
As you can see, the design here is closely related to the purpose of the object, and everything is not as obvious as it might seem at first glance. I really like this line of accessories, I'll tell you about it in a separate article and in more detail. It is curious that after the article about the charger and the speaker appeared, the sales of these accessories increased sharply in Moscow. Coincidence? I do not think. Especially after three of my friends bought themselves such chargers, and I didn’t avoid it, as my son demanded both a column and a charge. Nice to give beautiful things to loved ones.
Cheating in virtual parrots, or again about synthetic tests
Smartphone manufacturers are constantly being caught by the hand in "improving" the performance of their devices in synthetic tests, since the devices are able to determine what kind of program is running and raise the frequency of the processor and graphics system to extreme values. That is, for such programs, all the juices are squeezed out of the chipsets, regardless of the operating time and heating, the main thing is to get the largest number of virtual parrots in the test. It is clear that in real life smartphones do not behave this way and spend energy much more modestly, do not increase the frequency to the maximum.
Therefore, for me, synthetic tests are not the ultimate truth, but simply additional information that can provide food for thought, but nothing more. Evaluating the performance of a device using the Antutu test means showing complete ignorance of how modern smartphones work. For example, the OnePlus 3 was the first device to support 6GB of RAM. But bad luck, as it turned out, Android 7 does not know how to work with this amount of memory, and the additional 2 GB is a marketing add-on. Moreover, the increase in performance is due to deception, as OnePlus has configured the software so that it detects test programs and runs at extreme values. When I wrote the OnePlus review, I just as sincerely believed that the performance gain was due to more memory, and not something else. As a funny side note, despite this amount of memory, OnePlus aggressively unloads apps from memory to keep the device running longer on a single charge. And why then do you need so much memory? Unclear. But in any case, despite cheating with the OnePlus 3, the device remains interesting. The fact that they are trying to give it more shine than it actually has is also quite understandable - most companies are engaged in this, there are almost no exceptions.
XDA Developers did a great experiment and even wrote an article on how they found an overestimate in synthetic tests for a number of companies. The original article can be found.
In short, they asked to make a "secret" build of the test program so that the smartphone does not understand what exactly it is launching. And they compared the results with the usual test, it turned out very revealing. For example, in this graph you can see that the OnePlus 3 smartphone does not reduce the frequency of cores over time in a regular assembly and, as a result, heats up (read, discharges quickly).
And this is how Helio X25 behaves in Meizu Pro 6.
In the benchmark, it shows excellent results, and in ordinary life - a very modest, mediocre processor.
I will repeat a simple thing once again, synthetic tests give a general idea of the device's performance, but they cannot serve as the ultimate truth. Performance can only be assessed by a combination of factors, for example, how quickly the smartphone will be discharged in games and how hot it will be. People love puzomerki, love to measure their devices and their "achievements". But this is becoming an increasingly artificial comparison due to the fact that smartphones begin to appear in different modes of operation (optimal, gaming, and so on). In each of these modes, the smartphone will behave in its own way, they will look like different devices. And it's also worth remembering that performance is always a trade-off with running time. Approximately 90% of the time, even the most powerful smartphone performs tasks in which it needs at most 10% of its power.
Do you believe in synthetic tests? What do they tell you about your smartphone?
Strongest brands of 2016 - Brand Finance version
As indirect information about the growing popularity of certain brands, one can consider brand ratings, there are a great many of them, one of the most curious is from Brand Finance. It evaluates not only brand value, but also other parameters, for example, the strength of the brand, which is expressed in the influence on the audience. You can download the 2016 report.
Look at the world's top ten brands, a fairly revealing list that is actually dominated by IT companies.
And this is how the brands have changed over time.
I repeat that this is an indirect sign, but you must admit that it is quite interesting to look at such a puzomerka.
P.S. Have a nice working week, more interesting books and films. For those who missed it, let me remind you that the first two episodes of the second season of The Expanse have already been released, which did not disappoint. Perhaps the best TV series about space in recent years. How do you like the start of the season?
