Does The Smartphone Rat Race Take Us Anywhere?

@CrazyBoy • Oct 22, 2024

Oct 22, 2024

1.8K

I do not even remember that in last one year of so, how many mobile phones reviews I had read. Also, not sure which one is best out of the lot.

The million dollar question for me is, Does the industry's mobile rat race is taking us anywhere?

Samsung had over two dozen of smart phones, and there are are a dozen players in market to the competition of SAMSUNG. With just a small feature change, mobile companies are releasing a new phone.

The worst part is WE the enthusiastic mobile phone users are making a big success story for these industry players.

What do you think, where it will take us. Will we have any end of this rat race?

-CB

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Anoop Mathew

@anoop-FRTf1L • Jun 21, 2013

Definitely a million dollar question. Some time back, we had discussed some points <a href="https://www.crazyengineers.com/threads/mobile-wars-whats-your-take.67853">Mobile Wars || What's your take?</a>. But now things have gotten more chaotic dare I say that!

It's like people don't care about 15 grands (Indian Rupees 😘) anymore, because a lot of options are available within 15K. The best option would be to use and decide. Reading the tech specs isn't just enough. You got to get down to an actual <a href="https://www.crazyengineers.com/threads/google-opening-android-nation-retail-stores-across-india-this-year.68594">Google Opening 'Android Nation' Retail Stores Across India This Year</a>, and feel the product with your hands. I'm sure that if you've used a couple of smartphones (from friends or relatives) belonging to various companies, you'd get a clear picture of what a smartphone feels like. The problem today is that most folks who have used ordinary phones before and now trying to buy a new phone are left confused. Such folk often end up buying phones by just merely looking through the specs on the internet. This is not enough according to me. Some folks don't like the phones they have bought but due to 'no-other-option' continue to use it.

Advice from Experience: Think thrice before you buy any gadget these days. The technological advancement is so fast that you'd miss out on the best parts within just a few months. And also think again if you are letting your parents buy phones too. My dad bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 without asking me, and he has not even used it till this moment. Some of his friends have large phones and he thought it'd be a good idea to get one. But I know what it's like to carry a phone of that size around and that too just for calling!😖 My boss who used to own a Samsung Galaxy S3 dropped it last week while getting out of the car, the entire screen got broken into a million pieces. The very next day he bought an S4! 😯. So always use a jelly grip cover to protect your device!

P.S: The gulf countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have started banning smartphones apps like Viber, Skype, Watsapp, and other apps that enable free calling via internet. Lots of checking is also taking place and people are being deported for using these apps. The news is widely spread all over the internet. Lots of people are facing issues due to this as they have to now rely on tradition GSM to make calls.😯👀

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Ankita Katdare

@abrakadabra • Jun 22, 2013

Great thread, CB! Definitely something to think about.

Believe it or not, more than half of the young populating is running this rat-race in a frenzied pace ever since their first unsmart-phone that they bought back in 1999, changing some 18 phones over last 14 years pouncing on the latest gleaming gadget playing ‘early adopter’ to keep ahead of the market only to end up in debt and finally burning out on them. It is all pointless.

Now, after all this frenzy, I know most people who are willing to buy a phone that they will stick to for at least next 5 years. (But will they succeed? Let the next dream phone appear in trailers and ads, right?) I know some people who are willing to buy the old rugged Nokia phone with the 'minimum' of features so that they have to keep two phones. The nokia one - they will use regularly, while the smartphone is there just for the special occasions. I think we have come a full circle.
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Anand Tamariya

@anand-tamariya-DnfjEX • Jun 23, 2013

If you look at the big picture, this rat race has proved immensely productive. It has created bigger playing field for ARM ending Intel's monopoly over CPU, advancement in SSD technology which is promising to replace magnetic drive with reliable and faster data transfer, touch technology maturing to enter laptop and PC domain, advancement in Li-ion batteries, spreading computing to wider audience etc. This competition is better any day then a handful of corporations (viz, IBM, Apple, MS) deciding what the end consumer can have.
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Abhishek Rawal

@abhishek-fg9tRh • Jun 23, 2013

Anand Tamariya
If you look at the big picture, this rat race has proved immensely productive. It has created bigger playing field for ARM ending Intel's monopoly over CPU.
Intel focuses on x86 & x64, which are CISC architecture. While,ARM is RISC architecture.
Both are completely different architectures & thus both are really not in competition with eachother.
So,how ARM ending Intel's monopoly is justified ?

There are only two juggernauts in CISC based processors & they're AMD & Intel ( & Maybe IBM too) : And Competition will never end between them like AVR versus PIC.

And how does advancement of SSD is related to Smartphones rat race ?
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Anand Tamariya

@anand-tamariya-DnfjEX • Jun 24, 2013

Abhishek Rawal
Intel focuses on x86 & x64, which are CISC architecture. While,ARM is RISC architecture.
Both are completely different architectures & thus both are really not in competition with eachother.
So,how ARM ending Intel's monopoly is justified ?

There are only two juggernauts in CISC based processors & they're AMD & Intel ( & Maybe IBM too) : And Competition will never end between them like AVR versus PIC.

And how does advancement of SSD is related to Smartphones rat race ?
Same architecture is not prerequisite for competition. End user would only care about the performance of the processor. eg. Linux vs. windows is an OS war not code base/kernel architecture war. Given the current trend, soon you'll see Exynox processors running all-in-ones. For once, we'll get rid of "Intel inside" logo.

With magnetic drives, for long manufacturer were focused on capacity. It's only with ever increasing requirement in mobile devices, people started looking for alternatives which was small, fast and reliable.
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Abhishek Rawal

@abhishek-fg9tRh • Jun 24, 2013

Have you seen any RISC architecture based Processor used in in PC?
RISC based processors can never outperform CISC based processors.RISC are used where low power (i.e Mobile devices like Laptop,Tablets,Smartphones,etc).
Also if you take look at instruction sets,there is no instruction in RISC for I/O peripheral interface.

ARM has their fist wrapped over Smartphone's neck & Intel won't be able to reach there.
While,Intel rules over where high computing speed is required & ARM can't reach there too.
Though Haswell processors has ability to kill ARM,it wont be able to.

SSD will never be used in Mobile computing untill the clock frequency of Mobile device is real fast because each gate in SSD have independent microcontroller which needs to be clocked by microproccesor to cache/access data,thus more computing power is needed in mobile devices which is takes us back to the point that why many upcoming laptops are using haswell processors & not ARM.

Inshort,ARM is freaking awesome for smartphones/tablets but for high computing it cant compete with Intel processors.
Thus,both are King in their own territory.

Though,chances are that next gen of Intel's processor (after haswell) can jump into competition against ARM.

But,ARM is not semiconducter company,Nvidia-Qualcomm-Samsung are.

Overall,I dont see competition between them,bioth architectures have Pros & Cons,thus it wont be smart talk to say that ARM is better than Intel or vice versa.
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Anand Tamariya

@anand-tamariya-DnfjEX • Jun 24, 2013

Funny @#-Link-Snipped-#. I'm talking about competition generating alternatives (isn't that the topic of this thread). But you're only looking at possible winner of the race!!!

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