Counterpoint Research's analysis shows that at its peak in 2017, there were more than 700 smartphone brands contributing to the 1.5 billion units sold annually. In 2023,...
    • erwan@lemmy.mlEnglish
      16·
      2 years ago

      Most of them were not real manufacturers, but slapping their name on Chinese white brand phones.

    • genoxidedev1@kbin.social
      4·
      2 years ago

      With all the shitbrands on amazon and similar sites I was only half surprised but still 100% more surprised than I should have been.

    • toddestan@lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      Maybe they are counting all the times Microsoft launched a new brand of phone and then unceremoniously killed off about 6 months later?

    • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      The movement for free and open source software has not achieved a world in which most people use only FOSS. But it has achieved a world where there is a lot of diversity in technology, including many Android smartphone brands you haven’t heard of.

  • csm10495@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    35·
    2 years ago

    I want a phone with a built in projector… and a bigger battery… and something else I haven’t thought of yet.

    I miss new features and innovation.

    Since we have neither, give me modularization to let me have ^

    • potoo22@programming.devEnglish
      14·
      2 years ago

      Phone makers: hmm this isn’t selling. Guess we’ll only make phones that look like and do the exact same things as every other phone.

      • MMNT@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 years ago

        I hate that Google killed that project. Haken’s block phone is still a great concept that is now used for Framework laptops. I hope thats someone can start doing that for mobiles. Fairphone is OK, but still far from Haken’s idea.

    • RedBauble@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      2 years ago

      That was the Motorola Moto Z series for ya, had pins on the back for modules to be attached. Some modules were a battery pack, jbl speaker, a projector, and even a little printer to have the phone work like a polaroid

      • negativeyoda@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        Also the LGG5 to a lesser extent. I had a chin module that acted as an extra battery and fine control for the camera.

      • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        I was just wiping my Force 2 the other day to install an unlocked OS and was impressed how much battery life that clip on pack gives it.

        Without it the Force 2 was the slimmest phone on the market and with the pack on it just feels normal. Yet I can get like three days out of it, and I bought it in 2017.

  • malchior@aussie.zoneEnglish
    25·
    2 years ago

    LG failed because for some stupid reason, they decided to sell 9 million different phones between countries.

    • MartinXYZ@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      6·
      2 years ago

      I miss LG phones. They always tried weird shit with their flagships; curved phone?done. Modular phone? Yes. Two screens? Yup. Also their V-series was probably the best phones ever for those of us who value good audio higher than great cameras.

      Edit: I used to work as a reviewer for a magazine and used the curved LG G4 for quite a while. I really liked it, though I never actually bought one.

      • BigT54@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 years ago

        LG ending their mobile division really sucked, the V series phones were some of the best phones ever imo. I really miss my V30, the quad DAC was awesome and the camera was actually pretty amazing too. They also weren’t bloated with unremovable shit like flagships are nowadays.

        • malchior@aussie.zoneEnglish
          2·
          2 years ago

          Agreed, I’ve got expensive headphones that I can no longer use with my phone because apparently we don’t want/need headphone jacks anymore. Less features and phones are more expensive than ever. Yay consumerism.

  • doublejay1999@lemmy.worldEnglish
    273·
    2 years ago

    apple & china robbed us of so much, if you’re a gadget guy.

    i had sony phones, laptops, palm pilots, panasonic bit and bobs.

    i get that technology has advanced infinitely in the last 20 years, but we are on a very narrow path at the moment.

    • elucubra@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      6·
      2 years ago

      Sony still makes phones, some super high end, bur their marketing sucks balls

      • HollandJim@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        As did their support - I had a p800 and p910, and while they looked cool, they were really not great compared to my original iPhone. Everyone here can romanticize all they want, but leaving symbian for ios was like a revelation; I can still remember the wonderment.

        Its so cool to be contrary and hate the successful thing now, but nothing was “stolen”. You always had choice. Its not what was chosen though - that how evolution works.

      • PM_ME_FEET_PICS@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        Sony is the only company right now that has a flagship phone with great camera, removable battery, all the holes and comes in smaller sizing.

    • Pratai@lemmy.caEnglish
      31·
      2 years ago

      Yeah…and google had nothing to do with that. It was ALL Apple & China.

  • master5o1@lemmy.nzEnglish
    211·
    2 years ago

    Were they real or just shit novelty, scams, or rebadges and sister brands of those multi brand companies like BBK?

    • Spaniard@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      Motorola phones for me and my family, they are reliable and work. At work they give me Samsung phones I guess that knox things sells to companies.

      • Squizzy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 years ago

        Hate Samsung, they force their own keyboard into the work profile pure balls. It’s bad at basic keyboard things.

        • Koboldschadenfroh@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          And Motorola doesn’t even have it’s own keyboard and uses Google’s gboard. They also don’t have their own gallery, file manager nor calender app. Which I find a little weird. They use google apps for all of these.

          • Squizzy@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            2 years ago

            Which is better than Samsung, they used force notifications for the likes of their calendar app. If you removed the permissions it would give you a constant notifications alerting you to the app not working properly.

            Scumbag Samsung

            • Koboldschadenfroh@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              2 years ago

              Yes I know about these notifications when you take away permissions. I’ve been using Samsung phones for almost a decade…but recently my phone had issues right when the warranty period was over and I swore to never buy Samsung again. But since I don’t buy Apple products either, I just bought a cheap Motorola. The quality isn’t that great, but it has advantages and disadvantages. I haven’t used a Motorola since my old flip phone. Unfortunately Lenovo bought them. It is interesting though to check out this phone and see the differences. After I bought it I read an article that they don’t get Android updates for very long. Which kinda sucks.

              Anyways, I was trying to limit the permissions for google on my Samsung phones. But now on Motorola I have even more Google apps and can’t even look at my photos or files without using google. Which kinda sucks. But at least they let you use the gallery app without being logged in. That’s the only positive. Google has WAY too much power.

              I wasn’t trying to defend Samsung. They suck in many ways. But Motorola has disadvantages as well.

  • WuTang @lemmy.ninjaEnglish
    11·
    2 years ago

    what was their added value despite cutting down price with their poor hw and integration, shitty drivers?

    I mean, FairPhone, Librem, PinePhone have real value and strategy, sure not perfect but this Vitamin (real chinese/french mark), LIPOq or VARK chinese knock-off phones, really, what did they expect?

    those craps were like throwaway cameras in the 90’s.

    • space@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      7·
      2 years ago

      But I loved my HTC 10. And let’s not forget about LG. Also, Sony, Motorola, Nokia are just a shadow of their former selves.

      Today your main choices are Apple, Samsung or a Chinese brand (Oppo, Xiaomi etc). Sure, there are those niche phones like Pixels and Fairphones used mostly by nerds, but they are a tiny market.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 years ago

    I liked some of them. I still wonder how many were Amazon’s random relabeled crap like AIUEO.

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
        02·
        2 years ago

        It clears out companies who fail to complete. There are only so many people willing to buy a phone at a time and too many phones on the market means that the phone companies won’t be able to sell enough phones to stay afloat. This means that the companies who can’t offer a compelling device to consumers will disappear.

        Its similar to natural selection

        • caseyweederman@lemmy.caEnglish
          7·
          2 years ago

          My response got eaten so here’s the gist: big tree gets all the sunlight, and you rejoice when a few saplings choke each other out.

          The entrenched companies don’t need to do anything other than exist in order to eliminate competition. Fewer saplings means less risk of the big tree getting disrupted. That means less innovation.

            • caseyweederman@lemmy.caEnglish
              4·
              2 years ago

              Break up the monopolies and encourage actual competition and innovation instead of this stupid hopeless deadlock.

              • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
                1·
                2 years ago

                I don’t think Tue android phone space is a monopoly. (Not counting Google’s control of course) A monopoly is when a single company is the only one selling a product or service