My friends at Techradar like the iPhone 4S, it seems, and they’ve put together a typically exhaustive review.
Executive summary: if you have an iPhone 4, there’s no real need to upgrade once you’ve installed iOS. If you’ve got an older iPhone, however, the 4GS is a huge upgrade.
I’d like to get my hands on one to play with the Siri voice recognition and see how it copes with my accent, but my car needs an MOT and service. Damn you, reality!
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0 responses to “The iPhone 4S: “the best thing Apple has ever made””
Couldn’t they have spread it over a few more pages? Ten feels like underachieving somehow.
Can’t help but agree with the criticisms: why DON’T Apple do something about all the websites which choose to use Flash? There are many simple and practical solutions to this problem, such as taking their loved ones hostage, or mind control rays.
And of course Apple are going to have to reduce the price if they ever hope to achieve significant sales.
Apparently, Siri can cope almost effortlessly with even a Glaswegian accent – hugely impressive given that most humans struggle with this.
Stephen, you are ridiculously defensive of Apple. Seriously, a glowing review like that, calling it “one of the best phones on the market at the moment, and the best thing Apple has ever created”, yet you still feel the need to be sarcastic about the two minor criticisms in there.
And they’re both entirely reasonable criticisms.
The fact is that Jobs’s anti-Flash tantrum was absurd and actively made his products worse. Flash is not obsolete and is useful. Everyone else’s phones can handle it; Apple’s can’t. And Apple are certainly capable of disabling the “You need Flash to view this site” messages in their browser.
As for the price… I’m getting to the end of my contract, so had a quick look in a phone shop yesterday. I took one look at the monthly line rental figure next to the Iphone and did what I’ve done every time I’ve bothered looking at the things since they were launched: laughed derisively and gone to have a look at something else. Sure, Apple have of course sold shitloads of Iphones. Well done, hype machine. But they have also repeatedly made it abundantly clear to me that they don’t want my business, and I don’t think I’m such a startlingly unique person that I’m the only one.
I think Apple make better operating systems than anyone else. Their hardware is overrated and overpriced. Their attitude to their customers stinks. Next time I need an OSX machine, it’s going to be Hackintosh, as my expensive Macbook is a piece of plasticky shit made of crappy short-lived components compared to my very very cheap built-like-a-tank Acer. The chances of me ever buying an Iphone are zero unless Apple ever decide to charge the same price as all the other top-end models. So yes, they are losing sales. Maybe they’re gaining more than they lose. Maybe they’re not. I don’t know, and neither do you.
My opinion can be disregarded as readily as anyone else’s, but…
When I renew my phone contract, I could go for a Galaxy S II over an iPhone 4S (not sure what an L-phone is) and yes, this would save me at least £50/yr, but it’s not all about bottom-line cost; not a deal breaker over several years.
The clincher for me is the OS and overall experience which has been way better with Apple than with any other platform I use. Crucially, Apple designs the hardware and software which really does make a difference to quality and UX. Google and Microsoft eventually realised this; as we know, both are now starting to get much closer to the hardware with recent acquisitions on the mobile front at least, QED.
I agree that Apple’s (non-mobile) hardware is not exceptional quality for the price, but in my recent experience, it is still extremely good with just a few weak areas. My cheaper exceptionally plasticky wintel kit certainly doesn’t hold up as well and it gets used less. Not sure about the older plastic MacBooks, much has changed since those days
Flash on mobile: not bothered. I get more video in HTML5 and native apps than I can possibly digest. Flash will become irrelevant for mobile video and while Apple did a fine job pissing people off by jumping the gun on this, long term, it was inevitable. When I come across a flash dependent site, I leave just as I would on a desktop PC when visiting an outdated or faulty web site.
Hype: you can’t blame Apple for generating that – everyone else does it for them. Don’t let it ruin your day, ignore it.
Back to the pricey iPhone 4S then – aside from the fine OS, stonking camera, endless supply of apps, etc., apparently it’s very good at making phone calls too. It’s a huge upgrade from a 3GS or older, less so from a 4 with iOS5, and Siri – it’s not for everyone, but it could be much more of a game changer than people have thus far realised…
Only 50 quid a year? Last time around, I saved around 15 a month plus 50 up front by avoiding the Iphone. Which was exactly why I did. I know it’s better than my N900. I just don’t think a phone matters so much it’s worth that kind of money.
> Flash is not obsolete and is useful.
I agree that Jobs’ reaction was OTT, but Flash is a genuine problem on OS X. I’ve got it disabled because otherwise it crashes browsers and occasionally, the entire operating system.
On the pricing side of things, the Apple tax is largely an early adopter, need it now tax: buy one sim-free and put it on a GiffGaff plan and its lifetime cost is a fraction of what you’ll pay for the same kit on a contract. The greed is as much on the networks’ part as it is apple’s.
> The clincher for me is the OS and overall experience which has been way better with Apple than with any other platform I use.
Same here. I’m willing to pay a premium for that. Others aren’t, which is fine too.
Haha :) Some services are missing over here, though, which tempers my enthusiasm somewhat. And I don’t believe for a second that the iPhone 4 isn’t capable of running it.
> Can’t help but agree with the criticisms
They’re fair criticisms. I don’t care about the lack of Flash, but many people do – it’s still popular for video sites, browser games etc. And Apple’s retention of the 3GS at a lower price point shows that even Apple agrees that lower prices equal more sales.
Yeah, I’m going to go with sim-free and giffgaff, just waiting for the queues to die down.
I have Flash disabled on everything. Can’t say I miss it!
Well, I did say ‘at least’ £50/yr saving. Not shopped around extensively due to existing contract, but I’m sure I saw a great deal for anyone brave enough to take a punt on Three – £30(?)month, £99 for a new 4S, unlimited data. Sure you can get a Galaxy S II for 0 up front and less per month, but if I was really bargain hunting I wouldn’t be looking at this end of the market anyway. Maybe I value my phone too highly; it’s similar to car lust which really is financial nonsense.
My computer has voice control. My phone has voice control. My car has voice control. I use voice control only when I want to show someone voice control. I’ve been able to voice dial on my mobile for a decade and in almost every case I’d rather press the buttons on the phone. Even in the car – there are steering wheel controls that I use instead. I think that’s mainly because in about 99% of the situations where I wouldn’t want to take out the phone, it’s inappropriate to use it – either wet and windy, noisy or in company.
Siri is impressive and I’m sure that if I had an iphone 4s I would certainly show it to people.
Personally I don’t believe that the iphone “experience” is worth the premium. I don’t think that any apple product is worth a premium (that’s different from saying that Apple kit is always overpriced though – the iMac, for example, looks massively overpriced but most of that premium is for an IPS panel which justifies the difference, or at least would have had they not covered it in a shiny cover making it next to useless for most of the people who would genuinely be able to take advantage of it!). But there is a premium payable for the iphone. I really don’t think that it’s justified, either in hardware or software. I’ve paid it twice and don’t feel that by having an android device that I’m missing out. Android has plenty of stuff that I can show people that I never use too.
It’s important to note here that Siri isn’t about voice control. It’s much more ambitious than that.
http://labs.vectorform.com/2011/10/the-impact-of-apple%E2%80%99s-siri-release-from-the-former-lead-iphone-developer-of-siri/
“Siri is basically a contextual, semantic, personalized search engine. We affectionately called it a “Do†engine. A search engine can evaluate text strings and look for matching results. A “Do†engine maintains awareness of the user and everything it knows about that user and processes strings in the context of the user.”
On the cost thing – I’m on t-mobile at the moment.
iPhone 4S – 2 yr contract £36ppm
600 mins
Unlimited texts
500Mb internet
£99 up front for phone.
HTC Sensation – 2 yr contract £31ppm
600mins
Unlimited texts
Unlimited internet
Free phone
So, over the contract, that’s £219 of a difference. And yes, you can get the iphone cheaper if you shop around – but you can get the sensation for even less.
Sim-free you’re looking at £180.
Arguably you could say that you’ll get at least £100 more back on the phone (assuming you don’t damage it in 2 years), but I’d rather have that £100 now than in 2 years.
> But there is a premium payable for the iphone.
Not a huge one. A sim-free Galaxy S II is £450. An iPhone 4S is £499. There are two crucial differences: Apple has a lock on retail and doesn’t allow discounting, and networks are taking the piss because they can get away with it.
>>It’s important to note here that Siri isn’t about voice control. It’s much more ambitious than that.
I’m sure that the people I would show it to would be dutifully impressed. :-) What was that plugin for firefox that did all this clever contextual stuff like in-line translation, etc that was really quite impressive? Still use it?
Until voice control is properly like the computer in Star Trek I don’t think people will use it. I don’t think that’s so much about the ability of the software to deal with semantics – it’s about it’s ability to hear you in the first place. We’ve got various users who use newish voice recognition software and it still only works properly in a silent room with a very good microphone.
Even Amazon’s got the S2 for £410.
As I say, discounting.
There are all kinds of reasons for paying the Apple premium, IMO. The big one for me is integration with my other apple stuff – Liz’s iPhone, my iMac, iPad and Apple TV, so for example I often AirPlay stuff from my phone to the TV, and iCloud’s working out quite nicely now too – and apps. There simply aren’t the apps for Android that I want on my phone.
I can see why people like Android, but I’m not one of those people. So my choice is pretty limited :)
I was trying to find this earlier: it’s a good piece about what Siri is now – “crummy” – and where it’s headed.
http://www.asymco.com/2011/10/18/clayton-christensen-and-siri/
Voice control, speech recognition or whatever they called it, has never been good enough. I have never found a practical use for it and I have never felt the need to show it to anyone who hadn’t seen it. That’s old school stuff now anyway.
Siri – or the implementation of – seems to be a massive leap forward and really could be getting very close to that Star Trek style of voice interface where you talk casually to your computer and it does what you want it to (within reason) quickly, first time.
The fact that this technology has surfaced first in the mainstream on an iPhone may well turn out to be just a footnote in the history books, or even a pub quiz question.
I guess Siri was a perfect fit for Apple with its expertise in OS, integration and obsession with UX. I wouldn’t be surprised if the technology goes way beyond Apple+iPhone; competitor OS expertise and patents permitting of course.
David,
You’re right about voice recognition and most other apps you’d put on your phone. I think the only novelty apps I’ve ever installed that I use regularly are a weather forecast and a secure vault for the absurd number of passwords I need for work. Everything else, I think “Wow, that’s so cool,” and then never use it again.
Gary, seriously, how often do you use your Iphone spirit level?
I think it might be different if I didn’t have a computer. Pay a premium on your phone to get to use a great Apple OS. But since I already have a Macbook, what’s the point? All the things I’d do with a computer, I do with my computer. I need a phone for phonecalls, texts, email, and (arguably) Web browsing. There’s not a phone on the market that doesn’t do these things perfectly well. Oh, apart from the Iphone, of course, which is notoriously shoddy at phonecalls. Plus I prefer a full qwerty keypad on my phone because I got used to the Nokia Communicators years ago and therefore regard the Iphone as a bit of a downgrade on that front anyway. I wouldn’t want to be typing this comment on an Iphone: I tried their on-screen keyboard once and found it decidedly lacking.
The Iphone is a superb little computer. I just don’t need my phone to be that good. It’s just a phone.
>>The fact that this technology has surfaced first in the mainstream on an iPhone
Except Apple didn’t make Siri – they only bought it last year to stop it coming to Android and Blackberry. I would be surprised if anyone in Apple has even seen the code.
Another thing that everyone loves about Apple – make sure that if you want a great product then you have to buy both Apple hardware and OS. Remember Emgagic Logic? They also stop any competing product moving to their OS, such as Swype. Any other company in the world would be getting slated for that.
>>Except Apple didn’t make Siri – they only bought it last year to stop it coming to Android and Blackberry.
Correct, but who’s interested in where it originates from or how the strategic acquisitions panned out. How well it works and is it genuinely useful are the main points of interest now it is available on a mass market consumer product.
>>I would be surprised if anyone in Apple has even seen the code.
I’m sure a few of the Siri engineers are embedded in the iOS team, it’s quite deeply integrated.
Hmm. It’s a superb little computer *that you always have with you*, that takes great pictures and videos and then emails them simply and easily to your family overseas, that reminds you to do things when you get to a particular place, that I’ve used to write a novel on my daily commute (the keyboard feels lacking in casual use but within a day or so is so much better than a mechanical keyboard), that you can make the odd phonecall on, that you can use as a makeshift video baby monitor, that is a GPS, and so on. Although the spirit level app is crap. But the music apps are amazing. Love Nanostudio.
> Except Apple didn’t make Siri – they only bought it last year to stop it coming to Android and Blackberry.
I think that’s a stretch. One of the reasons Apple’s so cash-rich is because it doesn’t waste money on “up yours, rival!” acquisitions.
The trick to understanding Apple acquisitions – and much of its strategy – is to remember Steve Jobs’ anger at the idea of being held to ransom, of not having complete control over its products. If it thinks licensing means it’ll be held over a barrel one day, it’ll buy the firm rather than license the tech – and if it can’t do that, it’ll develop its own.
> All the things I’d do with a computer, I do with my computer.
Whereas very many of the things you’d do with a computer, I do with my phone. You know, this isn’t difficult. Person likes doing X, is happy spending money on a device that does X very well. Person doesn’t like doing X, doesn’t buy a device for doing X with :)
I loved Emagic Logic. And one of its strengths (there were many) was that it was cross-platform. I like having apps where I’ll be able to keep the same app at a later date if I decide to switch machines, and I like being able to pass complete files to other people even if they use a different OS from me. Apple bought Logic and I switched to Ableton — and I’m very glad I did.
> takes great pictures and videos and then emails them simply and easily to your family overseas, that reminds you to do things when you get to a particular place, that I’ve used to write a novel on my daily commute (the keyboard feels lacking in casual use but within a day or so is so much better than a mechanical keyboard), that you can make the odd phonecall on, that you can use as a makeshift video baby monitor, that is a GPS, and so on.
I agree, that’s all very handy. My Nokia can do all that. And I put it to you that a Nokia N8 takes far better photos and videos than an Iphone.
> the music apps are amazing.
If I were a guitarist, I would probably get an Iphone for one of the amp emulation dongles. They’re amazing. But I’m not.
> You know, this isn’t difficult. Person likes doing X, is happy spending money on a device that does X very well. Person doesn’t like doing X, doesn’t buy a device for doing X with
Well, not really. Person likes doing X but not so much that they’re willing to pay silly money for it. I’d love an Iphone; they’re brilliant.
The only way to avoid that danger, though, is to buy a product from a firm that will never, ever be sold. Which isn’t easy, given the amount of money floating about the tech industry these days.
As I’ve said further down this thread, Apple doesn’t just buy firms for the sake of it. Acquisitions are assimilated :)
Have you seen this, btw?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WdS4TscWH8
Knowledge Navigator, a concept from 1987.
Siri launches on the iPhone in feb with a press release that announced that the android and bb version were about to be released then 2 months later it’s apple. Siri would be able to do almost everything it does now on all platforms without apple having to license anything – if anything it would be the other way round.
The sad thing about this is that despite how much everyone argues about how evil/wonderful apple/google is, the end result is that everyone is paying more for an inferior product, whichever one you choose. Instead of coming to reasonable cross licensing agreements they prefer to sue and countersue and the only winners are the shareholders and the patent lawyers. Imagine how much further advanced both android and iOS would be if, instead of spending billions on copying each other but making it look different, both companies spent that time and money building on what’s already been invented. Patent law, like copyright law, should be about stopping people getting screwed over, not stifling development.
It’s all bollocks.
Out of interest, iMacs make shit tellies. Really shit. So I’ve put a decent telly in the cellar and I’m using an iMac, which I might have forgot to mention – is shit – as a telly because I want to keep logic and there’s nowhere else to put it. Its not even about a company not being bought over – its also about proprietary formats. There’s no decent reason that logic couldn’t export to ableton or similar. Apple resale values are also particularly meaningless when you can’t sell the fecker. (can I also whinge that iOS autocorrect makes me type about 10 times slower? Why is there no simple way to do a custom dictionary? Also why no swype?)
> then 2 months later it’s apple.
Yes, but I think you’ve got your cause and effect mixed up. You think it went like this:
* Siri’s ready to go! Let’s buy it so those other guys can’t have it!
Whereas I think it went like this:
* Siri’s ours now. Let’s can the stuff we don’t give a shit about!
> Siri would be able to do almost everything it does now on all platforms without apple having to license anything
Yes, probably, but then Apple wouldn’t have any control over it. Control isn’t just about finances, either, it’s about quality control. If Apple isn’t happy with what Siri does, or how it performs, or how it integrates with things, Apple can change that. As a licensee it can only ask Siri to do it, and hope they’ll (a) do it, (b) do it right and (c) do it on time.
I think Apple sees Siri as important to its future, and that makes it too important to leave alone. If Siri hadn’t sold, Apple would have made its own version – as it did with iCloud when Dropbox said no.
> Instead of coming to reasonable cross licensing agreements they prefer to sue and countersue and the only winners are the shareholders
That’s business. As long as you’re a public corporation, your ultimate duty is to your shareholders. Customers are a distant second.
> Patent law, like copyright law, should be about stopping people getting screwed over, not stifling development.
Yep. But money perverts that.
> There’s no decent reason that logic couldn’t export to ableton or similar.
Yes there is. Most music programs can export individual tracks in a whole range of formats, but they don’t export the projects because doing so would require an insane amount of work: think of all the plugins and hardware support each platform has, many of them proprietary. There’s much, much more to a project file than a list of tracks and a couple of data points.
Where standards exist, Logic does support them: the current version exports projects to OMF (ProTools), AAF (video production) and OpenTL (Tascam kit), as well as MIDI export and the usual wave-type formats for audio bouncing. But there’s only so much you can expect them to do if the programs you’re talking about compete with rather than complement their products.
No, you just need to avoid buying a product from a company that will never be sold to Apple, which is a lot easier. And it’s ironic that you’re alluding to market forces there, because most software goes in the other direction: starts out on one platform and moves to others due to demand. Apple threw away a load of Emagic customers because — as it turned out — it was part of their long-term plan to build an entry-level but superb DAW into all their kit for free. That sort of a plan is pretty rare. Considering Ableton’s customer base, only a tongue-scratching moron would buy them and ditch a platform.
>>You think it went like this… Whereas I think it went like this
I don’t think so. I doubt it was done solely to piss off google, but I reckon that once the beta was out on the app store, it was brought to senior management who saw the potential both in Apple’s hands and google’s. If it was just so they had control and not to be a USP then explain why it’s not available on the iphone 4 or ipad?
>>That’s business. As long as you’re a public corporation, your ultimate duty is to your shareholders.
There’s no disputing that but name one large company in the world where non-investors get into arguements about it being a “good thing”?
How come whenever apple is mentioned on the internet, everyone starts fighting? Mibbe that’s proof in itself that Apple’s evil. ;-)
See if Nuance either withdraw Swype from Android (or charge a fortune for it) I might abandon it anyway.
Spot on Gary. This is mostly (but not entirely) about control for the benefit of quality. I don’t believe the Siri implementation would have been quite as good if it had been more widely licensed elsewhere. Siri has found the right home for now and no doubt ‘similar but sufficiently different’ technologies will evolve elsewhere in the future.
If Apple wanted to go around disrupting other people’s business through buying up technologies just to get them off the open market, with a stockpile of cash approaching $100billion they could afford to do quite a lot of shopping, but they don’t.
As for the patent lawsuits – most of these are good for nobody but the parasitic patent attorneys. The Apple/Samsung ding-dong is getting ridiculous.
All this being said, I might consider a 3GS now they’re sensibly priced. Mind you, much as I think Stephen Elop is screwing up Nokia, I picked up an E7 the other day and it was actually very lovely.
>>If it was just so they had control and not to be a USP then explain why it’s not available on the iphone 4 or ipad?
There’s definitely an element of USP for the ‘interim’ 4S. There may also be performance reasons and it definitely makes sense to put Siri into the hands of a smaller(!) number of enthusiastic early adopters first. Even as a 4S-only feature, it’s still an ambitious roll out for something like this.
Also – a core feature of a flagship Apple product still in ‘beta’? Are they just being honest about its initial release state vs it’s full potential or did they leave some wriggle room just in case the 4S stampede took it down?
>>All this being said, I might consider a 3GS now they’re sensibly priced.
I’m not sure that I’d even consider a 3gs. They’re significantly slower than the new ones and have a pretty crap screen by modern standards. My wife swapped a 3g (which has the same screen) for a HTC Wildfire S (which has the worst screen of any current HTC device) and they’re not much different.
> If it was just so they had control and not to be a USP then explain why it’s not available on the iphone 4 or ipad?
Oh, it’s a USP too, and I suspect it’s 4s-only purely to make an interim product more exciting. Although it’s also possible that it isn’t in all iOS devices because apple wanted to see how it’s servers coped.
I think, though, that apple buys purely on the basis of what’s right for apple, what fits with the overall vision. Once it’s part of apple then – I’m assuming – the mentality is, “of course we’ll shutter the android and BB versions. Apple doesn’t make android or blackberry apps.” I think the shuttering is the result of the acquisition, not the reason for it.
It’s really interesting to compare apple acquisitions with those of yahoo, google and Microsoft, btw. Dramatic differences.
> How come whenever apple is mentioned on the internet, everyone starts fighting?
There’s an interesting argument I read the other day, suggesting that apple design and marketing deliberately create very strong emotions – positive and negative. I’ll try to find the piece.
> See if Nuance either withdraw Swype from Android (or charge a fortune for it) I might abandon it anyway
Swype, or android?
I agree with David, the 3GS will disappoint you.
I think you should wait and see what Nokia comes out with for windows phone. Seriously, it’s a really nice OS, and we all know that Nokia makes superb hardware.
I think it’s a bit of both. Outside the US it’s still very limited.
Yeah, apple vs Samsung is just getting silly.
I’m fascinated by Siri, to the point where I was looking at iPhone trade-in prices earlier even though I definitely can’t afford the upgrade. Siri reminds me of the first iPhone: not fully realised, but heading somewhere really interesting.
Isn’t this a brilliant time to be into gadgets?
I have been rather impressed by what I’ve seen of the OS, yes.
Android. I *really* dislike the ipad/iphone keyboard. The new split improves it a little in some circumstances (at least on the ipad), but it’s still crap. The android stock keyboard sucks too. Swype – once you get the hang of it – is fantastic. I really struggle to type on a touch keyboard now. To me it’s a bit of a USP for android. That and the utter suckiness of the autocorrect on ios – swype just asks if it’s a new word and remembers. On the ipad – It’s been 6 months and I STILL DON’T LIVE IN MIDFIELD!!!!! FFS!
I’ve currently got 3 options with phones – either hang on for a bit (even longer than the time it takes for ICS phones to appear), get a new Android phone (HTC Sensation XE is current favourite if it comes with ICS) or go with Windows Mobile. I’ve played with it and it’s rather nice.
This has only just occurred to me. On the subject of Apple not allowing discounting: how do they do that? Is that not illegal in the UK?
I know that there are only three types of goods whose manufacturers may decide who gets to sell them: cars, perfume, and gemstones — on the grounds that they are luxury goods. This is the somewhat archaic exception to the law that Tesco and Sainsbury’s keep challenging because they want to sell cars. But I thought price controls were tied up in the same legislation. Are Apple really allowed to dictate their price to retailers rather than just providing an RRP?
The N900 goes too far in the other direction with its text prediction: every time you use a new word it goes “Oo! New word! I bet my owner’s going to use that ALL THE TIME!” So I signed my name at the bottom of a mail to Gary and it came up “jobsworth”.
I honestly don’t know. As far as I’m aware price fixing legislation only applies when rival firms collude, and obviously that’s not the case with Apple: it’s not sitting down with HTC and Samsung to fix the price of smartphones. Would the spookily similar pricing between Apple stores and retailers fall under the legislation? I’m pretty sure phone stuff wouldn’t, because retailers set headline prices and make it up with monthly fees.
It’s an interesting one. I’d love to know what the answer is.
The answer is probably something along the lines of:
Apple: Hi Mr Retailer, here’s your shipment of new phones. Remember, we’d like to see them sold at £xx.
Retailer: Great thanks! Er, just for argument’s sake, what would happen if we sold them for less?
Apple: Oh, you’d probably find that when you come to reorder, we’d be out of stock. Forever.
It should be a very nice phone. It could take on Apple on the high end, if Nokia keep the build quality and design up. OS certainly up to it.
Agree about the 3G, it’s not much better than the Galaxy Ace in terms of screen. The 4 is very nice but 8Gb is too small; mine’s 32Gb and only a couple are free. I think I may have to bite the bullet for a 64Gb 4S!
I think that Swype gets the balance right-ish. If you type a word it doesn’t know you do the same as the iphone and tell it that you’re right, but then it asks you if you want to add it. Then when you do a word it thinks it knows it gives you the option again.
Have I mentioned at any point that I like Swype? ;-)
>>As far as I’m aware price fixing legislation only applies when rival firms collude
Doesn’t it also include when suppliers and retailers collude? If you want to sell apple products then you are not alllowed to compete with anyone else who sells apple products based on price. The only differentiation I’ve seen is when John Lewis sold iMacs with a 2 year warranty for free. Surely all the retailers and apple coming together to prevent competition is some sort of cartel?
Again, this is something else that if *any* company other than apple tried to do there would be uproar.
> Doesn’t it also include when suppliers and retailers collude?
That was my point. I know that there is law on the books about the relationship between manufacturers and retailers — manufacturers aren’t allowed to dictate who can and who can’t retail their stuff, which makes the initial Iphone-only-on-O2 thing suspect — but I don’t know the details.
Have you seen some of the stuff on Youtube that’s been filmed with the N8 now? Unbelievable.
Come on, I’m convinced you must be calling someone a jobsworth in at least 30% of the texts you send… ;-)
The n9 looks quite nice. http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/22/nokia-n9-review/
Engadget are saying exactly what I said: Nokia put years of effort into developing Meego until it’s finally at the stage where it’s pretty damn brilliant, then they kill it. Tsk.
Nokia World is on Wednesday. Interesting things coming, I believe.