Am I the only one surprised there were even that many in the first place?
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I can't believe you've never heard of Zoogle, Bokia, Pamsung, ACKOOO, ACKOOO2², Votorola...
Don’t forget uPhone, GRE, Hawaii, Mulberry, Lentuvo, and Hitsubishi.
Chinese companies love the ACKOOO type names. LPOWERB, SUPERQ, FKPHONE, that kind of thing.
FKPHONE
Who wouldn't want to buy a Fuckphone?
Wait u dont fuck ur phone?
With all the shitbrands on amazon and similar sites I was only half surprised but still 100% more surprised than I should have been.
Most of them were not real manufacturers, but slapping their name on Chinese white brand phones.
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.
Were they real or just shit novelty, scams, or rebadges and sister brands of those multi brand companies like BBK?
LG was the shit. Best DAC, first to the multi cam game, clean looks, innovative designs, pristine screens.
- I may add I've owned the V35, V40, V50 and V60. I'm a video specialist and the manual video control with audio levels have been a lifesaver more often than not.
V30, V35, V60, they put out world-beating designs without any of the shitware.
But fuck one goat (V20 bootloop)...
LG and HTC. The Razor Phone 2 was also pretty cool but didn't sell well so they didn't make a third gen
I had a razor phone 2. It was trash. That’s why they didn’t make a third gen.
Within 6 months I was getting screeching from the speakers intermittently, even when nothing was supposed to play (known issue they wouldn’t cover), and at the year mark the charge port stopped working (also known issue they wouldn’t cover), so I had to use wireless charging from then on.
Apps also thought it was a tablet semi-frequently, I assume due to misconfigured android version settings or something. This caused the display scale to be too large to actually use. My thermostat app was one such so I could turn the heat up, but not down. The down button was cut off.
I have no idea what I'm gonna do when my LG eventually dies. I went from the v30 to the v40 and now the v50. Not a single phone on the market offers what I want in a phone anymore
First really modular phone. But the conception and logic of LG was sometimes very disappointing like the humidity sensor on the mainboard blocking the touchscreen on the G5. That was betting against customers.
Lot's of crypto phones as well, who ~~scammed~~ promised users to return them the value of the phone by using it to mine some shitcoin.
Smartphones have reached a maturity level where upgrades aren't really exciting. Sure there are the usual hardware power upgrades (and even those don't really open up new applications), but in terms of features they're not coming out with anything really novel. Last thing I could think of is bringing back folding which I do find appealing, but not for the cost or the reliability issues.
One of them has to do 3d camera sooner than later. It’s so close… just need another camera at the bottom back of the phone.
This has been tried and I've tried one out back in android KitKat days. Glassless display and all. HTC phone. They're now bankrupt. The battery lasted a few seconds, and the display was not amazing, and even if done better today it's a gimmic at best
There have been plenty of phones and tablets with 3D camera systems. It's just not something that most consumers really want or need, so it tends not to become mainstream.
It still comes up every now and then. The iPhone 15 has a computational 3D camera thing it can do, but I've seen virtually no buzz about the feature.
The problem with 3D pictures is needing something to view them on. I've heard of one phone from maybe a decade ago that had a full 3D display that could be viewed from a wide range of angles, but it cost way too much and heavily sacrificed display resolution. Without widespread adoption, it's doomed to be mostly a gimmick. Some would argue that it'll always be a gimmick, but I think if it was widespread it'd basically be like high resolution i.e. an enhanced way of looking at content. Maybe not mindblowing after you're used to it, but worthwhile if it can be done without sacrificing too much.
I had it, it was called the HTC Evo 3D. Used the same type of display as the 3ds. Wasn't particularly well supported but it technically worked I guess.
We are heading towards a future of Apple, Samsung, and Google, with even the latter two struggling to stay afloat.
And to be fair, Google deserves a lot of the blame for this happening.
Tell me you only live in an American bubble without telling me you live in an American bubble.
Google, sure. But Samsung has more marketshare than Apple.
https://www.counterpointresearch.com/insights/global-smartphone-share/
20% Samsung 17% Apple 12% Xiaomi 10% OPPO 8% Vivo
I'd doubt Samsung will be struggling to stay afloat. They're so diversified they could pick one of their departments to throw money at and just run at a loss in perpetuity, if they felt like it. Apple makes phones, computers, and phone and computers accessories.
Samsung makes phones and computers. And appliances. And chips. And container ships.
And insurance, and healthcare, and construction, etc. They are involved in so many different industries it's almost hard to believe.
When one of the owner family's board members fell sick a few years ago they were monitored at a Samsung hospital in Korea if i'm not mistaken
Huawei and Honor can both survive purely on domestic sales before you even worry about ROW.
No idea why you think there are only three brands, or why you think the US is the only market that matters (it's fairly obvious you are US based)
LG failed because for some stupid reason, they decided to sell 9 million different phones between countries.
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.
Sony still makes phones, some super high end, bur their marketing sucks balls
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.
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.
Sure, there are those niche phones like Pixels and Fairphones used mostly by nerds, but they are a tiny market.
I feel attacked. Lol
Wow. I can hardly name 50 brands, let alone 500.