Its tough at the top even for Samsung who are still under pressure from budget phone manufactures who can make cheaper and better phones than Samsung. Whilst Samsung's attempt to copy Apple with the Galaxy S6 has failed to make much impact. If you wanted to pay top dollar for an iPhone clone then you might as well simply buy an iPhone



http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/6/890...n-seventh-time

I think the main reason is people have gone for other Android phones and with the likes of the Chinese phones they have to justify the price a lot more now and I think a few people have woken up to manufacturers taking the Mickey with the price..

I recon that they were taking the P a bit with non expandable memory and also the cost as it would not have been too bad if a 64gb version of the phone was less than £550 on release with the cost of a 128gb micro SD card now for less than £50.

Not as important, but a few people (like myself) like to have a battery that you can swap so that you can keep a spare in the car as backup.

Wonder if they will go back to having expandable memory with the S7 like LG did with their phones?

I think they caused confusion by launching other models like alpha, edge and whatever else. I lost track of what was latest phone

Strangely enough, I checked the price of the S6 Edge with 128GB storage today. I was staggered to see it costs more than iPhone 6 Plus with 128GB. LOL. What planet are these South Korean copycats on?

The Alpha has seen surprisingly good sales in the UK when I last did a channel check.

If you start making phones too much like a iPhone then people will just get an iPhone, Samsung were so close to making a excellent phone then missed the target at the last minute by excluding the SD card slot. Plus not Helped by the whole lolipop thing. and releasing too many variations of models which confuse people.

The missing sd slot wouldn't be such a big issue if the standard size was 64 or even 128 gb

I agree completely. I will probably have my S5 until it drops to bits because I think its great, but I would not even consider getting an S6 because of the lack of micro sd slot and inability to replace the battery. Samsung should learn that you dont go backwards.

I don't think its the supposed copying of iPhone


http://www.androidauthority.com/gala...oor-q2-623118/

A few other Android sites have been saying the same thing, lots of people have wanted the S6 Edge in place of the "vanilla" S6, Samsung seems to be suffering problems on yield rating....that flash curved glass is difficult to manufacture apparently......not that they weren't able to consult a firm which specialises in those techniques

I wonder sometimes whether phone designs/makers are so concerned about having the latest features and paying through the nose for them, when really they could look to other areas of the market for inspiration.

I think that the standard S6 looks like a very good phone - and good to use too. You can't really compare it to the iPhone surely.

That's what I was thinking - it looks nothing like the iPhone - surly the iPhone is copying Samsung if anything my increasing their size and having 2 size options.

What do people expect anybody else to do? Make a triangle or circle shaped phone instead of a rectangular one with screen covering most of it and a home button (saying that Samsung has a couple of extra passive buttons either side of the main home button)?

I think with Android there are so many manufacturers and other models that one model is never going to even get close to the iPhone sales (which is a good thing because all the Android models have to compete with the other ones and I guess Samsung must be realizing that people go to another Android manufacturer if they take the P).

That's probably just a much of the problem, Samsung have got a bit over confident lately and think they are the only real serious android alternative to the iPhone, and have started using apple like methods to try and boost yields from the consumer. For quite a while I'd say they've been right to think this, I'm on my 3rd Samsung android phone now after ditching Apple, over that time as other probably have, I've learned about the android system and how to get the best from it, but have also noticed a lot of the negatives that you come across are with the Samsung side of the system, not the android, whilst so far ahead in what I want in terms of phone design I put up with it. But competition is getting much stronger now in the android market with for me LG & sony producing much better phones now that they are a real alternative to Samsung now.

The trouble is there are real limits that cannot be overcome so eventually even the budget makers will catch up. The limits are screens are now resolving better than the eye can resolve, the internet and gaming are (mostly) without glitches and everything just flows. Battery and OS are two areas not yet at their best for any phone.

I personally think the Edge variant is a step backwards. I held one in the shop and the screen had more reflections than the standard S6 and the top and bottom of the image were distorted looking - harder to hold too. People are buying it but it is straying into form over function.

Costs are high for Samsung. There is a good reason why competitors phonse sell for far less. Non OLED screens are as cheap as chips.

Plus we are peak smartphone. Most of us already have a high end 1080p or 1080p + phone. Not that we even need that. Ultra cheap 720p suffices.

so the poor sales rumours were true after all.

Obviously the smartphone market was going to hit saturation at some point.

Dont get why companies go all mental when they stop growing, samsung still is making billions every year from smartphones, hardly a disaster.

By the way as proof a sdcard could have been added, my old samsung galaxy ace has an external sim slot.

It doesnt seem to have hit Samsungs biggest rival that hard.


http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/27/tech...pple-earnings/

I bought a HTC One M8 last October and regret it. The second time I sent it back to be fixed I bought a ZTE KIS III for £40 to tied me over until it returned. I was amazed by just how much it could do.

I really don't see the point in paying £500 for a phone now. I mean I don't have a camera/mp3 player/sat nav etc so I do need something that can do it all but it seems like we can achieve that at a much cheaper cost.