News digest №42. Major events of the MWC

MWC highlights: Samsung , HTC, Sony , LG, Nokia , Lenovo, Microsoft and Gionee announcements .
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This edition of the digest will be pretty short. The reason is simple – this week was the MWC. About fifteen articles about this exhibition have already been published on the pages of MR, where all the presented novelties are analyzed in detail. For those who do not have time to read long articles, the same information, but in a condensed form, is presented on the pages of our blog about Android. In parallel, all major news are published on Twitter and social networks, where you can get acquainted with them in just a dozen minutes. So I don’t think there is any point in retelling the facts that have long been known to everyone – those who are at least a little interested in mobile topics are already in the know.

News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC All materials from the exhibition MWC 2015

On the other hand, the beauty of any facts is that they can be interpreted in completely different ways. Even reading the same announcement of the same smartphone model, some will find the device unusual and interesting, while others will find it an ordinary walk-through model. And you can argue about the success of the presented new products or the future of the companies themselves can be endlessly, and it is the polar points of view that will prevail.

Foreword

MWC 2015

In general, the exhibition turned out to be quite interesting – first of all, because of the loud presentations of the flagships. I don’t know about you, but I’m very glad that the manufacturers again began to guess the time of significant announcements for major exhibitions, and not organize separate events. To some extent, MWC is such a New Year in the world of mobile technology. Not only the time from which you can start counting the annual cycle, but also a real holiday for all those who are interested in mobile topics. Once upon a time, CES claimed the same role – but the experience of recent years shows that nothing particularly good has come of this venture.

News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC MWC 2015. Impressions and Trends, Barcelona Highlights

It's funny that the exhibition turned out to be even more interesting for 'ordinary users' than for avid 'geeks', although it would seem that it should be strictly the opposite. The reason for this is the numerous leaks that everyone could get acquainted with almost a month before the official announcements of new models. In this regard, nothing unexpected was shown at MWC – what are the same HTC One or Galaxy S6, it was clear for a long time.

About 'geeks' and 'not geeks'

It is no less amusing to read the controversies of fans of different brands about the newly announced devices. Even if a person sincerely tries to be extremely objective (which is already a rarity in itself), in any case, he already has an impression about each company that has a certain power over him. For some, the same Samsung means innovation and cool “hardware”, for others – inconvenient “spade-like” devices, for others – a secondary design that repeats the devices of other companies. And looking at the characteristics of the new apparatus or reading the text of the article, everyone will see something of their own in it, involuntarily trying to adjust the available facts to the existing theory. As if looking at the world through glasses of colored glasses – pink, black, green or blue, that's how it goes.

In recent years, the argument has become very popular in such disputes, 'I don’t know how it is from the point of view of all the' geeks' who always suck problems out of their finger, but for normal people like me, the flagship is doing great. This is a one-stop answer to any complaint, from interface jams to screen resolution and battery capacity. They can justify anything, presenting any existing flaw so insignificant that you can ignore it.

On the other hand, there are commentators who try to prove the importance of any flaw they find. Both real and imaginary. And in this they are also irreconcilable. Say, any sane person understands that such a screen resolution is redundant, such a battery capacity is too small, and such a shell, by definition, is inconvenient. And those who think otherwise are the very 'ordinary buyers' who have long fallen under the spell of bright advertising and cunning marketers.

At the same time, there is no clear division into 'ordinary buyers' and 'geeks' and cannot be. Everyone puts something of their own in these words. In theory, the term 'geek' means anyone with a passion for mobile. In this sense, any regular reader of MR is a 'geek' by definition. Or a masochist, for some reason studying boring and uninteresting materials.

But many disagree with this interpretation. If you go to some profile forum like w3bsit3-dns.com, it turns out that the 'geek' is such an honorary title that can only be earned by someone who has reflashed his phone at least a dozen times. And if you read the comments to any review on the same MR, it turns out that a 'geek' is any person who understands technology better than the commentator himself. Which, of course, is completely unacceptable, in some ways even embarrassing, about which this very 'geek' needs to be immediately informed, not particularly choosing expressions.

It is curious that the manufacturers themselves do not clearly divide their audience into “geeks” and “non-geeks”. And the same Galaxy Note, which was initially considered a typically 'geeky' model, unnecessary and incomprehensible to 'ordinary users', I often see in the hands of girls who are very far from technology than bearded programmers. And the same smartphones Motorola with a bunch of stunning replaceable covers from dozens of types of materials are not so much the lot of fashionistas as of people who understand phones. Such is the paradox.

Flagships 2015

Samsung

Another eternal reason to cheer is the design of the devices. Not a single announcement is ever complete without the comments 'again they stole the design from Apple'. Perhaps, Samsung gets the most of all here – a joke about two Korean designers for many years, but it is not forgotten today. And how the smartphones of the Korean company actually look there does not matter at all – the fact that they again copied the design iPhone is an axiom that certainly does not require proof.

I do not doubt for a second that Samsung released the most ordinary brick and put the inscription 'Galaxy' on it, as soon as it turns out that it copies iPhone a little more than completely. After all, it is also rectangular – and this in itself is a violation of all conceivable and inconceivable copyright.

At one time, the company was clearly trying to fight against its reputation as 'design thieves'. For example, the same Samsung Galaxy S3 for a copy iPhone does not pull by definition. Although all this still did not save the company from accusations of plagiarism. But now they decided to turn the joke on edge inside out, having really developed an apple-style design for the Galaxy S6. At the same time, as if in mockery, presenting in parallel with it the premium version of the flagship, which has a much more distinctive design.

News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC Galaxy S6 / S6 EDGE first impressions

Habit is second nature. No matter how users say they want to see something new and unusual, in practice they are very suspicious of any innovation. Everything unusual at first causes rejection – most people do not have a desire to deal with something new, and they also do not want to risk their money by refusing a time-tested option. And when you know exactly what is 'right' and what is 'wrong', what is fashionable and what is not – life is much easier.

And companies prefer not to take risks by successfully playing on bad habits of buyers. Samsung did exactly what the customers expected of them – they gave a damn about decency and released an 'alternative' iPhone. Simply because it is the path of least resistance that guarantees good sales. Since the company has been labeled as such, what prevents it from taking advantage of its already existing reputation as a 'designer thief'? As practice has shown, this will not hinder sales at all.

I don't know if this is the correct way. Of course, this time such a decision will pay off. And the next, perhaps, too. But what to do next?

There is such a concept – “effective manager”. Once this was the name of leaders who know how to achieve their goals at any cost. But recently this expression has acquired a different meaning. So, as a joke, they began to call the leaders who, for the sake of momentary profit, make very dubious decisions that hurt the company very painfully in the future. For example, they refuse to develop promising directions or massively reduce the staff only to show beautiful numbers in the current quarterly report.

Samsung's actions are from the same opera. You can't live endlessly by copying someone else's design. Yes, it is convenient, cheap and still gives results – but sooner or later users will get tired of it. Especially if other innovations get tough too. Design is one of the reasons to buy a device, and it is foolish to neglect this factor so openly.

Maybe the company believes that they can stop copying iPhone at any time, immediately presenting something fundamentally new and different from competitors' products. And immediately be known as a trendsetter. But in practice, customers have to gradually accustom to this 'new'. As, for example, to a large display diagonal. Samsung said many years ago that from their point of view, smartphones with a diagonal of up to 5 inches will be comfortable for all people. However, they increased the size of screens in smartphones gradually, without trying to immediately move from the traditional 3.8 to 5 inches. As a result, everything turned out just fine – no matter how much commentators grumble about the fact that such 'shovels' are not needed by normal people, this size of the display diagonal has become the standard, which all competitors had to reckon with.

But with the design of the company, everything is strictly the opposite. Instead of trying to change fashions as you see fit, Samsung continues to blindly copy competitors' solutions. The trouble is that there are a lot of 'a la iPhone' style devices in the world without Samsung. Moreover, they are often much cheaper. And sooner or later, many users of Korean technology will think – if there is no difference, then why pay more? A copy is a copy – does it matter what brand is on it?

Now Samsung is at its peak of popularity, and it is quite capable of imposing any rules of the game on the market. Raise loyal fans of your style in advance. But for some reason he refuses to do it. Yes, formally the company presented the Galaxy S6 EDGE, which looks really unusual. But this model will not be massive and will not be able to influence user preferences in design any more than Vertu smartphones.

HTC

The new flagship HTC was working on bugs, the main one of which was a proprietary camera with a 4MP matrix. On the one hand, this is great, because last year's device was quite successful. On the other hand, it is a little offensive that it took the company several years to realize such simple things, during which we were persistently forced to 'have something to give', telling tales about the health benefits of UltraPixel.

News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC HTC One (M9). First glance

It just so happened that the flagships HTC are, first of all, design. Case design, shell design. A whole bunch of unusual solutions, sometimes successful, sometimes not very good. During the sales of HTC Hero, the company used the slogan 'because he is special', and in this regard, little has changed in recent years. The flagship HTC is, first of all, a smartphone 'not like everyone else', a different look at familiar things, an unusual design – and only then powerful technical characteristics. It was for the beauty of the performance that fans forgave any company for all technical flaws.

In this regard, it is a pity that HTC decided to stop there, practically without changing the design of the device. It's one thing to keep your corporate identity, and it's another to copy the design cleanly. Despite all the leaks, I hoped until the last that HTC One (M9) would be different from M8 just as it was different from M7.
However, if we talk about the CIS countries, then everything in any case will be decided by the price. It has never been low for HTC, but now, taking into account all the circumstances, it can even fly up into the clouds. I'm not sure that the new camera will be able to justify such a substantial amount for many.

But not so long ago, each device of the company had its own name and unique face. It is a pity that those days are gone forever. However, I have long sworn to draw conclusions about the smartphones of this company from photographs and a list of technical characteristics. In life, there are always a lot of surprises awaiting here, both pleasant and not so much. Even if we talk only about the appearance of the device.

A-brand announcements

LG and Sony are two companies that have gone in opposite directions in recent years. This is also noticeable in the devices that they presented at MWC.

Sony

Maybe the fans of the Japanese company have their own opinion on this, but, in my opinion, it is almost impossible to distinguish Sony devices from each other. And if you add photos of last year's model to the review of new items, then few people will notice the catch. These are good, solid devices – but they do not cause any special emotions by themselves. The phrase 'I like the design of the Sony XXX' can always be replaced by the phrase 'I like the design of the Sony Xperia line'. Or even simpler – 'I like Sony Style'.

News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC Sony Xperia M4 Aqua – first look
News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet – first look

Alas, at such a pace, Sony Style will soon sink into oblivion – even the most successful design sooner or later gets bored, and the company's designers are afraid to offer something new. Although, it would seem, when there is practically nothing to lose (rumors about Sony's readiness to sell its mobile division appear with enviable regularity), one could take a risk. But no, the Japanese prefer to follow the precepts of Kazimir Malevich, who, after the famous 'Black Square', painted a dozen more 'black', 'white' and 'red'. Probably, the fans of his work were pleased, but after a dozen years no one remembered these masterpieces of world painting.

LG

LG, on the other hand, is experimenting as best he can. This is both a 'big-eyed' smartphone on Android, and a completely unique device on Firefox OS. However, the news is rather 'bearded' – these smartphones have been known for a long time.

News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC MWC 2015. New items LG and also LG Fx0 and LG AKA

I don’t know if this will give something to the company – both new items turned out, to put it mildly, for an amateur. But watching her announcements is much more interesting.

Microsoft

Another example of smartphones for fans. And it's not even a matter of whether this system is good or bad. It's just stupid to argue about tastes, and even trying to impose your ideas of a wonderful opponent on your opponent is completely nonsense. The fact is, whatever that OS is, it hasn't really changed much.

News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC MWC 2015. Smartphones Microsoft

If you liked the company's past smartphones, then you will surely like the new ones. If WP was inconvenient for you, then I doubt that something will change dramatically this time.

New items from China

Lenovo

I have a bit of a bias towards Lenovo. At one time, I had to suffer a lot with their laptops – and since then I have been treating the products of this company with a fair amount of mistrust. I myself understand how stupid all this is, but I can’t help it.

However, even I cannot but admit that in recent years the mobile division of this company has been making leaps and bounds. And it's not only and not so much about buying Motorola, but about smartphones under the 'native' brand.

Yes, in Lenovo they do not hesitate to release 'clones' iPhone, and this does not add points in the eyes of European buyers. But at the same time Lenovo has a number of bright and original ideas. For now, for the majority of buyers, this company is an ordinary “Chinese”, in whose smartphones, first of all, the price is interesting. But remember, not so long ago Samsung was considered a 'refrigerator manufacturer' and its smartphones were considered 'Asian cheap'. But at some point in the minds of the buyers there was a turning point, and the products of this company began to be perceived completely differently.

News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC MWC 2015. Lenovo Vibe Shot and other new items

A little higher, I complained that a scattering of interesting smartphones is gradually giving way to an annual re-release of flagships and a bunch of “mid-range passable” mid-price segment. Lenovo is one of the few companies that thinks differently. Anyway, the same Vibe Shot looks great.

Gionee

But about smartphones Gionee, this can not always be said. Photos of the same Gionee Elife S7 are deadly boring. Yes, thin. Yes, nice on the outside. But this design 'a la Apple' is already pretty boring. If we were talking about some kind of separate presentation, it would not be so striking. But looking at photos of dozens of different devices from MWC, you get very tired of this 'apple' design.

News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC MWC 2015. Gionee S7 and IUNI U3 mini

However, it is still worth getting to know the company's new products. Firstly, they also have something to surprise. And secondly, in a couple of months they can begin to be sold in our market.

Nokia

Until recently, everyone knew that Nokia was a Finnish company. Then, after the purchase of its mobile division Microsoft, they began to get used to the fact that it was more of an American company. And now, it is necessary to relearn for the third time – in fact, they refused from the 'Nokia' brand in Microsoft, but now you can find this logo on the most Chinese tablets. Or rather, a tablet – Nokia N1.

News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC MWC 2015. Nokia N1 Tablet

This is another of the 'bearded' news that all regular readers of MR have known for a long time. But formally it also belongs to the MWC, where many journalists had the first chance to see the tablet live.

Alas, the most remarkable thing about this tablet is the brand. In fact, we have before us the most ordinary 'Chinese', assembled on Foxconn, albeit with a slightly modified shell. Standard styled design Apple, decent specs, quality build … but nothing really fancy that would make you order it from China. After all, there are no plans to sell it in other countries yet.


Links to past issues:

News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC News digest №41. What could be easier than time?
News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC News digest №40. Mad Tea Party
News digest №42.  Major events of the MWC News digest №39. The right to dream

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