At first I thought it was going to just be a rant about website bloat and too much JavaScript. I'd have agreed with that, but it wouldn't have taught me anything. But if you keep going, there's much more.
The "Device Performance" section is interesting. I had no idea that iPhones had such an advantage. Now add to that, that the iOS ecosystem is Objective C running native code, whereas the Android ecosystem is Java with JVM overheads! Oof.
(This also explains why I especially hated QR code menus when going out with coworkers. I was using four year old Galaxy A / Moto G class hardware, while my coworkers were using new iPhone Pro class hardware. Their phones were 7.5x faster!)
I now have a medium-high end Android of about a year old. It was a huge step up from my previous phone (the one that struggled at restaurants), but from these charts is nothing special. I will probably keep it for another two years. After that, on the basis of this article, I'll probably shell out the 3x more for a good iPhone. That may be the first time I purchase an Apple product with my own money. (Either that or I'll get a dumb phone and boycott any service that doesn't accept cash. :-))
Even my new Android struggles with some things. Running Firefox, it still struggles on articles from The Guardian for some reason. Everything else is pretty good though.
Smartphones are a funny product whose price goes up as it becomes more essential. Back around 2008, I think, I got a smartphone. I then upgraded every 3-4 years. Initially they were $200. As time went on I started spending $300, $350. The article says that the worldwide average selling price last year was $430. Software is getting slower, and phones are getting more essential, faster than Moore's Law has made them faster or cheaper.
Anyway, the rest of the article has interesting data about bandwidth and more.
Finally, I like the end, where he editorializes a bit.
In conclusion, I guess, if you're a consumer of mobile apps, just get more money and buy a top iPhone (sadly). And if you're a developer, do all your testing on a two year old Moto E, unless you hate poor people.
Very interesting article.
At first I thought it was going to just be a rant about website bloat and too much JavaScript. I'd have agreed with that, but it wouldn't have taught me anything. But if you keep going, there's much more.
The "Device Performance" section is interesting. I had no idea that iPhones had such an advantage. Now add to that, that the iOS ecosystem is Objective C running native code, whereas the Android ecosystem is Java with JVM overheads! Oof.
(This also explains why I especially hated QR code menus when going out with coworkers. I was using four year old Galaxy A / Moto G class hardware, while my coworkers were using new iPhone Pro class hardware. Their phones were 7.5x faster!)
I now have a medium-high end Android of about a year old. It was a huge step up from my previous phone (the one that struggled at restaurants), but from these charts is nothing special. I will probably keep it for another two years. After that, on the basis of this article, I'll probably shell out the 3x more for a good iPhone. That may be the first time I purchase an Apple product with my own money. (Either that or I'll get a dumb phone and boycott any service that doesn't accept cash. :-))
Even my new Android struggles with some things. Running Firefox, it still struggles on articles from The Guardian for some reason. Everything else is pretty good though.
Smartphones are a funny product whose price goes up as it becomes more essential. Back around 2008, I think, I got a smartphone. I then upgraded every 3-4 years. Initially they were $200. As time went on I started spending $300, $350. The article says that the worldwide average selling price last year was $430. Software is getting slower, and phones are getting more essential, faster than Moore's Law has made them faster or cheaper.
Anyway, the rest of the article has interesting data about bandwidth and more.
Finally, I like the end, where he editorializes a bit.
In conclusion, I guess, if you're a consumer of mobile apps, just get more money and buy a top iPhone (sadly). And if you're a developer, do all your testing on a two year old Moto E, unless you hate poor people.