I don't know about you, but my clamshell Samsung flip phone didn't support any of that except a user-swappable batter and removable storage, both of which I would argue are not net positives, but negatives as they increase the form factor of the phone.
Also, what of the 65k or so of cancelled reservations for the Model 3?
Every feature I mentioned there existed in contemporary smartphones. I even looked them up! The iPhone got a ton of criticism at the time for missing things like this.
65k cancelled reservations out of over half a million total, with net reservations increasing rapidly... what of them?
65k cancelled reservations out of over half a million total, with net reservations increasing rapidly... what of them?
I think that's the question I posed to you. Doesn't seem like there's a good answer for it.
1. UI.
2. Web browser.
3. AT&T unlimited data plan.
It turned out that those three metrics were really important, and that being ahead on a few really important metrics is better than being ahead on a bunch of less important ones, but it's just not the case that the iPhone was ahead "on pretty much every metric."
> I think that's the question I posed to you.
Can you be more specific? I don't know what you're actually asking. Are you asking why anyone would cancel? That's because sometimes people change their minds, especially when it involves giving a $1,000 interest-free loan. Are you asking if the cancellations are a counterpoint to the idea that the Model 3 will sell well? The fact that the cancellations are a small proportion of the overall reservations, and net reservations are still rapidly increasing, suggests the answer is "no." Or something else?
And yeah, more than 10% of reservations were cancelled but that couldn't possibly be because people don't actually want the car at a large scale, could it? I tend to pay attention to what people do and not what they say, and the fact is that consumers purchase ICB autos at orders of magnitude higher numbers than EV. When push came to shove, 65k people who actually made the conscious decision to spend $1k to reserve a car suddenly decided they no longer wanted it. But your only reason is that "sometimes people change their minds." To me that's a nice way of saying a lot of people don't want to spend $35k on this car.
If 65,000 cancelled reservations translates to "a lot of people don't want to spend $35k on this car," then the nearly half a million remaining reservations must translate to "a shitload of people want to spend $35k on this car." No?
I'm not saying that it's certain that it won't, but it does remain to be seen. In the automotive industry, a half a million cars just isn't a lot. Certainly not enough to proclaim that "a shitload of people" will want one for many years to come. Ford sells 750k F150s each year. That's just one model. And those aren't reservations, they're sales.
I agree with your point as applied to a hypothetical generic car company launching an unknown model, but in this particular instance there's good reason to believe that Tesla will be able to sell every car they're capable of building.
You compare it to the iPhone saying that the iPhone was better on pretty much every metric. That wasn't the case at all. The original iPhone lacked 3G connectivity, support for more than one wireless carrier, support for CDMA networks, GPS, third-party apps, hardware keyboard, user-swappable battery, decent camera, FM radio tuner, multitasking, and removable storage.
The iPhone eventually gained many of these features, and most of the others turned out to be less important than people thought they were. But that was very much not obvious at the time.