It interesting how Apple has been able to stay ahead while often being a step or two behind from a technological standpoint (in some areas at least). I think it goes to show how important it is to have things work in a very seamless way.

Many tech products are still sold on feature lists. Few people care any more.

This great (short and funny) internal video from Microsoft was supposed to be a wake up call, but nothing really changed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUXnJraKM3k

The fact that Apple doesn't really play that game seems to drive some people wild.

The real player in this space is Nintendo, which specifically uses commodity hardware in its devices to drive down costs and to my knowledge does not sell consoles at loss the way that MS or Sony do or have done in the past.

As I once heard it described, Nintendo is fine to laugh about being a second-rate console all the way to the bank, because while MS and Sony fight out expensive battles to be people’s first consoles, the second console is usually Nintendo.

Apple has always been “behind” on some aspects and “ahead” on others. It boils down to the fact that they have their own priorities, which are different from what Android OEMs like to emphasise, which are also different from what people on Teh Interwebz like to go on about.

> stay ahead while often being a step or two behind

Yeah, good advertising can make even those sentences a valid statement.

You dropped “from a technological standpoint” from the parent comment. Removing words from a sentence changes the meaning.

Ahead in what? Money they fleeced from US market? Core fanbase satisfaction? I don't think they were technologically ahead in anything in a decade or so. Unless you count inventing new charging ports and removing headphone jack or discovering that screen can have notches and customers still buy it.

unless you count the fast mobile chip year over year for the last decade, developed and designed in-house

Are they leapfrogging their competition or just keeping pace with the first place going alternatively to Apple and Android chips every generation where simply the newest chip is the fastest?

When was the last time a Qualcomm (let alone an Exynos or Kirin etc) was faster than the Ax of that year? I can't even remember. Any ideas?

I don't know, but assuming the answer is never I got response to my original question.

Apple is ahead in the amount of money they fleeced from US market, core fanbase satisfaction and CPU speeds.

That's not nothing.

But things are better when they’re from Apple.

A random example is Apple TV vs any Smart TV.

I just bought a flagship Sony A95K smart television. It has everything, it ticks every checkbox, but the software is basically trash. Low effort garbage that should have failed QA the second you see any part of it.

It is 1080p upscaled to 4K, so it’s blurry!!! Even with my worsening vision I can see the fuzzy edges and it makes my eyes hurt.

It’s too dark so that in a bright room it is borderline invisible.

It isn’t color managed, which means the better the TV panel, the more garish it looks. On this QD-OLED panel it looks stupid bad.

The second you switch to the Apple TV you instantly realise why they’re the biggest company on earth. It’s beautiful! It’s crisp, fluid 4K with correct colors and brightness. Such simple things to get right.

Google (Android TV) and Sony just… couldn’t be bothered to any of that properly.

They threw some features in the and called it a day.

I think you should check out google tv on the latest 4k version. Your review is almost like a sarcastic example of a lazy pro apple review. Some crap tv ui like that sony apparently is does not really say much about apple competitors. Apple is great at some things, but they aren't the only good thing.

What are you talking about!? I have the latest Google TV operating system on the latest flagship Sony television, a model released just months ago! The Google TV OS on the latest available version.

There is no excuse for Google & Sony being so obviously inferior.

The difference between the two is night and day, not some "fanboyism". Switch inputs to the Apple TV and you instantly think "wow!" unless legally blind. Switch back and it's instant disappointment.

Dark oversaturated 1080p upscaled and blurry versus razor sharp native 4K with subtle hues is something anyone can recognise as a clear difference.

The downvotes on my original comment and your response is very telling.

Let me ask you: Have you actually sat down and compared the two? As in, plugged in an Apple TV 4K into an Android TV and switched back and forth?

Or are you just assuming I'm a "fanboy" and have a preference based on nothing more than tribalism?