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Anonymous Coward writes:

Harvard economics professor Sendhil Mullainathan writes in the New York Times about the interesting correlations between the release dates of new phones and OSes and search queries that indicate frustration with the speed of the phones that people already have. Mullainathan illustrates with graphs and provides plausible explanations for the difference on just how different the curves are over time for the search terms "iPhone slow" and "Samsung Galaxy slow."

It's easy to see with the iPhone graph especially how it could seem to users that Apple has intentionally slowed down older phones to nudge them toward upgrading. While he's careful not to rule out intentional slowing of older phone models which is a possibility after all. Mullainathan cites several factors that mean there's no need to believe in a conspiracy to slow phones, and at least two big reasons like reputation and liability for companies involved like Apple, Google, and other cellphone manufacturers like Samsung not to take part in one. Mullainathan points out various wrinkles in what the data could really indicate, including genuine but innocent slowdowns caused by optimizing for newer hardware. It's an interesting look at the difference between having mere statistics, no matter how rigorously gathered, and knowing quite what it means.

Newer OS versions is likely to optimize for new hardware together with more demanding GUI. In addition larger default buffers and new animations may add to this impact. Another more subtle aspect is accumulating things like the trashcan not really emptying and containing a directory called ".faces" that seems to archive every single picture that the AI software characterize as a face. Or just plain large logfiles. Removing those files has given some (smart) phones back their original speed. The Apple initiative to demand iOS 7 on all iPhone devices in order to take part of the app-store regardless of if the phone is suitable for the demands of iOS 7 is also something in the lines of not bricking devices remotely. But not far from it.

Apps also do their part to slow the phone by "phone home" every 15 minutes and ignoring your preferences and turn on auto updates. One offender on this is The ABC News app. There's no reason for apps to be active when you don't make use of them. Then there's the built-in apps that require rooting and custom ROMs to be terminated.

So in essence it seems to have a long lasting phone with original speed a custom ROM and OS like CyanogenMod, Replicant, Fire OS, etc seems to be a requirement and something to look for when buying the phone. Not to mention security. As the default OS is usually compromised by default perhaps devices like Blackphone is worth considering. To ensure hardware support OpenMoko or GeeksPhone (Firefox OS) might be a good choice.

What do you think - and will it change your next purchase?

1. "Anonymous Coward" - https://soylentnews.org/~AnonymousCoward/
2. "frustration with the speed of the phones that people already have" - https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/upshot/hold-the-phone-a-big-data-conundrum.html?_r=0
3. "Fire OS" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_OS
4. "Blackphone" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackphone
5. "OpenMoko" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openmoko
6. "GeeksPhone" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeeksPhone

printed from SoylentNews, Why Are Older Smartphones Slower Now? - And the Background on 2024-04-25 14:40:30