If it is actually a larger demographic, then it would be huge opportunity for any of these other phone makers, especially those that are struggling. I highly doubt they are all unaware of the opportunity to make a smaller phone, so I suspect they have stayed away because they don’t think it will be a profitable market.
As production quantities go down, costs go up, and with the lower prices that these vendors sell at compared to Apple, their margins are already much thinner, so they have much more risk than Apple in introducing a smaller phone unless they are confident there is a large enough market for it. They simply have much less wiggle room than Apple in which to create a profitable product out of a smaller phone. Since Apple is pulling out and the others haven’t even bothered to try to compete with them in the decade that this big phone trend has been trending, I don’t think there’s any other conclusion that we can draw other than the small phone market is not large enough to pursue, but I’m open to other possibilities.
Edit: Someone else mentioned the small Asus Zenphone, which was also discontinued due to poor sales. That means at least one other manufacturer tried to make a small phone, and they came to the same conclusion that Apple did, so I see even less reason to doubt them.
I am not crazy! I know he stole those votes. I got more votes than 2016, one more than MAGA Carta. As if I could ever make such a mistake. Never. Never! I just - I just couldn't prove it. He covered his tracks, he got those idiots at the elections commission to lie for him. You think this is something? You think this is bad? This? This chicanery? He's done worse. That son of his! Are you telling me that Hunter just happens to be in business with Ukraine? No! He orchestrated it! Joey! And his son defecated through a sunroof! And I saved him! And I shouldn't have! What was I thinking? He'll never change. He'll never change! Ever since he was 9, always the same! Couldn't keep his hands off the children! "But not our Joey! Couldn't be precious Joey!" And HE gets to be the president? What a sick joke! I should've stopped him when I had the chance!
Unfortunately even Apple has announced they are discontinuing their smaller phone, citing poor sales, so it seems the small phone gang is too small to have any market power.
Not Kiva bots specifically, but similar concept, different vendors. Lots of new companies popped up in the years after Amazon bought them, but their protectionism definitely set the industry back at least 5 years. I don’t want to share any specific vendors, because that would cause the info that I’m sharing to violate my NDAs.
And yeah, you’re totally right about the environmental and reading constraints, but I’m talking more the internal problems that I’ve noticed in a few different vendors’ logic. I’m also an engineer so i totally get what you’re talking about, and the dumb robot problem that I’m talking about is simply insufficient engineering. Problems like sending a robot to pick up a rack to move it, then setting a path that is impassable despite the system having all the necessary inputs and correctly recording and storing all the data necessary to make a more informed decision and choose a better path. But instead the robot takes the impassable path, then when its censors notice there is a blockage, it stops but it’s too late to get another path at that point because of system constraints. If the logic had properly validated the path with the available data at the time of assignment rather than visual cues much later, it would cause much fewer issues. So that’s one example the sort of thing I’m referring to when I say they’re too dumb.
No, I’m not assuming that. It’s not about concluding AI’s are human. It’s about having concrete standards on which to design laws. Setting a lower standard for copyright violation by LLMs would be like setting a lower speed limit for a self-driving car, and I don’t think it makes any logical sense. To me that would be a disappointingly protectionist and luddite perspective to apply to this new technology.
But humans make works that are similar to other works all the time. I just hope that we set the same standards for AI violating copyright as we have for humans. There is a big difference between derivative works and those that violate copyright.
I’m very interested in this case and am curious to see where the courts draw the line here.
Beware of an incoming hot take - I don’t see the concept of training AI on published works as much different than a human learning from published works as long as they both go on to make their own original works. I have definitely seen AIs straight-up plagiarize before, but that seems like a different issue entirely from producing similar works. I think allowing plagiarism is a problem with the constraints of the training rather than a fundamental problem with the entire concept of AI training.
Oh gotcha. I work with a lot of people at various companies that have a similar role as you. I work for a consultancy that gives me the opportunity to wear a lot of hats. The job is always really challenging, but every project is a new adventure.
Similar here. I do computer and industrial engineering for system integrations and process improvement, and I’m currently sending this from a wave picker 30 ft in the air trying to understand what keeps causing this damn jam in our new crossdock conveyor.
I work in this industry, and you couldn’t be more wrong. The turnover rate is so high because the job is incredibly demanding, working conditions are usually horrible, and the pay is absolute shit.
I’m dealing with these specific issues right now in a distribution center, and it’s just with shelf moving robots that Amazon has had for 10-15 years already. It’s amazing how dumb they are and how poorly they are programmed to handle exceptions, and they aren’t even doing puts and picks.
Eventually someone will figure out how to make robots that can handle the more complicated tasks that humans currently do. I figured we were still a decade or 2 away from that point, but if anyone can figure it out quicker, it’s Amazon. I kind of hate the possibility that they might have already figured it out, but I’m very skeptical of a simple announcement.
Did they cite any reason for the discontinuation?