Is Apple making the best possible products? (Apple Byte Extra Crunchy, Ep. 78)

[Music playing] We're on the top of the CBS interactive building in San Francisco, California. It is the Apple Byte Extra Crunchy Podcast with your host, Mr. Brian Tom. Woo hoo! What's up everybody, we are back! Your mic is still messed up My mic is still messed up. Can we, are we still crunchy there Crunchy!! Okay, here we go. Welcome to the show, boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages. We are back in the original studio. Things are a little dusty. If it gets crunchy, we're gonna fix that. It's called the Apple bite extra crunchy for a reason. Steven, what is that sound? What is that? That is a pre-amp over here that, we had all this construction on the sixth floor. For seven months? Yeah, for seven months, and I covered this whole room in plastic. But still dust gets in places, and there's dust in this pre-amp behind me, and that's what's causing Brian's voice to crackle. > To get extra crunchy sometimes. But I think we're good now. Okay, don't jinx it, okay? Yeah. Anyways, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show. It's Apple bite extra crunchy, episode 78. For those of you joining us, first time listeners, this is a complimentary piece to our Apple Byte show. We're doing it a little early this week but guess what, you can't not talk about what happened with the Galaxy S8 and how it stacks up of maybe what we have now and what we've seen. We do want you to also be a part of this show like you always are. We have people on YouTube, Livestream, and Periscope watching live if you guys ever wanna check that out. You can check it out on my Twitter @briantong, but to call us and be a part of the show because it's all about you all, 1-800-616-2638. Leave us your name, where you're from. Look it we even show you the graphic right here on the fly. Yeah, there it is. It's on the screen now. So you guys and gals can call, leave a message. We'll work on bringing back live calls. We're easing back into the live studio. So let's talk about it. Yesterday, I was actually off-site doing some cool stuff that we'll be able to talk about later, like in a few weeks. But the S8 dropped. It was everything we expected. But when I look at the whole entirety of that keynote, there is really nothing about the S8 that would tell me A large group of people, whether they're on a Google Pixel, an iPhone, maybe a OnePlus phone. There's nothing about the S8 that would convince me that flocks of people will jump ship and change platform for the S8. I know there will be some but just not a lot. And right off the bat, before you think I'm hating on the S8. That is the best screen, and the best design on a phone that we have today. But when you look at kind of the other new features, the Bixby virtual assistant, it's actually still half-baked, it's not completely there. It's going to be better The ability for it to pull up general information and questions that you typically will ask Google or ask Siri. It's not as good at doing that and it's really gonna be more about integrating in the OS, making access to your apps easier, being able to use that easier. But again it's still half baked. When we got our hands on the early versions. It wasn't working completely. And so it's gonna take time for us to see really how good Bixby is. I'm curious what you guys and gals all think. Was Bixby even compelling enough. Because right now as it stands, the Google assistant is still better than Bixby. And arguably Siri at this point in time, it's a little maybe flip a coin, but Siri might be actually better than Bixby right now, at this point in time. And you don't wanna talk about that when it's a new feature that you have just launched. You want it to be the best. Well, yesterday when we were watching the keynote and they They talked about big speed, they barely talked about it. It was just like- Kinda? Just like a mention, we got this new thing, here it is. What it looks like, that was it. We didn't really even, I don't really recall a demo happening either. Yeah, it is their AI, we'll see how it flows, comes together. But when we talk about in the perspective of the Apple nation, because that's who this show is all about, You know, I'm just wondering if you all felt threatened about it. Do you think, how about this, Steven, do you think, based on all these crazy rumours, do you think the iPhone will be better looking than the Galaxy S8 which really looks amazing with that screen. It's tough to say, cuz I have seen a lot of people on Twitter and else where saying The new Galaxy S8, is amazing. It looks beautiful. I have seen that comment Yeah. a lot. Yeah. We don't know what the Apple, the iPhone's gonna look like. But people are saying it's gonna look like the 4. So are people gonna just be like, It looks like a phone we've already seen before. It's hard to say how people are gonna accept the new iPhone. I think either way right You have a built in demand that is already part of the platform of Apple, it is continued to show us that people are willing to buy the next generation of the iPhone, whether you're on the two year cycle, now even on a one year cycle with their Apple upgrade program. I just don't see any, this number, this market share balance isn't going to change. Like the last time I saw I believe Apple was just like, just slightly ahead of Samsung, you know with shipments from the last quarter of 2016. It was like 17.9% versus like 17