Also you can thank Apple for pushing the metal-phone era. Beforehand it was cheap plastic, and they had to adapt.
wat.
My dumb pre-iphone motorola is metal. Nokia made some metal phones, at least in the high end. Remember Ericsson phones that could be used as hammers?
Those were not smartphones. I had a vivaz pro, couldn't hold a year of usage.
What smartphone do we remember before an iPhone? None. Why? Because when it came out in 2007, it imposed a standard amongs smartphone. Most cellphones 2007-2010 were plastic-made and metal ones were incredibly rare. Then, until the fourth generation (iPhone 4) which was made out of metal and glass instead of plastic, most followed the trend (iirc only Samsung still produces plastic flagships).
I understand the Apple Rant-Hate club, i've been at there once too, but you gotta agree if smartphones are what they are to this day, it's because of Apple. I've been studying IT in university and defenetly there is nothing to hate about Apple when you check the big picture.
Like people saying the price is too high. There's a closed source OS in there gotta pay your lisence. There's store support out there gotta pay for it as well, you damn know when you have an issue with an Android phone you gotta send it over the globe and wait weeks or months before you get an answer or a replacement. When it comes to Apple you call them, if you're under warranty you get schedueled to an Apple store the morning after which is litterally a 15 minutes drive away from your place, you're switched with a new one no question asked.
From an IT point of view this is flawless. Easiest ways for the end users is the way to go.
Test it yourself get an iPhone and use it responsably, it'll never fail. I owned my iPhone 5 since release date, been on iOS 6 and 7 and currently running 8 beta, never failing.
If you learn how to outplay Apple corporate managment you can get free stuff like free 40$ cables or headphones even a free battery replacement 3 days before warranty ends. Same for their laptops just change them before warranty ends, no question asked, 2 laptops for the price of 1.5 plus it can runs all OS at the same time using Parallels.
What smartphones doesn't come with stupid preinstalled carrier apps and themes (EDIT : and preset bookmarks and preset homepage)? iPhones.
What smartphones never had a god damn carrier tag up front? iPhones.
They are the only ones holding versus the carrier douchebags.
And no i'm not a stupid hipster.
And no i'm not a fanboy.
And no i do not work for Apple.
And no i do not own all-apple devices.
I just give back to ceasar his laurel against all authorities.
No offence of course, we're just talking.
....
Also you can thank Apple for pushing the metal-phone era. Beforehand it was cheap plastic, and they had to adapt. Not saying HTC is bad (I have to say, maybe the best hardware in android devices available) but gotta defenetly give ceasar his laurel.
Well... not really: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_8850
Then the 8890, 8910 and 8800.
Before that a lot of Ericssons had metal frames (the GH388 comes to mind immediately because I owned one and the T28 was an epically small and awesome example, brother owned one of those), but I think the Nokias were the first with metal covers / casing. And I don't want metal and glass on the outside of my phone, thanks, plastic handles shock way better. A metal frame on the inside, though, yes please.
EDIT- Ah, beaten to the punch by Davkol
But those are not smartphones!
Totally different things! It's litterally a pocket computer versus a phone! Of course the phone will be made out of metal, it was not designed for the consumerist market but the professional one.