Some of the Hate is coming from the community that is expecting continuous major changes to Smart Phones as we've seen in the past several years. From what's been coming out recently most Flagship phones (let's stick to android for the moment) have comparable HW, mostly the same OS and are being differentiated by their Skins ie touchwiz/sense etc, which then becomes users choice. Take out removable battery / sd (some live and die by it others not so much) and they all become very similar. Add on top of any brand the top 20 most used apps installed and they are very much alike. So what are we left with? A phone, very smart and capable ones. I seem to feel we're getting very close the to the 'desktop/laptop' stage where most are very similar and capable of doing the same tasks. That all said we've grown used to big changes, much better performance, dazzled with features but let's face it, there are only going to be so many until another major breakthrough in usability is created, or perhaps the next outlandish / revolutionary Technology gadget someone creates that drives us all in that direction. We will see phone evolution curve flatten but track with technology in size/speed and power consumption but I'm questioning any real changes. For us that's good, we're reaching the platform plateau, but for the mfgs it's a quandary since now why will people upgrade for margin improvements and spend those hard earned dollars.
Let's face it, Nokia was the worlds leading phone for many years, Blackberry changed much of that with their platforms, then along comes Apple, now it's Samsung's turn but my faith in capitalism leave me hopeful, someone who wants to make alot of money will figure out the next level.. then we'll be off to the races once again