Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years • Hacker News Board

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#271

Post by schroeding » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 9:31 PM UTC

Abroszka wrote: post #240

Zardoz84 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox tried it some years ago. Same Microsoft, Samsung, etc...

I still miss Firefox OS. What happened to it? To me it seems that it was going well, but it was impossible to buy a phone with Firefox OS.

Got abandoned by Mozilla :/

AFAIK KaiOS (the operating system for some T9-keyboard-only phones like the rebooted Nokia 8110) is Firefox OS with a new coat of paint, but it also seems kinda dead. And no touchscreen in those devices, so not really comparable to "normal" smartphones anymore... :/

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#272

Post by dublinben » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 9:32 PM UTC

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #261

hellisothers wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does having root on your phone improve for you?

I use https://github.com/sriharshaarangi/BatteryChargeLimit to keep my battery healthy so my phone stays functional longer. Oh, and some scripts to fake input events so I can automate apps.

This is a built-in feature of iOS: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210512

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#273

Post by christophilus » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 9:38 PM UTC

notatoad wrote: post #86

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #75

It's been mentioned before in other articles, but I don't think it can be understated how much iMessage makes it difficult to be the "odd man out" if you're on an Android phone. And it's not just about teenagers, and it's not about "green bubbles". I recently went on a vacation with friends, 4 other folks on iPhones and me on an Android. Our group chat experience almost made me consider getting an iPhone. The inabili…

As much as I hate promoting Facebook products, "let's make a WhatsApp group" seems to be the socially-acceptable solution to this. Everybody has it installed and always seems to be happy to switch communication over to it if somebody in the group suggests it.

I use iMessage. I haven’t used a Facebook product in at least a decade, and am not starting now.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#274

Post by tasuki » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 9:43 PM UTC

armadsen wrote: post #202

notatoad wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I hate promoting Facebook products, "let's make a WhatsApp group" seems to be the socially-acceptable solution to this. Everybody has it installed and always seems to be happy to switch communication over to it if somebody in the group suggests it.

I think this is only really true outside of the US. I only have WhatsApp installed because I've spent time outside the US (Africa, specifically) and it's defacto standard there. I literally never use it to talk to people in the US, nor do I know anyone else here who uses it.

I'm well outside the US (Eastern Europe) and have never needed WhatsApp. I can talk with all the people I know over Google Hangouts or Facebook Messenger. Perhaps it's also an age thing? I guess the youngsters use WhatsApp.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#275

Post by wumpus » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 9:44 PM UTC

lumb63 wrote: post #7

I’m not surprised. I used Android devoutly, had a Galaxy S4, then an S8 when that started showing its age. I upgraded to an iPhone 12 when AT&T ran the promotion to get a free one. I wanted to keep liking Android. The amount of time I spent arguing vehemently that Android was superior made the switch hard, but several factors came into play for me: - Extremely slow and fragmented upgrade of OS. This resulted in subst…

> iMessage’s encryption (though I stand by that it is gimmicky to only offer for iPhones, and I despise that)

What security guarantees would iMessage have if it ran on arbitrary hardware instead of only iPhones and Macs? To some people, that's important, not a gimmick. Totally fine for you to have your own opinion about it, but it's probably a good idea to be able to think about why people might disagree.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#276

Post by solenoidalslide » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 9:45 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #43

dmead wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it seriously worth it for people to do stuff like this? I remember when stallman said he was giving the one laptop per child program a shot. Since the drivers for the wifi were non free he used some USB device instead. Last I read that lasted a few months because he got sick of it. I can't imagine adding all those steps to use a smartphone is any less annoying.

I think you're genuinely asking, but just FYI it might seem to some people like you're perpetuating the common trope of "Stallman radicalism" or nothing. By far more people on Linux are willing to run some amount of "non-free" software depending on the situation. For example the Nvidia proprietary drivers are one of the most popular packages for many distros. The only real problem right now is just lack of apps. Devs…

Branding others as being part of a radical out-group helps you feel secure in your decisions.

I had a conversation with two people recently who got defensive at the idea that controlling the software in your phone should be the norm. As if criticizing Apple's approach to free/libre software is an attack on them as an identity.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#277

Post by kyrra » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 9:45 PM UTC

Workaccount2 wrote: post #191

kyrra wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Googler, opinions are my own. I don't work anywhere near phone stuff. I assume your friend has tried all the debugging on this page? https://support.google.com/messages/answer/9363493?hl=en My wife's phone keeps failing to connect and we have to do the carrier services reset to make it work. A terrible solution to me requiring factory resetting your phone. But even then, I have a friend that was never able to get RCS…

Thanks, but I feel I am reaching a point where I need my friend to be able to go to a physical location where they either fix it or clone his phone onto a new one that does work. I can't be google's advocate twisting my friend's arm to troubleshoot their phone anymore. This is just a tiny sliver of my dissatisfaction too. I feel like the long time lover that sits down one night and after a lot of thinking gives pause…

I think Google was in a different position than Apple in the case of messaging client. Apple has total control of the text message app on the iPhone, or Google does not. Google had to appease Samsung and likely some other cell phone makers to allow them to make their own RCS compatible app. Google took RCS and created universal profiles, and I think wants to get Apple on board with it so that there is a shared protocol between vendors.

Apple went to full proprietary stack that no one else can use, while Google went the more open protocol. Open protocols like this always tend to have a bit more headache, and we're seeing that with RCS. Especially when some of the players are cell service providers.

If the EU open protocol legislation ever pans out, I wonder how that would impact iMessage and RCS.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#278

Post by Dayshine » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 9:45 PM UTC

skinnymuch wrote: post #250

drdec wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I was recently talking to a guy who had had his iPhone stolen. But it was no big deal - he had replacement insurance and the deductible was only $200. Which is more than I have ever paid for a phone in my life.

Price of phone shouldn’t be used as a barometer. It should be the price you end up paying per month when all is said and done.

I pay £10/3 months plus £200-300 every 4 years for a phone.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#279

Post by christophilus » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 9:46 PM UTC

QuikAccount wrote: post #48

I've been heavily considering getting an iPhone because of how terrible the Android experience but my problem with Apple is that you are either fully in their ecosystem of you aren't a worthy enough customer in their mind. I have no desire to use iCloud or Apple mail or have an AppleID. I just want a small phone that gets updates, has maps, and has a decent music app.

I use an iPhone with no Apple services. My computers are all Linux, except for my wife’s Mac. No complaints or problems.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#280

Post by kd913 » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 9:46 PM UTC

Zardoz84 wrote: post #232

kd913 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I loved my lumia 520. It was cheap as chips, fast as hell and at the time more user friendly than whatever overheating droid alternatives were available. I think it was one of the fastest selling phones at the time. I distinctly remember Google making it a right pain to use Google's products on the phone, namely Youtube and Google Maps. In addition I remember a bunch of articles talking about how Google prevented Mic…

Microsoft using Chromium for Edge, it's a bad notice. It only helps Google to get a strong hold on the web and his standards...

Microsoft is a trillion dollar company with experience working on Chromium and browsers. They have the talent and resources to run/take over chrome.

If Google makes a misstep, it wouldn't take too much effort for Microsoft to run a hostile fork and capture a massive user base. They already are the 2nd most popular browser.

As it is, they have nullified Google's anti-competitive nonsense of using the browser as a way to manipulate markets.

Granted as a Firefox user, I conceded your point to how to affects open standards. Frankly though, that has already been long tarnished by Google anyway.