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

#311

Post by hunterb123 » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 10:40 PM UTC

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #127

CameronNemo wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Performance, battery life, dependence on Google, inconsistent UIs from different manufacturers, bloatware from networks, networks control updates, most phones don't even get much in the way of updates.

What are you doing on your phone where performance matters, or what Android phone are you comparing to a relatively new iPhone? I have a 2 year old mid-level Android and have had 0 performance issues or crashes (aside from Android Auto).

Android phones seem to know when you're in an urgent situation.

Need a quick photo? Is maps giving you a direction? Oh let me freeze up! Let me hide the soft keyboard until you restart! Let me get into a bootloop!

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

#312

Post by KronisLV » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 10:40 PM UTC

fsdjkflsjfsoij wrote: post #304

rejectfinite wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Extremely slow and fragmented upgrade of OS. This resulted in substantially older features and security patches. Samsung phones does 4 years of updates now. - Privacy. iMessage’s encryption (though I stand by that it is gimmicky to only offer for iPhones, and I despise that) has a serious network effect. Apple is also far more transparent in what data they use, how they use it, etc. iMessage? Everyone here (Scandin…

> Samsung phones does 4 years of updates now. That's terrible.

Hmm, seeing as even most desktop OSes out there aren't supported for much longer, i'm not sure whether things are terrible in that regard.

Debian's EOL comes to mind, even Ubuntu LTS isn't supported for much longer, CentOS was supposed to be the more stable option but that didn't work out either.

Though for some reason mobile devices are somewhat crippled in regards to upgrading to new OS releases versus their desktop counterparts: not being update from Android X to Android Y is the real terrible bit here.

Not sure why on earth that should be acceptable or why the drivers should be such an insurmountable problem, wherein using anything but flagship phones with third party ROMs is a total mess (i've personally had everything from the touch screen to radio, to even Wi-Fi stop working).

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

#313

Post by the_common_man » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 10:41 PM UTC

jancsika wrote: post #6

Some of this may be due to the Librem 5. In the time it took me to write this comment, they could have shipped anywhere from zero to one phones. That's conceivably not nothing.

I think it's because of the pine phone

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

#314

Post by sircastor » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 10:43 PM UTC

nextos wrote: post #50

lawl wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pick your poison. The only reason I'm still on android is because at least I can (still) have root there. I'm saying still because of safety net. But if apple let me have root, i'd probably prefer an Apple over Google. Mobile phones and their user hostility is a cancer. I'm seriously considering using a full GNU/Linux handheld for mobile things i can do in a browser, and keep an android phone for app garbage tha…

Call me crazy, but I think there is room for a third platform. Especially if this platform was bootstrapped in a smart way, for example with an emulation layer to be able to run applications from Android. Or perhaps WebAssembly will make it viable to do more things from a (mobile) browser. I really miss the N700-N9 series with Maemo and Meego. It was so elegant and simple.

I don’t think you’re crazy. I think WebOS really could’ve done it if they’d had a better launch partner than Sprint, and had done better marketing.

Their application Model was web technologies based, which is quite popular now, between React-Native and PWAs.

I’m doubtful though that someone could pull out off now. Mostly because you need access to the services that people already use and Google/Amazon/Apple already wall their gardens to their own liking.

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

#315

Post by SergeAx » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 10:48 PM UTC

KronisLV wrote: post #306

SergeAx wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you don't have a root privilege on your device - this is not your device" But even without root I can side load an app via APK on Android. This way my Telegram messenger almost always a version ahead Google Play.

> But even without root I can side load an app via APK on Android. What about getting rid of the preinstalled "system" bloatware that may be present and outside of your control to remove without root?

It is annoying, but there is a "disable" option. They still will take some space on the device though.

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

#316

Post by climb_stealth » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 10:51 PM UTC

CameronNemo wrote: post #60

rejectfinite wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sucks about Android?

Performance, battery life, dependence on Google, inconsistent UIs from different manufacturers, bloatware from networks, networks control updates, most phones don't even get much in the way of updates.

This is always interesting. I don't even buy phones anymore if they don't support Lineageos. It fixes all those issues. It still surprises me when I see stock Samsung devices and how utterly rubbish they are. And they are sold as premium flagship devices. The amount of bloat and garbage is incredible.

waves fist at sky

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

#317

Post by sircastor » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 10:51 PM UTC

Silhouette wrote: post #266

rejectfinite wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Extremely slow and fragmented upgrade of OS. This resulted in substantially older features and security patches. Samsung phones does 4 years of updates now. - Privacy. iMessage’s encryption (though I stand by that it is gimmicky to only offer for iPhones, and I despise that) has a serious network effect. Apple is also far more transparent in what data they use, how they use it, etc. iMessage? Everyone here (Scandin…

Samsung phones does 4 years of updates now. Four whole years? It should be outrageous that we might consider such a short period acceptable for devices as expensive and otherwise long-lasting as a high-end Samsung phone. That it is not really surprising at all is a sad reflection on how normalised shipping insecure connected devices with inadequate support has become. Obviously we don't yet know how to build 100% sec…

> Four whole years? It should be outrageous that we might consider such a short period acceptable for devices as expensive and otherwise long-lasting as a high-end Samsung phone.

I mean, yes, but it wasn’t that long ago that Google had to get everyone to agree to at least 18 months. And the market would correct for that, but everyone was doing the same thing - abandoning a device mere months after its release.

And from the manufacturers side it’s not hard to understand why the finance dept doesn’t want you to spend more money on a product that’s already been purchased.

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

#318

Post by moogly » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 10:54 PM UTC

tomComb wrote: post #256

Kye wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a place to check in settings. The last one was years before. I don't know how it's done now.

No, that's just for the security updates that must be applied as full firmware updates, usually because they are in the kernel. Google has been progressively redesigning Android over the past decade to the point where they can do all non-kernel security updates immediately and silently via the play store. It's a much better way to do it IMO.

I have to manually search for the Google Play System updates on my Galaxy S21 and Z Flip 3 (both quite new phones) because they are not being installed automatically. My brother has the same problem with his Galaxy S21.

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

#319

Post by quitit » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 10:54 PM UTC

MBCook wrote: post #142

mmastrac wrote: post #3

> Android’s loss of market share boils down to heightened competition within the OS space Yeah, that duopoly is a lot of competition

Maybe a lot of people are just really tired of crappy android phones and want to try the other side of the fence. I’m not referring to the nicer phones like the pixel or some of the galaxy phones. But the cheaper phones that are often given away for free. I’m not saying that’s everything, just a guess. I’m kind of surprised the difference is as big as 8%.

The Android vs iOS graphs don't tell us a lot since Android is the accumulation of many devices across various brands, while iOS is just Apple's iPhone.

Dividing the share by brand or even by price point reveals the true competition in the market, Apple performs well in their category and regularly achieves the most sold smartphone. When figures were available these also revealed that Apple took home the majority of smartphone profits (90%+), that is unlikely to have changed significantly (Not because iPhone margins were particularly special, but because the market is saturated by competitors with razor thin margins.)

The Android v iOS graph is heavily skewed by low-cost devices. Apple's focus on a meaningful midrange product, long OS support and a build quality that is well above the low-cost alternatives are likely the reason why Android's share has declined by this small amount.

That said Apple won't achieve dominance in the bulk figures because these are buttressed by low cost devices, such as those used in less wealthy and developing countries. Can a large share of Android users even afford an iPhone?

This is all good for google, as users = profit, but it's not particularly inviting for smart phone manufacturers who don't have enough margin to develop a meaningfully differentiated product.

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

#320

Post by bitwize » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 10:58 PM UTC

fsflover wrote: post #207

nextos wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call me crazy, but I think there is room for a third platform. Especially if this platform was bootstrapped in a smart way, for example with an emulation layer to be able to run applications from Android. Or perhaps WebAssembly will make it viable to do more things from a (mobile) browser. I really miss the N700-N9 series with Maemo and Meego. It was so elegant and simple.

> I think there is room for a third platform And it already exists: GNU/Linux phones running desktop OSes, Librem 5 [0] and Pinephone [1]. [0] https://puri.sm/products/librem-5 [1] https://pine64.org/pinephone

Surely, 2022 will be the year of Linux on the palmtop!