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Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US

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Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US

#101

Post by ethanbond »

jrm4 wrote: post #31

Are there any "real" (come on, techy people, you know what I mean) reasons for going Apple besides I suppose the genuine convenience of fully interoperable phone/messaging across devices (which I fully concede is probably a big one for a good number of people?) The price differences between Android and Apple still strike me as absurd. On the other side, I went from "picking an Android very carefully for rooting" grad…

> I went from "picking an Android very carefully for rooting" gradually to "what's on sale at Best Buy for about 150" with no major shift in experience or quality.

Well a lot of people can very clearly tell the difference between a middle of the pack iPhone and a $150 Android device. That you experienced no such variation among the Android lineup is why people prefer Apple. It "feels like" a premium product, is priced like a premium product, and is perceived as a premium product because... you guessed it: it's a premium product!

Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US

#103

Post by wartijn_ »

jrm4 wrote: post #31

Are there any "real" (come on, techy people, you know what I mean) reasons for going Apple besides I suppose the genuine convenience of fully interoperable phone/messaging across devices (which I fully concede is probably a big one for a good number of people?) The price differences between Android and Apple still strike me as absurd. On the other side, I went from "picking an Android very carefully for rooting" grad…

1) Not being locked in into the Google ecosystem and being tracked by that company. You need to be logged in into your Google account for the play store, which means you're looped in to Gmail and Google calendar.

In iOS I can choose to use different providers for email, calendar, and password management or remove the apps (for the first two).

2) Long support which makes the price really reasonable. I've been using an iPhone 8 for a couple of years now, and still have the latest iOS version and the phone works good enough. If I would have bought an Android phone when I bought my iPhone I would have needed to replace it already, because of lack of updates.

Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US

#104

Post by rjh29 »

hamaluik wrote: post #63
leokennis wrote: post #27

I feel like many people love iOS, but many also hate it (not open enough, lock in etc.) but they hate the cheapishness and crappiness of Android even more. Is there any development ongoing for a mobile OS that is not full of crap like Android, but not as restrictive as iOS? Not sure if Windows Phone or PalmOS were like that, but those are both gone…

I fall exactly here.. I used Android for a long time, until I got tired of my phone becoming non-functional after just a year or two. Switched to iPhones, and now they’re lasting 4+ years. I miss the flexibility of Android and iOS is full of bugs and design-based papercuts, yet it still manages to beat Android in just about all the areas that truly matter to me.

What do you mean by non-functional? The phone still works even if you don't get Android updates, but presumably there are some negative effects?

Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US

#106

Post by everdrive »

londons_explore wrote: post #7

I attribute most of this to iMessage and the associated lock-in effect. You don't see the same trend in the rest of the world where 3rd party messengers (Whatsapp, Viber, Line, snapchat, etc) are mostly used for comms. The inability of iPhones to easily host 'cracked' apps also acts as an anchor to adoption - theres a lot of people hooked on their cracked ad-free spotify or youtube apps, or games with 'everything fre…

I'd heard about some of the imessage exploits prior to getting my iPhone, and so the first thing I did was uninstall imessage. Happily, the OS allowed me to do this. I haven't missed a thing, frankly.

Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US

#107

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

hsn915 wrote: post #58

Switched from Android to iPhone a few months ago. Hard to believe the difference. Android is really bad at many things, and I had a good brand (One Plus 6). Taking a picture on Android is an awful experience. The Camera app takes about 3 seconds to open, and freezes for a second when taking a picture. The Camera app on iPhone opens instantly and takes photos instantly. The quality of the pictures taken on the iPhone…

> I had a good brand (One Plus 6). Taking a picture on Android is an awful experience.

Good brand. Terrible camera app. I carry a OP6 and the awfulness of it's camera is legendary. Besides what you mentioned, the camera app is often incapable of focusing. To deposit checks, I have to use an old phone.

That and the utterly dismal battery life (drains fast with heavy use) will make this my only OP device. I accept good brand but I wouldn't go as far as good phone.

All that said, even this OP6 is still a better option for me than an Apple phone. My first and foremost requirement will always be rooting.

Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US

#108

Post by unknownaccount »

londons_explore wrote: post #7

I attribute most of this to iMessage and the associated lock-in effect. You don't see the same trend in the rest of the world where 3rd party messengers (Whatsapp, Viber, Line, snapchat, etc) are mostly used for comms. The inability of iPhones to easily host 'cracked' apps also acts as an anchor to adoption - theres a lot of people hooked on their cracked ad-free spotify or youtube apps, or games with 'everything fre…

Yeah totally must be iMessage and not the fact that iPhones just feel significantly smoother and less laggy, have a way better looking interface, and way better security overall(Android doesn’t even have full disk encryption lol..)

Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US

#109

Post by AbrahamParangi »

jrm4 wrote: post #31

Are there any "real" (come on, techy people, you know what I mean) reasons for going Apple besides I suppose the genuine convenience of fully interoperable phone/messaging across devices (which I fully concede is probably a big one for a good number of people?) The price differences between Android and Apple still strike me as absurd. On the other side, I went from "picking an Android very carefully for rooting" grad…

In my opinion the UX on Android is inferior. It’s not about as good, it’s worse. There are just a million kinda shitty decisions embedded in the interface that aren’t quite right.

For me Android is like an off-brand cola. It gets the job done. It’s sugar water, just like coke. But there are a million little decisions that make Coke a better product.

Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US

#110

Post by kennysmoothx »

For me what keeps me on iOS vs Android is app quality. No matter how many times I try to switch to Android completely, the lack of quality apps on the Play store always bums me out.

The best apps on the App Store are unique to iOS, and Android apps always feel like an after thought, and many of the best iOS apps do not have Android counterparts.

Apollo for reddit, CoPilot for money management, Flighty for flight tracking, Foreflight for aviation, Halide for camera, Things/Muse for notes and todos, Overcast/Castro for podcasts, Tweetbot/Twitterific twitter, even Spark for email use to be iOS only for years.

I challenge you to compare the quality of iOS only vs Android only apps.

The iOS dev community seems vibrant, and I wish I could say the same for Android.

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