Earlier quoted context omitted.
Youtube Vanced (even in its now dying form) and Spotify from APKMody or similar are the main reason I dont move. Its two extra monthly subscriptions.
Do you find it reliable or is it whack-a-mole with constants updates required as the main service providers close exploits? Spotify surprises me because I would think the API is locked down and requests are authenticated. I guess it's abusing the free tier and spoofing the request to avoid rate limits?
Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
121–130 of 247 posts
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#122For 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 trac…
After 10+ years of making apps, the discussion with new clients is still the same here (EU/USA) every time:
Client: we want an app
Me: iOS or Android or both?
Client: both
Me: Ok, which one first?
Client: iOS, I have an iPhone 13 Pro max, make it work on that!
... app designed and built in close co-op with the client
Me: What do you think?
Client: Great! Publish it! Let me put it on my phone!
Me: shall we do the Android design? On which phone types should it work; premium or also mid or budget?
Client: Who cares, just do something and publish it whenever. Here is money, Bye!
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#123Are 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…
My Google account for my phone is just for that nothing else. My last phone cost $120 and lasted 6 years, it still works but doesn't run my banking app anymore. my current one was $250 and last for 2 years without issues already.
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#124Are 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 price…
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#125I 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…
Wait, you use iMessage instead of Whatsapp in the US? I tried iMessage with some friends and I feel like the experience is so much worse, not to mention not having my entire contact list there.
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
I attribute most of it to marketing. Both companies make pretty great phones that do more or less the same things equally well. Apple is better at selling phones. Aside from better ads, they have prominent stores in most major cities. If you want to see the latest Pixel phone, you're going to have to visit a carrier store or Best Buy. As bad as an Apple store might be today, stepping into a T-Mobile store is worse. I…
Googler opinions are my own. Google has a NYC store, with a second one also in NYC that recently opened. Seems like they want to keep going there. https://store.google.com/magazine/locations?hl=en-US
I'm in Austin and Google has a sizable presence here. They have offices (I've gone to seminars they host), it's a Google Fiber city, lots of schools use Chromebooks and Google Classroom, and it's become a tech hub.
There are Apple stores in malls and those malls all have lots of vacancy. It's a no-brainer that if Google were going to have stores anywhere, they would have them here.
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#127Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
You might want to check out Pixel phones. I'm still rocking a Pixel 2 and it still works great.
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#129Are 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 price…
Edit: So to clarify, you could be saying "there is something better about Apple" or "Apple people are complete suckers." Which is it?
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#130Switched 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…