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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

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't get used phones for the (hardware) security risks. I have some pretty important stuff on my phone that is worth around 7 figures. On a similar note, Pegasus has me unable to get an iPhone even if I wanted to.

You don't think NSO group has a Pegasus equivalent for Android?

If they do, it hasn't been used in history.

There might be some multi step exploit that requires me to download an app from an external source, but nothing like the 0 clicks.

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

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For me iPhone UX is confusing and inconvenient. There are a million shitty decisions embedded in the interface.

going from one to the other will always be confusing but as a long time android user I have to say UX has really been going downhill quite a bit. the same could be true for ios but I wouldn't know and neither would other android users so from that perspective a switch might seem like a reasonable idea

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

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really my Android experience. Any bad Android vibes come two things. Apps that go from good UX to terrible UX or apps that intentionally behave badly (looking at you MS Outlook & your Bing Search poison)

> Apps that go from good UX to terrible UX or apps that intentionally behave badly At one point, I remember certain google sites displaying differently (and in an obstructive way) when I would browse from Firefox, but not from Chrome.

That's certainly a thing. Sometimes it's just lazy coding.

Conversely, Firefox is the only app that lets me clean up bad site practices (eg: by using Kill Sticky). Conversely to that, in Android I have browse on FFx 68 because newer FFx (still!) has mostly non-existent extension support.

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

#184
post #89
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…

There are zero Android phones that are usable one-handed. Apple makes two such models. I strongly prefer Android as an operating system, but if I can't physically use the phone, it's useless to me. So I'm on iPhone.

I've always used my Android phones one-handed. So, certainly not zero.

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

#185

Must say I'm a little surprised with many of the comments from a tech focused site/forum like this one. I find that Android is a far more open system with a great community that rewards the inner hacker (no matter how much of a novice they may be). I have a Samsung Galaxy S4, it is still a very usuable phone and is running a modern android version and gets regular updates. Sure it is a bit slow and I had to flash a c…

> I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 ... > ... I had to flash a custom rom (/e/os) ... > ... 10 years old, but still gets updates It's e/OS that's getting regularly updated, right? If you had never flashed a custom rom and stayed with Samsung's Android that came with the phone, would you still be receiving regular updates? > can run most apps Curious to know what apps haven't run on your phone?

yes it is /e/os getting updated but it is still android and I thought that most people here would be up for changing between the flavors rather than just sticking with the original.

I don't stay with the original OS on my PC why would I do the same with my phone. If my original PC OS stops getting updates I change to a newer one. I figured most here would be used to that.

Uber, that I can remember. Didn't like the micro g aspect, but I hear that may have changed. Also banking apps but I don't use those myself.

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

#186

Must say I'm a little surprised with many of the comments from a tech focused site/forum like this one. I find that Android is a far more open system with a great community that rewards the inner hacker (no matter how much of a novice they may be). I have a Samsung Galaxy S4, it is still a very usuable phone and is running a modern android version and gets regular updates. Sure it is a bit slow and I had to flash a c…

For me, I think that’s actually part of why I stay away from Android. I tinker and whatnot with my open systems and it often leads to various forms of slight incompatibilities or instability. I rely on my phone to work consistently, and for me that’s meant staying with a more closed off ecosystem to protect me from myself.

/e/os has been absolutely consistant, no issues for my use. Having said that I really only use the phone for basic functions.

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

#187
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

You literally just gave no reasons. Edit: So to clarify, you could be saying "there is something better about Apple" or "Apple people are complete suckers." Which is it?

I'm saying that creating a premium product cannot be distilled down to one feature/dimension/characteristic and it's a fruitless task to just ask people on the internet to do it for you.

1) Many people can't specifically identify and articulate which characteristics lead them to prefer one product over another.

2) Many people have different reasons for preferring the same product over the same alternative

3) An individual is probably preferring a set of characteristics that overdetermines their preference (i.e. if you remove one of the set, their preference still doesn't change) and the set is comprised of individually not-very-important characteristics.

Would you be confused if someone said that they prefer a Porsche Panamera over a Honda Civic? They could probably say they prefer the size of the Panamera, but that's clearly not sufficient explanation because they also would prefer it over a CR-V. Then they'd say the materials used are better. But would they now accept a CR-V with the interior redone in ultra-premium materials? Very unlikely.

The reality is that their preference is a complex mixture of things that they struggle to even detect never mind articulate. "Good product companies" get this, and bad product companies just stare in befuddlement at why their CR-V with fancy leather isn't outcompeting Porsche. Of course when you ask someone to explain their preference, they cannot. They don't have the language to describe it! It's a silly question to even ask!

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

#188
post #51

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…

Windows Phone apps were absolutely mostly shovelware, which had a not insignificant contribution to it's failure I feel. Never used PalmOS to comment. I think third place these days is Tizen which is in a worse place than the two big ones for apps, and then fourth might genuinely be GNU/Linux but there's massive dropoffs between third and fourth, and between second and third.

>I think third place these days is Tizen which is in a worse place than the two big ones for apps,

iirc third place is KaiOS, a proprietary fork of the discontinued FirefoxOS [0]. It's primarily used on feature phones though. As for app support, an official youtube and whatsapp app are available on KaiOS.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KaiOS

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

#189
post #81
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows Phone apps were absolutely mostly shovelware, which had a not insignificant contribution to it's failure I feel. Never used PalmOS to comment. I think third place these days is Tizen which is in a worse place than the two big ones for apps, and then fourth might genuinely be GNU/Linux but there's massive dropoffs between third and fourth, and between second and third.

But you may have used the Palm OS successor, webOS, which is used by LG smart TVs. It blew me away that Palm OS is still around in some form. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebOS

Palm is back now too. They make ear buds and a mini phone.

https://palm.com/

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

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

iPhones aren’t even that expensive anymore. You can get a like-new iPhone SE 2020(which has the same CPU as a 13 Pro Max) for a mere $200 online. There is no Android phone that comes close to the price:performance ratio. Even the cheapest Android phones any prepaid carrier sells retails for $150. It simply blows every other comparably priced Android out of the water.

Do not forget to add in the cost of a new battery replacement as these "refurbished" phones come with worn out batteries....
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