Live data from Hacker News

US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

counterpointresearch.com

31–40 of 796 posts

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#31
The original linked report is far less biased [1]. It seems the only reason there is demand for iphones right now is the heavy subsidies offered by carriers. I think few people are paying retail for those phones.

1: https://www.counterpointresearch.com/us-smartphone-shipments...

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#33
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a love/hate relationship with Verizon. Okay, more often hate/hate, but still. They have the best network in this area when we're out in the sticks. But their pricing is pretty high. They'll offer $800 on a new iPhone, and then the credit comes one month at a time over 36 months. Meanwhile, you're paying $70-80 per phone. You might as well take the upgrade when available, if you're going to stick with them, bec…

I switched to prepaid MVNO because I didn't want to do research everytime I made a billing decision with Verizon / ATT. Give me a monthly price. Give me a monthly data number. Then stop talking.

This is exactly the route I plan to take :)

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#34

Honestly I don't know how iPhone users live without the back button (or more accurately now, the back gesture). I used an iPhone for a year (work phone) and just could not get over how much harder it was to work a large iphone. I felt like I had to reach every corner of the screen much more often than on Android.

Am I misunderstanding something, I think that gesture exists on iOS?

Swiping from the left screen edge to the right navigates back in any properly designed app.

Alternatively sheets are usually dismissed by swiping down.

Do you have particular apps or contexts in mind where this did not work?

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#35
post #13

I finally convinced some in-laws to get an se2 after telling them it wasn’t really cheaper to keep buying terrible no name Samsung phones every other year. They have also both become photographers now and can FaceTime easily to see grandkids. So mark me down for contributing 2. Your welcome Apple.

Samsung also makes quite a few phones with decent cameras. Are you saying the SE2 specifically fills a hole in their line-up?

Long support (5+ years), physical first-party stores for support every 100ish miles in the USA, compatibility with Apple's proprietary iMessage and FaceTime protocols. An OS that's generally considered easier to use, with more walls in place to protect users from malware. A simple $400ish price point.

Not a huge difference from Samsung's cheaper offerings on paper, but a lot of little things that add up to a better experience for many older users.

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#36
post #5

iPhone has always been a superior experience to me. While it may not have that tinkering ability like an Android, on the whole Apps are much higher quality, more paying customers as a dev, lots of things that just work between devices. I think it’s deserved in that sense.

I have both types of phones, an Android one privately and an iPhone for work, and in direct comparison I honestly prefer the Android user experience. It's not that I love Android, but the iPhone feels so often clunky to me.

- There's a greater reliance on gesture-based tricks, which I find unintuitive and undiscoverable

- I often feel stressed when using the iPhone because I can't figure out how to do basic things while under time duress. This is as simple as hanging up on a call I had on speaker and left to navigate to other apps: There's the green bar at the top indicating I'm still in the call, but I cannot figure out how to get back to it. If I swiped it out it's gone from the multi-tasking overview (without ending it), and unlike in Android you can't drag down the notification tray and access the call via a notification bubble

- There's reproducable little bugs that annoy me. For example when I initially boot up the phone, I can't tap the password field to open the on-screen keyboard. It doesn't work. I have to turn the screen off and turn it back on, and then I can open the keyboard

- There's flows that admittedly are used rarely but that are enormously clunky. If you open a certificate file to import, you get a frigging dialog box telling you to manually go to the Settings app and approve it in some well hidden sub-section. Why doesn't the dialog offer you a jump straight into there? These kinds of flows of composing screen pages from different apps into sequences is something Android does extremely well with the Activities concept

- The Share flows feel underdeveloped vs. Android

etc.

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#37

> Despite inflation numbers falling through the quarter and ongoing strength in the job market, consumers hesitated to upgrade their devices amid market uncertainty.” > Apple’s resilience was driven by strong promotions across postpaid and prepaid. Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile continued to offer $800+ promo credits for the iPhone 14 while old-generation iPhones were also steeply discounted across prepaid. We are seeing…

I have a love/hate relationship with Verizon. Okay, more often hate/hate, but still. They have the best network in this area when we're out in the sticks. But their pricing is pretty high. They'll offer $800 on a new iPhone, and then the credit comes one month at a time over 36 months. Meanwhile, you're paying $70-80 per phone. You might as well take the upgrade when available, if you're going to stick with them, bec…

What a wreck. Then, I'm never surprised. It's always been a rip-off built on having the "next best thing" at all times. Well, a price is paid for that, as you demonstrate. Blech!

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#38
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a love/hate relationship with Verizon. Okay, more often hate/hate, but still. They have the best network in this area when we're out in the sticks. But their pricing is pretty high. They'll offer $800 on a new iPhone, and then the credit comes one month at a time over 36 months. Meanwhile, you're paying $70-80 per phone. You might as well take the upgrade when available, if you're going to stick with them, bec…

I switched to prepaid MVNO because I didn't want to do research everytime I made a billing decision with Verizon / ATT. Give me a monthly price. Give me a monthly data number. Then stop talking.

Yup, there are plenty of MVNOs out there that operate on your choice of network. I use US Mobile, which I'm generally happy with. I haven't even had to think about it really for the past 2 years. Better yet, there was a recent price reduction, instead of a price increase as I was almost always dealing with on Verizon or AT&T. I think I went from $25/mo to $21/mo.

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#39
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a love/hate relationship with Verizon. Okay, more often hate/hate, but still. They have the best network in this area when we're out in the sticks. But their pricing is pretty high. They'll offer $800 on a new iPhone, and then the credit comes one month at a time over 36 months. Meanwhile, you're paying $70-80 per phone. You might as well take the upgrade when available, if you're going to stick with them, bec…

I switched to prepaid MVNO because I didn't want to do research everytime I made a billing decision with Verizon / ATT. Give me a monthly price. Give me a monthly data number. Then stop talking.

Att prepaid 16gigs at 300 a year is a deal.

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#40
post #16

Apple messaging lockin is having the desired impact. Combine that with Google's mess of a strategy and it is easy to see why this is happening. It is why it is so critical to hire the right people in leadership to avoid squandering key, already successful, strategic positions.

90% of people I message with use WhatsApp or Signal (and most of them use iPhones). I keep hearing about iOS messaging lock in, but I've never experienced it.
Post reply on HN