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US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

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

#71

Post by flutas »

sho_hn wrote: post #36
prox wrote: 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 wh…

I just swapped to a Pixel Fold from an iPhone 14 myself. Some of the issues you talk about are present on both, but are issues in different ways imo.

> - 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

I've also noticed bugs with the PIN input, where it just won't register touches at first when the screen turns on, leading to a missed digit at the start.

> 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?

This is 100% an issue on Android now too. Not sure when they made the change, but certs result in a dialog essentially saying "go to settings."

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

#72

Post by MBCook »

meepmorp wrote: post #46
tiahura wrote: post #23

I wonder if the 15 and USB-C might be a surprisingly big upgrade driver?

IMO, outside of the tech world, nobody really cares about USB-C - or at least - not enough to drive upgrades. It's just what one end of the power cord looks like.

Much like when lightning launched, mostly I think we’ll get whiny think pieces.

“Why do I have to buy new cables? What about the stuff that uses the old cable still? I need two now?”

I agree it’s the other new feature, whatever they are, that would be primary drivers for most people.

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

#73

Post by throw9away6 »

TheCaptain4815 wrote: post #45

I always found it interesting how the dynamic for 'nerds' shifted from Android to iOS because of data security reasons. I was one of those who originally got an Android because of "tinkering" (and honestly still miss that), but with the data privacy realization of iOS vs Android, I could NEVER go back.

The turning point for was when Apple allowed users to set app permissions and Google didn’t

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

#74

Post by flutas »

ramesh31 wrote: post #54
PhilipRoman wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but - "for the same price"? You must live in a very different place than I do.

> I'm sorry, but - "for the same price"? You must live in a very different place than I do. iPhone 14 Plus MSRP: $899. Google Pixel 7 Pro MSRP: $899. Guess which one will last longer and have higher resale?

Why compare the lower end iPhone to the higher end Android?

iPhone 14 Pro: $999

Pixel 7 Pro: $899

iPhone 14: $799

Pixel 7: $599

Pixel 7a: $499

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

#75

Post by drcongo »

flutas wrote: post #61
matchbok wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... there is a back swipe gesture. And it works much more consistently than Android's "Where the heck is this gonna take me" back button. Every app you can swipe back, and it's a much nicer animation than Android. The back button is a cudgel: a sign of a poorly designed UX. Apps aren't websites, the concept of "back" is not universal, so a universal button doesn't make sense. It only exists on Android because it star…

> there is a back swipe gesture > Every app you can swipe back > the concept of "back" is not universal, so a universal button doesn't make sense. > It only exists on Android because it started off as a non-touch OS. ... so android has the exact same gesture and it's a bad thing only there because it started as a non touch OS, iOS has it but it's totally not the same concept at all and perfect. Hmmm.

You misread. Parent said the back "button" is a cudgel, not the gesture. Though unfortunately someone at Google decided to give the gesture the same behaviour as the button, so yeah, it is a bit silly on Android.

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

#76

Post by bitsandboots »

AuthorizedCust wrote: post #48

Android’s problem is Pixel is the only good one, and it has not been flagship quality since the Pixel 2. The 3 had odd issues, the 4 had a laughable battery life, and 5-7 are a weird mix of midrange and flagship capability (trending towards flagship, but not in the club yet). All other Android vendors are on a continuum of crap, between these points: 1. loaded with bloat and customizations that aren’t better than wha…

Sony's phones seem best to me. Vanilla android with headphone jacks and microsd slots. They're just expensive. Nobody ever talks about Sony's phones for some reason but I think that's great because I wouldn't want them to get an ego and start ruining a good thing.

Overall though, what's killing Android is Android (through Google) Every release gets more limited & restrictive, as does the Play store & framework. If they want to downgrade android to be iOS, while iOS is improving, at some point I might as well just buy iOS. I think Android reached its peak around 4.4 Kitkat. I'm still sitting on 9 knowing that things get even worse on 10 & 11. Who knows what Android 12 has? Who cares?

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

#77

Post by afavour »

matchbok wrote: post #14
ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #11

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.

... there is a back swipe gesture. And it works much more consistently than Android's "Where the heck is this gonna take me" back button. Every app you can swipe back, and it's a much nicer animation than Android. The back button is a cudgel: a sign of a poorly designed UX. Apps aren't websites, the concept of "back" is not universal, so a universal button doesn't make sense. It only exists on Android because it star…

> It only exists on Android because it started off as a non-touch OS.

That doesn’t really make sense, it has very little to do with the actual interaction. It seems Android apps were originally envisaged as a collection of islands rather than one solid block. In that context the back button does make sense, you’d be jumping from “activity” to “activity” rather than app to app, and the back button would provide a logical thread through all of that.

But it didn’t work out that way at all, apps became just as centralised as iOS ones and the back button’s original functionality became kind of vestigial.

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

#78

Post by matchbok »

flutas wrote: post #61
matchbok wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... there is a back swipe gesture. And it works much more consistently than Android's "Where the heck is this gonna take me" back button. Every app you can swipe back, and it's a much nicer animation than Android. The back button is a cudgel: a sign of a poorly designed UX. Apps aren't websites, the concept of "back" is not universal, so a universal button doesn't make sense. It only exists on Android because it star…

> there is a back swipe gesture > Every app you can swipe back > the concept of "back" is not universal, so a universal button doesn't make sense. > It only exists on Android because it started off as a non-touch OS. ... so android has the exact same gesture and it's a bad thing only there because it started as a non touch OS, iOS has it but it's totally not the same concept at all and perfect. Hmmm.

The back swipe on iOS is per-app, not a global function. I should have clarified. It is different, and a better implementation.

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

#79

Post by drcongo »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #65
throw9away6 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung blowtware is a problem though

Which bloatware and what problems does it make you? For me, I don't really consider Microsoft Office as bloatware as I can use it, plus, what's bloatware for you might be useful apps for others, and I found it stays out of my way once I push it to the side if I don't need it, so it's existence is a non-issue for usability. Samsung bloatware used to be bad in the past but now it's decent IMHO, and I think people are b…

If the apps are useful to some people but not others, they could just put them on the Play store, but they don't they force everyone to have them.

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

#80

Post by throw9away6 »

vanilla_nut wrote: post #35
sho_hn wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 e…

Low end iPhones are in the 100-300 range for 11s and 12s and generally work well for non tech users.
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