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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

#281
post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, why do you "resent" your money going to Apple?

Because they're hostile to general purpose computing.

My UNIX workstation that I bought from them running a bunch of open source software installed with Home brew disagrees.

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

#282
I swapped from Android after a decade to iOS at the end of last year, and don't regret it one single bit.

Android you just get plagued with software bugs (random battery drain, UI freezes, weird crashes etc) constantly, additionally I wasn't a fan of how system apps because they come from Google auto-update, going in and having an app completely change at random when I'm not expecting it, is not a nice experience when you need the app in a hurry (looking at you Google Maps).

Ironically for a phone, phone calls were the buggiest thing on nearly all Android phones I had over a decade (OnePlus, Samsung, Pixel etc).

iOS, as much as I disagree with Apple's closed ecosystem and propriety behaviour, is just a far better software quality than Android. Google is obviously not a software company.

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

#283

I'm thinking of making the switch to iPhone this year once the USB-C model comes out Whether I regret it, not sure, I mean Android isn't _that_ bad really and the Samsung phones are good, but I think Apple have nailed the ecosystem thing a lot better than what google have.

> Android isn't _that_ bad From a support after the sale perspective? Yes it is. The $399 2016 iPhone SE is still getting security updates today. The original Google Pixel is also from 2016 but stopped getting any sort of updates at the end of 2019. If you want a basic phone that will be supported as long as possible after the sale, the support length per dollar spent proposition of the SE models is pretty unbeatable…

> I think this is a major factor that is driving market share towards iPhone.

Few people outside of the tech nerd bubble care about this.

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

#284

> 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 also don't want to spend a lot of money on phones and when my last android phone broke (dropped it one too many times and the glass shattered) I got an iPhone SE. But I kind of hate it. When the better goes (which will only be a few years, I'm amazed at how poor the capacity is, you really don't get a lot of value with low end apple phones) I'm going to switch back to cheap android with a big battery. I'm a low-usa…

For me the sweet spot is an SE with a battery case. A ‘full size’ phone still wouldn’t cut it with my usage, so this way it’s heavy, but still fairly compact and gets the job done.

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

#285
post #223

I'm part of this statistic. I've been an Android user my entire adult life, but it really has been a constant downward spiral over these past several years. My previous three phones from LG, Motorola, and Xiaomi all had major software bugs that were never fixed, the biggest being just incredibly poor network connectivity (across multiple carriers, mind you) resulting in at least several calls just not connecting to m…

"there really is no alternative if you want a decent cell phone in 2023" is just plain wrong. I try to avoid lumping all of the android manufacturers together and treat them individually when comparing them to apple. LG, Motorola, and Xiaomi are not as good as apple but Samsung is. Decent argument to be made for OnePlus, Google, and Asus matching apple as well.

> but Samsung is

My current phone is a Samsung and I find it disappointing. Perhaps their good ones are limited to specific models?

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

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What lock-in do iPhones have that isn't a thing on Android? Honestly curious.

WebKit - major PITA, highlighting text and googling in chrome opens safari ? Appstore - can't install Gameboy emulator for games I've paid 20+ years ago because daddy Apple said so...

You can install an emulator with an extra $8.33 a month for a developer account.

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

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they're hostile to general purpose computing.

Well, they certainly view phones as appliances, rather than general purpose computers. Personally, I’m fine with that

They absolutely view phones as general purpose computers. It's why iOS is slowly turning into OS X.

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

#289
post #223

I'm part of this statistic. I've been an Android user my entire adult life, but it really has been a constant downward spiral over these past several years. My previous three phones from LG, Motorola, and Xiaomi all had major software bugs that were never fixed, the biggest being just incredibly poor network connectivity (across multiple carriers, mind you) resulting in at least several calls just not connecting to m…

I've been using Google Fi as a wireless provider for years and have been using their phones as a result. I've only once ever had an issue with one of the phones from a software standpoint and it took me a while to figure out how to port over my contacts (I had to export them to an Apple format and then import them). I've stayed away from Apple products because (1) the Google products don't have a ton of corporate fluff like Samsung products, (2) Apple phones tend to do "magic" things that just annoy the hell out of me, and (3) Android Auto just works.

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

#290
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s just such a US. American problem that it is honestly, kind of funny in a dumb way from any other part of the world. Like SMS itself is a legacy, insecure tech, it really should not be used at all anymore, unless you really only know their phone number. Knowing that you are not sending SMS when you see a blue bubble, but apple just conveniently put their internet-based message system into the same app is not a…

People are just eating what Google says raw. Apple will just need to implement RCS and everything will be better. Don't worry that the only universally available RCS relay is operated by Google and encryption is a part of a non-standard Google extension. So Google wants Apple to hand all messages over to Google. For fun, Apple should propose to implement RCS but only if Google agrees to use the Apple relay. No chance…

And the included encryption is beyond useless if it is instantly dropped when sent to a device that doesn’t understand the new protocol. That’s such a huge security vulnerability that it is just security theater to encrypt in the first place. Though I’m sure it has to do something with all those messages going through google’s servers.
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