Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years • Hacker News Board

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#121

Post by meremortals » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 7:28 PM UTC

nextos wrote: post #50

lawl wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pick your poison. The only reason I'm still on android is because at least I can (still) have root there. I'm saying still because of safety net. But if apple let me have root, i'd probably prefer an Apple over Google. Mobile phones and their user hostility is a cancer. I'm seriously considering using a full GNU/Linux handheld for mobile things i can do in a browser, and keep an android phone for app garbage tha…

Call me crazy, but I think there is room for a third platform. Especially if this platform was bootstrapped in a smart way, for example with an emulation layer to be able to run applications from Android. Or perhaps WebAssembly will make it viable to do more things from a (mobile) browser. I really miss the N700-N9 series with Maemo and Meego. It was so elegant and simple.

long live WebOS!

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#122

Post by ninjakttty » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 7:29 PM UTC

grumpyprole wrote: post #68

lostgame wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? In what world can’t I use FLAC files on my iPhone? VLC does it great, I use them almost literally every day…

How do you even get the files on the iPhone? I see long blog posts discussing the steps needed for this. Not really "just works" is it?

VLC is currently #18 in the app store in the media player category. It's not just some linux app. As to how to get flac files on the iPhone,

1) you can connect it a computer open Finder go to apps section drag the file there

2) put the file in the iCloud and access it from any device with the files app on

3) in Safari if a link is a media file you can share it with VLC

and that's just 3 off the top of my head, I think there's a couple more. It's really not that hard, gone are the days where apps needed to run local webservers to slurp content. But actually VLC can actually probably get media that way too.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#123

Post by jmrm » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 7:29 PM UTC

Today we can buy a really good (and small) iPhone from $430 with the same powerful SoC than the bigger ones and more years of updates, so more future-proof than a similar price Android phone.

For markets outside the more expensive parts of the US, this is a big deal, because in a country where the monthly income excluding taxes is between $1500 and $2500 (like most of the UE countries), paying $1000 or more in a phone is a huge thing, and this inexpensive iPhone maybe have a reasonable price for those clients.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#124

Post by lumb63 » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 7:29 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #89

vmception wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

> The impression I get is that every iPhone user has heard all the arguments before and understand the accuracy of those arguments and its the android users that lack the self awareness in that area and other areas of their life, This might be the most ironic comment I've read in a long time. 90%+ of users on both platforms are purely religious about their choice, and if there's one thing I can say that most of them…

I still think the ultimate platform is yet to be out there. It’s foolish in hindsight to religiously fanboy either iOS or Android. There is still no platform that is fully featured, with strong network effect (where needed - which should be less than it is), privacy, security, open source, control in the hands of the user, customization…etc. The idea that users should have to choose one or the other and cannot like all the features is perhaps holding us back.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#125

Post by UglyToad » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 7:29 PM UTC

Mikeb85 wrote: post #15

And? Does it really matter? Android is the #1 OS of all user devices worldwide. When you're at the top only one direction to go... iOS gained a bit in the developed world but Android enables tons of people all over the world to communicate and do things.

While it could maybe be phrased better I think this is the crux of the matter. I'm typing this on a US$200 (roughly) phone. I don't particularly care about, or have any affinity to, the OS. I don't even remember the manufacturer, Xiaomi maybe, but I use it because it cost slightly under 200 dollars.

The choice for a lot of people I imagine is more between no phone vs Android rather than iOS vs Android. On the island I'm living on currently the bottom tier but usable Motorola or Samsung phones are like local$600 and I think Apple devices start around local$4000+.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#126

Post by dlevine » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 7:29 PM UTC

After suffering through the Blackberry Storm and then a few Motorola Phones with the Motoblur, I tried a Nexus 4. I liked stock Android a lot better, but a bunch of my friends and family were using iPhones, and I wanted iMessage.

So I upgraded to a year-old iPhone 5, and have never looked back. It just worked better. Every app just worked, and the UI felt somehow smoother. I'm on an iPhone 11 right now.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#127

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 7:30 PM UTC

CameronNemo wrote: post #60

rejectfinite wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sucks about Android?

Performance, battery life, dependence on Google, inconsistent UIs from different manufacturers, bloatware from networks, networks control updates, most phones don't even get much in the way of updates.

What are you doing on your phone where performance matters, or what Android phone are you comparing to a relatively new iPhone?

I have a 2 year old mid-level Android and have had 0 performance issues or crashes (aside from Android Auto).

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#128

Post by jl6 » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 7:32 PM UTC

finiteseries wrote: post #46

cloudwizard wrote: post #42

I can't stand Apple's required software like iTunes. Apple HW is great. Just hoping Asahi Linux is ready soon. Until then, Linux Chromebook is my dev machine

iTunes has not been required for years now.

How do you get music files into the Music app other than through iTunes?

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#129

Post by lumb63 » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 7:33 PM UTC

xvector wrote: post #80

lumb63 wrote: post #7

I’m not surprised. I used Android devoutly, had a Galaxy S4, then an S8 when that started showing its age. I upgraded to an iPhone 12 when AT&T ran the promotion to get a free one. I wanted to keep liking Android. The amount of time I spent arguing vehemently that Android was superior made the switch hard, but several factors came into play for me: - Extremely slow and fragmented upgrade of OS. This resulted in subst…

> Specifically, I am envious of the people who have 120 FPS phones, they’re beautiful The new iPhone has 120 FPS.

I suppose my point was, at the time I got my phone, they didn’t. The flagship Galaxy did, though (not sure on Pixel).

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#130

Post by rob74 » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 7:33 PM UTC

rmbyrro wrote: post #103

> iOS gained 6% between July 2018 and January 2022. From 19.4% then, Apple has grown its OS market share to 25.49% I wonder why is it so hard for people to differentiate 6% from 6 percentage points

Well, at least they're using the correct term "market share" in that phrase, whereas in the graph they use "dominance in percentage", whatever that may be. All in all, it's not a very high quality article...