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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

#591
post #301
post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Similarly, you can install Telegram, Whatsapp, Messenger, Signal, Element X (which I all have installed besides Whatsapp) and communicate with people available through those application at the utterly tiny inconvenience of having to open that app first. ...and the not insignificant inconvenience of knowing which of these apps each of your contacts uses or prefers. There really is a network effect of most people in…

I have my family on Telegram as well as some close friends, a single friend on Element, most other people who are less tech-aware are using FB’s Messenger so I can’t ditch that unfortunately. That’s not hard to keep in mind, it is not that many people I actively keep in contact with. Though I am no social butterfly, you may have it different.

Kids. I have never kept so many strangers in my phone until kids. Friends from school. Friends from random parks. Friends from random activities. Parents to coordinate this activity or that. Trying to remember which platform friend of the quarter is on is too much for me. The reduction of children is the worse. Few children in the neighborhood and everyone is an only child, so now we all have to schedule social interaction until they can read at least.

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

#592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been possible to install ad blockers for the browser on iPhones for years, without resorting to a VPN. I don't bother anymore because I'm usually at home and have a pihole anyway, but I used to use Firefox Focus—not as my browser, but to provide ad-blocking for Safari. Worked fine. Open it once to set it up (at least IIRC that was necessary—I don't remember, but there was some very-simple setup step I'm pretty s…

These solutions don't block video ads and they require crippling your speed with a VPN.

iOS has ad blockers that are not VPNs. That's what I was writing about.

You may be right about the video ad part.

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

#593
post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s mid performance about an iPhone?

Nothing. The iPhone SoC blows every android out of the water. Apple has been dominating mobile performance ever since they went to 64-bit in 2013. That's a decade of leadership in silicon. No android comes close. Not sure what OP is thinking.

So what? The OS is totally locked down. There's nothing to actually do with all that extra compute. Are iPhone games better than Android games? Probably, but I imagine most of the HN crowd isn't into mobile games. Other than that I can't even think of what the better iPhone SOCs would be used for.

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

#594
post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My phone is in my pocket 99% of the time, why would I care what people think about it? Anyway, a base model iPhone is only in the $600 range, that is like a week of minimum wage work in my state. Where’s the status? No, it is just a basic functional smartphone for people who don’t like to configure these things (I’ll happily tinker all day with my Linux laptop, but smartphones are just like the worst form-factor, I w…

> base model iPhone is only in the $600 range Only? That's an inordinate amount of money for what's just a phone.

For a person who isn’t technical (able to compile programs), an iPhone has a superset of a laptop’s functionality. Except, much more user-friendly, because all your programs come from the App Store.

A $600 laptop is not a prestige device.

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

#595

The link should really be to the original report [0]. This 55% is iPhone's share of phone shipments in Q2, not the number of users of the respective phones at any given time. In other words, fewer people are buying smartphones than were before, but Apple saw less of a hit to their numbers than everyone else did. Contrary to existing comments here, this stat doesn't appear to indicate that people are switching from An…

True but I’d say the switching is happening too. Every people in my circle(s) are actually switching to iPhones mostly due to implicit peer pressure.

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

#596
post #316

The link should really be to the original report [0]. This 55% is iPhone's share of phone shipments in Q2, not the number of users of the respective phones at any given time. In other words, fewer people are buying smartphones than were before, but Apple saw less of a hit to their numbers than everyone else did. Contrary to existing comments here, this stat doesn't appear to indicate that people are switching from An…

I'm constantly amazed by how people spend so much of their income on Apple products; it's almost like their lives are ruled by the status they feel an iPhone brings (and the consequential sacrificial purchasing). It likely varies by area and average income, here it's almost an inverse correlation - the less-well off kids at school tend to have parents on iPhones and the comfortable parents are on whatever works for t…

Yeah. At this point it’s becoming very toxic. Like people with iPhones look down on people with android phones. It’s becoming a societal pressure.

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

#597
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 had both Pixels and iPhones (work phone). They're mostly the same to me, except that iphones are much more expensive for no good reason (besides branding). I like that they still make small phones though. Was super happy with my pixel 4a, but they don't make such small phones anymore unfortunately.

Newest Pixel Fold is $1800. It seems like Google has become increasingly willing to compete in the high end market.

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

#598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is not like flagship Android phones are cheap. They cost just as much as iPhones with much worse support. I agree if you are happy non flagship Android phones. Those are a bargain.

Why do you say "with much worse support"? That's not the case anymore, at least for Pixels.

Because it’s true?

The pixel 6a will get 3 years of updates and 5 years of security updates. On a phone that was released 12 months ago.

So it hasn’t been tested yet. Plenty of time for google to renege on that.

The Pixel 6a is at least a cheaper phone. But the Pixel 7 are flagship prices for the same support.

iPhones have been getting this level of updates since almost day one. The last iPhone I ran into the ground was a 6 and that had 5 years of OS updates. iOS 8 through 12.

My current XR has been getting updates for almost 5 years and will get iOS 17. So at least 6 years of updates?

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

#599
Remember back in the old days when people got their phones and phone plans together as part of a 2 or 3 year contract? Back then, people lived with cracked screens and other damage as much as possible because of being locked into those contracts. And then that sort of went away when the market decoupled and you got your phone and service separately.

Well, lately I've been noticing more and more people carrying around phones with cracked screens, and apparently just dealing with it. This is totally anecdotal and unscientific, but it feels like there is a shift in mindset going on. For one reason or another, people are keeping those "broken" phones in service rather than replacing them.

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

#600
post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I don't see how Apple can claim to prioritize privacy when they won't even allow real ad blocking.

Except they do? You can get a VPN app that blocks network requests, like 1Blocker. Also AFAIK android doesn't support adblockers?

VPN apps are annoying. You constantly have to turn in on or off. I find battery leakage. There are speed issues etc.. .And, the purpose of VPN is different than ad blocking.
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