Android sucks. It feels like a budget, second-rate product. It’s not polished. It’s for nerds who like to customize everything. You open the web browser and it just seems janky. That’s my experience.
Without exception, the only people I see EXCITED about $1000 Android flagship phones are the 30-50 year old geeky men I work alongside in IT/development.
Virtually everyone else: they either LOVE their iPhone… OR more commonly: they don’t give a crap about phones at all… and thus bought a dirt cheap Android or a very old iPhone model, because “low cost” was their number one concern.
I think outside of iMessage, Apple just gets the US market, which isn’t a surprise I guess because Apple is an American company. The way they advertise their phones and design their features feel like they are all optimized for the US market first. A lot of new features like Apple Card and redesigned Apple Maps always come to US markets while other big markets have to wait a long time before Apple brings them over.
There are other small things like the heavily app-focused design, which favors a lot of different apps that each does one thing and one thing well. This is different from how a lot of emerging markets have superapps (e.g. WeChat) that will dominate your daily life. A quick example: iOS has built-in non-customizable QR code scanning (either as a quick action from Control Center, or automatically from the camera app). This is useful let’s say you want to scan a restaurant menu or an URL link. But let’s say you live in China, most of the QRs codes you see are usually WeChat / Alipay links that you have to open the specific app and scan the code from there, making a built-in OS feature completely useless.
And of course iMessage itself is also a uniquely N American thing because a lot of other countries moved organically to other apps like WhatsApp, LINE, WeChat and so on.
The iPhones are also priced expensive enough (Apple doesn’t do price differentiation across markets) that in a lot of lower income countries they are just too expensive compared to lower-priced Android devices, whereas in US, the general income level is high enough that they are affordable (but still expensive) to a lot of folks.
I do wonder about the specific markets like Japan, since iPhones are also really popular there, and I wonder what Apple is doing specifically right there comparatively? (iPhones are popular everywhere but I feel that in Japan specifically it’s even more popular. Maybe because of a lack of good local competition?)
FaceTime is also higher with kids these days, they literally hang out on FT for hours.
I don’t see how Android can really change its brand identity for the better when it has very little brand identity to speak of.
I move from an Android phone to a different Android phone, and I will lose quality of life features because the Android skin is different.
Which probably also makes it harder to lock users in because unless you always stick with the same brand, you would be fairly used to adjusting to feature loss.
Android is “customizable” but you can’t even get your phone to reach feature parity with the last phone you were using.
Apple marketing (and product/design) has consistently trumped Android in this regard, and it has paid off here.
I just got gifted an Android Tablet which is my first foray back into Android in about 8 years. Holy hell, using it is like going back to the Stone Age. It’s so infuriating because there are so many things that with iOS are just baked into it that now I have to go out to the Play Store to find something that works.
Weather? Why the hell is there no default weather app? Guess I’ll go research and figure out the best one. Oh, I need a task list? Well shit, there isn’t one of those either. Back to the Play store to look through the thousands of task list apps.
Then most of the options for things you do download on the Play Store are absolutely terrible. I’ve been using this Android Tablet for 3 weeks now and the one thing it has taught me is that I’m not moving away from iOS any time soon.
I live in Germany and people in my age started to state that an Android would be a “red flag” or “cringe”.😅
I think it’s the fans. Most people have iPhones and don’t really TALK about iPhones. Android owners GO OFF about iPhones. It’s cringey behavior and puts people off. You don’t want to be associated with that kind of person, nerdy or dorky or just overtly negative over really nothing *when you’re a teenager, as it’s social suicide. Even Samsung ads give off that vibe. The phones could be the next best thing , but if the owners are douchecanoes and the marketing plays into it then it’s not really going to vibe with the kiddos, no matter how good of a product is out there.
I keep reading this is “a US issue”. It isn’t and it isn’t just iMessage. In Japan, walk up and down the crowds in the subway and an astounding majority of people have an iPhone. Most people are using Line to message. There’s more to it than blue text bubbles.
Same in Paris
Can confirm. Living in Japan and using iphone right now. Even for company-subsidized work phones, they will be iphones most of the time.
Japanese are really loyal to iPhones in all ways. In Hong Kong many people have an iPhone personally (something around 40%), but for company-subsidized phones, almost 100% are Android (excluding Apple Store)
Worldwide 71% of smartphone users have an Android
In Europe 66% of smarthphone users have an Android . And as someone who lives in Europe I can say that I only rarely see Iphones.
A lot of people feel that Apple is too expensive and you can get similar specs for 3/4 or half the price.
Samsung and Google phones drop so hard in price in the EU 1 year after release that you can get them for a half the price of an Iphone.
While Iphones don’t have huge price drops after release
People like to upvote opinions but fact disprove it. Pixels market share going up a LOT and iPhone is going down. Try again
Worldwide 71% of smartphone users have an Android
In Europe 66% of smarthphone users have an Android . And as someone who lives in Europe I can say that I only rarely see Iphones.
Thats mainly beacuse most people watch reviews and look at the specs. And lot of people feel that Apple is too expensive and you can get similar specs for 3/4 or half the price.
Samsung and Google phones drop so hard in price in the EU 1 year after release that you can get them for a half the price of an Iphone.
The problem in the US, especially K-12, is the dominance of iMessage in all forms of groupchat. Teens use iMessage in the US just like people use Line in Japan, WhatsApp in EU, etc.
It’s a social class issue; the lowest end new Androids are about $50, the cheapest new iPhones are $430.
As of November 2022 India had 1.2bn cell phone users and 600MM smart phone users.
The combined population of the US and Japan (total, not just cell phone users) is ~455MM.
Over the years Apple has fixed a lot of the annoyances that Android users had with iOS, and meanwhile Google has locked down Android, implemented measures to prevent rooting/customization, made all their apps a constant A/B/C/D test controlled by server-side flags that constantly rearrange your UIs and prevent the ability to sideload specific app versions, been less generous with the free service offerings, and repeatedly shut down, re-launch, re-brand, and overhaul all their apps and services.
Google does a pretty good job at selling iPhones.
Also removing the microSD slot from the flagship phones.
I used to laugh at how the Apple was the only manufacturer that forced you to pay $200 for every $15 worth of storage. Not much to laugh about anymore since Android flagships keep insisting on copying & pasting Apple’s militant anti-consumerism.
I got tired of all that treatment after years and years of using different types of Android devices. The update scenario didn’t help either, even though Samsung has done massive strides to improve in that aspect.
Samsung totally ignores their low end phones. In fact, if you’re on Android, expect one, maybe two OS updates in your phone’s lifetime before you have to replace it.
What? You can root pixel phones, nothing is locked down on androids
Google has locked down Android, implemented measures to prevent rooting/customization
Believe it or not, this is something that kept me from switching to Android at a time a few years back when my Apple products were beginning to bore me.
I absolutely hate Samsung’s UI and Pixel battery life is horrible, custom ROMs used to fix most of this, without it, I’ll never consider switching.
Honestly, as much as I am split with the impending sideloading, it’s one of the few things I still miss about Android.
Google has locked down Android, implemented measures to prevent rooting/customization
True that, especially with Samsung. The last time I read, Samsung has some sort of “e-fuse” in their security chip that destroys itself if you install an unauthorised OS version and voids your warranty, blocks Samsung Pay, and blocks their “Secure Folder” feature. At least Samsung has Goodlock. Which is blocked from running on my phone (a Samsung M52, so it is faster than newer Samsungs that support Goodlock).
made all their apps a constant A/B/C/D test controlled by server-side flags that constantly rearrange your UIs and prevent the ability to sideload specific app versions
Is this specific to Google’s implementation of the Android UI? This isn’t an issue on my Samsung.
been less generous with the free service offerings, and repeatedly shut down, re-launch, re-brand, and overhaul all their apps and services.
True that, that’s why the only Google services I use (besides ones my university requires) are YT, Gmail, Maps, and Play Store.
Is this specific to Google’s implementation of the Android UI? This isn’t an issue on my Samsung besides it blocking older apps due to system architecture issues.
I’m referring to the Google apps themselves (Google Play, Gmail, YouTube, etc). They enable/disable UIs based on server-side flags, it happens on all devices regardless of manufacturer.
That is so true!!! Constant ui changes in google apps are fucking infuriating. One day for 24 hours I even had COMPLETELY missing watch later playlist on YouTube and I use it all the time.
Yeah this is one of my biggest issues with Google overall: they’re wildly inconsistent. Apple’s apps mostly stay the same, FaceTime is just FaceTime and has been forever. Google on the other hand changes which app they’re pushing in any given category like every couple of years and it’s incredibly annoying. Every time I check back in it’s like the apps are either designed in a totally different way, called something different out of nowhere, or totally deprecated and replaced with another app.
I watched a video recently which also said that reasons for Android losing ground to Apple is that the products have become more like each other. Android used to be seen as the cheap alternative to the expensive iPhone. But nowadays flagship Androids are just as expensive, if not moreso, than flagship iPhones. Apple also offer a much cheaper version of the iPhone which is comparable in price to low-to-mid-level Androids. Not to mention the fact that the longer OS support of Apple means that buying a cheap second-hand iPhone is easier and easier.
Couple that with the fact that, as you say, Androids are becoming less customisable while iPhones are becoming more customisable, and all the reasons that people used to choose Android are becoming less and less true and/or relevant.
implemented measures to prevent rooting/customization
This part isn’t true. Google Pixels (just like Nexus) are the only Androids out there (other than Fairphone) that allow you to sign and re-lock the bootloader after installing Calyx or Graphene. And you can even install Graphene using webUSB now.
That said, I agree on the rest. While Apple was adding CardDAV and CalDAV, true NFC support, shortcuts, and SMB, Androids were dumbing-down its interface, and removing the 3.5mm jack and the dedicated fingerprint scanners.
Now iPhones have USB C, and iOS will be getting sideloading. All I have left to miss is the back button, notification panel, GBoard, and ability to turn off blocking animations.
Android alienated its power users to (fail) to court iPhone users, while Apple successfully did the opposite, courting power users. It’s worse recent sins are removing force-touch and the SIM slot.
Don’t forget the selling of your data.
they are not selling your data, that would be dumb
I miss the rooting/jailbreaking days it was fun to learn how the software and hardware functioned in unison with each other why side loads would or wouldn’t work. And honestly most the stuff that people consider cool or just take for granted on the iPhone now or only available through jailbreaks on the earlier models!
Yep. Jailbreakers got us the first app store. Before that, Jobs wanted every “app” to be a webapp :(
I don’t see any problems
You will when apple inevitably deteriorates because they have no competition to keep them in check.
They already have
Nah, monopolies are never good for the economy. If Android market share continues to decrease drastically, Apple has free rein to increase prices for inferior products (think of Intel’s dominance over CPUs back in the day).
Literally not a problem for anyone but Google, a company.
It’s a problem for all users if any one company essentially becomes the only player.
Look at how bad Internet Explorer was after Netscape died. Or how bad Internet providers are when they’re the only option.
No, competition is really important. Apple can be very consumer-unfriendly at times (see the ongoing raging about the 8gb ram Macbook Pros) and without competition, there’s nothing stopping them from being even worse.
Eh. With iMessage’s popularity among teenagers, it would be harder for Android users to make friends in school. That’s a real problem and while many will say “you shouldn’t want to be friends with those types of people anyway,” it’s hard enough to make friends in school without this barrier. At that point, you can go through the hassle of working around that, or give in and use a device/OS that you find less favorable.
I mean , yeah , it would be good to not be friends with people that judge others based on using an android for example.
Competition is good for the consumer, a monopoly is only good for the company (Apple in this case).
Monopolies are definitely a problem for consumers. It allows Apple to get away with high prices for example.
no it’s a problem for ME!!!
MY identity is based on teh superiority complex that Andriod is a vastly superior cusomtization and hacker friendly
i need EVERYONE to understand how much better I AM to them
Thought the exact same thing
Competition is very important. Two players is bad enough, having just one player reduces innovation and cost competitiveness.
See what happened with Intel and what they did when AMD finally brought some proper competition to the market again.
It’ll be a problem for all if Apple becomes a monopoly
It can be an Apple issue if Androids market share diminishes to below 20%
Google has the money to lobby congress for antitrust suits and Apple may have to pay Google to keep Android alive
It’s not an issue of antitrust unless it can be shown that they used unfair/anti competitive “monopoly power”. People misunderstand that. Monopolies are not illegal per se, abusing monopoly power is.
They’ll just take it out of the Google search money.
I’m pretty sure Apple has more cash than Google and people seem to find Apple more likable.
It still boggles my mind that you can get in trouble because your competitors can’t keep up with you or have a worse product than you. I get that this doesn’t really happen often, but it’s both funny and sad.
It’s a little more complicated than that. It’s not just a question of market share, but whether you use your market share to make it impossible for others to compete against you.
For example, Microsoft was getting itself into trouble in the late 90s because they essentially used their dominant position in the OS market to push Internet Explorer— making it next to impossible for other browsers at the time, like Netscape, to compete. For example, they made it difficult for other companies to install their software when their own competitive alternatives were included for free, and in some cases, impossible to remove (explorer was fully integrated into Windows at this time and you couldn’t remove it).
There are plenty of companies that essentially own entire markets. Google for example something like 85%. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Almost no one remembers you used to have to pay for Navigator, but they couldn’t compete with free and built in IE.
Heck with windows 95 you used to have to pay for IE, you had to get the Windows 95 plus package or you had to buy IE separately.
It’s the only reason Apple even exists today.
Being successful isn’t illegal. But using your success to stamp out the competition is illegal.
And one simple messaging app can kill Android? Then my point stands even more, Google is even worse at making products then.
You cant. Thats just cause people dont understand anti trust law. You can absolutely have monopoly by competition. If you win the market the government isnt gonna stop you.
Antitrust measures are when you actively take away ways of competing. Like if apple paid carriers to not sell androids.
it still boggles my mind how people don’t understand how a company having a monopoly isn’t a good thing. prices go up, innovation goes down because you have no options.
How is it a monopoly tho? There are shitload of smartphone companies and Android still has more users worldwide than iOS.
We are talking about a hypothetical suit here, not an actual antitrust case
iMessage is vendor lock in, not being better. Apple is just as bad as 90s Microsoft on vendor lock in and EEE.
vendor lock in is not what you think it means.
I know full well what it means. Did you also sleep through the docs where Apple said they use iMessage as a way to prevent people from switching? What Apple does here is no different than Microsoft making using anything but IE on Windows in the 90s miserable. Or how to this day they keep obfuscating Office formats while pinky promising for real this time they’ll support open document standards.
Thats not how anti trust works in capitalism.
I’ll never forget a few months ago on Reddit I saw a dude comment the only reason so many teenagers have iPhones is because they usually don’t pay for it themselves, and they’re gonna switch to Android when they get older.
Does Google do such a thing for Bing? Why did Yahoo search die?
Android market share will never diminish below 20%, at least not worldwide.
Even in the US where iOS is the most dominant Android has a majority market share of 53.9%, iOS has around 45.6%.
When you look at it worldwide, Android has more than 2/3rd of the market with 70.5% market share, while iOS 28.8%.
Apple needs a lot more competitive pricing if they want to ever overtake Android, especially outside of the US. Sure they are popular among US teens who mostly care about what they see on TikTok or in the hand of their classmates, but the world doesn’t work like that.
It’s a problem for every other oem, and (more importantly) for current android users. If people stop using it Google are simply gonna stop making android.
Which also indirectly affects ios users, less competition (and Innovation) isn’t good for anyone.As long as apple prices their phones like how they are, they are never going to have total domination.
Worldwide 71% of smartphone users have an Android
In Europe 66% of smarthphone users have an Android . And as someone who lives in Europe I can say that I only rarely see Iphones.
Considering more and more people in third are beginning to buy more smartphones this number will prbably rise for Android.
And in Europe the consent is that Apple is becoming way to overpriced and you can get other flagships 1 year after release for half the price of an Iphone with the same specs
So I really doubt Android is dying. They just need to catch on to the US and some asian countries again
This isn’t an apple issue and really doesn’t belong on this sub other than to be pedantic about apple being superior
I’m guessing something like lack of competition for apple may stagnate innovation but in apples case I don’t think they react to external pressures like that anyway.
Why is this a problem?
Because google wants to make money.