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.
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.
This is 100% the reason I have an iPhone. I can usually eek out 5 yrs on an iphone before it’s taken one too many falls. Which has also been why any iPhone of mine has died, no other reason than I fumbled it around with no case on it…. Also much to my pleasure, the 13 mini was still available for my most recent upgrade, so now I don’t have a gigantic phone anymore either.
I have looked to get out of apples grasp, but nothing else comes close in terms of long term support, which is absolutely necessary for a device that touches all of my digital life.
You’re right, few people care about how long the phone will be supported.
What they do want is an inexpensive phone that still runs the latest software. Because Apple models are supported so long, people can buy used, old iPhones that still run the latest software.
Others trade in their phones often because they always want the new shiny. Because Apple models are supported so long, the used phone they trade in has more value, allowing them to fork over less cash for the latest Pro phone.
These are the sort of factors that drive Apple’s market share up.
> Because Apple models are supported so long, people can buy used, old iPhones that still run the latest software.
You (usually) can run the latest software on an old Android nowadays - the reason is that many of the functions which were previously baked into the system are now part of Google Play Services, which are upgraded like any other software package.
The only app to tell me that it will stop updating on my 5-year-old Android phone was... Slack.
I disagree. I know a bunch of people who buy cheap iPhones and use them forever because of this. And I know even more that buy old iPhones off Craigslist for $100-200 and use them for years.
Yes. I'd argue most people hate or are annoyed by updates. "Ugh, another update??" I hear this all the time. Or "X company updated my phone and everything is different, I hate updates!"
I'd argue that Google wouldn't keep gaslighting users about how it's fixed the update issue "for sure this year" if they didn't know that users care about updates.
I had an iPhone SE 2016 model for about 5 years, really the only thing that caused me to get rid of it was apps no longer supporting the screen size. I wasn't able to use my banking app properly because things would be cut off, amongst various other apps.
I have an iPhone SE. It might still be getting security updates but the actual user experience is quite bad now; new features and apps are just not designed for it. Meanwhile the original Google Pixel doesn't have the newest security updates but Play store apps and features still work properly on it.
If you read the OP linked report, contrary to the popular sentiment here and on Apple sites, that more people hold on to their Android phones longer than iPhones despite the lack of security updates
Maybe I’m just old, but the idea of have a device on the internet that no longer gets security updates just seems wrong. Learned too many lessons back in the 90s and the oughts.
I'm a graybeard too (with a security background), and I got over this. The problem started when companies combined forced updating with no longer issuing security updates separately from other updates.
If it were just security updates, I wouldn't mind automatic installations. But feature updates are too disruptive. So I avoid automatic updates where I possibly can.
I accept that there's a security risk associated with doing this, but for me, it's a risk that's worth taking.
Didn't some recent Google Pixels have a baseband issue that allowed a remote takeover of an unpatched device by hackers knowing nothing more than the device phone number?
I am still using an iPad Air 2 from 2014. In that same time span, I've had at least 4 different Android phones.
I'm considering an iPhone for my next phone, although I'm a Google Voice user which makes me a little nervous about that prospect, plus I've been less than impressed with Safari's extension ecosystem.
This misses the point completely. Regular security issues happen often, in 2023 alone we've already had 809 CVEs in Android [0]. Saying we should overlook addressing those because sometimes a CPU level security issue comes along is absurd. Spectre and other similar families of attacks are comparatively rare enough that they have names not numbers, that should say enough.
I made the switch at the end of 2021 after only having an android phone since the very first one. I wouldn't say I regret the change but I would say I'm not impressed. The way so many of my friends mocked me for having an android phone and talked up their iphones made me think I _must_ be missing something. Alas, I don't feel that I was. Every once in a while I boot up my old android phone (oneplus 6) and use it and it's snappier than I remember and feels way better in my hand than my iphone does.
This was clear as day over 10 years ago, and is just as clear today.
Back in the early days of iPhone vs Android, there was a huge meme of iPhone users praising Apple for "inventing" features that Android had years ago [0]. I remember (but can't find right now) a screenshot of a conversation of an iPhone user all happy about iPhone getting SwiftKey and then saying "When is Android getting this? XD" and the other person responding with "About 4 years ago".
While the meme of "iPhone is better than Android because iPhone can do X" while Android has been able to do X for over 2 years no longer applies, there's still the meme that iPhone is somehow still a superior device. Apple has somehow convinced people that the iPhone is a luxury device, and there are some iPhone users that look down on Android users and think that Android is for people that can't afford iPhone, even though flagship Androids cost just as much.
It's just personal preference these days. I can't stand Apple's walled garden approach, but people that have multiple devices (laptop, tablet, phone, watch, etc) love it since it guarantees compatibility and functionality.
Similarly to that, I saw people in awe that when you receive a token via SMS on iPhone it allows you to copy it without opening the message. Something that Android also already had since before. In Android's case it even writes it on the app automatically without the need to do anything at all
AirDrop?
Handoff?
Fully encrypted iCloud storage, a first-of-its-kind offering that no other mass market OEM has been able to match?
Apple pay leading the market and getting mobile vendors to literally adopt contactless payments for the first time?
Mobile video chat that took Google years to replicate?
The list goes on. I don't know how one could say their software isn't powerful. It is.
To me it's the fact that it just works and I use it as a smart phone and not as a General Purpose Computer. There is a lot of ecosystem stuff on iOS that are just missing from Android. Plus the skinning of each manufacturer is/was terrible. Samsung's early TouchWiz was incredibly terrible...
I also use Android when I need more access to different things e.g. portable pocket pc that runs Linux.
I've launched Android based hardware products, I should be as Android deep as anyone can be and I use an iPhone.
"iPhone is better than Android because iPhone can do X" was never why anyone used iPhones. iPhones generally did things years later than Android but did them significantly better.
And Apple didn't need to convince people, they straight up were luxury devices compared to decay prone Android devices. Android lagged in locking down background services so battery would worsen over time as random apps did random garbage in the background. Lots of devices had weird eMMC and virtual FS bugs that'd also slow them down over time. And for a truly embarrassing length of history, top apps for things like flashlights would install lock screen ads on your device.
I agree it's more personal preference these days, but that's mostly because Google went and copied Apple's walled garden approach. Things power users loved got gutted, more and more core functionality became part of Google Play Services that vendors aren't allowed to modify. Because of Project Mainline even the Android runtime is about to start getting updated via Google Play.
FWIW When I switched from Android->iPhone, I didn't think much of it. Some stuff was better, some stuff was worse. I didn't 'feel' that much better.
Then when I switched back from iPhone->Android (Pixel 4) the change was a lot more jarring. I noticed a lot of polish and batteries issues and I missed my iPhone until I finally switched back.
My theory is it's similar to lifestyle creep. You wont appreciate improvements as much as you'll notice regressions.
> Every once in a while I boot up my old android phone (oneplus 6) and use it and it's snappier than I remember and feels way better in my hand than my iphone does.
I wonder if you'd use it as a daily driver for a longer time if you'd have the same experience as me.
I made the switch to iphone as well in 2021 after androids for 10 years and I echo this sentiment. It's not transformational, it's more or less the same, especially compared to a pixel flagship phone.
I still use google photos because I find it better and it works fine. My next phone will be a pixel again though.
I had a pixel 7 pro, that after a half a year developed a battery problem. I got my money back and could get another pixel but was afraid of battery problems again, and picked a one plus 10 pro. I regret it. Pixel has the best Android expirence on the market. I'm not buying iPhones probably ever. I tried iphone 14 pro max a little bit and it's not worth 400 EUR over the Pixel for me. I also had Samsungs, they are ok, but pixel is better.
Text entry on my android phone was much more reliably good than on the iPhone, and the ux was better. I've had to disable a bunch of stuff to make it work reasonably on iOS, and it still gets stuff wrong far more often than I'd like.
One of the things i unticked removed the words list you get for editing its errors, so i have to edit the mistakes by hand. Very annoying. (And the suggestions were crap anyway.)
iPhone is not what it is cracked up to be. A lot of lock in. Some things are absolutely annoying. When I went to Poland, I had to change my region to download apps from appstore, it messed up all my purchase history and subscriptions.
One thing I like is that I have an iPhone 12 and have no need to upgrade, the phones have a much longer life imo.
The statement "apple stuff is just so easy and it works" is EXTREMELY misleading. When it works it works but when it doesn't you generally won't find much good advice.
> The statement "apple stuff is just so easy and it works" is EXTREMELY misleading. When it works it works but when it doesn't you generally won't find much good advice.
I've been a Mac fan since OS X came out in 2000/2001, and had iPhones and android phones for years. Just a general "I like all the OSes... and I hate all the OSes" kinda person....
The worst thing about being caught in a situation where something doesn't work right, or is just outright broken? If you go to an iphone/mac themed discussion place to discuss it, you'll probably just get called an idiot and insulted. A lot.
I also hate how iOS kinda has dark patterns to keep you locked into Apple's iCloud services. Lately, MacOS has been getting worse about that too. I think the only Apple service I can log into without causing an Apple device to freak out and have iCloud take everything over is Apple Music.
My biggest beefs are trying to export a tens-of-thousands picture library out of icloud - there's no good reliable way to do it except to tell the Photos app on a Mac to download everything locally and then wait an eternity (like literally weeks) to do so. Then you can use a python script to read the sqlite db and dump everything with correct EXIF data... (if you don't, it's a complicated mess)
My favorite is how bad the ECG app on the Apple Watch is. Especially if your older parent who has the watch on the largest text size uses it. Basically, it becomes almost impossible to dismiss the legal warning screen that pops up if you touch the grey "sine wave, 65bpm" summary thing. If you do, you have to hit a teeny tiny target at the top left of the screen to go back to that summary screen, scroll down without touching the grey box, and then hit 'done' at the bottom.
THEN you reach for your iphone and open the health app you had open before. But it doesn't show the ECG you just recorded - unless you tap the notification from the home screen. When you do, it'll exit the health app and reopen it, so that the latest ECG loads.
It is the most hilarious and fucked interaction I've seen. Like, the Apple Health App is LITERALLY BROKEN and their workaround is to make the notification force-restart the app.
Originally, it was "install the emulator on your device," and you said that would cost $8.33/mo, which was wrong. Where exactly are you moving the goalposts now?
Hey, relax. Everything is not a debate. Take off the hostility glasses and re-read my post with some charity:
“Meepmorp you’re totally right, it doesn’t cost anything at all! However, I do highly recommend paying this meager sum because the benefits are quite substantial.”
And when I was on an Android phone, Apple users weren't too happy about me trying to use talk/hangouts/meet/duo or whatever Google's messaging app of the week was.
For interoperability, nothing beats SMS/MMS/POTS/SMTP.
Yes because with iOS you can also RESTORE your entire operating system from that same backup. And if you really want to, you can change the file location so that iTunes backup file sits in a cloud folder.
If you live in urban areas such as NYC, upgrades are important because of signal interference from skyscrapers, subways, below-ground parking garages, basements,and tower congestion etc. The improvement in modems (eg, now X65 going to X70 Qualcomm) and transceiver electronics are improved as well as battery life.
I yearly upgrade primarily but not only for that reason. The newer modems are particularly good at weak signals, eg, < 120 dBm.
I use Verizon and use iPad Pro and Apple Watch also on cellular. Works really well together.
Really depends on your use case if you are constantly piping various files from one app into another - android still has that down fairly well. Browser > NewPipe > VLC for instance.
If you are more focused on the curated ecosystem Apple does it much better.
I mostly use Android because of my work flow but I do not think many people in the grand scheme work like this.
Give iOS a try you could be plesantly surprised with it.
Every couple of years, I'd pick up an Android to see what I might be missing. My history includes the HTC1, Samsung 7, and Pixel 3.
But last time, I realized that while both types of phones were fine, the ecosystem between Apple and Android was like night and day. Even if the iPhone was a way worse phone, there'd be so much in the Apple ecosystem I'd also have to ditch. That's just a no-go.
Here's what I found from my last Android adventure:
1. The iPhone gets the basics right. It might not have the flashy AI stuff of Pixels or the folding thing from Samsungs, but it doesn't drop the ball on the basics like some others I mentioned.
2. Apple usually doesn't rush out half-done features to get people talking. New stuff is generally thought out and polished.
Adding a bit more to this, here are some things about iPhones not talked about much:
3. Attention to detail. There are loads of tiny things that on their own don't seem like a big deal, but when you put them together they make a huge difference in the experience. A lot of other phone makers overlook this in their race to jam more features in.
4. Consistency across phone generations. You usually don't see features on iPhones popping up one year only to vanish the next. Even 3D Touch hung around for 3-4 years.
5. Easy data migration between generations. I've got texts going back to 2012 when I first got an iPhone. That might not matter to some, but I don't want to lose my stuff just because I swapped phones. This is becoming more common on Android, but it's not consistent across all phone makers - unless you plug in a wire to transfer your data when you upgrade. Really, needing a wire in 2021? It's nice to have the option, but it shouldn't be the only way.
6. Generally better quality apps. There are a few Android apps that are better than their iOS counterparts, but in my experience, the scales are usually tipped in iOS's favor.
7. Apps that are only on iOS or get there first. Lots of high-quality (Apollo RIP) are still only on iOS and the developers don't seem to be in any rush to move them to other platforms. Can't say the same for many top Android apps. Also, lots of apps launch first on iOS, while the Android version drags its feet for months.
8. The iOS API. It's not perfect - it has its problems, but compared to the hot mess that the Android API can be, it's not half bad. How does this impact me as a user? Well, good APIs mean more developers can make better apps.
9. The camera. No, not the camera hardware or the fancy photography stuff. I mean how the camera works with the rest of the system and the camera APIs. Did you know that a lot of Android apps that use the camera just open it up and take a screenshot?
10. A consistent story. Apple is trying to tell a consistent story, slowly replacing many single-purpose items in your life like your wallet, keys, and ID, and even eventually your passport, with your iPhone. This is done consistently, not just stuffing whatever's new and hot into this year's phones only to toss it next year.
I could keep going, but this post is already pretty long. Maybe I'll add more another time.
There are a few other things people mention, but they aren't unique to Apple, like the hardware mute switch and Apple Pay.
Don't get me wrong - there are things about iPhones that really bug me, but this isn't the post for that. :-)
Pixel 3 was awhile ago. I quite like the hot mess of features that Android used to have. I want to try that new idea even if it doesn't work out. However, I think that's in the past now except for maybe foldable design which I'm not that interested in. It does feel like there's still some cool camera stuff coming from the Android side.
I just upgraded my Android phone, different manufacturer, the migration was done via my Google account I didn't have to plug in a cable.
> Did you know that a lot of Android apps that use the camera just open it up and take a screenshot?
I don't think I've ever seen that. I switched from iOS to Android quite some time back, I found iOS annoying because it felt like apps couldn't easily share with each other and a lot of tasks took too many steps. That was from an iPhone 5 so I imagine it's very different now, but I tried out a 14 and thought it still wasn't for me.
Interesting, this is what I'm considering too after exclusively using Android+Windows since forever. The enshittification of Windows is mainly what has changed my mind - worse privacy, UX, forcing users to use online accounts - but also life seems more simple when you only have Apple to consider instead of whatever shenanigans that Microsoft and Google throws at you. Furthermore, the UX of the Apple eco system seems better than anything I've encountered on Android+Windows.
One thing to note is that Apple also tries very hard to get you to log in to their online services when you use your phone or laptop. They're not as overt as MS about requiring it yet, but I would not be surprised if it was coming.
As for UX, I feel like it's hit and miss for me. With the huge caveat that I haven't used Windows 11, Windows beats MacOS in a lot of areas. For example, I prefer older versions of Windows to MacOS for window management, and Explorer is a lot better than Finder in my opinion. Those are two major pieces of the user experience!
I recently sold a bicycle to a guy, over Craigslist. He sent me the funds with Venmo from his Pixel 7. Not only did it take tens of seconds for Venmo to initially draw itself, after that the platform offered, in a pop-up dialog, to kill the process every few seconds. The entire experience was pure jank. I don't know what that person had done to their phone but it should have been up to Android to have prevented it. That's Google's flagship phone!
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.