‘You’re Telling Me in 2023, You Still Have a ’Droid?’ Why Teens Hate Android Phones / A recent survey of teens found that 87% have iPhones, and don’t plan to switch::undefined
87% of US teens. Here in Germany I see a big mix of devices in teenagers and grown ups hands and nobody seems to care about it.
There are still enough people who are obnoxious about it, and most of them seem to be iPhone users interestingly
Like the vegans of smartphones
Came here to say this. Yes, iphones are popular here in the Netherlands, but it’s way more of a 50/50 split. My guess would be that this is the case because whatsapp is far more popular here (so the whole blue checkmark thing doesn’t really exist here) and that in general, people view phones less like a status symbol than Americans do.
I see a big mix of devices in teenagers and grown ups hands
Casually observed anecdotal evidence is even more worthless than a survey.
It is an American problem.
87% seems insanely high unless the survey was being done inside an apple store or something. But the article just keeps asking if I’m a robot, so I can’t actually read it.
But the article just keeps asking if I’m a robot
At some point you’ll just have to come to terms with it.
Ah, the easy days of being an obnoxious asshat while mum and dad buy your expensive tech for you.
Let them enjoy it, they have yet to grasp how dire the situation is.
I’m personally so tired of defending android to iPhone users. At the end of the day, it’s personal preference. IPhone is a walled-garden, curated and closed system that has features that are more uniform and well developed across the whole brand. Android has custom options for a huge variety of things that iPhone can’t match simply due to the nature of android’s open system. Android also tends to have significantly cheaper modern options, but iPhone tends to get OS and security updates much longer.
They both have huge market shares and neither can fill the other’s niche well enough to bump the other out. It’s not a competition, it’s just preference. Is it really such a big deal to point out that teens prefer one over the other? Once the next generation comes to an age of owning phones, we might just find that they find iphones lame and old and swap back to android. That’s kind of how generations tend to work.
I would prefer my phones to work well with other phones. If your phone requires that everyone else buy the same overpriced phone, it is not a better device. Anyone can make something that talks well with itself.
I’m on the same page as you. It should be noted, however, that the kind of exclusivity you find repulsive actually works as a selling point for apple. It’s like, “Buy an iPhone! All your friends have them and you want to be able to talk to them right?” Peer pressure is a hell of a drug
I’m aware, it’s why I inherently don’t trust them. They are anticompetitive to a fault. It is unethical no matter what code of ethics you go by and I vote with my wallet.
Using Apple devices isn’t just about the communication it’s about the whole ecosystem working together. No one does that as well across phone, tablet, laptop/desktop, watch, tv box, and speakers. That’s what sold my tech-illiterate wife and that’s why they’re so popular.
I’m not disagreeing with you. But the trade off is price. When you pay $2.5k more for a phone/tablet/laptop/desktop/watch/tv/speaker setup than you would for all of those things individually with industry standard features, they freakin better work together seamlessly.
Wise man once said: but expensive, cry once.
Easy to say if you have several thousand burning a hole in your pocket.
You robbed Apple of the true superiority of their offering: the hardware. There isn’t a phone out there that comes close to being as well designed and beautiful as an iPhone. That’s important to some people.
Well designed and beautiful are two very subjective words for a discussion about objective differences.
I think that iphones are bland and kind of ugly for their caliber of technology. My last phone was the sage-back pixel 5 and I absolutely loved the design of that thing. The thing is, looks alone don’t constitute superiority.
That’s a silly take.
The hardware offerings outside of Apple are just more diverse. You could buy a $40 Motorola or LG and get exactly what you’d expect. Or you could get the flagship Samsung or Google and blow the iPhone out of the water.
I’m not one of these Apple salespeople, but I was a latecomer to iPhone. Started with the 12. It was the first device I owned as far back as I remember that didn’t feel like it was lagging/dying at the end of year one. And consequently I didn’t replace it as I had with years of Pixels, Nexus, Samsungs, etc prior. I think their hardware design is better. And I think the hardware + software tightness results in extending the life of the hardware. And I say this still wishing I could get the new Pixel devices - but I simply haven’t felt that feeling of my phone becoming irrelevant as much as I did with my various android devices.
Same story repeated with tablets -> iPads seem to last forever / until the wheels fall off. I’ve owned Galaxy Tabs, Nexus 12s, etc -> they do not have the same longevity period. It’s sad honestly I wish that weren’t true.
I have a MacBook Pro 2013 that still runs like new (one battery replacement along the way). I can’t even imagine what a 10 year old Dell or Lenovo or HP would be right now. A paperweight?
The laptops are subpar, miss me with that soldered SSD bullshit
I don’t care about the beauty and I think some android phones are prettier, but iPhone hardware is ludicrously fast and that’s one of the reasons I have one.
Samsung equivalents have better hardware for the same price
E: I can guarantee you the downvotes are from people who have never even looked at the hardware in their phone. Nobody will even engage with the numbers.
Versus.com is useless. There’s no value in their comparisons.
This stuff always makes people defensive, but it’s better to make informed decisions. There is no dismissing this data, period. It’s not just a number score, the specs are there for you to read. The equivalent Samsungs have twice the RAM and two more processor cores than their apple counterparts.
You aren’t informing yourself when you read versus.com You’re comparing numbers and those numbers are often not comparable because they either aren’t counting the same thing or they’re an implementation detail that doesn’t affect the actual outcome. Versus.com is essentially worthless search spam.
For example, comparing cores and clock cycles between different architectures is useless.
The A16 chip in iPhone 14 is an ARM chip, same as the snapdragon.
Until the battery gets old lol. iPhones are fine; they’re simple phones for simple people.
Preferring simplicity in your smartphone doesn’t make you simple.
And what phone doesn’t need a battery replacement after a few years?
Sure it does.
Every phone needs a battery replacement after a few years, but not every phone will perform worse because of it. When your iphone battery wears out, your phone slows down. You have to replace the battery to both improve performance and battery life. When your android battery wears out, your phone does not slow down. It just runs out of battery sooner. Replacing the battery will not improve performance as it never slowed down in the first place unlike an iphone.
That’s because with any phone, an old battery stops being able to provide enough current to the phone when it gets old. So Apple throttles the phone. Phones that don’t do that become unstable, while the iPhone remains stable, but slows down.
Maybe if you keep using it once it doesn’t hold a charge for more than an hour, but I’ve never done that. When my batteries have gotten low, the phone didn’t start crashing more or acting weird, just running out of battery sooner.
This is only in the US I assume? The article isn’t very up front about it.
Because Apple did a dick move and targeted with paid influencers that segment of population because they are the most succeptible to fashion trends and easy to manipulate due to their natural tendency to buckle to peer pressure in order to integrate and feel accepted?
A important thing, that a lot of people here seem to forget: teenagers are more likely to be influenced by fashion trends, than reason, but they aren’t stupid.
I dunno, I’d call that one of the definitions of stupid. Not that they are necessarily overall stupid, but IMO being influenced by fashion trends without reasoning about it is a stupid trait (in kids or adults).
Disposable society at the max. They done got the new generation to accept planned obsolescence…
Fuck that, Right To Repair!
And being able to easily side-load apps. Also being able to just use a USB C cable like every other device. ( will not apply to future EU, but will probably remain relevant other places ).
I just really fucking hate apple and thier walled garden bullshit.
Name one Android phone that gets 5 years of the latest OS, without rooting or installing a third party OS, followed by another couple years of security updates.
The Fairphone. Fairphone 2 was updated from Android 5 through 10 (5 years on the latest version) Fairphone 3 started at 9 and is currently on Android 13, that’s five years, and hasn’t had it’s last update yet.
That’s two Android phones with at least 5 years on the latest OS, and Fairphone 2 got patch updates until this year, giving it support and updates from 2014 until 2023
FairPhone 3 user here. It’s true, just updated to Android 13, came with 9.
Additionally: Micro-SD, Dual-SIM, replaceable battery, can be repaired by myself at home, cheap/fair priced replacement parts and ethically sourced ressources.
It. is. possible.
Granted, Fairphone had to entirely do the BSP and entire update themselves because the SoC vendor doesn’t support A13.
The real issue here isn’t with the OEMs it’s the chip set vendors not supporting Android as long.
Interesting. It’s great that Fairphone is actually living up to their promises!
Why you want the latest OS anyways? Just to lock you out of features your device is otherwise capable of?
That’s the way things are going. Try keeping up would ya?
Sure, if you don’t care about being able to install new apps. Apple has many faults, but planned obsolescence is not one of them, especially since they OFFICIALLY support their devices 2-3 times as long as every single Android device out there.
Also, every iOS update has added functionality. I feel like I get a new phone every fall.
There’s no point in arguing with folks like that. They’re way more interested in platform wars than an honest argument. When they stick to the tired “planned obsolescence” lines from 10 years ago and try to argue that having a 2 year old phone that no longer gets security updates is a good thing, you know they jumped the shark years ago and are just posting in bad faith at this point.
Haha agreed, I just can’t resist sometimes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Believe me I get it :) It’s hard for me to resist too but sometimes there’s no winning. And winning isn’t even what we’re after usually. Just an honest back and forth about the pros and cons about the tech we all enjoy. It’s too bad that kind of discourse is so hard to come by these days :/
Oh no, no platform wars from me. Whatever operating system works for you, awesome!
But these companies that have gone so far as to glue or epoxy their batteries in, well that’s totally planned obsolescence.
Guess it’s only a coincidence which operating systems work with which devices… 🤔
Our shop literally wasn’t allowed to purchase new iPhone batteries, because of US Customs. My boss had us using scrap batteries from spare parts devices, while still selling them off to customers as though they were ‘new’ batteries.
Any wonder why I quit in 2017? Wanna try again?
Again, name ONE other smartphone that is supported by the manufacturer for 5+ years.
As far as smart phones, what, are you trying to defend planned obsolescence?
Seriously, if the old tech could last 8+ years, why should the new tech be so shitty to only last a few years or so?
Shouldn’t we be upgrading to devices meant to last 20+ years?
My definition of “planned obsolescence” includes devices that either come with outdated software from the factory, or devices that stop getting OS updates after a year or two. To accuse Apple of planned obsolescence in this context is absurd to me when all of their competitors are objectively worse at supporting their phones.
My roommate’s dumb flip phone lasted 8 years.
Thinking about framing the parts actually.
Only reason it quit working was because they shut down 3G service here.
I have no issue with iPhones, but I’ve never owned one, and have no intention of buying one in the foreseeable future. “It just works” has never appealed to me as a marketing tactic. I want to know how things work, and have access to get in and play around with things.
My beef is with Apple playing the good guy when anyone with half a brain knows they are just as bad as everyone else. Their whole ecosystem lock in without caring about anything else is what really gets me. They are literally opening up their users to potential privacy issues because they would rather force people to use an iPhone than implement basic RCS capabilities.
There’s a spectrum of answers here.
— As a tech guy I prefer to know how stuff works and to be able to play around with them. That’s critical for my servers and automation projects
— However as a person, I want my phone to just work, and to be secure and private by default, as far as those things go in current times. I also want a company that stands behind their products, even if I never need it, I want a tool that is well built, I want to count on security updates for several years, and there is quite a bit of built-in functionality that I like
— as a parent, I want to take advantage of secure family functionality on the iPhone, I want their phones to just work and to default to secure and private, as far as that goes. I want phones to be well built and well supported, to survive a teenager. And most of all, I don’t want to have to show my kids how to use a phone I don’t have, or to help them recover from their mischief.
We’ve let Apple buy its way into our school systems. Of course kids are going to gravitate toward iPhones. Part of their schooling every day from Kindergarten is using iOS.
I don’t know what you’re talking about. My kids school is all Chromebook and I think many are these days.
I’m sure it varies by state and maybe district, but around here, it’s iPads K-5, then MacBooks 6-12.
That sounds really expensive.
Probably. My quick search is only turning up articles from 20 years ago when the partnership started: “The deal is worth US$37.2 million over the next four years.”
Seriously there has never been so many different options for tech in schools these days.
When I was in school the computers were all original macintoshes with the school upgrading to the iMac G3’s in the early 2000. (I loved the design of those computers except that damn hockey puck)
9-12 was MS office and Windows 2000/XP though
Now the same school uses chrome books, windows 10, google workspace and classroom and the only apple products are just a cart of iPads they let kindergarten and first graders use
I think Apple marketing has a role in it. Their commercials and packaging gives the iPhone an elitist aura. Kinda like a calone, jewelry, fancy watches, fancy cars.
I have an iPhone, but I’d probably prefer an Android just because you can install things from outside the App Store.
I own both, a iphone X for work and a cheap Motorola G series phone (200 euro).
I prefer my Android phone, the customization, ease of use. With Android you feel more like an Admin, iphone you are just a user for overpriced stuff
Probably the same teens paying stupid money for trainers that someone scribbled on with sharpie!
