Nearly 9 in 10 US teenagers use an iPhone, spelling disaster for Google’s mobile future

    • onlinepersona@programming.dev
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      11 months ago

      Yes - right now. If 87% of teens in the US have iPhones, what do you think will happen to that stat in the US and then the world, where people copy-paste US trends to feel wealthy or cool (even adults)?

    • V ‎ ‎ @beehaw.org
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      11 months ago

      How much of that split is among the 3rd world and over 25s? Demographics matter, and paint a very different picture.

      • MudMan@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        I don’t know a single person of any age that uses an iPhone. I live in a medium-to-high income country.

        A news program yesterday used a QR code to provide a link to a political document that is newsworthy. The anchor instructed people to “point your Android at the screen” to download the document.

        Americans are vast outliers in this.

  • Navarian@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    Apple may have a monopoly on teens in the US, but the fact that most android phones are cheaper, more powerful, more customisable and look better, will keep Google in the top spot with android.

    Also, and I realise this is anecdotal, but where I’m from in the UK, having an iPhone stands you out as a bit of a dullard. Wasted money and all that.

  • somegeek@programming.dev
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    10 months ago

    I honestly think that is only a thing in the USA. Nowhere else in the world thinks like this. Also the type of bullying and even school shootings that we see and hear are mostly only-USA issues so I think there is something really wrong with teens over there.

  • anti-idpol action@programming.dev
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    11 months ago

    When Jobs kicked the bucket, RMS rightfully said that this mf’n evil genius has figured out a way of making people run to their stores with their arms stretched forward, asking them to handcuff them.

  • onlinepersona@programming.dev
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    11 months ago

    If the US had a functioning FCC that wasn’t toothless aka their own Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition, and Digital Markets Act, iMessage wouldn’t even be a special.

  • Hubi@feddit.de
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    11 months ago

    Why are iPhones so popular in the US compared to Europe? Is it a peer pressure kind of thing? Or simply status? The difference seems to be pretty substantial and I don’t think it can be explained by user experience alone.

    iPhones have a 58% (US) vs 26% (EU) market share.

    • sergih@feddit.de
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      11 months ago

      I think it has to do with the messagin app. For some reason in the us it’s still common to use plain sms messages, which on an iPhone get translated to the blue bubble, but when sent to an android become the infamous green bubble.

      This is however not the case in the EU bc sms messages were still expensive enoughfuring that time that when whatsapp released, everyone did the switch so as to not to pay the sms fees, and now, even if sms are basically free, everyone uses whatsapp as the default messaging app.

      And as we know on whatsapp there’s no differentiation of anything regarding the device you are sending messages to, so no constant reminder of “this guy had an android”.

      Just my 2 cents on why this could be.

      • Hyperreality@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        which on an iPhone get translated to the blue bubble but when sent to an android become the infamous green bubble.

        The interesting thing is that the green/blue bubble thing is only infamous in the US.

        As you say, outside the US, people use messaging apps like whatsapp or wechat.

      • Mongostein@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        The blue bubbles mean you’re using iMessage, which is encrypted. You don’t have to download a separate app owned by Facebook which makes texting iPhone to iPhone so much better.

        • Kid_Thunder@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          In the US most carriers (and certainly the big 3) support end-to-end encryption via RCS. Though of course, Apple won’t support the Diffie-Helman exchange outside of iMessage or anything RCS at all.

          • Mongostein@lemmy.ca
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            11 months ago

            …which you need to install Google or Samsung messages to take advantage of, so it’s the same thing.

            Until all phones use the same protocols in their stock messages app, SMS will still be used to send between the different platforms.

            • Kid_Thunder@kbin.social
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              11 months ago

              RCS is a standard and is application and even operating system agnostic. Anyone, including applications outside of Android can support it.

              iMessage is not a standard and certainly not agnostic.

              • Mongostein@lemmy.ca
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                11 months ago

                Ok, well I still don’t want to install another app to use it so I guess we’re stuck.

                What really needs to happen is for all the phone makers agree to use the same protocols (and I really don’t care which) so we can all have end-to-end encryption by default.

                • Kid_Thunder@kbin.social
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                  11 months ago

                  That’s the thing. Essentially everyone has agreed, except for Apple. This includes 12 phone manufacturers and at least 55 operators world-wide.

                  Even Microsoft since Windows 10 supports RCS in the Your Phone app, so if you’re using a Windows desktop or laptop, even it supports RCS.

        • Hyperreality@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          Stupid question, but does imessage allow you to record messages, post videos, pictures, gifs, attach files, hold polls, start groups, etc?

          Or is it still mainly an sms based thing?

    • IDontHavePantsOn@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      While other commenters are correct about the marketing in some aspects. As a parent of teenagers I will say if they don’t have an iPhone they will be mocked relentlessly. The whole bubble color thing is real. They think androids are for poor people even though androids have a much larger range of price. This isn’t a “my kids” thing. This is a “everyone in school thinks” thing.

      God help me when they get their next upgrade and suddenly my chargers start going missing because “someone stole” theirs…

      • sederx@programming.dev
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        11 months ago

        this is the same excuse i hear for people circumcising their kids.

        are us people so weak to peer pressure?

      • 768@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        They think androids are for poor people

        So it boils down to classism among youths and in schools?

          • Chariotwheel@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            No, no, blame the children.

            We, the current adults, are not at fault for the situation. It’s others. Older adults, or the young people. It’s only us who is enlightened, everyone else is fucking stupid.

    • V ‎ ‎ @beehaw.org
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      11 months ago

      RCS has failed to take over the market, creating a strong preference for iMessage. Additionally, iPhones just work. The curated App Store means far less malware and buggy crap apps. Pile on the social aspects and few people under 25 are going for iPhones.

      • MudMan@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        I don’t know what RCS even is.

        We all just use Whatsapp here, both on iPhone and Android. If you bought an iPhone for some reason and tried to text people through iMessage you’d get laughed out of the room.

        Also, holy crap, how long has it been since you looked at the Play Store? Is that narrative about Android still running in the US? I legitimately hadn’t heard that one in years.

        • V ‎ ‎ @beehaw.org
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          11 months ago

          It’s gotten better over the years, but the stats don’t lie. Play Store has higher incidence of shady apps or outright malware. Some of this is due to their policies, some of it because of how Android apps work. And I work in information security, so I’m quite familiar with the state of things. RCS was proposed as a replacement for SMS, to correct some deficiencies and modernize it overall. In the US, it ended up getting fragmented due to carrier differences and Google tacking on patents and licensing encumbrances that harmed adoption. In the EU yeah, everyone just uses 3rd party platforms, so it’s not a problem there.

          • MudMan@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            The ecosystem is very different and there’s definitely a more open platform on Google’s side still, but the perception that Play is catching up to the iPhone App Store has not been a thing around here for ages. I mean, discovery is borked across the board on both at this point, and breaking out with new content through placement is a nonstarter.

            And hell no, nobody uses “third party platforms”. They use the Play Store. Nobody is in Samsung or Amazon’s weirdo alternatives. Those are not a thing, except for the five apps Samsung insists on making you update that way for some reason. It’s Play or nothing. If you’re developing phone apps and you’re not on the Play Store you’re dead. I haven’t spoken to a mobile developer that was targeting anything but the App Story and the Play Store… ever.

            I thought I knew how that worked in the US, but maybe you’re talking about something different here.

            • V ‎ ‎ @beehaw.org
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              11 months ago

              A natural consequence of more flexibility and openness is the potential for abuse. That’s not a bad thing mind you. Imagine if Android was as locked down as iOS, it’d be horrible for everyone. As for which is better, eh, opinions and preferences. If the world’s largest search provider could fix the searchability (lol) of their app store it would be great. Apple has a similar issue. If you’re in their App Spotlight you’ve going to see huge amounts of traffic to your app, but for everyone else it’s chopped liver. On the topic of third party, I wonder if more repos in the style of F-Droid would help. Apple is getting force fed third-party apps next year in the EU, and I’m looking forward to the benefits.

      • D1G17AL@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        You sound like every cringe teenager worried about the status of blue or green messages. Cringe bro. Just absolutely cringe.

        • V ‎ ‎ @beehaw.org
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          11 months ago

          Frankly I don’t care. I use a mixture of both ecosystems. I’m not going to deny reality either and pretend that the average American in their target demographics doesn’t. I find it disappointing that as soon as anyone points out something someone else doesn’t like others go straight to attacking the person and not the point. The real cringe is taking the sides of companies that don’t care about you beyond the revenue you bring them.

      • Hubi@feddit.de
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        11 months ago

        That doesn’t explain the difference in market share. Seems like there are cultural differences.

        • V ‎ ‎ @beehaw.org
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          11 months ago

          It might be, and given the States’ rather unique culture I have a feeling it’s a big contributor other factors notwithstanding.

  • Gallardo994@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    Whoever considers an iPhone as a status thing is generally broke anyway. I personally own both S23U and i14PM and I still use S23U because it helps me in my daily life much more than an iPhone. People claiming something about others based on a fucking phone preference aren’t worth my time.

  • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    Guys, should an essential device be “cool”? It doesn’t hurt, don’t get me wrong… But is it a good reason to buy a device you need?

    Buy this shit because it works, not because it’s cool. Android lets you do more, so I own one. That’s it. Fuck Google, I just want to install third party apps.

    • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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      11 months ago

      These are teenagers. Buying anything is done under the consideration of how cool it is. Literally everything else is not important during consideration, what matters is having the thing that makes you socially accepted.

      If old school cell phones with monochrome pixel displays and zero functionalities beyond telephone and sms were trending, instead of just being a niche for people fed up with social media, kids would buy that in a heartbeat.

      You probably forgot how overwhelmingly important social status and belonging to a group is at that age.

    • anti-idpol action@programming.dev
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      11 months ago

      Yeah they did a very clever thing for the past decade or so, by slapping their illuminated logo onto their laptops, then aggressively contracting TV studios to have the actors use Macs