No Stupid Questions

Because an iPhone isn’t “that” expensive when you buy it on a plan. I mean it’s only $38 CAD for the new iPhone 6e on a Contract. That’s with my paycheque to paycheque budget. /s

Though honestly that’s the mind set of these users. Sure they are literally paying $100+ CAD more than MSRP. But to them since it includes the data it’s a good deal.

Now bellow is my view as a guy who manages and orgs fleet of Samsung phone, developed apps for both Android and iOS, and is the defacto IT guy for my family.

I think the lean towards iPhones comes from budget Android being crap, and peer pressure from those around them. Get a cheap A series Samsung or a Budget Acer and you are just asking for a slow and buggy experience where the mic will just stop working after 2 years. Or it’s running Android One.

Even an older iPhone like the 6s is still supported by many apps. Plus since it once had flagship specs. The soc has more power and runs better than anything new from Android. It’s the same logic that if you get an older iPad for the same price as a new Fire Tablet the iPad will be better than a fire tablet.

The solution is to get a more expensive Android. But once you get to the price point of a Samsung S series, you might as well get an iPhone. The price is comparable, and you don’t loose out on features like the App Store (google play is a steaming pile in comparison). Plus iMessage and FaceTime is seamless and Airdrop “just works”.

My relative had Android for years and struggled to use them. I finally convinced one of them to use an iPhone XR by the time the 14 was coming out, and now my Nan is texting and doing FaceTime. They could’ve done this before with the budget Android their carrier gave them. But the work Apple did to make it feel intuitive is brilliant. In fact because of the confidence boost from the iPhone, she’s even gotten herself an iPad to do her crossword puzzles.

On top of that, unlike Apple. There is no guarantee that if you pay more for you Android that I’ll keep getting support. Most phones struggle to offer more than 2 years. And with the fiasco around the Pixel 4 battery, it’s hard to believe the biggest players “promises”. Compare that to Apple and while the promise 7 years, realistically it can be 10 years.

For me the reason I swapped over was the Play Store being hot garbage. And the disgusting amount of uninstallable bloat on it. I tried for years to install custom ROMs and midrange Chinese phones to get around it. While it works, I grew tired of the work required just to keep my phone up to date. And the loss of built in features since I was going u official. Like the loss of 2/3 cameras in the app (trying to find a cracked gcamera which enables both is a chore), and contactless pay (evolution x worked sometime, and locked me out other time).

Don’t get me wrong iOS isn’t better than Android. I miss my headphone jack, FDroid, side loading my own apps, the ease of adding custom ringtones, and custom launcher. Oh and being able to use 3rd party web browsers that aren’t skins of Safari (WebKit). But when updates come through I’m not concerned. My contactless pay works. Ad blocking is possible and I can’t complain about the cameras.

Why do most [insert country here] people use [insert brand from their country here]???

I like the user experience. I like the quality of the third party apps available. I like Apple's stated commitment to privacy. I don't trust Google.

Honestly, at this point, the only reason to go with either ecosystem is that Android, for now, allows you to escape Google, to some degree depending on how much work you're willing to put in. IOS/apple doesn't allow that

But, Google is trying hard to get to the same place.

But, ignoring that, apple got there first. That's what it amounts to. The first real smart phone was by Apple, and that gave them a leg up

through significant promotion and advertisement by APPLE, the mackbook, is used by tons of programmers though, and i have used the desktops at university library.

Bootlickers got nothing to hide..... Also Android is the same thing unless degoogled.

I personally do not trust Google at all. Their entire business model is ads and tracking.

Fuck iPhones.

I would never use an iPhone if my phone were my primary computing device. But I just make occasional calls and texts, and use a handful of apps (for instance, Nextcloud and Home Assistant connected directly to my home server, bypassing most of Apple’s ecosystem).

For a secondary device, I just want something simple and sturdy that I have to think about as little as possible—and for that specific use case the limitations are a plus.

android user now but basically... it might be that most of us Americans try to take the path of least resistance or whatever doesn't give us headaches. I mean like, almost everything we do (except taxes) are pretty simplified. And even for taxes, we can LITERALLY pay for services to simplify or do it for us ( like wtf, this is kinda stupid). Apple does a good job of making it an easy experience.

1. easy to use - like an automatic car vs manual car.

2. popular apps just work - I don't think its a problem now but I remember when some social media apps were just broken on android vs iphone.

3. a lot of the software looks pretty clean and fancy. Gives it a polished experience.

4. HARD TO LEAVE - Apple products work better with other apple products. Once you leave, you basically lose out on all the purchases you've made over the years.

5. Apple store support - life saver for most people

6. Security updates more consistent.

Hell, trying to adjust from typing with iphone keyboard to android keyboard took longer than expected.

Also our government issues out iphones for fed employees.

Usamericans usually like to look for "the best", whatever that means, and never accept "second". I assume that they need that to feed their pride.

Apple has managed to make them believe that iPhone products were the best smartphones, and all of Apple's marketing is focused on maintaining that belief.

The binary choice is the freedom. As many people in this thread have discussed, it’s not a real choice, but it’s simple enough that most people will put on blinders and accept the available options.

I use iPhone. It sucks but network effect from people in my circle brought me here

Because they are easily gullible.

Through the release of the first iPhone to the mid 2010s I'd wager that most consumers agreed that iPhones were superior to Android by most metrics: they featured more support across the board, had more apps, looked nicer, and were considered the premium. Apple pioneered the modern smartphone and had a headstart in getting users hooked into their ecosystem. Nowhere was this more pronounced than in the wealthiest country in the world (and Apple's home country).

That's a huge generalization but I think it resonates true to a degree. Also, anecdotally, I remember that all my school computers were Macs when growing up. I'm sure Apple seeped its tendrils into people's lives a variety of ways. It's not a cake walk for most people to switch ecosystems. As a lifelong Windows user I'll have a panic attack if you asked me to print a document on a Mac; I'm sure its the same vice versa lol

My reasons:

1. Because it just works.
2. I can uninstall the trash apps that apple includes and use my own preferences.
3. Don’t have to deal with bloatware from two vendors (Google and Samsung for example)
4. Vendor lock-in. I started on iOS (iPod touch) and so I have a certain amount of app purchases that are iOS-only. This is the only one that galls me.
5. longevity / platform support. I’ve had this thing for close to five years, and the battery is only starting to fail in the last few months.
6. decent display. Samsung galaxy’s PCM brightness control gives me horrible eye strain.

Maybe it’s just Samsung that’s trash, I dunno. I tried hard to like android and in principle I should prefer Google’s more open ecosystem. But it just seems to enable every manufacturer of android phones to try to outcompete each other in how awful they can make the experience of owning their products, all in the name of trying to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Mostly because of bullying. Android users are poor shamed.