Nearly 9 in 10 US teenagers use an iPhone, spelling disaster for Google’s mobile future
Teens are more susceptible to marketing and peer pressure. It’s not their fault or anything it’s just their brains aren’t finished cooking and these companies take advantage of that.
Yeah, there’s the whole green vs blue chat bubbles thing too. They’ll leave people with Android phones out of the group chat, which isn’t exactly great for your social life at school.
Their parents are to blame too. You shouldn’t be giving a kid everything it wants. How the fuck would a kid find the money to buy such expensive trash anyway?
When my newborn daughter turns 12 or 13, she’s getting a dumb phone. She needs to be able to call and text her family, that’s it. Then she can go through the stages that I went through of dumb phone to slightly better dumb phone to low-tier smartphone to flagship as she gets to be 18. At that point then, she’ll be old enough to buy it with her own job money
You… there aren’t enough like you around.
There are teenagers outside of the US. Just fyi
What?
9/10 stat is US teens. That stat does not hold outside of the US, therefore the issue is not being a teen, per se
Oh ok yeah.
When looking at worldwide market share Android leads with 80+ percent.
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)?
Looking at the world I see 69% to 29% share in favour to android. There is no problem for android at all.
I feel like the headline is incomplete, should probably add in America
The subheading does specify that is in the US. And in the main text of the article, the very first line in fact, it mentions that Android has the largest market share worldwide.
Makes sense to include mentions that this is about the US in the Lemmy post. US is not the default
How much of that split is among the 3rd world and over 25s? Demographics matter, and paint a very different picture.
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.
As an American, it seems we will go all in on the most expensive and most milquetoastly adequate option every time.
Hey, you taught me a new word. Milquetoast. Thanks!
In the Army we had a saying, America does not solve its problems - it overwhelms then.
Do you mind sharing where you live? I’m interested in what traits the countries that skew one way or another may have. It’s worth noting that Japan is another outlier in this regard. They are something like 60-70% iOS over there.
And the UK is pretty evenly split, is my understanding. I have no idea how the demographic breakdown of the stats in the article compare in those territories, though.
I don’t broadcast where I am or other personal info on social media. You can probably reverse engineer it from context cues if you try, it’s not like I go to huge lengths to obscure it… but maybe please don’t? It’d feel weird and stalkerish.
That’s their point though
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.
so youre not a teenager, eh?
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.
Classmate once rocked up with that new thing called „iPhone“ and was the coolest kid on the block. Then I took out my Siemens M35 and showed them my swappable front covers, and said that each week I would put a different one on.
Suddenly this ancient brick was cooler than an iPhone.
Kids and teens are very easily convinced that something is cool
Well my fridge is an essential device and it’s cool.
But probably not cool with teenagers though…
Speak for yourself. My freezer is chock full of teenagers.
americans just love the golden cage, also apple puts more into ads than lobbyists during a presidential election campain
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
They both suck. I wish my phone was like a PC and I could install whatever OS I wanted.
Now we live in a day where if you deviate from the manufactures installed OS you get no hardware or warranty support.
Imagine Dell refusing warranty if you installed Linux on a server.
I lean slightly to Android, but an not happy with Google’s bullshit tricks with their phones, not the bloat and bullshit on a Samsung phone.
I’ll be looking for an alternative soon… But there isn’t much it there if you want an affordable near flagship.
Imagine Dell refusing warranty if you installed Linux on a server.
If you install Linux on an OEM PC, you will be denied service until you put Windows back on. Mentioning a server isn’t a fair comparison.
I have RMAd dozens of dell laptops with linux
the trick is to buy the smallest disk variant possible, put the original one into a drawer, then just do backups and you’ll be good
Thats not how it is in Australia.
I know Microsoft isn’t a very good alternative as a company, but I do wish Windows Phone had taken off better.
At least it would have been some competition to the Duopoly we now have.
Like the other person said… Had a warranty issue with a Samsung a few years ago that kept it out of my hands for a couple of months, bought a cheap and nasty $50 phone that was part of a prepaid package here in Australia, just happened to be a Nokia windows phone. It was about the lowest end model you could get…
And I too was kinda stunned how much I liked it. I went into the experience with a fairly negative attitude thinking I’d suffer though it until my regular phone was repaired.
Yet came out looking it more than I’d like to admit.
So… Yeah… Sounds have been great for windows mobile to stick around.
I do wish Windows Phone had taken off better.
I had a job once that issued me a Nokia Windows phone and I was stunned by how much I actually sort of enjoyed the experience. Granted all I did was check emails, ACK alerts and message coworkers on it, so admittedly a very intentionally on my part pared down user experience. Sadly Windows phone didn’t last long enough to figure out if that was the result of Microsoft, or the result of Nokia.
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.
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.
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.
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.
off topic, by any chance are you using Jerboa? ses like your comments is missing some spaces and I suspect it might be a bug with the app
It is a bug with Jerboa, it don’t play nice with autocomplete / autocorrect underlines.
Yes! Wow it has to do with the app? I was going crazy, yes when I delete a word it shifts back and joind with the last word, it drives me nuts, are they planning on fixing it? Or do you recommend me another app?
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.
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.
…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.
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.
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.
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.
No, which Apple would have to integrate into iMessage.
Until all phones use the same protocols in their stock messages app
Literally the point. Everyone is waiting for Apple, EU is considering forcing them (again.)
I really hope they won’t, because it’s very bad for privacy.
It’s fantastic for security, but a privacy disaster.
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?
Yes it does
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…
They think androids are for poor people
So it boils down to classism among youths and in schools?
adults participate in it
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.
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I think you misunderstood what I was saying, because I was agreeing with you.
this is the same excuse i hear for people circumcising their kids.
are us people so weak to peer pressure?
Apple is headquartered in America and used a lot of marketing with celebrities, musicians, trendsetters etc.
Samsung is really popular in Asia. There’s something to be said for homefield advantage.
What’s the carrier situation like in the EU? Do they market the iPhone aggressively in Europe? I’d suspect both of those may have some influence on the difference, but I’m as interested as you in what’s affecting the differences in adoption between both regions.
Heavy marketing in europe
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.
You sound like every cringe teenager worried about the status of blue or green messages. Cringe bro. Just absolutely cringe.
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.
ecosystem
.,_.
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.
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.
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.
3rd party platforms as in messaging services, not apps stores.
Ah, got it. I thought you were still talking about the Play Store there. It’s telling that I didn’t even categorize Whatsapp that way instinctively, though.
I think maybe because I also don’t think of SMS as a “first party” thing, since it’s a pre-existing standard, not an Apple or Google thing at all. In my mind SMS is a public service thing, like AM radio, and messaging is a completely different application.
It probably shows how successfully Apple appropriated it in the US, which I admit I keep forgetting.
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.
Yeah, for sure. I was thinking less of the existence of abuse and more on the narrative of abuse. Apple had some success early on presenting itself as the only place to do serious business on mobile development because the Android alternative was a wild west of malware where you couldn’t monetize or discover at all.
That narrative faded and now the perception of Android is probably closer to Windows on PC than to old Android. Yes, you can run wild, but by and large the commercial ecosystem is safe, secure and as business-friendly as the postapocalyptic tardocapitalist wasteland of mobile development gets these days, I suppose.
I am very curious to see what happens with sideloading on Apple, too. I’m guessing as little as possible, if Apple can get away with it.
but no revanced
That doesn’t explain the difference in market share. Seems like there are cultural differences.
It might be, and given the States’ rather unique culture I have a feeling it’s a big contributor other factors notwithstanding.
Additionally, iPhones just work.
just like any android phone…
Iphone is the superior phone for people that really dont want to know how a operating system works and dont want to learn either. Always when i talk about something i do on my phone that Apple has locked its users out of doing my iPhone-friends go “That sounds complicated” when its mostly basic af. I would not even dare call myself a power-user, because i am not. Its just that iphone is perfect for the tech illiterate.
Hm, we should start saying iPhones are for boomers, that’ll probably change the tide lmao
TBH boomers and gen-z are quite alike when it comes to tech savviness and social media use, especially when something isn’t an app.
Apple’s whole shtick for a long time now is ease of use. In that way, one could argue that they played a part in the current level of tech illiteracy (though if people wanted to learn tech in the first place, they wouldn’t have succeeded, but I disgress). So, they’re just harvesting the fruits of their labor. Pun absolutely intended.
A lot of it is due to peer pressure, marketing, and such.
I’m not from the US, but I knew people, who berated Android for having lower-end models (which meant even their flagship models are lower-end), some models still having headphone jacks (one of them screamed at me for buying a wired mouse, thus not insentivizing manufacturers to develop even better wireless technologies, thus enabling him to have a wireless audio interface and a portless Macbook (would be super elegant)), etc.
There’s also Apple’s massive foothold in the education market. I guess kids using iPads are more likely to stay with other Apple devices in the future.
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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.
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.
RMS saying something true yet completely tasteless, truly iconic
It’s not tasteless
Here’s the original wording, if anyone’s interested interested
- Bullshit 2. World > USA
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.
People who buy things for status are generally not good with money
They think if they text a person whos on android, their iphone will get AIDS or something.
Android Inferiority Disfigurement Syndrome.
Everyone knows that’s a thing. Text and Android from an iPhone and the iPhone suddenly slows down, starts sideloading random apps, and Siri won’t shut up about how much customization Android allows for. /s
