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

  • @[email protected]
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    52 years ago

    My son is jelly because he has a hand me down iPhone, and I showed him my wallpaper engine on android.

  • @[email protected]
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    172 years 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.

  • ZILtoid1991
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    182 years ago

    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.

  • anti-idpol action
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    142 years 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.

    • V ‎ ‎
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      52 years ago

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

      • MudMan
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        2 years 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.

        • V ‎ ‎
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          22 years ago

          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.

          • MudMan
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            22 years ago

            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.

        • flipht
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          42 years ago

          As an American, it seems we will go all in on the most expensive and most milquetoastly adequate option every time.

          • V ‎ ‎
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            22 years ago

            In the Army we had a saying, America does not solve its problems - it overwhelms then.

      • @[email protected]
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        142 years ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          42 years ago

          Makes sense to include mentions that this is about the US in the Lemmy post. US is not the default

  • Lowlee Kun
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    312 years ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      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.

      • Hyperreality
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        2 years ago

        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.

  • @[email protected]
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    282 years 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      62 years 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)?

  • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
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    62 years ago

    It’s all Samsung and Huawei in my country. I’ve heard the popularity of Apple in the US is partially due to the use of imessage by people and the strong dislike for “green text” because of how Android messenger doesn’t work well with imessage or something.

    People here mostly use Whatsapp for communication so the whole green-text thing is never talked about.

    • @[email protected]
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      72 years ago

      There’s no “Android messenger”. iMessage just degrades to SMS when the receiving device isn’t an iPhone. So it’s really that those people choose to use the only messenger app that is only available on one brand of phones.

  • Virtual Insanity
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    312 years ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      42 years ago

      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.

      • Virtual Insanity
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        2 years ago

        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.

      • @[email protected]
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        2 years ago

        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.

    • @[email protected]
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      82 years ago

      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.