Why do most Americans use an iPhone?
Why do most Americans use an iPhone?
Okay, this is not an iPhone vs Android Phone debate. I respect your right to choose whichever platform that you want.
I mean, iPhone seems so antithetical with the idea of freedom. You have to connect it to a server to even use it, all apps have to go through a centralized server, no option to install whatever apps you want, which means, you literally cannot have any third-party apps without an online account.
Most of my fellow americans seems to love the idea of freedom so much, yet just buy into a closed ecosystem with no freedom? š¤
Like almost 60% of Americans use iPhone, kinda weird to preach freedom when you cant even have an app without a corporation's approval. If it were any other country, I wouldn't find it weird, but for a country that's obsessed with the idea of freedom (so much so that they disobeyed mask mandates), it's really weird to be using a device with zero freedom.
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Americans have been propagandized by Apple advertising into thinking Apple products are "high class."
Ask yourself: Why does anyone wear a Rolex?
It boils down to the same thing, showing people your wealth and thus "social value" (barf) via conspicuous consumption.
If it wasn't conspicuous consumption, why would US people literally judge potential dating partners on what kind of phone they use?
Its function is exactly what the name implies: to alert people that you have money in the bank. I Am Rich was available for purchase from the phoneās App Store for, get this, $999.99 -- the highest amount a developer can charge through the digital retailer, said Armin Heinrich, the programās developer. Once downloaded, it doesnāt do much -- a red icon sits on the iPhone home screen like any other application, with the subtext āI Am Rich.ā Once activated, it treats the user to a large, glowing gem (pictured above). Thatās about it. For a thousand dollars.
This was barely a year after the original iPhone's release. The attitude toward Apple products has persisted ever since.
Conspicuous consumption doesnāt really hold in this case because the alternative is around the same price.
Iād also question any claim about the dating partner. Maybe a study said it has an impact, but I doubt itās a strong impact on evaluation of a potential partner. By all means, Iād love to see the source for that
You also cite an example of what was basically a meme. Literally nobody bought that app (and iirc those who were tricked got their money back)
The different colored texts in iMessage and forced downgrade of any MMS sent via an Android is part of that perception by iPhone users that Android's are inferior devices, even if they cost similarly.
Apple refused to implement RCS until very recently. Not saying Google is better in terms of RCS, they have their own issues, this is just about how Apple has leveraged iMessage to the end of people viewing it as a "higher class' device than Android.
All the sleek white design was a part of that too. People thought it looked futuristic/costly and the rest of the industry tried to copy their design philosophy due to that. You can't deny that Apple devices look classy. Apple didn't pay Jony Ive an absolute fuckton of money per year for nothing.
the alternative is around the same price
You know that's not true.
There are stupidly expensive Android flagships, but there are also a lot of phones for a fraction of the price.
And the phones that cost a fraction of the price are significantly slower, have a much worse screen, barely get any software updates, and overall just kinda suck.
Sure low and mid range phones are "good enough" but if it's a device you use for hours every day do you really only want "good enough" for right now?
But those inexpensive phones most often donāt deliver a comparable device experience to the flagship devices. Honestly, this is the crux of things. Comparing iPhone to āAndroidā is a foolās errand. Apple often only has one more budget conscious model available explicitly. But OS support tends to last longer on Apple devices, so multiple model years are viable at once.
Usually people speak of this as an advantage but I also think it is a disadvantage, one of the reasons for wider usage of iPhones ā¦..
- there are crappy android phones
- historically android was crappy (even if it is much better now)
- most android phones are loaded with bloatware.
- most android phones are poorly supported or for only a short period
- privacy and security can be a challenge for regular users
- inconsistent usability
Meanwhile, iPhones
- are always āgoodā, even the lower end
- historically held leads in usability, features, even if not true anymore
- no bloatware from vendors
- full support for 6 years
- claim privacy and security by default
- good usability
I hate to say it, the reason people choose dating partners on phone use is because of blue texts on iMessage. thatās the only reason. Apple was brilliant pitching that as an Android problem instead of playing fair and working on an open standard since day 1. Dragged their feet for years.
I still find this hard to believe. Itās just a visual indicator whether the conversation is encrypted or not, but who would actually judge partners with this.
When I checked with my kids, since we know teenagers can be very shallow bullies, they said there is some light teasing but it was really started by online crap like this. Not even teenagers care. I mean, they donāt usually use iMessages anyway, so many probably never noticed.
āBlue textsā is a fake issue. I wouldnāt be surprised if it was started as a prank, or by Google, and no one cared until it was all over the internet
Itās not just a visual indication of if itās encrypted. SMS sucks, truly, compared to apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, etc. so itās actually annoying to message people with green text. Now that Apple does RCS itās not a big deal, but in the USA thereās no default internet messaging app like WhatsApp, and to the extent that there is one itās iMessage.
SMS is default texting for all phones of all types all providers in the US. Its main advantage is ubiquity and it is the only ubiquitous text protocol. SMS was always owned by cell providers.
While I also am disappointed that ubiquitous text protocol owned by cell providers never progressed, canāt blame Apple for that. They could have used their influence to push harder but bottom line is the change needed to be at cell providers. They may also have seen that even Google with all its influence wasnāt able to make it happen (without taking it proprietary, owning it, centralizing it).
But let me ask this: what other texting provider includes a fallback to incorporate texters outside their network? At all? Does WhatsApp include users of iMessage? SMS? RCS?
You can literally blame Apple for that, because that standard did progress, and they did not incorporate it into their default messaging app for years due to anticompetitive marketing practices. To compare the responsibilities of a default and only (since you canāt sidecar on iPhone) text messaging app on a phone with 50% market share with a third party app is bad faith. Even then, WhatsApp and others were cross platform, not hardware dependent.
Did you just reverse your position? Iām confused. Do you think the blue bubbles are more than encryption or not? Do you think people care about them or not? Do you think Apple is a bad faith participant in that issue or not?
Different bubbles are a visual indicator whether the messages are encrypted.
Apple is a good faith participant in that they support a fallback to the texting standard supported by every mobile vendor.
Itās not bad faith on my part when you brought up WhatsApp. Sure they donāt have blue but bubbles, but thatās because they donāt support an open standard at all, they donāt have an inclusive mode at all, they only support their own users on their own proprietary protocol.
Most importantly I donāt see how itās Appleās responsibility to push mobile vendors to modernize. Blame them if vendors were modernizing and they pushed back, however, no, there was no progress. Itās irrelevant if the standard is evolving but no one supports it and this whole thing on,y works if mobile vendors support it
Different bubbles indicate more than encryption
WhatsApp is not a default app or an attempt at implementing a standard, a default text messaging app is.
The vendors were modernizing and they pushed back.
Iām glad you could set up a way to falsify your beliefs so that they could, indeed, be proven false
It about not beeimg sold as the product. Its about using the browser that dont rat you out
That means Apple's advertising is working if you actually believe they care about your privacy.
But iphones can't use Firefox with uBlockOrigin and NoScript
True. I run this on an android tablet, but firefox misses my usability needs. So i end up on safari more often than not