4 ms·
You are so true, and your voices like yours are rarely heard. iPhones are made for California, and their usefulness quickly dwindles as you leave that area. I
by thekid314 8y ago
You are so true, and your voices like yours are rarely heard.
iPhones are made for California, and their usefulness quickly dwindles as you leave that area. It can be seen in so many things that you mentioned.
1) Dual SIMs are the only way to have a reasonable phone bill in many countries where the phone companies allow free in-network calls, but extortionate rate for numbers out of network. So the only option is buying multiple phones.
2) Charging an iPhone in Africa can be hard, try finding a USB-C cable! The world standard is still that little USB-Mini that we all hate, and it will stay that way for another decade even if USB-C is on every Macbook.
3) Charging every evening makes sense for people with 9-5 jobs in countries with stable electricity. When you hustle through long days and then power is cut you have to face that tough decision of using your phone as a flash-light or being able to receive whatsapps until power returns. The biggest rip-off in africa these days are battery packs with solar cells on them. The buyer images the salvation from all their charging problems, unfortunately they don't work well.
4) Repairing in iPhone is expensive, repairing anything else is really cheap. The repair market in the developing world is very developed. But iPhone stores aren't.
5) There isn't the iMessage or Facetime ecosystem advantage.
6) Having iCloud tied to an email address doesn't make sense for the generation that skipped email. Yes, the vast majority of the developing world never really got into email, they might have one but it is simply so they can log into Facebook and the lost the password a long time ago. I was banging my head against the wall trying to fix an iCloud account of a friend in Sudan, design decisions in California don't work there.
I could mention so many more, instead I continue to lug my macbook and iphone through the developing world because I'm a glutton for punishment and like to see the look on the Genius' face when I drop it off to be cleaned.