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I attribute most of it to marketing. Both companies make pretty great phones that do more or less the same things equally well. Apple is better at selling phon

I attribute most of it to marketing. Both companies make pretty great phones that do more or less the same things equally well. Apple is better at selling phones. Aside from better ads, they have prominent stores in most major cities. If you want to see the latest Pixel phone, you're going to have to visit a carrier store or Best Buy. As bad as an Apple store might be today, stepping into a T-Mobile store is worse. I don't think the iMessage effect is what it used to be. My kids (in Texas) communicate on Discord mostly. I think they use Snapchat too. Text messages are pretty much only used to message their parents or to get a ping when their restaurant table is ready. To me, it feels like Google has lost interest in Android and consumers will pick that up as well.

kyrra 4y ago
Googler opinions are my own. Google has a NYC store, with a second one also in NYC that recently opened. Seems like they want to keep going there. https://store.google.com/magazine/locations?hl=en-US https://store.google.com/magazine/locations?hl=en-US
- criddell 4y ago
  I don't think Google is serious about stores. I'm in Austin and Google has a sizable presence here. They have offices (I've gone to seminars they host), it's a Google Fiber city, lots of schools use Chromebooks and Google Classroom, and it's become a tech hub. There are Apple stores in malls and those malls all have lots of vacancy. It's a no-brainer that if Google were going to have stores anywhere, they would have them here.
  - endtime 4y ago
    I don't know if Google is serious about stores, but the one in Chelsea in NYC is in an extremely high foot traffic location (right across the street from Chelsea Market), in a building they already own. And Google NYC is way bigger than Google Austin. I don't think starting there rather than Austin shows they aren't serious. Also, FWIW, the store is pretty nice! Has a much warmer feel than an Apple store.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - kyrra 4y ago
    It's a slow process. There were rumors of other stores opening, but it seems like the pandemic slowed it down a bit.
    - criddell 4y ago
      It's a slow process because it's low priority. I hope they continue though and really accelerate it. Every city should have a place where one can go to get help with Google products. How many stories have you seen blow up on HN that probably could have been resolved in 30 minutes if the person could talk to a Google person face-to-face.
ubermonkey 4y ago
>I attribute most of it to marketing. Android people usually do. That doesn't make it entirely true, though. The overall experience of using an iPhone is, for most people, more consistent and smooth. You're correct to note network effects, but I think you overstate the importance of iMessage for most people. I don't really care if you're green or blue in my text window, and I don't think many people really do. What I do care about and enjoy is the overall platform effects, including easy integration with my Mac, the way the watch works with it, etc. You could cobble together most of that, I assume, with utilities and whatnot using Linux or Windows and Android, but with Apple all that comes out of the box. >As bad as an Apple store might be today, The Apple Store experience is insanely streamlined, easy, and creepy up-sell free compared to a carrier. That's a big deal. >To me, it feels like Google has lost interest in Android and consumers will pick that up as well. I'm an iPhone person, but yeah, I think there's something to this, too.
- cptskippy 4y ago
  > I don't really care if you're green or blue in my text window, and I don't think many people really do. There are a lot of people who do care, especially in group chats. There's an experience downgrade when an Android user is added to a group chat.

kyrra 4y ago

Googler opinions are my own. Google has a NYC store, with a second one also in NYC that recently opened. Seems like they want to keep going there. https://store.google.com/magazine/locations?hl=en-US https://store.google.com/magazine/locations?hl=en-US

criddell 4y ago
I don't think Google is serious about stores. I'm in Austin and Google has a sizable presence here. They have offices (I've gone to seminars they host), it's a Google Fiber city, lots of schools use Chromebooks and Google Classroom, and it's become a tech hub. There are Apple stores in malls and those malls all have lots of vacancy. It's a no-brainer that if Google were going to have stores anywhere, they would have them here.
- endtime 4y ago
  I don't know if Google is serious about stores, but the one in Chelsea in NYC is in an extremely high foot traffic location (right across the street from Chelsea Market), in a building they already own. And Google NYC is way bigger than Google Austin. I don't think starting there rather than Austin shows they aren't serious. Also, FWIW, the store is pretty nice! Has a much warmer feel than an Apple store.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- kyrra 4y ago
  It's a slow process. There were rumors of other stores opening, but it seems like the pandemic slowed it down a bit.
  - criddell 4y ago
    It's a slow process because it's low priority. I hope they continue though and really accelerate it. Every city should have a place where one can go to get help with Google products. How many stories have you seen blow up on HN that probably could have been resolved in 30 minutes if the person could talk to a Google person face-to-face.

ubermonkey 4y ago

>I attribute most of it to marketing. Android people usually do. That doesn't make it entirely true, though. The overall experience of using an iPhone is, for most people, more consistent and smooth. You're correct to note network effects, but I think you overstate the importance of iMessage for most people. I don't really care if you're green or blue in my text window, and I don't think many people really do. What I do care about and enjoy is the overall platform effects, including easy integration with my Mac, the way the watch works with it, etc. You could cobble together most of that, I assume, with utilities and whatnot using Linux or Windows and Android, but with Apple all that comes out of the box. >As bad as an Apple store might be today, The Apple Store experience is insanely streamlined, easy, and creepy up-sell free compared to a carrier. That's a big deal. >To me, it feels like Google has lost interest in Android and consumers will pick that up as well. I'm an iPhone person, but yeah, I think there's something to this, too.

cptskippy 4y ago
> I don't really care if you're green or blue in my text window, and I don't think many people really do. There are a lot of people who do care, especially in group chats. There's an experience downgrade when an Android user is added to a group chat.