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87% of American teens own an iPhone; 88% expect an iPhone to be their next phone
- CollinEMac 4y agoThis is surprising but I'm more surprised by the finding that "26% of teens own a VR device" Is VR really getting that popular?
- bragr 4y agoA lot of kids got oculus quests for christmas/birthday but I suspect many collect dust. Some sort of daily or weekly active user stats for teens using VR would probably be a better indicator.
- CollinEMac 4y agoFrom the same line: "Weekly usage of VR devices moved to 14% from 17% last Spring;"
- bragr 4y agoAh yeah. So then in the neighborhood of 40-50% collect dust. Not terrible, not great (for VR companies).
- wollsmoth 4y agoI own a vr device that collects dust.
- _ea1k 4y agoIf Google Cardboard counts, then I do too. :)
- deng 4y ago> Is VR really getting that popular? I hear VRChat got really popular during the pandemic among teens, but I also find these numbers very surprising.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoA recent NYT article mentions that Horizons is awash in teens and pre-teens.
- vyrotek 4y agoYes. The Quest2 did really well last Christmas. My kids use it daily. Several of their friends have them too.
- rsync 4y agoMy two oldest children - 13 and 15 - have loudly proclaimed that having a "green bubble" would be worse than death.
- danielodievich 4y agoMy two high scoolers are produ members of Android generation and apparently dong give a damn as long as they get to play games and chat on discord and text with girls. I am going to count that as a win against the industrial marketing complex.
- smcleod 4y agoYou think giving them phones from an Ad company is a win /against/ the marketing industry?
- danielodievich 4y agoAhhh I see what you did there. No, totally, it is either succumb to apples marketing or support Google ad monopoly. I did try to give them the HTC windows phones that I had in reserve but there was a limit to their understanding...
- digitallyfree 4y agoI'd call it a win if you get them into rooting and custom distros like Lineage (which might give them a better overall appreciation of how tech works, encourage them to tinker, etc.)
- smcleod 4y agoMaybe... It's better than using Google/Samsung/whatever build of Android sure - but it's still feeding the google machine which is not a good thing. We need completely 'de-enterprised' Linux/BSD options. *Edit
- digitallyfree 4y ago
- ajross 4y agoIt's just a line in the article, the data isn't provided. This is the source of the headline quote: > 87% of teens own an iPhone; 88% expect an iPhone to be their next phone; 31% of teens own an Apple Watch And sorry, but that's just laughably wrong. Even in my teen's upper middle class school of tech scions, the penetration of any kind of phone sits somewhere around 50%. And I don't think I've even seen a smart watch on these kids.
- TillE 4y agoIt's an actual survey from a company which does that kind of thing, which I take considerably more seriously than vague anecdotes.
- swayvil 4y agoWell I'm an actual company and according to my survey you're wrong.
- snapcaster 4y agoI think there is the implicit assumption in your comment that people benefitting from tech are more likely to use tech but I'm not sure that's a safe assumption
- imranq 4y agoTech workers might be stricter with their childrens' phone use given that they know how much tracking and manipulation is possible
- dimgl 4y agoWhy is this laughably wrong? Why is this so hard to believe? Also, why would being a tech scion mean that you wouldn't want to use an iPhone? If anything, I'd argue that being in tech makes you appreciate the benefits of having an iPhone.
- literalAardvark 4y agoI'd argue that tech bros know that social media screen time fries your brain and may try to keep their kids away from phones as much as possible.
- csdreamer7 4y agoSo I have owned an Android all my life and never daily driven an iPhone. The iPhone (edit forgot the iPhone part) screen seems more responsive and very bright and colorful. To me the freedom of an unlocked phone I can put my own apps on is very important for me for Android. Why should I get an iPhone? edit: not sure most teens care or are unaware of Android's around 3 years support length for a phone.
- jderiksen 4y ago> Why should I get an iPhone? I am a musician and the iPhone has lower latency. Many music apps perform better on iTunes and some app developers never even bother developing on Android.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- nightfly 4y agoLonger support period. Easier to tell if you're getting a "good" phone since there's only a few models. I use Android phones, but that last points almost dragged me in a few times after getting disappointing phones. Edit: you asked why _you_ should get an iPhone, not why teens should.
- _ea1k 4y agoThat's true. The Android marketplace is full of a _lot_ of bad products. The good ones get most of the attention, thankfully, but its easy to walk into a phone store and walk out with a shiny piece of pain. Even the worst iphone will be better than that.
- wollsmoth 4y agoIf flexibility and having an unlocked phone is important to you then you might just be better off with android. I've daily driven both. I kind of like the iPhone hardware a little better but android software a little better. both do what I need.
- personjerry 4y ago
- robertwt7 4y agoEven if people said that apple lacks innovation after Jobs, what they have done here in market penetration, branding, and ecosystem is brilliant. I don’t even know how they did it, they just keep creating new stuff in the ecosystem that makes it so hard to switch out once you’re in it The visionary should be rewarded. Maybe that’s Tim? He does a far better job compared to the other ceo of big tech companies..
- JPKab 4y agoMy 16 year old son has an iPhone because Apple has the best parental control integration built-in. Kids can always get around it, which is why I have monitoring the little bastard doesn't know about via my WiFi router, along with automated deactivation of his cellular data connection via a schedule with the carrier (after 10 PM on weekdays). The "green bubble" crap that I get from my iPhone owning buddies due to my Pixel is most obnoxious because it's entirely Apple's choice to have that. However, no question that teens are incredibly status conscious. After all, Abercrombie and Gap built massive businesses slapping labels on shitty goods and marking the price up by 1,000%. Nike as well.
- chenshuiluke 4y agoWhy go to such lengths to monitor your 16yo?
- Invictus0 4y agoI have a friend attending Stanford for undergrad whose parents monitor his location 24/7, and another dealing with the same nonsense at BU. If she wanders too far from the places she's supposed to be, she gets an angry call from parents/her long distance bf (who is also in on it somehow). I guess even that isn't that bad compared to the parents that literally move across the country to wherever their kid is going to college so they can keep controlling them.
- quickthrower2 4y agoA bit like house arrest then.
- GekkePrutser 4y agoWow I can't imagine the mind of people that trust their kids enough to give them a $300000 education at Stanford and then keep such close tabs on them.
- JPKab 4y agoHe’s an adult. That’s ridiculous.
- neaden 4y agoThis claim seems a little odd to me. I searched more about it and found this article: https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/01/06/gen-z-survey-says-87-of-us-teenagers-own-an-iphone https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/01/06/gen-z-survey-says... from January saying the exact same thing as this fall survey, and this article form 2020 which says it was 86%: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland/apple-rules-86-percent-teens-own-iphone-170260 https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland/apple-rules-86-pe... . I can't find an estimate for teen iPhone ownership besides this company but this just seems very high to me when you account for teens without a phone as well as non-iPhones. In comparison from what I can find about half of adults own an iPhone. The fact that it is this high and stable for several years seems suspect to me.
- phatfish 4y agoIf not owning an iPhone really makes you the social outcast that some comments here are suggesting maybe people don't even admit to it for a marketing survey. It's like a survey on how may times you have sex in a month.
- ggm 4y ago> It's like a survey on how may times you have sex in a month. Exactly like, for teenagers. Their answers tend to either aspirational or lies.
- currenciessfe 4y agoOn instagram is even higher. 99% of influencers have iPhones. Showing an Android is basically declaring you are some sort of a monster.
- gtvwill 4y ago1/3 of my kids have iPhone. The use of iPhones amongst them and their peers is directly related to their level of IT/Tech knowhow. Long story short the kids on android are probably gonna wind up building the tech the kids on apple consume. Or atleast that's how it's playing out amongst them atm. iPhone kids legit just take photos and short vidyas mostly of themselves. It's like you can correlate an iPhone with a toxic level of vanity and a lack of technical literacy amongst the teens.
- TobyTheDog123 4y agoWhat a weird generalization.
- KerrAvon 4y agoIronically, it's a very Silicon Valley privileged child POV. The anecdotal observation is that some smart kids, usually the hardware-oriented tinkerers, use Androids because they're more customizable. It's certainly not universal.
- robbyking 4y agoSince we're trading anecdotes, none of the iOS engineers on my team have Android phones, but about half of the Android engineers have iPhones.
- KerrAvon 4y agoThat's insane -- your engineers should be dogfooding their stuff. It's 2022.
- robbyking 4y agoIn theory I agree, but we have something like 10k employees and millions of users per platform per day, so our code is pretty well vetted.
- turtlebits 4y agoIf you’re talking personal phones, that should have no bearing on your job. Your employer should give you the devices you need to do your work.
- fortylove 4y agoI tried avoiding the iPhone bandwagon for practically a decade, going from flip phone to the HTC Droid Incredible, to some HTC M<#>, to Samsung S4, and then a series of Pixel phones, starting with the OG Pixel, and ending with the Pixel 3. I have to say: besides a few clunky swipe experiences, the iPhone is better in every single way. The camera opens when I click the camera button. The phone pairs wonderfully with my airpods. With Android, the camera would inevitably lag after pressing the button, sometimes taking 10+ seconds to load, and making me miss a photo. I don't miss Androids/.
- tomtheelder 4y agoI switched recently due to divorcing myself from Google services and products. Overall I've found the iPhone experience to be basically the same, but with a much worse notifications system.
- vlan0 4y agoAnd with a much better regard for security! For instance, you could still own an iPhone 5s, released in 2013, and receive security updates.
- mixmastamyk 4y ago< 7 is now unsupported for the latest OS. Maybe will get one more bugfix.
- armadsen 4y agoApple releases security updates for older OSes. They recently released iOS 12.5.6, for example.
- mixmastamyk 4y agoNot for long as my comment alludes.
- 4y ago
- frant-hartm 4y agoWhen I was a teenager and mobile phones became widely available everyone had Nokia, Siemens or Sony-Ericsson, depending on how well-off the family was, it was either the old or new model. But we customized the phones as much as we could - custom ring melodies, screensavers, custom covers, if the phone didn't allow that then at least some stickers. Everyone wanted to be unique, go against the social norm. Android phones are arguably equivalent in terms of functionality for what today's teenagers use (whatsapp, tiktok and camera), but offer much wider variety and a chance to stand out. Why do the current US teenagers follow the herd in this regard?
- hankman86 4y agoBecause owning an Android means you‘re poor.
- daneel_w 4y agoI think the common take on the "Apple tax" is a false impression. A sort of knee-jerk reflex when seeing the price tag, without any further thought. Every brand has a premium product segment with premium price tags. The difference is that Apple doesn't have a budget segment with budget price tags.
- gtk40 4y agoThey have the iPhone SE which they explicitly market as a budget option.
- bmitc 4y agoI have never understood the arguments that Apple doesn't have a monopoly or monopolies and thus should get away with all the anti-trust violations they get away with. They definitely have monopolies when it comes to market power and influence, even if Android phones (which are split across several manufacturers) have a larger worldwide market share.
- hangonhn 4y agoThis is the concept that's about to be tested in court. The majority of the revenue generating segment of the smartphone market is iOS while the majority of the overall smartphone market is Android. I get the sense that Apple did this on purpose but the Unity lawsuit may write a new chapter on what it means to be a monopoly. This Planet Money episode talks about this dilemma: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/18/914563075/apple-v-everybody https://www.npr.org/2020/09/18/914563075/apple-v-everybody
- bmitc 4y agoI'm going from memory, but I have looked into the actual definition of a monopoly in the context of anti-trust. If I recall correctly, it doesn't even explicitly say that you need a market majority. It basically says that if you have undue market influence and power and use it then you have a monopoly. A market majority is simply one of the most common ways that that is attained. Again, that is from memory. I'd have to search for the language again to be sure. Like you point out though with it being tested in court, maybe precedence is strong. Those laws and definitions were written a long time ago. Today's companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon are very different from companies of yesteryear.
- Razengan 4y agoSounds like simple jealousy. How dare someone with less users than us make more money?!
- bmitc 4y agoApple is probably the biggest bully of a company in the world. They absolutely don't just make more money. They use their power to ensure they make more money.
- chadd 4y ago... this is why Apple should be investigated for Anticompetitive behaviors regarding app store policies and iMessage interoperability.
- sbuk 4y ago
- deng 4y agoAlso of note: > Weekly usage of VR devices moved to 14% from 17% last Spring; 26% of teens own a VR device (flat vs. Spring 2022) I find these numbers actually more surprising, but I hear VRChat is really popular.
- hankman86 4y agoIt’s about status more than anything else. A teen‘s greatest fear is that owning an Android makes you un-effable.
- TGRush 4y agoReading through comments like these really makes me appreciate how this entire iPhone culture thing really didn't swing over to where I live. It really sounds like a nightmare.
- eternityforest 4y agoThis stuff scares me a bit, both because green bubble culture is creepy, and because I really do not want iOS to become the dominant mobile OS just as Android is becoming one of the most amazing platforms out there.
- higgins 4y agoWould love to hear your thoughts on what makes Android "one of the most amazing platforms out there"?
- cercatrova 4y agoI can run apps I download from anywhere I want, for one, like I can on laptop.
- dan-robertson 4y agoThat’s always been true of android but the parent implies that something has been changing.
- GekkePrutser 4y agoThe support duration has taken a leap with most vendors, also I think the UI has really matured. I'm not the OP though so not sure what they were referring to.
- YinLuck- 4y ago[dead]
- rejectfinite 4y agoI can run actual Firefox with ublock origin. or Bromite. or Brave. or anything really.
- SergeAx 4y ago
- werber 4y agoI wonder why their sample was heavily weighted in the south
- pessimizer 4y agoI've been assured that we still can't call it a monopoly until it's at least 120% (accounting for yearly turnover.)
- laurentoget 4y agoIf that is true, wouldn't that be a de facto monopoly which Apple could be sued for?
- granzymes 4y agoIt isn't illegal to have a monopoly.
- eatsyourtacos 4y agoI hate apple with a passion for not opening up iMessage, but here we are. That being said, I am getting my first iPhone in just a few days because I am sick of the 100000 choices between android phones that all suck in one way or another. I don't believe they will last more than a few years if my last samsung is any indication. And I don't give a crap about what android can do- I just want a phone that works. So I guess you win Apple.. but it's criminal that a vast reason they have so much market share is because of imessage and the fact that it's "broken" with SMS to some degree.
- jacooper 4y agoHmmm, this probably will change when the Digital Markets Act starts.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoI see this a lot around here. HN user hates company with a passion but buys their products rather than deal with some minor annoyance. I guess you don't hate Apple with a passion then.
- hotpotamus 4y agoI mean, if you hate Apple and Google, you don't have a whole lot of other options. I'm vaguely aware of some competitors, but they're quite obscure. And I don't think going without a smartphone is all that feasible either these days.
- dozgon 4y agoYep, for me, it is banking. N26 (Europe) requires you to have a smartphone and a SIM card. Obtaining a SIM card means that you need to identify yourself. You can't just have a smartphone. The OS needs to be unrooted and also mainstream (iOS/Android). This really sucks. Furthermore, Google and Discord lock your accounts, if you don't provide a phone number. The alternative might be to use an Android/iOS just for banking. Another Android/iOS for services such as Google (Play store). And a Librem or any other open source phone as your daily driver. Or, just live with a "dumb phone" or no additional phone. I am not sure about the SIM card. Is it even possible within the EU to buy one without identification?
- Animats 4y agoThat's scary. That's sucking a huge amount of money out of parents' pockets.
- robbyking 4y agoMy guess is a lot of their parents are iPhone users who pass their phones on to their children. My wife only recently upgraded her iPhone 8, and only did so because of how noticable better the photos were on my new iPhone. In my experience Android phones don't last that long.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- asciimov 4y agoBest things about the iPhone: - long term support - can expect a new device to get 5-6 years of Apple Updates - AppleCare - better build quality than cheap android devices - Reasonable expectation that required software will support it - Not having to listen to a teen complain about what their friends have that they don't - Finally, Updates, APPLE SUPPORTED UPDATES! - I'm really salty that my android phones had to be rooted and have another OS installed just to get basic security updates after 12-18 months.
- hn_saver 4y agoYou mean updates that intentionally slow your device so that you will want to buy the new model?
- bink 4y agoThey had a choice between slowing the device or providing a substandard user experience when the old battery couldn't keep up and the phone shut down. I think there are plenty of reasons to criticize Apple but I have no idea why people have latched onto this obviously false narrative.
- lostmsu 4y agoOr they could have recalled faulty devices, you know. To fix them and provide the experience they promised originally.
- devcat 4y agoThat’s called replacing your battery. All phone batteries degrade and start underperforming over the years. What Apple did only affects those people with years old underperforming batteries.
- lostmsu 4y agoDid not that happen about 2 years after phones were released first? 2 years sounds like a very small amount of time to me.
- nbzso 4y agoThere is no sane technologically educated person who will buy Apple or Google phone. It is obvious that the smartphones are data gathering and control tools for the surveillance economy. Degoogled smartphone with limited usage is the safest bet for now. Apple computers are still valuable, when configured properly, but I don't have a high hopes for the future. Apple will lock whatever they can to "protect" the bottomline and expand the Imperium.
- mordae 4y agoI am with you, but remember, you are preaching to their employees or at least employee-wannabees in here. :-)
- alkonaut 4y agoThe reasons my kids have iPhones can be summed up as 1) I use iPhones so I get a new one every 2.5-3 years or so. 2) The phones last long enough (performance, battery life, OS support) that when I get a new one, my kids are perfectly happy to take over my old one. Let’s face it, kids don’t choose phones their parents do. When you become a teenager these days you are probably on your second or third smartphone. At least if you got the first one at age 7-10 somewhere, you probably didn’t decide between Android and iPhone, your parents did. It doesn’t matter so much then whether it’s a status symbol or what color the text bubble is. You chose a platform long ago.
- b0tch7 4y agoI'm an Android lifer and Apple's refusal to open iMessage is why I will not own an iPhone. That said, I'd willingly pay $5-10/mth for iMessage on Android. Apple has a number of services on Android now (including Apple Music & TV), it irritates me to no end they refuse to support this
- tristor 4y agoInterestingly, I am a heavy Apple user, and I am trying to convince my teenage daughter and wife to use iPhone and have offered them iPhone and Apple Watch, and they have strongly preferred to stay on Android. I think it's unsurprising most people use / want to use an iPhone in the US, because it has a network effect with iMessage and it's clearly a superior experience for the average person. But, globally that network effect doesn't exist, so it makes sense in a more international sense that many people would prefer being in the Android ecosystem. The claim doesn't surprise me, but I definitely think it shouldn't be taken as universal.
- eagsalazar2 4y agoIt is not clearly a better experience. Give me a break. 99% of the time it is a grid of icons that launches apps. The notification area on Android is far superior and is actually quite useful compared to iOS where it is a jumbled mess. Apps on both platforms, more and more, are virtually identical. If you want integration with apple watch, then great use apple but your blanket statement about superior experience is exactly the pernicious "network effect" (fanboi-ism) these kids are being hit with.
- tristor 4y agoMy statement doesn't come out of any sort of fanboyism, I was an Android developer and built custom ROMs for many years, was heavily into Android in the beginning, and I still use and support Android devices in my home (see above). It /is/ clearly a better experience for several reasons, not the least of which is the difference in privacy stance and the tighter integrations for families. I do not want to re-litigate this every time I comment in one of these threads, because it's annoying, irrelevant to my central point, and obnoxious. If you wish to engage, please engage me on the central point I was making, not on an aside.
- eagsalazar2 4y agoIf it isn't central to your main point and you don't want to re-litigate, then why make comments that are debatable and are guaranteed to be obnoxious to many people? After saying you don't want to re-litigate, you then repeated your inflammatory claim and trotted out evidence to support your belief. I won't bother trotting out my counter-examples, but just saying, if you prefer iOS good for you, but you did provoke this. Or maybe you meant to say "It /is/ clearly a better experience in several specific ways that matter to me"?
- vyrotek 4y agoOur whole family and extended family only have Android. Our kids all get the free Android phones. As for me and my house, we shall never own Apple products. People can get what they like, but I struggle with the cognitive dissonance of "Everyone should just get iPhones, it'd make everything easier" and "Oh no why is <company> acting evil with their monopoly?!". I like choices. I wish Windows Phones could have stuck around longer. We'll ultimately get what we deserve as consumers. Is it any surprise FB wants to be the Apple of VR? We've shown we like our cozy premium walled gardens and are willing to be abused.
- Thaxll 4y ago"26% of teens own a VR device" Sounds very strange.
- nemothekid 4y agoI love how the loudest criticism is "Apple is making teenagers feel bad with green bubbles". I will gladly take that over the next generation being completely plugged into the ad tech surveillance machine.
- rodolphoarruda 4y agoThis could be just another index for measuring a country's wealth. Percentage of teens who own an iPhone. I like that. Here in Brazil, the price of some iPhone models is greater than 1 year of the national minimum salary.
- vlan0 4y agoWant more data? I've got a campus with roughly 60k unique devices. 50% are iOS. Another 20% are MacOS. Android is 7%.
- elif 4y agoThe biggest concern I have from this is how comfortable the next generations will be in walled gardens where they are unable to look under the curtain let alone tinker.
- decafninja 4y agoI am always surprised by stories like this. I'm part of several distinct, mostly non-overlapping social circles. The majority of people in all these circles are iPhone users. But none of these circles use iMessage as the chat app. I'm in NYC, so it's not like I'm in some obscure corner of the planet either.
- bloqs 4y agoAmericans, do people not use whatsapp over there? In Europe everyone uses whatsapp for literally everything, with a sprinkling of Telegram if you are into something a little subversive and Signal if you actually care about privacy. The only time I use text/sms is to recieve codes for things, and I'm doing that less and less.
- StanislavPetrov 4y agoI only use whatsapp for contacting friends from outside the country.
- tbenst 4y agoMainly use WhatsApp to chat with European friends or a group chat that includes someone with android. Else it’s all iMessage, Telegram, Signal, and Slack / Discord for more community groups. And the occasional Instagram or Twitter DMs. (And that’s not even mentioning WeChat, Facebook Messenger, GroupMe, …). Amazing how fragmented the messaging space has become.
- h4n1 4y agoIn my experience the only Americans who use WhatsApp have family outside the US/Canada. There's a very large proportion of the population living entirely inside the Apple ecosystem.
- jansan 4y agoNo, they don't. Also facebook seems to be still a big thing in the US. Really funny how the culture is different. The only time I use SMS is for to receive codes for two factor authentication. Nobody ever receives an SMS from me.
- xtracto 4y agoIt was so annoying having to send and receive SMS back when I was working with some USA people. Over here in Mexico everyone uses WhatsApp, as well as friends that are in Europe.
- jmt_ 4y ago
- ilamont 4y agoMy kids have iPhones because they inherit ours when we upgrade. I suspect it's the same with many other parents. And: Much easier to provide support, share photos, reimburse them/send money, and do many other things that would be frustrating with Android. I remember when Steve Jobs apologized to parents for unapproved in-app purchases and promised to do something about it. And they did. That resonated with me. I think the company still cares, as evidenced by its support options and privacy requirements. When I still bought Android devices they tended to be problematic. Probably HTC and Xiaomi were the best designed, but updates were a pain especially on the Hongmi. LG camera sucked. Google Nexus had screen problems and eventually bricked, with no support options. I think I got my son a "Blu" phone at one point, which just had bad performance. Was happy to give him my iPhone 6 and move up to an 8.
- lordofgibbons 4y agoIf I could install Firefox with ublock origin plugin on iOS, I'd switch today.
- connectsnk 4y agoIs there no one who feels that kids shouldn’t have iPhones until they are 18 and don’t accidentally put information online that leads predators to them?
- hparadiz 4y agoAs someone who was on the internet by age 12 and was coding by 15 I see this argument and can't help but shake my head. If you want your kids to grow up with zero street smarts or ability to distinguish threats then sure. By all means keep them locked in their bedrooms till 18 too. Don't be surprised when they stop talking to you by age 21.
- ivanjermakov 4y agoGreen bubble bullying is worrying. Interesting to see how widespread this is outside of US. I guess it's heavily correlates with iPhone user share. In where I'm from most peers adopted Telegram in the past 5 years.
- JasonFruit 4y agoWhat I don't see discussed in here is why we should care what phone teens, particularly, have. Teen preferences are largely built on what's popular right now; it's not as though I'm still wearing untied high-tops and carrying a boom box. Do we have any evidence that this particular early preference carries on to adult life, when it's they who are making the purchase with money they have earned? Do we think teen technology preferences have influence on other age groups? In short: What's the point here?
- xwdv 4y agoGreen bubbles are disgusting, to the point where you won’t be allowed to certain events or parties if you RSVP with a green bubble. You’ll just never get a response back, don’t even bother. It’s a way to gate keep. There is even an androidphobic slur for those who text in green bubbles, that I won’t repeat here. Ask your kids.
- noasaservice 4y agoIf iOS was properly supported on Linux, I'd use one. But it's not.
- syntaxing 4y agoUsed Android since like the original HTC phone in my early teens, owned probably 6-7 android phones in my life (majority Google since the good old Nexus days). My first iPhone was the 12 and as of now, I think my kids first phone will be an iPhone. The walled garden is annoying and monopolistic but an iPhone just works. 2 years later, my iPhone is still going strong and I don’t even want to change my phone for the near future. They’re just built better and supported better. My family relentlessly complain about the Pixel 6 heat issues and plans on “upgrading” a year later.
- supa-osum 4y agoHave been using OnePlus 6 for 4 years now, no issues so far. Maybe it's the Pixel phones then?
- znpy 4y agoI switched to the iPhone and, under some aspects… it’s so much better. I had an iPhone for on call duty previously. If you see the phone as just a tool, the iphone has no rivals. It either can or cannot do something. You don’t have to evaluate seven different brands. The ui is okay, and once you get used to it you’ll 99.9% recognise the ui in the next iphone. It’s small! The iphone se is beautifully small. Yet fast and snappy. And the next time I can get the next iphone without thinking too much. Which is huge. Xiaomi today might be good, and xiaomi tomorrow might be trash. Same for samsung. Same for pixel. No wonder.
- seydor 4y agoI have a different take than most here. Let's face it the devices are pretty good in both platforms. Apple does the basic stuff fast, but doesnt even support the other stuff because it's a prepackaged experience. Androids are very versatile and have some convenient features (secure folder, headphone jack, sometimes better cameras etc). The primary reason for apple is the brand recognition and lifestyle choice. Many people think they d look 'amateurish' holding an android. It s an uber-popular fashion item. And kids are a ton more sensitive to peer pressure
- noobermin 4y agoI'd like to challenge this narrative somewhat, why do people care about what teens like exactly? I've heard for years (EDIT: decades, as long as I have been alive) teens are a "coveted demographic," but teenagers, especially today hardly have any disposable income. Why is some sense of "popularity" valuable, which is somehow valuable enough to be its own category apart from sales, a quantity that I thought would be much more important. Wouldn't being popular amongst people who actually buy your things more important? iPhones are definitely popular, but they are profitable not just because they are popular, but that they are popular at the price point they are.
- the_third_wave 4y agoWell, religion sells, that much is clear. Who ever said that the younger generation were not religious? They are, they just changed their object of devotion. Meanwhile my daughters use second-hand Android phones running AOSP-derived distributions, as do I myself. Only my wife - who has a company-issued Samsung Galaxy A40 which they do not want me to mess with - runs a stock distribution but I did manage to tame the beast by disabling snoopy Samsung "services" and installing an ad-blocking local VPN firewall. They haven't complained yet so I guess we're good to go. For the price of a single second-hand iPhone SE2 (around $200 where I live (Sweden)) I could buy both my daughter's phones as well as my own. Still these Android devices offer far more useable features than that iPhone and they'll last longer as well if my 11 year old Motorola Defy which I use daily is anything to go by [1]. It still gets 3 days on a single charge, running the original battery - which is replaceable if so needed. Instead of iMessage we use mostly Telegram plus some XMPP as a backup in case Telegram goes bad. My oldest daughter also has Whatsapp installed but hardly ever uses it. Our data is kept on the server-under-the-stairs, out of reach of greedy data hogs like Apple/Google/Microsoft/etc. The Invidious server (also under the stairs of course) keeps Youtube ad-free, our own mail server (under... you guessed it) keeps our mail from being harvested by data parasites, etc. Just like iPhones often are stepping stones to largely Apple-dominated monocultures so these AOSP-derived Androids can be stepping stones to free software households. I do know which of these I prefer. There is only one system left here running Windows, this being my wife's company-issued laptop. The moral of this post is that parents do have some influence over their children's choices if they start early enough. By the time they reach their early teens they are far more focused on what their friends do so make sure to inculcate a healthy distrust of Big Data and its marketing practices - green bubbles and all - in them. If it worked for us, it can work for you. [1] The Defy was marketed as being 'IP67 waterproof and shockproof'. My oldest daughter used to have a Defy as well. She left it in her trouser pocket when she dumped those trousers in the washing and started the cycle. One complete cycle (at 40°C) plus 1200 RPM spin cycle later she found it - it was still working... The damage? I replaced the earpiece, for the rest it just worked. I'm using that device as a remote-controlled media player now. While rather underpowered and short on memory the thing still works fine as a "dangerous work" phone. You won't like browsing the Javascript-encumbred web on it though...
- j3s 4y agoto everyone who thinks that the green bubble/blue bubble thing matters a ton - most teens don't text, they just use snapchat.
- kyriakos 4y agoIs this green bubble a US teens thing? Personally never heard a person in real life complaining about it. Maybe cause people here use WhatsApp, viber, telegram etc
- pwpw 4y agoVery much a US thing. Perhaps the idea of green bubbles is specifically a teen thing, but what the green bubbles represent, a worse messaging experience over SMS/MMS, is an entire population thing. Μένεις στην Ελλάδα; Ποια εφαρμογή χρησιμοποιείται περισσότερο; Viber; Συγγνώμη για τα κακά ελληνικά μου.
- dang 4y agoRelated: iPhone Ownership Among U.S. Teens Hits 87% - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33169684 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33169684 - Oct 2022 (70 comments)
- thenoblesunfish 4y agoI switched from iPhone to Android (Fairphone 4) recently, but my reasons for doing so prove the point, I think. I was willing to give up a slicker UI and a nice camera (and getting-a-bit-too-much-now postprocessing) in order to have more control over my audio files. But this thing wasn't cheap and to 99% of teens I assume it would not be worth it, even disregarding social pressure.
- albertopv 4y agoI see a lot of heat over SMS. In Italy almost no one stil use SMSs, they are basically dead. Almost all use Whatsapp, Telegram or both, no one use iMessage, not even iPhone owners, because smartphone market is much more balanced towards Android phones.
- mmis1000 4y agoI guess it is something people outsides of American can't reason about. SMS here is like 10cent USD per message (Taiwan). No one is using it outsides of verification codes now. People all use line, fb, wahtsapp or whatever network based IM. Because You can get a infinite data traffic plan with a decent price like 20USD/month. Besides that. You don't really want to give other your phone number unless you know them well. IM's identity is disposable unlike phone number.
- cryptos 4y agoIf this statistic is true, it would mean that Google's Android will have a poor future - at least in the USA.
- dan1234 4y agoI'd expect a significant portions to switch once they're paying for their own phone instead of being bankrolled by mum & dad.
- apexalpha 4y agoKinda makes me glad we have WhatsApp dominance in Europe. For all it's faults at least we're not trapped in an Apple Ecosystem where all other phones still use SMS! I haven't sent an SMS in maybe 13 years. It's amazing it's still so widely used in the US because of iMessage lockout.
- a1445c8b 4y agoiMessage doesn’t use SMS when communicating with other iPhones.
- apexalpha 4y agoBut it does fallback to SMS when communication with any other OS (I guess now just Android). Which is kinda the point. WhatsApp doesn't do this, it works on all platforms.
- a1445c8b 4y ago> WhatsApp doesn't do this, it works on all platforms. …as long as the recipient also has WhatsApp. If WhatsApp were to support communicating with non-WhatsApp recipients, it would have to fall back to SMS, I imagine.
- MagicMoonlight 4y ago
- wizofaus 4y agoThat's kinda surprising given apparently it was only a few months back that iPhone's market share finally surpassed Android in the U.S., and it bodes pretty well for Apple's long term future - are there stats on how often people change between Apple/Android (and is it predominantly in a particular direction)? (FWIW I think I went through two iPhones 15 years ago when they first came out I guess, but found their screens overly prone to getting smashed and switched to Android/Samsung, lots of reasons I doubt I'd ever switch back now, though it's certainly not impossible).
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