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>They’re the reason that Android devices get stolen in great numbers but iOS devices don’t I think that's unlikely. Phones are disguised by cases. Most tech fo

>They’re the reason that Android devices get stolen in great numbers but iOS devices don’t I think that's unlikely. Phones are disguised by cases. Most tech folks can't even tell them apart when they are sitting side by side on a desk in front of them. Not without the screen coming on, anyway. Let alone in someone's pocket or at a bar. If anything Androids might be stolen more often due to socioeconomic pressure. Can't afford an iPhone, can't afford a nice neighborhood. Or vice versa, an Android gets stolen because it looks like an iPhone, a higher price target. And those would only be relevant IF the statistics agreed with your assertion here, but I don't see that they do, based on some quick searching. Regardless, phone location was a feature of Android long before iOS. I had it on Windows CE phones before the iPhone even existed. Laptops had LoJack before smart phones existed. Theft was not deterred. Rates of recovery maybe increased, but I'm not sure we have statistics on the latest Apple tech to be able to opine about it, and I wouldn't expect that they would say anything about theft, only about recovery when the criminal is stupid enough to not use some cheap shielding they could get off of Amazon for $5.

derefr 3y ago
> I think that's unlikely. You're right, in a literal sense; people pickpocket a phone before knowing what it is. It's what happens right after the actual theft that makes a difference. These more-organized thieves know that these chop-shop buyers aren't (nearly as) interested in iPhones, often to the point that they aren't worth the cost of the added shipping weight. So when they manage to nab a phone, they do a quick examination, to figure out what kind of phone it is. If it's an iPhone, they drop it in a nearby trash can; or sometimes they try to con some local who doesn't know anything about phones (think: drug dealer who wants a second phone) into buying it on the street. That's where you find the majority of "stolen iPhones": in the trash near where it was lost, or in the hands of some local who was dumb enough to buy it not realizing it will be marked "lost" in short order and become useless to them. Both of these are "recoverable" losses — which, from both the phone owner's and Apple's perspective, is a win! Meanwhile, the Android devices go in a box, and the box goes on a boat. > Regardless, phone location was a feature of Android long before iOS. I had it on Windows CE phones before the iPhone even existed. Laptops had LoJack before smart phones existed. Theft was not deterred. Yeah, because as I said, this isn't — and never was — about refurbishing the device. It's about scrapping the device for parts. Location tracking does not prevent a device being scrapped for parts, because chop shops actually throw away the location-tracking bit — the "compute core" — and just keep all the other expensive parts. Plenty of people with stolen phones see their phone mysteriously show up reporting itself to now be in Shenzhen. Then the location tracking turns off and never comes back, because the phone was chopped up and the compute-core bit thrown away. It just doesn't happen nearly as often, per capita, to iPhone owners as it does to Android owners, because a large number of the iPhones are "rejected from the funnel."
- trimethylpurine 3y ago
  >These chop-shop buyers aren't (nearly as) interested in iPhones When an IMEI is reported stolen carriers blacklist it. Either way you have to swap the IMEI, so I'm not seeing a difference. Anyway, my estimation is that while some might, most stolen phones don't end up in China anyway. They end up on Craigslist in a city 4 miles away from the crime.
  - derefr 3y ago
    The interesting thing is that most phones aren't reported as stolen (i.e. the device's lost/stolen mode is never activated through the device's cloud service binding), because most people don't realize that that's a thing they can do. The difference in ratios between the Android and iOS ecosystems, of phones stolen-and-resold-locally and therefore "recoverable", to phones stolen-and-then-"trafficked" and so unrecoverable, comes down to a deterrent effect from how completely iOS's lost mode stops part reuse. By having the 20%-or-so of phones that are marked as lost/stolen, become effectively entirely dead weight with no reusable parts, the margin for the whole logistics pipeline (steal, ship, take apart) for this type of phone drops negative.
    - trimethylpurine 3y ago
      Interesting. Are you citing actual statistics here or is this a theory that seems plausible to you? If it's the latter, I should point out that it's relying heavily on an assumption about how often specific models of phones are actually stolen, reported stolen, and/or recovered and I think those numbers are extremely difficult to come by in any realistically useful sense. That said, even with statistics on hand, this is a reach. You might be right, but it's highly unlikely and impossible to prove in any useful application.

derefr 3y ago

> I think that's unlikely. You're right, in a literal sense; people pickpocket a phone before knowing what it is. It's what happens right after the actual theft that makes a difference. These more-organized thieves know that these chop-shop buyers aren't (nearly as) interested in iPhones, often to the point that they aren't worth the cost of the added shipping weight. So when they manage to nab a phone, they do a quick examination, to figure out what kind of phone it is. If it's an iPhone, they drop it in a nearby trash can; or sometimes they try to con some local who doesn't know anything about phones (think: drug dealer who wants a second phone) into buying it on the street. That's where you find the majority of "stolen iPhones": in the trash near where it was lost, or in the hands of some local who was dumb enough to buy it not realizing it will be marked "lost" in short order and become useless to them. Both of these are "recoverable" losses — which, from both the phone owner's and Apple's perspective, is a win! Meanwhile, the Android devices go in a box, and the box goes on a boat. > Regardless, phone location was a feature of Android long before iOS. I had it on Windows CE phones before the iPhone even existed. Laptops had LoJack before smart phones existed. Theft was not deterred. Yeah, because as I said, this isn't — and never was — about refurbishing the device. It's about scrapping the device for parts. Location tracking does not prevent a device being scrapped for parts, because chop shops actually throw away the location-tracking bit — the "compute core" — and just keep all the other expensive parts. Plenty of people with stolen phones see their phone mysteriously show up reporting itself to now be in Shenzhen. Then the location tracking turns off and never comes back, because the phone was chopped up and the compute-core bit thrown away. It just doesn't happen nearly as often, per capita, to iPhone owners as it does to Android owners, because a large number of the iPhones are "rejected from the funnel."

trimethylpurine 3y ago
>These chop-shop buyers aren't (nearly as) interested in iPhones When an IMEI is reported stolen carriers blacklist it. Either way you have to swap the IMEI, so I'm not seeing a difference. Anyway, my estimation is that while some might, most stolen phones don't end up in China anyway. They end up on Craigslist in a city 4 miles away from the crime.
- derefr 3y ago
  The interesting thing is that most phones aren't reported as stolen (i.e. the device's lost/stolen mode is never activated through the device's cloud service binding), because most people don't realize that that's a thing they can do. The difference in ratios between the Android and iOS ecosystems, of phones stolen-and-resold-locally and therefore "recoverable", to phones stolen-and-then-"trafficked" and so unrecoverable, comes down to a deterrent effect from how completely iOS's lost mode stops part reuse. By having the 20%-or-so of phones that are marked as lost/stolen, become effectively entirely dead weight with no reusable parts, the margin for the whole logistics pipeline (steal, ship, take apart) for this type of phone drops negative.
  - trimethylpurine 3y ago
    Interesting. Are you citing actual statistics here or is this a theory that seems plausible to you? If it's the latter, I should point out that it's relying heavily on an assumption about how often specific models of phones are actually stolen, reported stolen, and/or recovered and I think those numbers are extremely difficult to come by in any realistically useful sense. That said, even with statistics on hand, this is a reach. You might be right, but it's highly unlikely and impossible to prove in any useful application.