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This is such an absurd excuse. The competing android devices are not exactly known for being a more popular target for theft. This is just a copout pushed by A

This is such an absurd excuse. The competing android devices are not exactly known for being a more popular target for theft. This is just a copout pushed by Apple to justify obviously bad practices, and due to their reality distortion field, you guys eat it up.

thih9 3y ago
> The competing android devices are not exactly known for being a more popular target for theft. Do you have a source? And which exactly competing android devices do you mean? Does the comparison factor in the popularity of the device?
- dotnet00 3y ago
  There isn't a specific survey I can find pointing either way, which similarly makes the argument that theft is significant enough to justify restrictive and wasteful locks also moot. By competing devices of course I am referring to other flagships which are of a similar price and feature set, like flagship Samsung phones etc.
ubermonkey 3y ago
>The competing android devices are not exactly known for being a more popular target for theft. You're so close to getting it.
cameronh90 3y ago
That’s just because the thieves don’t consider the android devices worth stealing. London sadly has an ongoing problem with phone snatchers and pickpockets, so on two occasions I’ve seen them nick an Android. In the first case, they just chucked it on the floor a few metres further down the road. On the second, the guy loudly shouted “what the fuck is this shit?” as he cycled down the road and threw it into a canal.
- Aeolun 3y ago
  I’m not quite sure what they expect if they snatch an Apple device? It’d just turn into a brick in a few minutes/hours?
  - cameronh90 3y ago
    So one of two things usually happen, either: (1) It gets shipped straight to Eastern Europe or China and broken down for parts which are resold back to unauthorised repair shops in the West as official Apple parts. Or more commonly (2) they will try to socially engineer the owner into giving up their Apple credentials so that they can sign out the iPhone and wipe it. If that fails, go to (1). When my brother’s partner had her iPhone nicked, they extracted her phone number off the SIM then started sending her messages linking to a phishing iCloud sign in page, saying something like “Your stolen device has been located, sign in here to recover it.”.
chongli 3y ago
The proper comparison is not with Android phones, it’s with iPhones before Apple introduced this feature. The news reported a global drop in iPhone thefts at the time [1]. [1] https://archive.nytimes.com/bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/antitheft-technology-led-to-a-dip-in-iphone-thefts-in-some-cities-police-say/ https://archive.nytimes.com/bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/1...
- dotnet00 3y ago
  I disagree that the point of comparison should be iPhones from before this functionality, the point is that the negative effects of locking all parts are not worth the amount of theft, not that they don't reduce theft. After all, you could massively reduce burglaries too by allowing home security systems to have automated lethal turrets to shoot burglars, but that's considered way too far in terms of social cost by pretty much every place.
  - chongli 3y ago
    The point of my reply was to illustrate the true effect on iPhone theft from this change. Do you have a more accurate way to measure that? Whether you think the tradeoff is worth it or not is beside the point. I made no claim for or against the tradeoff, so you have nothing to disagree with there.

thih9 3y ago

> The competing android devices are not exactly known for being a more popular target for theft. Do you have a source? And which exactly competing android devices do you mean? Does the comparison factor in the popularity of the device?

dotnet00 3y ago
There isn't a specific survey I can find pointing either way, which similarly makes the argument that theft is significant enough to justify restrictive and wasteful locks also moot. By competing devices of course I am referring to other flagships which are of a similar price and feature set, like flagship Samsung phones etc.

ubermonkey 3y ago

>The competing android devices are not exactly known for being a more popular target for theft. You're so close to getting it.

cameronh90 3y ago

That’s just because the thieves don’t consider the android devices worth stealing. London sadly has an ongoing problem with phone snatchers and pickpockets, so on two occasions I’ve seen them nick an Android. In the first case, they just chucked it on the floor a few metres further down the road. On the second, the guy loudly shouted “what the fuck is this shit?” as he cycled down the road and threw it into a canal.

Aeolun 3y ago
I’m not quite sure what they expect if they snatch an Apple device? It’d just turn into a brick in a few minutes/hours?
- cameronh90 3y ago
  So one of two things usually happen, either: (1) It gets shipped straight to Eastern Europe or China and broken down for parts which are resold back to unauthorised repair shops in the West as official Apple parts. Or more commonly (2) they will try to socially engineer the owner into giving up their Apple credentials so that they can sign out the iPhone and wipe it. If that fails, go to (1). When my brother’s partner had her iPhone nicked, they extracted her phone number off the SIM then started sending her messages linking to a phishing iCloud sign in page, saying something like “Your stolen device has been located, sign in here to recover it.”.

chongli 3y ago

The proper comparison is not with Android phones, it’s with iPhones before Apple introduced this feature. The news reported a global drop in iPhone thefts at the time [1]. [1] https://archive.nytimes.com/bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/antitheft-technology-led-to-a-dip-in-iphone-thefts-in-some-cities-police-say/ https://archive.nytimes.com/bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/1...

dotnet00 3y ago
I disagree that the point of comparison should be iPhones from before this functionality, the point is that the negative effects of locking all parts are not worth the amount of theft, not that they don't reduce theft. After all, you could massively reduce burglaries too by allowing home security systems to have automated lethal turrets to shoot burglars, but that's considered way too far in terms of social cost by pretty much every place.
- chongli 3y ago
  The point of my reply was to illustrate the true effect on iPhone theft from this change. Do you have a more accurate way to measure that? Whether you think the tradeoff is worth it or not is beside the point. I made no claim for or against the tradeoff, so you have nothing to disagree with there.