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If there is an anti-culture youth movement against iPhones, apple will be in serious trouble. Their revenue is heavily dependent on selling iphones and people u

If there is an anti-culture youth movement against iPhones, apple will be in serious trouble. Their revenue is heavily dependent on selling iphones and people using the app store.

freedomben 3y ago
Fortunately for Apple, there definitely is not a movement against iPhones. If anything, the youth associate status with iphones, and if you don't have one you are a loser deserving ridicule. My kids have stopped asking as they know I'm not going to give Apple any of my money, but for a very long time they begged for iphones because kids made fun of them for "having a droid." Today's youth are definitely not the rebellious counter-culture youth from my younger days. They are very much conformists.* *Speaking very generally of course, and only from anecdotal experience which is a very small slice of the market that my kids know
- Workaccount2 3y ago
  Kids are fickle and run with trends though. Apple has a good foothold, for sure, but banking on teenagers to carry your banner is an idea that would have me sweating. Older people tend to care much less about what phone they have, and care much less about upgrading.
  - freedomben 3y ago
    Yes fair points all around. It's quite possible that 10 years from now the youth are rebellious again and could cause quite a stir.
- kbf 3y ago
  >Today's youth are definitely not the rebellious counter-culture youth from my younger days. They absolutely are, you have just become part of the culture they’re countering. Of course there’s conformity within a group or it wouldn’t really exist, but the main reason young people are so turned off by Android phones is that they are mainly associated with older family members who wanted to save a few bucks and substantially compromised on utility in the process. I’m in my 20s and I know this from experience, my mom gets substantially more utility out of her iPhone than my dad who’s an order of magnitude more technologically literate gets out of his Android phone. It doesn’t matter to teenagers that an Android phone could be as good as their iPhone when the optics are so bad. It doesn’t help that, for them, there isn’t a meaningful difference between the platforms beyond price and maybe piracy either. The actual movement among youth against iPhones is against phones in general, it’s a trend to use “dumbphones” because many feel smartphones are taking too much space in their lives.
  - freedomben 3y ago
    Thank you, this is very interesting indeed and does make a lot of sense given my anecdotal experience. I suspect a good marketer could do wonders for Android's brand image given the misperception, although I doubt such thing ever happens. I get the impression that Google is only half-heartedly behind Android, controlling the reins tightly to ensure their own interest isn't harmed, but by no means truly fans themselves of Android. Every year it seems the great things about Android are slowly tightened away. I hope this changes because as it stands I worry the difference between Android and iOS is becoming an implementation detail.
    - kbf 3y ago
      I too hope Android thrives. Even though I enjoy my iPhone for it’s design choices and it works for my use, I do understand the issue of ceding so much control to a single entity. Android’s existence as an “escape hatch” is certainly part of the value proposition of the iPhone to me.

If there is an anti-culture youth movement against iPhones, apple will be in serious trouble. Their revenue is heavily dependent on selling iphones and people using the app store.

freedomben 3y ago

Fortunately for Apple, there definitely is not a movement against iPhones. If anything, the youth associate status with iphones, and if you don't have one you are a loser deserving ridicule. My kids have stopped asking as they know I'm not going to give Apple any of my money, but for a very long time they begged for iphones because kids made fun of them for "having a droid." Today's youth are definitely not the rebellious counter-culture youth from my younger days. They are very much conformists.* *Speaking very generally of course, and only from anecdotal experience which is a very small slice of the market that my kids know

Workaccount2 3y ago
Kids are fickle and run with trends though. Apple has a good foothold, for sure, but banking on teenagers to carry your banner is an idea that would have me sweating. Older people tend to care much less about what phone they have, and care much less about upgrading.
- freedomben 3y ago
  Yes fair points all around. It's quite possible that 10 years from now the youth are rebellious again and could cause quite a stir.
kbf 3y ago
>Today's youth are definitely not the rebellious counter-culture youth from my younger days. They absolutely are, you have just become part of the culture they’re countering. Of course there’s conformity within a group or it wouldn’t really exist, but the main reason young people are so turned off by Android phones is that they are mainly associated with older family members who wanted to save a few bucks and substantially compromised on utility in the process. I’m in my 20s and I know this from experience, my mom gets substantially more utility out of her iPhone than my dad who’s an order of magnitude more technologically literate gets out of his Android phone. It doesn’t matter to teenagers that an Android phone could be as good as their iPhone when the optics are so bad. It doesn’t help that, for them, there isn’t a meaningful difference between the platforms beyond price and maybe piracy either. The actual movement among youth against iPhones is against phones in general, it’s a trend to use “dumbphones” because many feel smartphones are taking too much space in their lives.
- freedomben 3y ago
  Thank you, this is very interesting indeed and does make a lot of sense given my anecdotal experience. I suspect a good marketer could do wonders for Android's brand image given the misperception, although I doubt such thing ever happens. I get the impression that Google is only half-heartedly behind Android, controlling the reins tightly to ensure their own interest isn't harmed, but by no means truly fans themselves of Android. Every year it seems the great things about Android are slowly tightened away. I hope this changes because as it stands I worry the difference between Android and iOS is becoming an implementation detail.
  - kbf 3y ago
    I too hope Android thrives. Even though I enjoy my iPhone for it’s design choices and it works for my use, I do understand the issue of ceding so much control to a single entity. Android’s existence as an “escape hatch” is certainly part of the value proposition of the iPhone to me.