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Consumers don't necessarily want iPhone. They don't want to be excluded from iMessage, which is a completely different motivation.
by smt88 6mo ago
Consumers don't necessarily want iPhone. They don't want to be excluded from iMessage, which is a completely different motivation.
- tokioyoyo 6mo agoYeah, that just doesn't pass the simplest sniff tests. I barely use iMessage, and yet I'm an iPhone user. Basically everyone around me is the same.
- presbyterian 6mo agoAgreed, I’ve been a loyal iPhone user for a long time, and very few people I know use iMessage. I use it with my parents because they don’t have any other messenger, and they don’t even really know it’s iMessage, they just think of it as texting. Everyone I know is using something else for messages, whether it’s Discord, Instagram DMs, WhatsApp, or occasionally Telegram or Snapchat.
- smt88 6mo ago> Yeah, that just doesn't pass the simplest sniff tests. I barely use iMessage, and yet I'm an iPhone user. A single anecdote isn't data. You're not a typical consumer. The only major market where iPhone outsells Android (number of handsets) is the US, and it's because of iMessage. Android is 70% of the world market and dominates LatAm, Africa, and Asia.
- avianlyric 6mo agoWhy are you comparing a single phone manufacturers market position to the market position of an entire OS? iOS vs Android isn’t relevant when discussing hardware. It’s Apple vs Samsung etc. iOS doesn’t need majority market ownership for Apple to completely dominate their hardware competitors in a market.
- carlosjobim 6mo agoBut now you've argued that people are buying Android instead of iPhone just because of social pressure from their peers.
- array_key_first 6mo agoIn the US it's mostly iMessage, and that includes people who say it's not mostly iMessage. iPhones are more expensive, on average, for a similar or worse experience. The thing that drives iphone sales is social. People want iPhones because their friends do, and that's a very good reason.
- Maxion 6mo agoiMessage is AFAIK only really a big thing in the US.
- camkego 6mo agoI totally buy this as someone located in the US, but what is everybody else using? It can’t be WhatsApp? Is everyone sending all their connection graphdata to Meta?
- russelldjimmy 6mo agoIt’s WhatsApp. No one thinks about sending data to Meta. The world is much bigger than the HN bubble, where almost no one thinks about privacy implications.
- lnsru 6mo agoAbsolutely this. No one cares about privacy. 99,9% population has no clue how tech works. “Oh, it’s an app on my phone.” That’s what typical consumer understands. How text travels from one phone to other is something magical. Got WhatsApp, because there is no other channel to communicate with customers. It’s literally used by everyone without exceptions. Really scary.
- puelocesar 6mo agoPeople who care about privacy (very very few) use signal, everyone else uses Whatsup
- agos 6mo agoin my country it's Whatsapp, and has been since before it was acquired by Meta
- austhrow743 6mo agoYou understand that Facebook and Instagram are also very popular yes?
- andrewl-hn 6mo ago
- russelldjimmy 6mo agoNo one uses iMessage in my country. Yet iPhones are sought after. Some of us just really like iPhones for the experience - not everything is a conspiracy. People can have different tastes and are more free to choose than people on HN like to believe.
- smt88 6mo agoWhat country?
- bdavbdav 6mo agoUS centric view, which I believe to be wrong. UK is predominantly WhatsApp, and the bulk of handsets sold are still iPhones. Income is a much tighter correlation than messaging platform. Rack up those market shares by phone value and the scales tip even harder.
- hiq 6mo ago> the bulk of handsets sold are still iPhones According to https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/united-kingdom https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/united-kin... it's closer to 50/50.
- drooopy 6mo agoThat must be an american thing because I guarantee you that it doesn't mean anything for the rest of the world.
- smt88 6mo agoIt is, and the iPhone doesn't have overwhelming market share in any other large market, which is my point.
- avianlyric 6mo agoBut they’re still the largest individual player in just about every market they’re in. So there’s clearly a strong demand for iPhones.
- prmoustache 6mo agoThat is a very US centric opinion. In other part of the globe iphone users are mostly using whatsapp or Line and couldn't care less about imessage.
- smt88 6mo agoAnd in those countries, iOS has a much smaller market share. You're proving my point.
- prmoustache 6mo agoThe sum of all these smaller markets is still bigger than the US one.
- carefree-bob 6mo agoWhen measured in terms of mouths, yes, but when measured in terms of surplus spending power than can go to Apple, certainly not. India has 1.3 Billion people in terms of counting mouths, but not wallets with $1000 to send to Apple for a new iphone.
- prmoustache 6mo agoThe biggest region in term of revenues for Apple revenues is all americas but it is still only around 43%, which means Apple still makes money from Africa, Europe, Asia and Ocenia combined than the whole american continent. So that is even less for the USA. https://bullfincher.io/companies/apple/revenue-by-geography https://bullfincher.io/companies/apple/revenue-by-geography
- carefree-bob 6mo agoYou are doing a lot of heavy lifting lumping Europe and Asia together, and inserting Africa and Oceana, which is so small Apple doesn't even report revenue for it. North America is 43% Europe is 27% China 15% Japan 7% Rest of Asia: 8% Africa, middle east, oceania effective round to 0% Basically North America and Japan make up 50% of Apple's revenue, but are nowhere near 50% of global GDP or population.
- KaiserPro 6mo agoI doubt 80% of iphone users would be able to tell you if imessage was on or not. they might say that some people's messages are green, but not much more.