(unpaywalled version on archive.today: https://archive.ph/03cwZ)
Interesting figure that comes out of the article: 87% of US teens prefer iPhones. Also the explanations given aren’t quite surprising, I guess it’s mostly because of iMessage. Teens will feel like outcasts if they get an Android phone while their friends still use iMessage because of the green bubbles.
It’s actually hilarious how we allowed consumerism to take us this far and that we have now peer pressure over smartphones.
“You’re telling me in 2023, you still have a ’Droid? […] You gotta be at least 50 years old.”
ouch 😔
My entire life I’ve been reading news that only iPhones are cool, yet my social circles don’t care and have never said anything like this. I feel like this is a ‘Hello fellow kids’ type of investigative journalism, that is a secret apple ad.
“This unbiased and purely informative piece of journalism sponsored by Apple.”
No one gives a shit which phone you have.
Also, no one uses the term “droid”.
This article reads like “fellow kids” nonsense.
I think that is mostly a US thing, as I see way more Androids in Europe than iPhones. But I could be wrong
Yeah, it’s definitely a Yank thing.
Yep. Primary chat protocol is still SMS. The general population hasn’t latched on to WhatsApp or others like many countries have.
We like to think that but if you want to reach people who are on Whatsapp you’re gonna have to install Whatsapp. And the other way around, if people have a group for whatever (plan a group outing, kids’ soccer team, tenants’ association etc.) on Whatsapp and one person is not on Whatsapp, tough luck buddy, they get left out.
Apple framed it as an “iPhone vs Android” issue for their own reasons but the larger issue (social network peer pressure) is very much a thing in Europe too.
And it’s so outdated too. The iPhone was a “cool” status symbol in like 2010 and 2014. Not so much when everyone has them.
100%, I’ve lived both in the US and Europe, and Androids are definitely more prevalent in Europe than in the US.
Judging by the amount of times I hear the same ringtone as mine, I think where I live in the UK is about 70-80% Samsung Android phones.
I live in Brazil and don’t know many people with iPhones, most have Android phones
Definitely not in Germany, I think. People here are obsessed with apple. But im not native German, so maybe im wrong.
Idk, I see plenty of both, and most people I know are capable of having objective discussions about it.
Objective discussions about why apple is better?
sigh
“people who don’t have to pay for things and whose only economic system is peer pressure prefer the high end phones their friends use.”
There’s a hidden cost to using a phone created by an advertising company to track you, not to sell hardware. I’d rather just pay more for the phone than be subjected to more targeting by the predatory capitalists and oligarchs ruining technology.
The idea that an iPhone is more secure or private is a farce you’ve been sold. It’s true that Google makes more money off of tracking behavior and selling ads but it’s absolutely laughable to believe Apple doesn’t do that also. They just focus their efforts more on entrapping you in an ecosystem where you don’t feel even able capable of giving another tech company money besides them. Need proof, look at the fact that lawmakers had to force them to use USBC. The excuse they gave for not doing it was flimsy af. They obviously were looking to keep profiting from their shitty lightning cables. Never once did the fact that it’s outlandishly inconvenient to need a different cable than your friends with Androids for charging your phone ever register as a factor for apple. Proprietary and overpriced. That’s the entire business model.
As someone with an android, and someone who worked in digital forensics, iPhones absolutely are more secure. It’s way harder to break into an iPhone.
I think part of what I’m reacting to is the “bragging to delivery” ratio. Google never brags about being the most secure OS, yet many people smarter than me point out ways it’s better than iOS.
The problem with that is you’re bunching so many phones together based on their OS when their security is dependent on more than that. I’ll admit I’m unaware of the current situation but Pixels for example have been more secure than the iPhone in the past and are still considered secure in general, no idea about how they compare to an iPhone.
Where I used to work, we had a massive digital library of android phones with confirmed exploits. They went up to quite recent phones and OS versions. The android team wasn’t particularly big because there wasn’t a major need for manpower to keep up. The iPhone team was highly specialized and had their work cut out for them. I wasn’t on either team (Windows and sort-of OS X) but I fell into their meetings and wikis quite often due to platform overlaps.
And the latest and greatest wasn’t necessarily what was getting attention anyway. Plenty of people worldwide use old phones
Hmm, I’ve also heard the opposite kind of – at least from an exploit patching perspective a lot of people claim Google fixes the security holes much quicker. But admittedly I’m sure you know a lot more about this than I. I’m relying on secondhand information
google for all its faults seems much more open about security. Apple is a marketing company that tangentially makes hardware. Its good hardware, but its still tangential.
pegasus
monocultures are at risk to a single vulnerability, you don’t need more than 1
Apple tracks iPhone users. Apple is an advertising company. Apple just tries to block other advertising companies from tracking you on their platform, because they want more money.
yes, 16 year olds are famous for their long-term planning.
you know who has nothing to lose from a privacy perspective? a teenager whose life is constantly monitored anyway. Why would a teenager care about apple reading their messages when there are much nearer semi-existential threats like mom&dad reading your messages?
you’re a huge jackass, this is irrelevant to my message, make your own you colossal piece of shit.
Every now and then I see claims like yours popping up on Lemmy and Reddit. That Google is an advertising company and that you should not entrust your data with their phone or OS. Strangely, sometimes opinions like this gets highly upvoted, while some gets downvoted into oblivion.
(My opinion: Google certainly is an advertising company, but I prefer Android anyway.)
At least there’s a chance you can install a custom OS like Graphene or Lineage on a phone, if you choose correctly.
There isn’t the slightest chance anymore of making an Apple phone your own.
Jailbreaking is a thing no? it was last I checked. Which was years ago tbh
Pretty sure not. I ditched the iPhone when I couldn’t jailbreak it anymore and that was years ago.
I think the most frustrating part is Apple is willfully hampering the ability to intercommunicate between iPhones and Androids and people aren’t like “Oh, fuck them for doing that”, they’re like “Oh, Android sucks.” Like it’s just a wildly successful and incredibly scummy tactic to convince people that Apple devices are superior and people didn’t just fall for it, they’re willfully diving in headfirst.
It’s a shame, really, because I do think they make some pretty good hardware. Might not be my thing, but they make a good phone. That said, I’ll never patronize them because of the bullshit I’ve had to endure trying to communicate with my iPhone-owning family.
i’ve only ever heard about this “green bubble” thing from USA media.
do Americans still use SMS?
why? phone numbers are obsolete. my SMS inbox going back years is just 2FA security codes, and they’re very rare these days, since authenticator apps.
Yeah sms ought to be the standard default. Since companies like apple refused to help improve it, people like you turn to other solutions. If you use WhatsApp, you should know Facebook owns it and uses it to spy on you for profit. I’d prefer “obsolete” sms to that…
RCS should be the default. SMS is the protocol designed for old non smart cellphones.
The exact problem is that Apple DOES default to SMS outside of imessage
You’re right… but isn’t RCS designed to be a superset of sms, with sms being a fallback for old clients on the other end? Really I meant “there should be a standard text protocol for all devices” which is what sms was originally, it just lacked all but the most basic of features.
I don’t like RCS entirely in its current form but I believe that (I could be very wrong but) SMS is planned to be phased out in the long term, how they plan to replace its reliability is beyond my understanding.
There are still no FOSS RCS implementations on either platform.
WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted.
Right but it’s also owned by Facebook so it’s doubtful they aren’t using all possible means to spy on you regardless of that fact
RCS is also encrypted fwiw
Also fwiw Google can still see what you write if you use their keyboard (or OS, but I can’t bet on that, and their software being able to see it doesn’t mean they record it, just that they can)
Just as Apple can too BTW.
Definitely. Not sure putting one’s trust in Google is much better though.
I mean, Google didn’t actively decide that facilitating genocide was worth the dollars it earned them 🤷
They tried to but employees stopped it (they staged a walkout or something IIRC)
Fair enough, Google is definitely the lesser of evil comparing them. But encrypted Meta versus non encrypted Google is not a no-brainer decision.
Still popular in Australia, at least in my demographic
Same here, it’s all 2fa and appointment reminders for things. Even my elderly relatives uses WA now.
They will have to open up in 2024. Thanks to the EU.
Yes! I’ve been saying this for many years, but my Apple cult-member friends don’t want to believe me. It’s gotten better over the years, but Apple used to be so incompatible with everything else, almost like it was done on purpose to force more market share…🤔
Apple is willfully hampering the ability to intercommunicate between iPhones and Androids
In what way exactly? All the messaging apps I use work fine. I even have the same Signal account logged in through both my Android phone and my iPad.
Nobody I know actually uses iMessage either. It’s a complete non-issue as SMS is quite an outdated technology.
USA still uses SMS for a variety of reasons.
Come back to me after convincing a group of non tech-savvy iPhone-using friends or family to use literally anything but whatever the default messaging app is available on their phone or whatever they’re already used to.
My grandma uses WhatsApp. The only reason I’ve ever used SMS is to receive a verification code
Teenagers are well known for their experience and insight
Only very stupid people think that brands are really important
Holy fuck, kids are cringe. I hate this blue bubble elitism so much. Glad it’s not a really a thing in Europe.
According to my 16 yo daughter it most certainly is a thing in the EU. She would never buy an android.
According to my 12 yo son iPhone’s are for dumb people. I’m not sure if that’s really his opinion or he just says it to annoy his big sister.
In either case, your son restores my faith in humanity.
I’m in Europe and see the opposite of the article. Xiaomi (incl. Poco and Redmi), Samsung (the Z flip is popular here), Pixel (is pretty popular too) and others are everywhere. People rely on third party apps in Europe so the phone doesn’t really matter anymore.
It’s OK, American kids have a lot to deal with: school shootings, adults that don’t give a fuck about the youth and actively shut doors to a better life with their dying breath, climate change, more diseases, and more. I can understand them being a little bitchy.
For whatever reason the US never moved on from SMS… and Apple took advantage of that.
I only learned about this green bubble thing in the last year or two. The dominant messaging app here is WhatsApp, which has its own issues, but this bizarre smartphone war isn’t one of them.
Still, anything can be a war to kids. God knows how long I spent as a teenager arguing with friends about PS2 vs Xbox, as if we could really see what effect the tech specs had. Just nonsense.
To be fair I am not a “kid”, but I have friends from highschool I still meet from time to time. And everybody used to have an android phone, now I am the only one left. A lot of them are company phones, but tbf I barely know anybody who doesn’t use an iPhone. And ykw, I get it. I get my phones second hand for the price of 10 kebabs, and fix them when needed, run linageOS, fuck around with magisk when needed and so on. But actually if you don’t want to do that, android phones are a fucking awful deal. They are no cheaper than an iphone, they are no more expandable, no easier to repair, come with no more accessories, and these days with safetynet and hardware based trusted boot no more open and moddable. on the other hand get way worse software support, get way shorter support, the servicing is usually way less streamlined, even the best are built worse, and they have little support for apple accessories, which are best in class especially the airpods pro being the biggest dealbreaker of the lot. Honestly a new android phone, would be a hard fucking sell for me as well.
That’s more or less true, counterpoint: there’s the Fairphone.
Regardless of that, for the purposes of the average person, any phone, iOS or Android from even 10 years ago is more than serviceable, while for those who game on their phone, maybe 2/3 years old phones are still holding up. The innovations in the space have been really flattening out for some time, so I’d say it doesn’t make much of a difference, because the average person doesn’t care about the newest OS versions for its up to date security, maybe for the features, but there hasn’t been something very groundbreaking recently IMO.(Still, we should be mad at Google for allowing Android to be the ever out of date platform, but this was more a perspective of what the normal users need)
Well yeah the fairphone exists, but it is CATASTROPHICALLY expensive, (not that well made), and has a relatively old midrange chipset. And no headphone jack. I think 1 of these three would make it a very appealing product, 2 would make it worth considering, all three simply means, it isn’t good enough, even in a vacume. Sorry. And I really like the idea.
579€ for a phone that should potentially last you a decade or more doesn’t seem that expensive to me, chipset and jack are a pity though, I have to agree
I mean, let’s be real here. That decade is very theoretical. These midrange chipsets are kinda slow from the start. High end phones with absoulutely top of the line chipsets, with high powerlimits last a decade.
Edit: Also the parts are pretty expensive to be honest, and the price of the case is a fucking ripoff. 30 Euros for a case that isn’t even nice is just taking the piss.
Also 579 is for the entry version with only 6 gigabytes of ram, which is the amount that my note 8 had in 2018. You need to pay 649 for the 8 gig one, and if you want to keep the phone, you really want the 8gig one.
Edit2: Also you need to buy the more expensive 8/256 one, for the specled green back cover, which again is just taking the fucking piss. Not the mention the self admittedly chinese bought unrepairable TWS they were peddaling with it. IK IK you got it for free for a short while. Now however you have to pay for it.
Yeah, you’re right honestly, it’s not the best, but I do hope they improve and become more popular in the future.
Wishful thinking here, but if it picks up more, the prices might also drop a little alongside that
This news just in: teenagers can be arseholes to each other.
Back in my day, it was over the brand of sneakers or jeans that you wore.
I’m 14 and I hate iphones I prefer Android phones rooted with a custom rom
By the time you’re 20 you’ll be using Arch Linux and self-hosting everything!
I kinda already do I use arch and selfhost many things not everything but still
We’ll be watching your career with great interest
This is the way to go, kid
This one here is promising!
I’m 2 and I use a smartphone that only executes Fortran through punch cards.
I’m fifteen months old and my phone only runs a morse-code JIT compiler. The virtual keyboard has exactly one key
Nice, the world will try to conform you but never give in! You choose what you want to do.
Yeah… alot of people will. In my case my school IT department said I couldn’t use Linux… I got BSD. They then said that I needed Windows or Mac. They gave up after I got Windows 98 to work on my laptop (it’s xfce but they didn’t know the difference).
I’m just gotten to used to Motorolas twist to activate camera and now that I live in the city and durability isn’t as much of a concern I’m thinking of getting a foldable
I’m amazed it’s 2023 and we’ve still not universally adopted a protocol better than SMS. Thanks Apple
This has to be a US thing, in Switzerland there is not a single person I communicate with using iMessage. It’s WhatsApp or Signal.
It is a US thing. It sucks.
Indeed a US thing, Brazilian here
And a little telegram.
Italian here, we use Whatsapp in my social circle.
That’s because your mobile plans are usually different and you get charged for each SMS, while SMS is typically included for free in mobile plans in the US. Since you have to pay per SMS, people instead use WhatsApp and Signal which don’t have a per message charge.
That’s a thing of the past. Nowadays, in Switzerland you get everything unlimited for 20 a month.
In the past, messages cost 10 cents on a prepaid plan, so people started using WhatsApp for free messages at some point, and it just kind of… Stayed
Am italian, i also have unlimited SMS.
You still think people get charged for sms?
America really is behind
That’s completely untrue. Unlimited SMS is part of basically any plan. 5 buck prepaid plan has free SMS included.
I always see that given as a reason but we had unlimited texts in the UK long before smartphones took off and everyone here uses platform agnostic apps.
I haven’t seen a limited minute or SMS plan for years in the UK, are you sure you have any idea what you’re on about?
In France, there’s a telecom that offers unlimited sms for 2e per month.
Don’t forget, iMessage is not using SMS. It’s like WhatsApp or all other messengers, but Apple only. It uses the same app, but that’s it. And yes, no one pays for texts, because all plans have texts included. Some prepaid plans maybe.
They’ll also say they’re too smart to be affected by advertising.
I am a teen and I love android becuase it give me freedom I can do whatever I want to do by rooting or installing Custom ROM. Also It’s Privacy Focused(degoogled my Tab + Root). Other Teenager don’t know shit about privacy and FLOSS fuck them I don’t care.
