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As Smartphone Industry Sputters, the iPhone Expands Its Dominance
(www.nytimes.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Unless an iphone becomes literally the only option, I don't see myself ever getting one. I'm deeply morally opposed to their walled-garden approach, and I won't even get one Samsung's Androids for the same reason. It would be nice for me if there was more people like me, but regardless, as long as there's a freer option, I'll be taking it.
It's too bad Android didn't lean more into it's relative freedom. Instead, almost all Android manufacturers have followed Apple's lead closely. I have to believe there'd be a sizeable market for a flagship Android phone with, say, a removable battery, headphone jack, SD card slot, and an easily unlocked bootloader.
They exist, they just aren’t popular because most people don’t care.
Aside from maybe the headphone jack, those are all features that enthusiasts want but average consumers don't care about enough to compromise on size, waterproofing or price.
Smartphones depend so much on economies of scale, and a limited pool of cutting edge components, it would be hard to sustain a niche market just for enthusiasts.
Bootloader a are usually pretty easy to unlock, it's Safetynet that is the biggest problem these days. Though you can generally sandbox it a little bit with a custom ROM. If, however, you try to keep it stock and have it rooted with Magisk it can be a nightmare depending on the manufacturer.
Apple Mice have had right click for 14 years, and their trackpads have used two finger click in its place far longer than that. And before that, any two button mouse worked just fine in OS X from 2001 on (earlier if you ran the beta of OS X). So your information is anywhere from two decades to one and a half decades out of date. Well done.
Hello projection my old friend…
Acting like someone is a corporate shill just because they don’t agree with you reeks of butthurt
Out here calling people names but anyone that doesn’t agree with you are the toxic ones, lol
You seem to be upset that this isn’t an echo chamber. And yes, I’ll be sure to touch some grass as soon as I clock out.
I’m not upset by your views of Apple at all. I don’t have an emotional connection to them any more than I do the company that made my forks. Doesn’t change the fact that your criticism is so old it can go buy a six pack.
I mean, couldn’t I say the same to you? Sometimes petty internet slapfights can be mildly entertaining. Certainly beats actually doing my job. I’m sure we can both agree on that
This is like being on Reddit.
Yeah I’d agree with that assessment. Only one more hour til I can touch grass, I can’t wait. I’m not even kidding, it’s a beautiful day outside
How so? That thought only works if you think they still manufacture the same amount of chargers and package them. Which would be pretty dumb given that they aren’t guaranteed a sell. Also, who doesn’t have a bunch of different chargers already?
Lots of ‘mights’ and ‘ifs’. No concrete evidence. Also they write that it might spread out across lots of manufacturers. And not only that, this is an article from when the iPhone 12 got released, which was the first to include a USB-C to lightning adding to the worry.
Lmao, are you forgetting they also changed the cable from standard usb to lightning to USB c to lightning after they stopped including the brick?
Yeah, because everything is transitioning to USB-C and that’s a good thing. They made that switch when they removed USB A ports from their Macs.
They only made the jump to USB-C because they were forced to. They would have loved to stay on their proprietary hardware for as long as possible.
I agree with you and the OP of this thread. I don't want to support a company with a walled garden approach and they over complicate things to be unique
Apple devices have had right click for a while now. It’s a two finger press.
Speaking of annoying af. Look at you, you're the same. You're not anti-apple, you're just pro-anti.
Its like picking between different types of cancer, its either walled garden or a privacy nightmare.
And Apple is out there dual wielding both issues while adding a human rights violation as well
I’m not familiar with any human rights violations from Apple, unless you’re talking about in their supply chain, in which case many of the reports recently come from Apple themselves as they investigate their suppliers. It’s not like other manufacturers aren’t using factories in China or India, or cobalt mines in developing countries.
What are you referring to?
Apple is literally lobbying congress to allow them to use slave labor. Congress was looking to pass a bill that would block the sale of products manufactured through the use of slave labor and Apple literally called a meeting with them to "talk about it and see how everyone feels about the situation". Scum
I don’t see myself ever going back to Android (beyond my work phone that is) because it’s so much hassle. An iPhone I can get second hand and keep for five or six years. Most Android manufacturers stop supporting their devices pretty much after release.
I don’t want to be forced to upgrade my phone all the time. It’s a tool, switching it out is a hassle. I don’t want to think about it all the time, it’s just meant to be there and work when I need it.
That’s something I never got from Android. I liked my OnePlus One, but I hated that I had to flash updates myself and use MAGISK to circumvent security stuff so I could use my day-to-day apps.
Honestly I think it’s a problem with the whole “smartphone” market altogether. You don’t really own your device, and the manufacturers would love it if you upgraded yearly. It’s why twice-a-year releases were so popular for a while.
All I hope for is for all the anti-consumer bullshit to get regulated out of existence.
It sounds like you made some choices about how you engaged with android phones that you regretted. Maybe you weren't aware of the consequences of your choices, which I can see being a reason to favor apple (because they don't offer choices).
However, your experience could have been completely different. There are plenty of ways to use android's that don't involve nearly as much effort as you describe. Security updates can be nearly automatic, requiring only a restart. Root access isn't strictly necessary, but is choice you can make. And changing phones can be as easy as logging in to your Google account (nearly everything gets synced automatically).
I don’t want to change my phones. I want the device I paid out of my nose for to work however long I want it to.
In Sweden we have this authentication service called BankID, which is central to daily life. I use it to authenticate online purchases, pick up parcels, pay my bills, order groceries, handle doctors appointments, contact my ISP. You name it, it does it.
Now I have my issues with BankID as a platform, but it’s what we have. Not using it is an option, but adds so much extra administrative overhead. Need to cancel your electricity because you moved? Sure, it’s a five minute phone call with BankID, or alternatively a two week process with forms and BS.
The nature of this software means you need to have a phone with a recent security patch. They stop allowing older operating systems to run it for obvious reasons.
Thus, when I switched out my OPO in 2020 it was in part due to the failing hardware, but primarily because of how flaky the setup was. I had to unlock the boot loader to flash a ROM, BankID wouldn’t run with an unlocked boot loader, so I had to root the blasted thing to run MAGISK to fool the piece of shit that all was good.
I could obviously have upgraded to a newer phone, but with Android at the time I’d be in a similar spot a couple of years down the road. Apple has many issues, but they at least offer support for their devices for years.
The iPhone 5S was released the same year as my OnePlus One, and got a security patch back in January 2023. The OnePlus One got its last in 2016.
Samsung has dropped support for their $1980 Galaxy Fold 1, and it was only released in 2019. The iPhone XS I got second hand for $400 in 2020 was released in 2018 and got a mainline OS update the other day.
Android might work great for you, but until some major things change I’ll stick to iPhone as my personal device and keep Android as my work phone.
What? Your complaints would be solved by simply... not rooting your phone lmao.
My options were either rooting the device or throwing it out and buying a new one as a very important app didn’t support older OS versions anymore.
What apps required that much circumventing? I've owned solely Androids and I've never run into "my phone's software is so outdated I can't run XYZ apps on it"
Do you do something really special on your phone that requires the latest version, in which case your experience is not going to be relevant to most users... Or are you just wayyyyy overstating the actual impact it had on your life?
BankID stopped working on older phones (more correctly: older operating systems). It’s absolutely central to daily life in Sweden.
I mean google plans on supporting the pixel 8 for a really long time, sampsung provides support for a pretty long time
What phone did you end up choosing?
I went with the Motorola G Stylus 5g. It's not perfect, but it does have an SD slot, a headphone jack, FM radio, an easily unlocked bootloader, and a built-in stylus I didn't expect to care about but which I have grown weirdly dependent on. I just wish it had a removable battery.