As Smartphone Industry Sputters, the iPhone Expands Its Dominance
The article in full plays like an ad for Apple, but I excerpted part of it that I found interesting.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In the United States, the iPhone’s popularity is expected to widen in the years ahead. Nearly 90 percent of teenagers own an iPhone , according to Piper Sandler, an investment bank.
For young people, iPhones equal inclusion. Many choose it over Android because Apple’s messaging service, iMessage, will turn the color of messages from its default blue to green if a non-iPhone user is in a messaging group. The stigma associated with having green text messages is so pronounced that when it came time for Dave Storrs’s 14-year-old son to get his first smartphone, the teenager told his father that he wanted an iPhone or no phone at all.
“It’s a status thing,” said Mr. Storrs, an Army retiree who lives in El Paso. “They don’t want to be treated differently.”
Mr. Storrs, who is 49, has been subjected to the same pressure. For more than a decade, he took pride in being what he called an “Android renegade.” He owned a series of LG and Motorola phones, even as his son and other family members pressed him to buy an iPhone. He gave in this year after his family gave him a $99 pair of Apple’s wireless AirPod earbuds.
Each time he wanted to use the AirPods on his Android phone, he had to manually sync them. The laborious process inspired him to buy an iPhone 13, which connects the AirPods instantaneously. After years of using a free Android phone, he now pays $11 a month for the iPhone. But he says that he’ll never go back to Android because he likes that he can wear AirPods and take phone calls while walking his Catahoula leopard dog, Teddy.
“It’s just convenient,” he said.
New buyers like Mr. Storrs illustrate how Apple is gaining customers. The gap between the two major operating systems is tilted in Apple’s favor. About 94 percent of iPhone customers are likely to buy another iPhone, while 91 percent of Android customers are likely to buy another Android, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, a technology research firm.
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"Phone shaming", lol.
I have never owned an I Phone and dont know why I would want to. I have a Samsung phone that cost around $200 dollars and it does everything I want in a phone. The overwhelming success of I Phone is a tribute to the power of marketing, and status seeking.
For me (and I suspect most), the iPhone is not a mere phone. The main use for me is not the phone but the apps. It is, succinctly, a pocket computer that allows me to do many things that in the past would have required me to be in front of a computer. It even serves as a hot spot so that I can connect other devices to the internet when WiFi is not available.
In addition, the iPhone integration is incredibly convenient if one uses other Apple devices like the Apple Watch and Air Pods. I have both. As with the iPhone, my Apple Watch is not merely a watch, but offers a ton of functions that are enabled by a wearable device. If I am away from my iPhone, I still can receive calls (Dick Tracy watch), texts, etc. I use the timer feature extensively for all sorts of functions (timing 3D prints, grilling, making tea, ...).
Bottom line, if all one wants in a phone is the phone function, then the iPhone is overkill. But if one makes use of the features provided, the device is incredibly useful.
An android smart phone is not "just a phone". I have a relatively cheap android phone that can play streaming tv shows and music, play audiobooks, store a lot of information and files if you use an SD card to expand the memory, access the internet and news and information sites, has a built in weather app , a stopwatch, a timer, and a health function that will count your steps and distance for the day if you are out walking or just moving around for work. It also of course takes photos and videos, and receives and sends email.
I dont need a phone to do anything else.
I know.
We all have different usages. I make substantial use of the features of my iPhone. In terms of apps, for example, I use it for banking, running my SONOS system, running my WiFi system, controlling the devices in my smart home (dozens of devices), digital tickets, Kindle, and much more.
I don't need a phone for anything but making and receiving phone calls which I rarely get and almost never make, and receiving text messages which I never make. I do take it with me when I'm out of our home, but I spend most of my days in front of my computer or TV anyway. Oh, I also use my phone to tell me what time it is, when I'm not near a clock or in the dark of the night in bed. My phone cost me the equivalent of US$60 dollars and about US$15 a year for the service and does everything I need and want. There is no way I will EVER need and want a phone for anything else. If there is ever anything more complicated that needs an iPhone to be done, my wife and her niece with their iPhones can handle it.
A few years ago it was shown that Apple purposely slowed down older model iPhones to force it's users to upgrade. While I have previously used Apple products, that article completely turned me against them.
I believe that. I also suspect computer manufacturers are doing likewise. While software does grow increasingly bloated (and thus demands more resources), I have never been comfortable with the pace at which computers seem to slow with age.
Except...computers are designed to work with Joe Blow's program that he wrote, it cannot control it making sure he writes the program in such a way to allow it to work on older computers. Cell phones are different, and especial Apple ones. All apps for Apple must be approved by Apple. So they could make them create it with backwards compatibility.
Yes, Apple has control over its apps and computers in general do not.
My sister was up here visiting me a few weeks ago. One day she decided to go out walking and listen to some music while doing it. But she discovered that she left her i phone head phones back in Texas. I told her I would let her use one of my headphones but it turns out the standard plug that has been used for audio for 50 years doesnt work with i phones. You have to have apple headphones . If i phones were priced similarly to the smartphones I might have a better opinion of apple , but they are considerably more , and I dont.
I'm too old to have one of these fancy phones that has features and apps I would never use. When away from home my trusty TracFone is all I need, and I get my music from the car radio.
At home I waste enough time on my computer as it is!