Android sucks. It feels like a budget, second-rate product. It’s not polished. It’s for nerds who like to customize everything. You open the web browser and it just seems janky. That’s my experience.
Android is primarily an advertising platform for Google it’s almost as if everything else comes second, maybe because it does.
Why does a phone have to be cool though?
This is a North American problem, but iPhones are great for kids as Apple has probably the best built in parental controls.
Why is it a problem? Is this really something anyone needs to worry about?
I know the bubble color plays some part but it extends to Airdrop, Facetime, iCloud features, etc… that are Apple exclusive.
No kid wants to be the one that tells them they can’t Facetime with their group, etc or do be like “Hey uh can you email me those pics dude”. Then that goes further, how Airpods work and are a “fashion” symbol, Apple Watch, etc.
Part of the issue with Android, coming from someone who was an Android user from 2009-2021 is that it lost it’s identity. Instead of striving to be a different solution, that offered different, better functionality it followed a lot of what Apple did. So it’s now gotten a reputation of being a second rate clone.
Like, the original Droid commercial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e52TSXwj774
It listed off at the time serious things the iPhone wasn’t doing like flash, high res video, high res screen, apps, lots of stuff.
Obviously most of that isn’t relevant anymore but outside of the better zoom on a Samsung I can’t think of a single feature I’d want from recent Android competition.
God, I feel teleported back to ‘07 with that commercial. Those commercials were huge. Everyone did the anytime they heard someone say “Droid.”
I think a big part of the issue is google just isn’t a competent company. Messaging and video calling apps are a surprisingly big deal for people and they’ve failed spectacularly to make a decent competitor to FaceTime/iMessage. Also basic things like having the camera work well for 3rd party apps, I’m sure there’s a way to do it they’ve just failed to. Honestly android would probably be much better if it was proprietary but that’s not changing, but even thing they can control they do a bad job at. I miss android but I just don’t trust google as a company
What does iMessage have that Google messages doesn’t have?
Without exception, the only people I see EXCITED about $1000 Android flagship phones are the 30-50 year old geeky men I work alongside in IT/development.
Virtually everyone else: they either LOVE their iPhone… OR more commonly: they don’t give a crap about phones at all… and thus bought a dirt cheap Android or a very old iPhone model, because “low cost” was their number one concern.
None of the kids that my daughter hangs out with have android phones and none of them talk about wanting any of the android phones that are available. It’s not even part of their vocabulary and some of them are very interested in tech but it’s all iPhones iPads, and Apple watches.
I don’t see how Android can really change its brand identity for the better when it has very little brand identity to speak of.
I move from an Android phone to a different Android phone, and I will lose quality of life features because the Android skin is different.
Which probably also makes it harder to lock users in because unless you always stick with the same brand, you would be fairly used to adjusting to feature loss.
Android is “customizable” but you can’t even get your phone to reach feature parity with the last phone you were using.
Except for that one friend who refuses to switch just so they can annoy everyone else in the group chat.
US problems…
There’s one thing that Google also needs that Apple is dominating, and that is physical stores.
I love Apple Stores. You go inside, play around, get your phone fixed, and learn more about the stuff you have or want to own. It’s exclusively Apple, and they’re found inside malls, remote locations, and are tourist attractions. You have workers there who are deep in the product knowledge and can make recommendations based on your needs.
As a teenager, my buddies and I loved this. It was a place that we would always have to stop by when we went to the mall to window shop.
You want to buy the Google Pixel? You have to go to the carrier store, that’s unless you have any of the main carriers. If you want to buy unlocked then your only real choice is online or Best Buy. The problem to that is that those both have different phone options so it’s no longer comparisons between the products GOOGLE sell, it’s comparisons between Samsung, OnePlus, Apple, etc.
Samsung also has some stores, but it’s dull in comparison to Apple, unless you’re in let’s say South Korea.
With the younger generations, Apple was also smart to get into classrooms. They invested, donated or subsidized devices like iPads and computers so many of the current young people have grown up familiar with Apple and their operating systems.
Google attempted to do the same with Chromebooks, for example, but idk if you’ve ever heard first hand feedback about experiences with them, but all I’ve ever heard was NOT good.
The other point which has been mentioned many times is social media apps. That’s how teens, at least in North America, largely communicate. Yes, arguably there are Android phones with better cameras and if you take an image or video with the native app and then upload it can be better but that’s just simply not what teens want too or will do. The apps just work with great quality out of the box.
Not to mention app developers usually place an emphasis on developing their iOS apps before Android. Snap is a recent example where the CEO finally acknowledged that they had to do better with Android development.
Apple is the cool/luxury brand and the entire “green bubble” thing leads to a lot of peer pressure. So large amounts of iPhone usage don’t surprise me… but 87% ownership across the ENTIRE nation seems suspect.
Granted this is from 2015, but the NCCP puts the number of adolescents in low income families at 39%. Sure, not every iPhone is a brand new Max Pro at $1200, but even the new SE is $430. Amazon shows refurbished iPhone SE’s (3rd gen, latest) at $300. Give or take.
For the 18% of youth in families classified as poor, it seems HIGHLY unlikely they’ve spent $300 on a iPhone when their family is living pay-check-to-paycheck.
And none of that takes into account situations where parents simply won’t get their kid an iPhone, or the kid might genuinely prefer Androids.
Yes, kids love iPhones and thats a problem for Android. But I still feel like these numbers don’t quite make sense.