- LTS Updates
- HW quality
- Relatively consistent UX elements
- Foolproof-ish App store
- Less features
ie no App drawer, just homescreens
- Forefront of security & privacy technology
If iOS doesn't limit your glass-brick usage patterns, it's a very simple OS, with features that were thought about and picked for a reason. Or maybe more importantly, left out for a reason. This of course gets frustrating if you disagree with what Apple's designers have prescribed you.
But to a lot of people; Android phones these days feel creepy to be around, with the amount of Google-integration that requires much hoop-jumping and ignoring-of-gentle-pushes, just to get peace of mind over your data not being vacuumed from whatever crevices Google can find. And there are a lot of crevices on your personal smart phone.
If you're installing + maintaining LineageOS or something then you can get par with iPhones for the features that a lot of people in the HN crowd might care about, especially if you subsect for DDG-users.
Security to me seems like a sales pitch - Apple is just as sensitive information greedy as Google. And I deal in this area with Google as well as I do with Apple.
But the inferior software quality is terrible drag for Apple.
Photos - their syncing with iCloud is out of control. There are bugs that haven’t been eliminated for years. I gave up when after deleting 50 GB of RAW photos Apple re-created then and synced back to mu Mac.
Google Photos is not only more open but also smarter and better at improving picture quality.
Apple Music - I gave up after a month of getting recommended Heavy Metal albums and playlusts everyday. Nothing in my Library, listening and followed artist suggested that I might like Metal. What kind of company can’t write simple recommender?
iCloud - Google Drive is just superior, more open, integrates and exchanges files with almost everything, Google Backup just works. iCloud backup is really inferior and again out of control for user.
Apple Mail stoped beeing developed and there are well documented frustrating bugs and quirks if you use IMAP accounts.
Maps - despite Tim Cook’s promise to users it never got on par with Google Maps. The quality difers wildly from country to country but recently I have re-installed Maps, used them for a week in my hometown and got so frustrated that I have deleted Maps and went back to using Google Maps.
Oh should I mention that touch interface is full of bugs. Try selecting a piece of text in iOS...
As in Apple stores the information on their servers, forever? A lot of the sensitive information like a fingerprint or face scan is saved solely on the phone, as is a lot of the ML based features like content detection within a photo. Apple doesn't use a server farm to tell you there's a dog in your photo, it uses your phone.
There aren't good excuses for some of the bugs on iOS (the most recent iOS has been out for months and they still can't fix the emoji keyboard size issue, when this issue didn't exist in previous iOS versions?) but I trust Apple significantly more than Google with my data, in part because I know Apple's money isn't from my data, it's from the sale of their phone. This isn't true for Google and it will likely always be true that Google makes its money from advertising and user data. I also trust Apple to actually do some semblance of due diligence and make sure their app store isn't full of malware, something Google seems unable to do reliably.
Apple however is calling home no less then Google and is quite secretive about why and what information is transferred so I am blocking most of it same as Google.
I was scratching my head when I read this part of your comment. It makes me wonder if you ever owned or used an iPhone. iOS is end-to-end encrypted, and Apple doesn’t store any data on their servers, save for iCloud. And you don’t need to use iCloud to have a functional phone.
The rest of it is either outdated or wildly inaccurate.
I have to use Android phones for work (one Sony, one LG), but I have an iPhone for personal use. I can tell you from daily use of both, the majority of iPhone software is vastly superior.
And you really need to stop spouting that line about Apple collecting information like Google. Anyone who knows anything about IT privacy knows that's wrong, and it just undermines your credibility.
The way some people use their iPhone (my partner included) and all the (cr)Apps they have and what they do, it may as well be an android phoning home to google… also ignoring when its in airplane mode, telecos routinely connect through to the phone via baseband…
Even with all the conveniences, sometimes its just better to leave my phone at home… esp with all the times something is just trying to connect to apples servers.
The difference is that with the apps installed on a phone, you can uninstall the app. With Android you can't just "uninstall" the Play Store.
https://www.phonearena.com/news/New-company-called-eelo-will...
Looking at something like the Essential phone that's retailing for $500, I think the many users would be hard-pressed to find an extra $500 of value out of the iPhone X. Then you look at a Pixel 2 XL, that's about $200 cheaper than the iPhone X while still featuring a very high level of fit, finish, and performance, and it gets to be a good deal harder to make the case for the iPhone X.
Android and particularly vanilla Android have really closed the gap on iOS while Apple has gone a bit backwards in some respects.
And that's where the iPhone 8+ comes in.
The Wall Street Analysts may have just misunderstood what Apple was actually trying to do when they made their first sales estimates.
Also being able to access all of the apps that I've purchased on my phone again will be a very nice plus.
Because the $1,000 iPhone and a $100 Android don't have the same functionality.
Because you require a very small, Google-centric toolkit means that a $100 phone is a good fit for you. But there's a few billion other people on the planet, and some of them have different needs, wants, and desires.
But feel free to continue patting yourself on the back in public for your lifestyle choices, if that makes you feel better. Not everyone finds nobility in frugality.
I was taking a shower this morning when I realized... Apple doesn't care about software. I realized almost all the software I use on my iPhone or Mac is third party (excluding macOS and iOS). I realized Apple Music is quite possibly the worst piece of music software ever created by man. I realized iOS 11 is buggy as hell. I realized Siri is the worst "assistant" in the market. Apple clearly makes amazing hardware, but they fall behind when it comes to software. Their hardware design is the best in the game, but their software UI/UX is horrible. I know a lot of good designers who work at Apple and I know for a fact that they do amazing work on their own, yet they are unable to show this in the final Apple product. This must imply these designers' talents are wasted at Apple and they are not given a platform to shine.
So I'm going stop applying to Apple because clearly we both don't see a good fit for one another.
I have recently started playing with my Mom’s phone which is some cheap Huawei Android and surprise - I can do the same on this phone as on iPhone - Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Inbox, Google Search, Google Allo, Google Drive, Firefox, bank applications, Spotify, MS Outlook - everything works OK.
The feeling is liberating like discovering Linux after years of thinking that Windows is the only choice.
I have stoped using Apple Maps, Apple Music, Apple Photos, Apple Mail app, iCloud etc because they are all half-baked and frustrating. At least Google is trying harder with their software.
So what is the reason - excluding vanity - to pay 1000$ for a phone when I can have the same functionality for 100 - 200$. I will spend the difference on books, coffee and really good headphones.