I used Android from its inception with the HTC Magic and Dream. Nexus One, Nexus 4, 5, 6p, GS2, GS3, GS8, Motorola Glide somewhere in there. Lots of devices, over every Android version. From a full financial cost perspective (e.g. lifetime cost and then value when retired if I were selling them) virtually all of them cost me more than the iPhone of the days.
It was never about cost. Various platform benefits drew me, from a development perspective it enticed me, and it seemed right for the industry. Almost morally right.
With recent iOS versions, however, Apple has stolen many of the best features of Android (the notification system, how multitasking operates, intents, etc), while at the same time improving on the benefits they already have (a higher quality platform, better security, a better app ecosystem).
As Google started moving to their Pixel platform, continued to abandon 2 year old devices with disregard (my devices are always new, but from a utility perspective I like being able to safely give older devices to my children), Android lost me. Not to mention that it became the Samsung platform with a fringe of Google devices. I also seriously question Google's motives in providing a quality API for developers for things like computer learning and computational photography.
So there's a counterpoint. These devices are so important for our lives now than $1000 a year seems entirely reasonable.
I bought a $100 Motorola and plan to keep it until the battery isn't charging anymore. So if I can keep it for 5 years I think $20 per year is reasonable.
Comparing this to the iPhone it will save me $980 a year. That's a nice holiday with my family...
A $1000 iPhone you use 3 years is $333 a year. What is that, one days work as a developer?
Maybe that's what you meant by important?
This sounds better, but better doesn't make good.
That isn't true with many Android devices because of the poor track record of OS upgrades and support.
I work in technology. I have a family. This device is my communications platform, information conduit, photography device, GPS device, and on and on and on. This is the computing device I use for probably 50% of my time.
I also don't have a junk laptop. The things that matter to me I'm willing to not cheap out on. Even if an alternative offered 80% of the utility for "$20 per year", the last 20% would be easily worth it.
The phone is not even a junk phone:
https://www.motorola.com/us/products/moto-e-plus-gen-4
It's just not a premium "luxury" phone. I spend $45 per month on service and $170 for the device. My fiancée's phone is a $1000 Pixel, and it offers almost nothing more. Nothing that she actually uses anyway.
Personally, while I don't doubt that the Motorola works fine for you, I wouldn't even consider it since it doesn't run iOS. Or likely any up to date OS in 3-4 years.
Here is my breakdown (I pulled these number out of my Apple Data Export):
iOS and tvOS Apps: $1087
In-App Subscriptions: $380
iCloud Storage Subscriptions: $251
In-App Purchases: $520
Mac Apps: $560
iTunes Match Subscriptions: $150
Apple Music Subscriptions: $0
Books: $6
Movie Rentals: $9
Songs: $5I mean you COULD, but then you have to go convince your friends to use $alternateMEssenger instead of their phone's built-in SMS app.
The web version is fast and functional too.
I don't think WhatsApp even has accounts - just phone numbers.
It's a feature that was obvious back when we were all using Nokia 3310s. Connect phone and computer as one thing. Call and message from either. Heck, calling from your computer was an obvious feature-to-be back in the monochrome screen days!
It's ridiculous that a) Apple is the only company that has this right now, and b) it took them so long to get there in the first place.
What the hell is everyone doing!?
I think my only MacOS app expenditure was parallel and daisy disk.
My Apple costs is almost purely hardware
If you would like I could get more specific on which apps/games.
As long as that budget isn’t comprised of a single photoshop license, I’m interested to know what you’ve thought was worth grabbing.
Paid vs Free apps:
Mac: 57 Paid vs 33 Free
iOS: 310 Paid vs 227 Free
Stats:
╔══════════╤═══════╤════════╤═══════╤═════════════════╗
║ Platform │ Mean │ Median │ Mode │ Range ║
╟──────────┼───────┼────────┼───────┼─────────────────╢
║ Mac │ $9.83 │ $4.99 │ $4.99 │ $0.99 -> $59.99 ║
╟──────────┼───────┼────────┼───────┼─────────────────╢
║ iOS │ $3.51 │ $2.99 │ $0.99 │ $0.99 -> $59.99 ║
╚══════════╧═══════╧════════╧═══════╧═════════════════╝
Totals By Seller:
Apple Inc.: $493.05 (iOS Apps: $21.6, Mac Apps: $70.96)
Supercell Oy: $252.7 (IAP: $252.7)
Evernote: $147.96 (Subscriptions: $147.96)
Panic, Inc.: $87.95 (iOS Apps: $37.96, Mac Apps: $49.99)
Hindsight Labs LLC: $67.94 (iOS Apps: $17.96, Mac Apps: $49.98)
Assembla, Inc.: $59.99 (Mac Apps: $59.99)
American Honda Motor Co., Inc (Acura): $59.99 (iOS Apps: $59.99)
Strong Fitness Ltd.: $54.89 (Subscriptions: $54.89)
...
Apple Inc = Mac OS's
Supercell Oy = Clash Royale (Not proud of this number at all)
Evernote = Evernote (duh)
Panic, Inc = iOS: Prompt, Prompt 2, Coda, Transmit, Status Board | Mac: Coda 2 (I own most all their mac apps as well but didn't buy through the store)
Hindsight Labs LLC = Paprika 2 and 3 (for iPad/iPhone/Mac) (recipe app, hands down the best one out there, trust me)
Assembla, Inc = Cornerstone (svn program)
American Honda Motor Co., Inc = Acura Link (WASTE OF MONEY, I should have fought this charge)
Strong Fitness Ltd = Strong (iOS Workout tracker, I think it was like $5-$6/mo)
Edit: As you can tell the Apple Inc line is wrong, it looks like it's not pulling in the "special" categories they created for iCloud stuff, I'll fix that later.
Apple supports their devices for 5 years. Android it's more like 2 or 3 and often much less. And with Apple's retail presence it's easy to get 1-1 support which is non-existent for anyone other than Samsung. And with the extraordinary performance of their A CPUs often their devices are holding up longer as well.
The average person has their phone less than 2 years. If we assume a normal distribution and a standard deviation of 11 months then 83% of people will keep it less than 3 years. 5 years would be 3 std deviations. That is a very small number.
Or even in most cities there are phone repair places that will get you a new battery pretty cheaply.
One big problem is that you don’t know whether you’re getting genuine parts, and aftermarket stuff can be quite crappy.
(Obviously the new phone would have other benefits, but it’s a big price jump. Even for a refurb.)
My phone has to be 100% rock-solid. I do lots of actual important stuff on it.
I'm never switching to Android, because it's a gamble. Which model? How long will it be supported? Is it vanilla Android, or did they break it with custom shit-ware? Will they ever fix security holes?
The "wall of sheep" at Blackhat is mostly Android phones too.
I simply do not care about being able to root my phone, side-load random crap, or use third party browsers. I barely even change the wallpaper. That stuff is what my real computer (running FreeBSD) is for.
What I care about on my phone is having a huge, pretty screen, good performance (i.e., no frame drops and jank when interacting with the UI), reliability, and security.
Yeah those rubes paying Apple's $793 ASP could gotten a Galaxy S9+ for only $840. Or a Pixel 3 starting at $799,a Pixel 3XL for $899, a Note 9 starting at $1000 or a Huawei P20 Pro for €899 instead.
Explain to me how having the fastest silicone in the business is not "competitive" in price? I mean if you are the top dog, you kinda get to set the stage, no?
It’s just that, for example in South Africa the new iPhone XS costs R22000-24000 which is $1500 - the Samsungs and especially the Huawei’s are much cheaper. You can get a P20 lite for like R5000 which is an outstanding phone. But again many South Africans can afford the iPhone.