I am extrapolating from my own experience. I believe you are right in the sense that most people don't really care, not in the EU and neither in the US.

However I have seen first hand the Android prejudice, to call it something, in the US. And I've never seen it in the EU, where I've spent the majority of my time lately.

And, conversely, I've seen plenty of prejudice against iOS in a many varied (but not all, of course) social contexts across the EU.

But yes, definitely, it's anecdotal evidence based on my own experience.

I’m in the UK, and I can’t say your description rings true to me at all. There are some fans who passionately defend their tribe while attacking the other, but most people couldn’t care less either way. I believe it’s similar in the US.

Parent said EU, not UK ;)

Jokes aside I've found the UK to be closer aligned with the US socially on many things vs rest of Europe

Worth to note that just like US, Canada and Australia, the market share of iPhone in UK is above 50%, whereas Europe average is <40% pushing Apple to #2 or lower.

The Smartphone Premium Tier device-segment (>600 USD w/o subsidy) makes up ~50% of all sales in UK, which firmly positions Apple far FAR in the lead in this segment, just like in US, UK, AU,... This is also not evenly distributed geographically (cities have a much higher sales of iPhones than rural areas).

--> There are barely any "tribes" left in the higher income-brackets of UK. A person who can afford an iPhone likely owns an iPhone, so non-iPhone users are either "quirky exotics" (i.e. using a foldable device) or very likely in a lower income bracket.

The lower income bracket is where the fringe of Apple/Android is, and that's where the argument of "iPhone means I'm successful" / "Android means I'm smarter" is really happening (~400USD w/o subsidy).

So if you're in one of the above english-speaking countries and you don't notice this argument, you're likely in a higher income bracket and likely live in a city.

I'd love to see some data for that. In my own anecdata, around half of my engineering colleagues (6 figure salaries) are on Android. Nobody gives a shit either way - the only reason I know is from borrowing chargers.

Uh indeed, you're right, engineering is a very valid outlier. There are higher income professions where Android is considered more preferable, which from my (subjective) experience is mostly engineering and IT. I think that's because for this group a smartphone is more likely also recognized as an IT product than "just" a social device, but that's very speculative as I don't have sufficient data.

Unfortunately I cannot share the data on the figures I mentioned earlier as they are restricted for sharing (I'm working in Smartphone business and we're analyzing sales data of all the world to make strategic decisions).

I tried a quick search to find some public data on price brackets and target groups I could share instead, I didn't find much unfortunately. But here's a public stat on price brackets to show the big valley: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1169438/share-of-global-...

The data resolution is unfortunately not high and also not clustered in countries, but it shows one aspect: ~70% of global sales accounts for devices <300USD. Apple has no smartphone below 300USD w/o subsidy so their global market share of ~23% of all sales is actually concentrated in just 30% of the market. In countries with more high-tier sales like UK, Apple usually has a significantly larger share of that tier. In more granular data it's visible how much Apple actually owns those price segments outside of China, and how households with more disposable income don't move away from Apple anymore (surely also thanks to Airpods and Apple watches, whose value degrades when not on iOS).

Anyway, what happened in English speaking countries first but is also growing in others (i.e. Spain, Italy, Brazil,...), as a result of that split is, that people of lower income and/or status associate owning an iPhone with wealth and success. This is not so much noticeable in higher income brackets where everyone can afford an iPhone, but on the bottom of that "iPhone class" this is very prevalent. Moreover, on the lower fringe of this there is not only social pressure to own an iPhone to represent your status, but to also own a RECENT iPhone and/or Airpods, Apple watches etc.

Unfortunately I couldn't find public data to demonstrate this, so it's fair for you to consider this not answered. Within the smartphone industry all this is quite known for many years now. Not sure what could be done to reverse this, so far the potent competition to Apple actually decreased by leaving the market.

A final interesting bit for which I also found zero public data: For several years this "iPhone class" in western countries was slightly female-driven, with more women transitioning from Android to iOS or upgrading to new iPhones than men. This seems to have balanced itself in the past 2 years now, maybe because the recent iPhone improvements are more techy than experience-focused? (speculation)

Usually the sight of a non-Apple handset means we're going to hear a long repetitive anti-Apple rant unless we either steer the conversation clear of the topic or call it a night.

> I don’t think that’s a US vs Europe thing

I had never encountered the "blue vs green" bubble problem until moving to the US.

It's partly because the US has a higher rate of iPhones (through subsidized phone plans) and partly because the US hung onto SMS much longer than other countries.

Sure, I won’t deny that there’s a blue/green bubble issue in the same way that people have issues with any friction point. This is the same as if one set of friends are on WhatsApp and another set are on telegram etc… and having to deal with either switching between apps or dealing with reduced capabilities.

However the initial person I was replying to was talking about judgements regarding the device itself and as a whole, not just messaging friction

> This is the same as if one set of friends are on WhatsApp and another set are on telegram etc… and having to deal with either switching between apps or dealing with reduced capabilities.

It's not really the same, since if a group is using WhatsApp and you want to join, but don't have WhatsApp, you can simply install it. The same with all other messaging platforms.

With iMessage you can join over text/MMS, but it will make the experience so much worse for everyone that most people (from my experience) will simply not allow you to join.

There's a reason this is a major cause of dread for socially vulnerable teenagers https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-apples-imessage-is-winning-... but it's not that different for adults.

To add my own lived experience, the whole blue / green text thing is absolutely a cultural label throughout continental Europe. As a 20-something who has recently lived in France + Denmark, you do seem like a bit of a pariah without an iPhone

Really? In my experience, the main audience for iPhones, consists of three groups: high earners, fans and children. The first group buys for status, the second group buys for convenience, and the third group because the repairs are cheaper and easier (fewer models). Most people I know despise the Apple model of always trying to squeeze some more money out of you.

Have you ever thought that it might be more of a function of people you know and your own outlook than objective reality?

Does 33% of the population of the EU and 50% of the population of the US really fit in your tiny bubbles.

You realize Android phones are running an operating systems whose entire purpose of being is to collect your data and continuously make money off of you?

Not sure I understand what you are trying to say. Yes, no and yes, but that doesn't change anything.

Except that maybe your bubble is not aligned to objective reality?

Yours is?

Well let’s go back to your statements

> The first group buys for status,

With 50% of the population in the US having iPhones and 33% in the EU, where is the “status from having one”?

Besides, in the US, the difference between buying an iPhone on a 24 month interest free payment plan and an Android phone on the same payment plan is minimum. Even at minimum wage that’s less than 5 hours of work. But with todays worker shortage, even fast food workers are making $15/hour. This gets back to how is it a symbol of “status” when you have the same phone as a teenager flipping burgers?

> the second group buys for convenience,

You mean people buy stuff that makes their life more convenient? Isn’t this like saying “water is wet”?

> and the third group because the repairs are cheaper and easier (fewer models)

Repairs are easier because Apple has retail stores all over the country and actually have good customer service.

As a 30-something European it never happened to me, not even once.

Maybe we should not assume it's always a country thing. It's peer pressure behaviour, and your immediate group of peers might or might not care.

Same thing for me, first time I heard about it was on HN IIRC.

Some of us are polite enough to only silently judge Apple users IRL.