[HappyTypist]

Yeah but Apple products are so expensive, outside of the USA, most[1] people still use Android simply because their budget for a phone is maybe ~$300-$400 and they don't want a SE with the body from 5 years ago.

[1]: 73% according to StatCounter.

[kaba0]

They have a huge second (or third-forth)-hand market though (which is actually maybe the greenest part of Apple’s operation and one I will applaud them for). Most people would probably be much better off buying a 4-5 years old iphone than buying the latest shitty low-end android phone thrown at them by telecom companies that will be slow even as new and will be literally unusable a year later.

(Though the same disgusting practice is used on laptops where a mid-class 5 years old laptop can easily outclass a “modern” low-end one..)

[theshrike79]

This is directly from Pratchett's "Samuel Vimes theory of socioeconomic unfairness".

Well-off people can afford the iPhone SE, which will get updates for 5-6 years. Poorer people get the fancy schmancy latest Android device with 42 front cameras that'll stop getting OS updates in a year or two. After 3-4 years it's completely unsupported by anything and bordering on unusable, at this point even the security updates have stopped.

Then they go get a new Android phone and GOTO 10.

[Batman8675309]

>that'll stop getting OS updates in a year or two.

Buy better phones then? Samsung and Google both offer 5 years of updates now.

>after 3-4 years it's completely unsupported by anything and bordering on unusable No they aren't, and we all know you don't have a source to support this.

[theshrike79]

"Now" being the operative word here.

4+ years ago this wasn't the case and I watched people get burned by shitty support multiple times - all the while my iOS devices chugged along. Even flagship phones could get 0-1 official OS level updates.

Oh, and check the fine print on those promised "updates". IIRC the Samsung one guarantees "security updates" for 5 years - basically they'll backport fixes for high enough severity CVEs to older phones. You won't be getting 5 Android OS updates on them.

I'm willing to bet actual money that no more than a half dozen Android models you can buy _today_ with Android 12 on them will get Android 16 as an official update. On the other hand I can pretty much guarantee that the iPhone 13 being sold today will still get iOS 20.

[PaywallBuster]

the new SE is quite affordable though and it lowers the barrier of entry

[2143]

Sure, but Android phones with better specs (and bigger screens) are cheaper.

People naturally gravitate towards those.

[brtkdotse]

Have you ever seen a non-techie buy a phone? No one cares about specs.

[Arn_Thor]

Specs might be better, but in real-world performance Apple provides the smoother experience. Not to mention that software support is sparse and short-lived for Android phones in that budget range. Sadly...

[judge2020]

Unless you get stuck with an Exynos-powered Samsung phone[0].

0: https://reddit.com/r/samsung/comments/v5nkpm/s22_horrible_ex...

[pietro72ohboy]

Samsung is not the only option around. A lot of Chinese OEMs (Vivo et al.) make fantastic android phones at very affordable prices.

[perryizgr8]

My phone budget is regularly $1000 and I still can't justify buying an IPhone.