[DiabloD3]

Yes, its a nightmare because Android is becoming more and more like iOS: anything that the user used to be able to do... they can no longer do.

Android phone manufacturers want $1200 for something that is a toy, just like the Apple iToys.

Nobody wants those, and nobody wants this. Google needs to get out of the business and let the FOSS community handle it.

[mikestew]

Nobody wants those, and nobody wants this.

Just because you don’t want it doesn’t mean <checks notes…> a billion or so people don’t want an iPhone. Or rather, a phone they don’t have to dick with straight out of the box.

OTOH, I don’t really even know what you’re on about. Android is a nightmare because…it’s like iOS, which is “take phone out of box, restore from backup, sorted”? That doesn’t even make any sense, especially in light of what TFA describes.

[mhitza]

For many people around my area, iPhones are a status symbol choice. Not a coherent or direct software+ecosystem choice.

I've seen arguments around chosing iPhone for their camera. But the vast majority that is tech iliterate stops around that argument.

[mikestew]

For many people around my area, iPhones are a status symbol choice.

People in your area are very forthcoming. Not once have I ever heard someone vocalize that they bought an iPhone as a status symbol. “Easy to use”, “it’s what my friends use, and they like it”, but never “it makes me appear higher in the social strata”. They might think it, and I’m sure some do, but it’s not said out loud. Or maybe that’s not why the majority buy iPhones, dunno.

[mhitza]

My area is eastern europe. Where an iphone is like 3-4 minimum wage salaries or so. People take loans to buy iphones! And you could probably also correlate them with luxury item buyers, around here.

Good thing the US message color thing is isolated over there and the peer pressure on Gen Alpha hasn't reached us.

But yes, I stick to my claim. You don't have to hard press those people to tell you that they don't use phones "for poor people" . The idiom is local and used both ironically and literraly.

[mikestew]

Thanks for the context, I imagine it makes a bit of difference. :-)

[chuckadams]

It's just a "high-end" good here in the States. Elsewhere it's a luxury good, on par with a Rolex. I use an iPhone because of the smooth UI, the integration with my Mac, and the less-evil company that spies on me less. But let's not kid ourselves, these things are spendy, and conspicuous consumption is still a thing.

[joe_mamba]

>Not once have I ever heard someone vocalize that they bought an iPhone as a status symbol.

This might come as a shock to you, but people don't vocalize and share their desires and impulses on why they buy or do certain things, why they dress a certain way, why they sleep with certain people, etc. Apple's entire brand was built on being different and desirable at the lizard brain level.

In many parts of the world, people even take bank loans to buy iPhones simply because it's the device that all rich people, politicians, athletes, celebrities, influencers use. They don't buy based on the specs and reviews, they buy on what their lizard brain tells them, and no tech company does that better than Apple.

[encom]

Paying 2000 USD for a phone absolutely is a status symbol. And nobody actually says a status symbol is one - like nobody says look at my Rolex watch, I paid 50000 USD for it. Nobody needs a 2000 USD phone and nobody needs a 50000 USD watch.

[Johnny555]

The problem with buying a $2000 iPhone as a status symbol is that no one knows whether you bought the $1100 256GB model or the $2000 1TB model unless you tell them.

But someone that cares about watches knows whether you paid $5000 or $50000 for your Rolex just by looking.

[bdangubic]

iPhone is a status symbol is more places than it is “normal” to pay $1k+ for a phone (this is yearly or less salary in most of the world). gotta come down from the ivory tower

[fn-mote]

> Android is becoming more and more like iOS: anything that the user used to be able to do... they can no longer do

The article shows this is not true, if you know the similar process for iOS.

The article could be compared to the iPhone setup process. There are some preferences to uncheck, but there is no third party spying software on an iPhone when it arrives. Contrast to Samsung.

[latexr]

That type of rhetoric won’t get you what you want. Don’t dismiss something just because you don’t like it.

iOS devices are not toys, and even if they were there is value in toys, and even if there weren’t it is provably false that “nobody wants those”.

Furthermore, if Google dropped Android it is misguided to believe “the FOSS community” would handle it and everything would be roses. What you’d have then are a couple of hardware vendors (like Samsung) publishing their own forks and dozens of different incompatible open-source versions that would get no traction.

[bigyabai]

> iOS devices are not toys

iOS devices are. My iPad is the most useless piece of technology I own, calling it a "computer" is an insult to the actual computers I own. It's a toy, and not even a fun toy compared to my Nintendo Switch.

Android handles serious workloads fine, macOS takes software seriously. iOS is the only operating system that treats gatchapon as the pinnacle of high-performance workloads.

[bigyabai]

Hell, I'll double-down if you really disagree with me. ChromeOS, the operating system/spyware installed on e-waste like Chromebooks, has a more serious OS than iOS. It is more functional and capable, and undeniably the better professional OS. I say that with no love for ChromeOS.

iOS exists in a class of it's own, functionality-wise. A class much closer to game consoles than anything resembling a computer.

[latexr]

> Hell, I'll double-down if you really disagree with me.

No wonder the world is in its current state, if when faced with disagreement the reaction is “I’ll plug my ears and dig my heels in deeper” instead of “I wonder if I’m missing something”.

> ChromeOS (…) has a more serious OS than iOS. It is (…) the better professional OS.

For starters, there are professionals (as in, people who get paid to do a job) who do their work on iOS. Not programmers, but writers, illustrators, animators, video editors, photographers, film makers… Maybe you can’t (or refuse to even try?) doing your work on an iOS device—I certainly choose not to—but that in no way means no one does.

But all of that is irrelevant when you consider the very true fact of life that not everything is about work. Many people want something else, and not making all one’s computing decisions around work is healthy.

[bigyabai]

> there are professionals (as in, people who get paid to do a job) who do their work on iOS

I don't doubt it. There are people who get paid to do their work on a web browser, if iOS wasn't capable of that it would be a travesty. The flexibility of iOS pales in comparison to the absolute worst desktop OSes, like Windows and ChromeOS. The DAW, IDE and NLE software on iOS outright cannot compete with the offerings on Windows, macOS and Linux.

> Many people want something else, and not making all one’s computing decisions around work is healthy.

You've conceded the original point, then. I can do "real work" with an Xbox, toy shovel or Lego bricks, but it's still a toy at the end of the day. The real tragedy is that iPad and iPhone hardware doesn't have to be limited by toyetic software. It's entirely Apple's choice to restrict my iPad from supporting WINE, having Linux containers and running actual IDEs that aren't arbitrarily gimped by distribution terms.

[chuckadams]

let's maybe not engage the patently obvious troll?

[bigyabai]

Only if you can't refute me.

I don't think my comment is controversial among most iPhone owners, it's only the hardcore ecosystem enthusiasts that debate it. Most people really do treat their iPhone and iPad like a set-top box or games console; it's the minority who rely on it for work. A passionate minority, certainly, but nowhere near the market share Windows and ChromeOS carved out. iOS and iPadOS compete from the sidelines, still struggling to displace (or match) Windows.