(unpaywalled version on archive.today: https://archive.ph/03cwZ)
Interesting figure that comes out of the article: 87% of US teens prefer iPhones. Also the explanations given aren’t quite surprising, I guess it’s mostly because of iMessage. Teens will feel like outcasts if they get an Android phone while their friends still use iMessage because of the green bubbles.
It’s actually hilarious how we allowed consumerism to take us this far and that we have now peer pressure over smartphones.
“You’re telling me in 2023, you still have a ’Droid? […] You gotta be at least 50 years old.”
ouch 😔
Or are just being given slow and aweful low end android phones. IPhones will be faster and better in every way.
It was the same with laptops 10-15 years ago, people were comparing cheap 400USD laptops with 1500USD macbooks and saying thise are better without ever seeing 1000+ USD PC.
It is about money/status and performance too.
I can freely laugh at a colleague with new 1.5k USD macbook with soldered 8GB ram + soldered 512GB SSD while using my three year old thinkpad with 48GB of RAM and 2TB SSD costing the same with upgrades.
There’s probably a lot more to this than people realize. My parents definitely did this crap; give you kid the cheapest garbage that you can find them act surprised when they hate it and ask for the more expensive alternative that’s nearly guaranteed to actually work.
If you’re getting your kid an iPhone then you kinda have to spend for something that’s at least barely competent. Android gives you near-infinite ways to cheap out.
My dad did this with me when I asked for a guitar when I was in HS. I got his co-workers crappy classical guitar that was practically made out of plywood. I think I played it for 10 minutes. Fast forward over 20 years later and I own over 10 different good guitars (after a few years of not playing at all, don’t give him credit for that lol 😃)
This is probably it. iPhones all meet Apples standards but low end Android devices can be true garbage.
It’s like having a shitty netbook and swearing off Windows as a result.
This was a major point in the intel mac era, but since they moved to their M-series chips, it’s a lot more of an apples to oranges comparison anymore. Pixels moving to the tensor platform is similar in this regard.
I did this; got my husband’s kid a low end android phone on “pay as you go” since I knew he would either lose it or have it smashed within a few months. Was right on both accounts.
And yes that phone was as slow as molasses.