this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
552 points (94.8% liked)

Technology

59608 readers
3472 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
L3s@fry.gs
L4s@fry.gs
L4s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
552
A new smartphone again? Rethink unhealthy culture of frequent upgrades (www.straitstimes.com)
submitted 1 year ago by fne8w2ah@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
247 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

SO. MUCH. THIS.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] hedgehog@ttrpg.network 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Gonna take a couple guesses here.

  1. Given that they’re upgrading from a 5 year old phone (that wasn’t the flagship when it was released) that’s still getting iOS updates and that no Android phone has historically had a similar guaranteed amount of support (and currently only the Pixel 8 is rumored to offer more) they might want to be able to keep their next phone for 5+ years.
  2. Third party iOS apps are still generally better than third party Android apps and they might value the improved experience.
  3. They might not want to deal with manufacturer installed bloatware.
  4. They might otherwise be invested in the Apple ecosystem - AirPods, Apple Watch, MacBook, etc.
  5. They might want updates ASAP (instead of getting it months or weeks later).
  6. They might not want to think so hard about which Android phone to buy.
  7. They likely don’t value the advantages Android has over iOS (more customizable, earlier features, actual file system browsing, etc.) as highly as the advantages iOS has.
  8. They might not want to learn a new mobile OS, and they might value the consistency and simplicity of iOS.
[–] sir_reginald@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)
  1. They might otherwise be invested in the Apple ecosystem - AirPods, Apple Watch, MacBook, etc.

did you mean vendor-locked?

[–] ScoobyDoo27@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So cringey. Some people do like Apple products. Nothing beats the Mac/macbook, Apple Watch, iPad or AirPods in their respective categories. Android and iPhone are basically feature wise the same so get what you like.

But, how is it any different than being vendor locked into android with their wearables or tablets or chromebooks? Apple made an ecosystem that works well together. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s bad.

[–] sir_reginald@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Apple's anticompetitive, vendor lock-in features would make for a long, long list. I'll leave some sources I found quickly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in#Apple_Inc https://www.pcworld.com/article/520658/apple_marketing_locks_you_in.html

I'm not an android fan by any means, it's just the better option right now. Android is free software, I'm writing from an Android phone that has software from no corporation, not even Google. Can you compile iOS from source and remove Apple's software from it? I don't think so.

Even without installing custom ROMs, in any Android phone you can install apps from third party stores. In iPhones you can only get them from the App Store. You want to use a browser which isn't a Safari skin on iOS? Not possible either. There's a long list of similar anticompetitive behavior.

[–] ScoobyDoo27@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Your first comment was about a family of devices and now you only talk about the iPhone….because that’s the only device that has an open source alternative. Google/android/chrome offerings to every other category are worse than apples offerings, stuff is half baked. I’m all for open source but there is no denying how smooth all of apples devices just work with each other. That means something too. Not being open source do not equal bad automatically either.

I personally don’t care about taking source code and compiling it or installing custom roms. I have other hobbies that take my time. I want a devices that work 99% of the time without effort straight from the box.

If you enjoy non-apple products that’s great but this place just feels like the early days of Reddit where everyone is so anti-Apple because it’s cool. They do some shitty things (like basically every company ever) but they also do some really cool things too, like a family of 6 different products working seamlessly together.

[–] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

they have sunk cost fallacied themselves