this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
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I keep reading this is “a US issue”. It isn’t and it isn’t just iMessage. In Japan, walk up and down the crowds in the subway and an astounding majority of people have an iPhone. Most people are using Line to message. There’s more to it than blue text bubbles.
Over the years Apple has fixed a lot of the annoyances that Android users had with iOS, and meanwhile Google has locked down Android, implemented measures to prevent rooting/customization, made all their apps a constant A/B/C/D test controlled by server-side flags that constantly rearrange your UIs and prevent the ability to sideload specific app versions, been less generous with the free service offerings, and repeatedly shut down, re-launch, re-brand, and overhaul all their apps and services.
Google does a pretty good job at selling iPhones.
I watched a video recently which also said that reasons for Android losing ground to Apple is that the products have become more like each other. Android used to be seen as the cheap alternative to the expensive iPhone. But nowadays flagship Androids are just as expensive, if not moreso, than flagship iPhones. Apple also offer a much cheaper version of the iPhone which is comparable in price to low-to-mid-level Androids. Not to mention the fact that the longer OS support of Apple means that buying a cheap second-hand iPhone is easier and easier.
Couple that with the fact that, as you say, Androids are becoming less customisable while iPhones are becoming more customisable, and all the reasons that people used to choose Android are becoming less and less true and/or relevant.