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Comment by benbristow | Hacker News Reader

Lightning cables are more popular than USB-C cables at this point. If I'm at a party or something usually someone has an iPhone cable, USB-C, not so much.

To be honest with an iPhone there's not much reason to want to sideload anything. Sideloading on Android is dodgy enough with dodgy APKs. Who knows what they're doing in the background? At least with the App Store (and Play Store for that matter) being a walled garden, for both it's positives and negatives, you know an app has been vetted and is safe from malware.

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> Lightning cables are more popular than USB-C cables at this point. If I'm at a party or something usually someone has an iPhone cable, USB-C, not so much.

Of all the people in the local LGBT center, zero had a lightning cable available, one had a microUSB cable (with USB-C adapter), and everyone else (> 2 dozen) only had USB-C cables, when a person with iPhone asked if anyone had a charging cable.

So maybe in the US, where due to higher wages (even if the percentage of income that's disposable is the same) people have higher disposable income, people buy iPhones. But from what I've seen in Germany, almost everyone has Android.

I'm Dutch, I definitely see more iPhones in business settings. But generally it's a healthy mix of Android and iPhones when I'm at a party or somesuch.

Owning an iPhone is almost an universal value signal.

> Sideloading on Android is dodgy enough with dodgy APKs.

Sideloading is what allows to use third party app stores like F-Droid and to run apps Google banned like Blokada (system-wide ad-blocker).

Funny, it's the exact opposite for me.

What happens now? Do our anecdata cancel each other out, or?

> Lightning cables are more popular than USB-C cables at this point.

But in 2 years at most will be the other way round (especially outside the US)

Funnily enough, when I need a USB-C cable to charge my phone, I'm usually able to borrow one from a friend who uses USB-C to charge their Macbook...

Good job signaling that both you and your social circles have a certain degree of affluence.

I live in the SFBA, hang out with people at all income levels, and I'd say over 70% use Android. Among richer people it's more 50-50.

It's pretty easy to get USB-C chargers among my friends.

Almost anyone can afford an iPhone. All four major carriers and Apple offer no interest payment plans. Spread over 24 months, the difference between an iPhone and an Android phone is negligible.

If having an iPhone is a symbol of “affluence”, half of the US is affluent.

Your anecdotal evidence doesn’t jibe with broader statistics.

Edit: For complete transparency, I am seeing ranges from 42% - 50% market share in the US depending on the site.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/236550/percentage-of-us-...

Correct, the US is the richest country on earth. In the rest of the world Androids are more popular.

I guarantee you that if most of your friends have iPhones, your friends' incomes are probably on the higher end, statistically.

Don't those payment plans require good credit, anyway? A lot of my friends don't have that.

Not “good credit” just “not horrible credit”.

But, after you have been a customer for awhile for a carrier, they take your on time bill payments with them into account - at least with T-mobile.

https://www.t-mobile.com/customers/smartphone-equality-progr...

Many of my less well-off friends have horrible credit, unfortunately.

Good for T-Mobile.

> If having an iPhone is a symbol of “affluence”, half of the US is affluent.

I mean, it's probably the richer half that owns iPhones, so it's consistent with what you said.

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