Hacker News Reader

Comment by endisneigh | Hacker News Reader

I’m curious - why don’t you just buy an Android phone and PC - then your issues are resolved no?

There are millions, if not billions, of Android phones with manufacturers that go out of their way to prevent users from rooting their phones or putting custom ROMs on them. There are millions, if not billions, of Android phones that will never run a user's choice of ROMs, and millions more are produced each year.

Not only that, Google prevents competition in the mobile app distribution market, too, because user installable 3rd party app stores cannot implement automatic upgrades, background installation of apps, or batch installs of apps like the Play Store can.

It's kind of like saying "why don't you look away" if you see someone beating other person. Your argument is low effort.

Are you seriously comparing purchasing phones to beating someone...?

No, they are not - they're pointing out your 'argument' is as without support as that example.

I don't understand, the situations are not analogous at all. Not to mention I was merely asking a question - not everything is an "argument".

You are correct - you don't understand.

Well, this was a productive conversation I suppose then.

That's what they're trying to do, but they failed. It's not an issue of over-reach (omg, did you just ...) it's that Apple isn't beating (abusing in any way) anyone. People sign up for it. No abuse is happening.

So his question is more like "Do you just look away when you see a valid business transaction" but couched in rage terms.

Simple: almost everybody I know uses an iPhone.

Without an iPhone, I can't FaceTime with my family and friends. Without an iPhone, I'm discriminated against among young people because of green text in iMessage. Without an iPhone I can't do account sharing for all the digital things my family uses.

And those sorts of reasons are just from me as a consumer. As a developer, more than half my customers (in the USA) have an iPhone. I literally cannot do business or provide apps to them without going through Apple.

I mean you could just get your family and friends to switch to Android too, right? Presumably they're using an iPhone because they find the experience to be superior. Given that iPhones are more experience I would assume this to be the case.

I'm curious what your proposed solution to this problem is.

> I mean you could just get your family and friends to switch to Android too, right?

A completely socially clueless person might try that, sure.

> Presumably they're using an iPhone because they find the experience to be superior. [Because they're more expensive...]

They're not more expensive. I actually can't find a $299 Android which has the same specs as an iPhone 8 that I got for that price. Also, where's the $2000 iPhone that competes with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2??

So they're cheaper in many cases but even more importantly, Apple has done some excellent marketing to position themselves as a premium brand and most people in my upward/upper-ish middle class circles are extremely susceptible to that kind of signaling.

Personally, I can take or leave either one of them. I have to use both for testing and I do support for people in my life all the time and they both definitely have their drawbacks.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com