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Comment by lucb1e | Hacker News Reader

And yet people keep buying it. It's not like there aren't alternatives. I just don't get it.

The alternatives aren't very good. Was recently looking at Android options, and of the three things I care about, and which I don't feel are a particularly high bar (1. Non-huge phone. 2. Close-to-stock OS. 3. Good update policy.), as of the next set of Pixel devices (which are all growing bigger), it looks like a "pick two" situation. (ZenFone 8 is small and close-to stock, Pixel 6 is stock with good updates, Galaxy S21 is small with good updates.)

> Close-to-stock OS, Good update policy.

Also look at phones with Android One. Although in 2021 only Nokia is delivering phones for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_One#2021

My current daily driver is actually a G7 One from 2018 - it's still getting updates, but probably not for much longer. Sadly, it looks like any Android One phone from 2020 or 2021 would be both slower and larger than my G7 One.

Most of issues are developer only. Maybe that's why?

As an user I'd prefer to interact with larger company that is not going anywhere rather than each developer separately. This has downsides as described in grandparent post but also increases trust a bit for unknown developers.

And yet people (with some exceptions) don't stop developing for it. And that's because iOS is still where the money is - iOS users are much more willing to pay for an app than Android users.

For a user, the typical interaction with a large company is a nightmare of emails with stock replies that don't have anything to do with what you were asking, or hours spent on the phone; while interacting with individual developers (especially as a paying customer) is typically much less of a hassle.

another possible reason might be due to iMessage being de facto messaging platform in the US, amplified by the societal pressure to not have "green bubbles".

add to this the fact that video recording on Android has a horrible rep for being blurry and blocky, staining the reputation further.

the time has come for legal action against Apple. this is textbook early-2000s MS behavior.

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