Apple's Popularity with Gen Z Poses Challenges for Android
macrumors.com
macrumors.com
Which is due in no small part to branding, all the way back to the iconic iPod dancing silhouette commercials. Apple portrays a brand image of authenticity, fashion, and self-expression. (Whether or not you think that's deserved, it's definitely the vibe.)
While Android branding is... well it barely exists. It's just kind of generic. It used to be a bunch of funny-looking cylindrical figurines juxtaposed with the names of candies... now I'm not sure it's anything at all?
I will never understand why Google has never come up with a viable marketing strategy for Android, to be fashionable in its own different way.
But I do want them to make the software in my car. Preferably so that the car is just a wireless dock for my iPhone. So every time I upgrade my phone, my car gets a hardware update too.
The "true Google" phones (Pixel) with their "true Android OS" are great. But there's so many other manufacturers, and so many other flavors of Android, that it can't help but feel like an ocean of knockoffs.
Apple feels so pure and clean in comparison.
Apple are expensive. Anyone[1] can have an android phone, but a recent apple is two orders of magnitude more expensive.
Like trainers/sneakers expense is a clear differentiator.
[1] well not everyone
Meanwhile the base Galaxy S23 starts at $799.
You can max out and get an S23 Ultra 1TB for $1619. Or max out the iPhone 14 Pro Max 1TB for $1599.
I mean, you can get an Android phone for $40 new that will run Android Go, that's the point, it's ultra cheap and has all the same apps. I would not spend $400 on an Android phone, personally, let alone $1700, the price of a gaming laptop, for what? You don't even get the clout like iPhone users...
Two orders of magnitude means 100x more expensive, but obviously you didn't mean Android is $10 while Apple is $1000.
So as long as you're here... what did you mean by order of magnitude? Did you intend 2x so two orders of magnitude would be 4x? Or did two orders of magnitude just mean 2x? Or two orders of magnitude more means 3x then?
(I'm seriously wondering if "order of magnitude" is starting to change meaning for some people the way "decimate" did a long time ago, it originally meant to reduce by 10% but now it means to reduce drastically.)
I will be more careful and avoid hyperbole :) in future.
A 256GB iPhone 14 (released Nov 2022) is $900, and a 256GB iPhone 13 mini (released Nov 2021) is $700.
Both of these devices can be expected to last at least 5 years from today and receive software updates the whole time.
Which Android is an order of magnitude cheaper ($70 to $90) and comparable?
It's leadership. Steve Jobs had a drive for design, easy to use. Elon Musk has a drive of "why not?" (for lack of better words from me).
What does Google have? What direction are they going? Hard to say.
The closest anyone has gotten to the iphone, in my opinion, was a period of time when samsung was competing with features and camera quality with their phones. It seems, though, that apple has completely caught up and the race for features doesn't seem to be as important as it was in the past. Now it's down to status, and you just can't compare with an iphone. Especially in the US when you get those green bubbles popping up in text messages, screaming that someone is not part of the club.
Since Google traditionally never sold phones, the Android branding was left to OEMs like Samsung et al, who went with disjointed, masculine, and edgy themes.
Google finally decided to take the brand into their own hands by releasing Nexus, and now Pixel lines, with the "it's for everyone" approach to counter Apple's traditional "it's for the elite" brand. Goog is catching up to Apple, albeit slowly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_(1st_generation)#History
> Google finally decided to take the brand into their own hands by releasing Nexus, and now Pixel lines
I was just pointing out that your "traditionally" is a non-traditional notion if you consider the timeline of Nexus and Android.
This is exactly why Apple succeeds with Gen Z. Gen Z doesn't want to be in the "everyone" box, but in the "elite" box. Gen Z is massively buying designer clothing and accessories. And Apple is the only "designer tech" on the market.
Google and Android on the other hand.. you see the difference? Google invests in Android to sell ads. That’s literally it. Other OEMs also do all this to sell ads and get as much of private customer data as much possible along with selling devices.
These are two worlds.
As for being fashionable. These two OSs do not really complete with each other. This is a very comfortable duopoly for both the companies and the customer pays the price in one way or the other.
Hell even the people who buy Android don’t look at it from fashion point of view. Someone has to record calls, someone wants to do something else, someone wants it easily repairable, somnolent simply doesn’t want to sell one or two kidneys to buy an Apple device. Etc.
In the end - everything considered, when it’s about value for money — Apple devices just don’t stand a chance.
(And just in case you are planning to jump on “no, I think Apple prices are just a d they ‘just work’”. Trust me they are not and there is a whole rest of the world out there beyond the USoA borders).
This really hits the nail on the head and is the absolute key factor in the US. And it's not because of the "blue/green" bubble that the media often likes to play up. It's because if you're in a group chat, everything works great for everyone if all the participants are on iOS in iMessage. The minute you get an Android user (and I'm speaking as the Android user in this situation), it sucks for everyone, NOT just the Android user: photos and videos get degraded, messages randomly get dropped, emoji reactions don't work as well, etc. I'm well into middle age and have been told by friends "Just get an iPhone" when I join group chats on vacation.
iMessage really is the moat that is impossible to breach without government regulation. Folks in other countries don't notice it as much because they tend to use other platforms like WhatsApp or something else for group chats.
People can say what they want about facebook. WhatsApp as a messenger is just 10000% better than the stock SMS apps on iphone and android.
The number of annoying conversations I've had about converting people to using it make 0 sense.
Group SMS as a problem is just SOLVED by using whatsapp. There are some minor sticking points when traveling and having multiple sims with multiple numbers, but those problems are even worse when using stock SMS anyway.
Whatsapp even has POLLS ... POLLS PEOPLE what an incredible feature for group messaging.
Edit: I am not oblivious to network effects. I am bemoaning the consequences of them really. Just like I f*cking hate venmo as a user experience, yet I have to use this POS app because everyone else does. I've given up on that fight though.
If it's this painful as an old guy, I can't imagine what it's like for teenagers.
It's network effects. It's not about convincing one person, it's that they need to convince all their friends. Who need to convince all their friends. Who need to convince the entire country.
Because what's even more annoying than missing the features from WhatsApp, is having to remember which app to use with which person and with which groups of people.
Hopefully that makes more than 0 sense. :)
It should be a cross platform app. Simple :)
I'm not thrilled that it's a Meta product, but I'm inclined to believe them when they tell me it's end-to-end encrypted, so I've more or less adopted it as the neutral messaging app I'd recommend.
I tried using WhatsApp once and there’s essentially no way to use it unless you give it access to your entire address book. You have to give it every single bit of metadata about every contact on your phone (which they will surely use to place you on a social graph to build a profile of you) in order to use it.
Fuck that.
It's the same in many European countries - I'd assume it also is in every other country where people can afford iPhones. Few people nowadays want to use 3+ different apps for messaging when iMessage "just works".
Of course, I totally understand that it's just a matter of what you're used to, but Pixels have some fantastic features like their handling of spam calls and on-hold features, not to mention that Google Assistant is leaps and bounds better than Siri.
Btw. what are those gestures you are talking about? I am pretty much a boomer when it comes to using software and my 2 year old son could show me new features of Youtube for example but I was not aware of any hidden gestures...
Now all that stuff, minus only sideloading, has been eroded to nothing. You get subpar software. Subpar apps. Subpar privacy. Subpar hardware. For what? For nothing.
Unless you're a software or control nerd (see: me) there is zero reason to even think about Android.
The upfront cost is higher but you can expect a much longer service life and the resale value is higher if you still feel the need the newest model on shorter timeframes.
iTunes doesn't exist anymore, though.
"Film me skate & airdrop me the clip" isn't that straightforward on Android (and no, I'm not going to email it to you & use up my and your mobile plan).
For laptop-Android transfer, KDE Connect has worked great for me.
IOS doesn't support emulators. The photo functions on the latest pixel phones are pretty slick (e.g. deleting unwanted objects in the scene). Nightsight is better on Android. File management makes sense on Android where as on IOS, it can be difficult or impossible to get access to files without going through the app. Local backups to file storage are basically impossible on IOS.
I could go on, but IOS is an appliance where as android feel more like a PC. IOS is what happens when apple is allowed to take the "mice only need one button" idea to it's most extreme.
There's a few options: https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-phones-with-a-headphone... But yes, it does seem like a sad trend.
Then you have Android which isn't Android. Samsung desperately trying to establish its own identity, by including own versions of apps on their devices - so you have Android Browser/Google Chrome and Samsung Internet. Gmail and Samsung Mail and Android mail. The list goes on.
Then let's talk about security patches and updates. Improvements have been made over time, but it is still nowhere near Apple. Partially this is due to the way Linux kernel and build process works, but as a user I don't care about that.
Even on flagship devices Android is not truly smooth. Sure, some animations are added here and there, but it is not truly smooth - and often there is some stuttering here and there. That completely ruins it for me. Let's not talk about how lower-end devices work.
Apple asks too much for their devices, the apps can be incredibly expensive, and I don't like how they've handled repairability until now. Accessories are too expensive. AirPods shouldn't even exist. But what they offer does work and it works mostly well.
I hate how they abuse this iMessage situation though.
Why is that? I recently switched to AirPods Pro because I wanted to see what the fuss was about and I don't regret it one bit.
- Pairing works seamlessly, including switching device, including non Apple devices
- The controls on the buds are amazing and well thought of (I had Jabra before and the controls were different on the left and right earbud, so if I wanted to wear only the right one I couldn't skip a song because the control was on the left one)
- Active noise control works great
- The microphone is good enough that I can actually use them for calls, even in the street near cars
- Integration with FindMy, not only for the case but also for each earbud individually is soooo useful.
- Even the feeling of closing the case is amazing.
They're easily the best earbuds (and headphones too) I've ever had.
Of course, I do not use websites like Instagram or Twitter, so maybe I am not affected by the less comprehensive ad blocking.
My last Android (2 years ago, a Pixel phone, the real deal) was full of annoyances, the official "apps" were incoherent (every app has its own hidden settings' page with a different look, and there a hundred of those pages), and the worst was that I found DEBUG_STRINGS_WITH_UNDERSCORES in one page.
iOS is a walled garden, but at least it doesn't entice me to throw my phone outside the window.
Edit: last but not least, since I had to buy a brand new Google phone (to get an up to date OS), I remember that it was twice as expensive as my current iPhone...
Enough of that. I bought an iPhone 12 Pro and it's as good today as it was out of the box if not better. The one single gripe I have is that the apple keyboard is utter trash. It's so bad I'll reconsider android when it's time to replace even if it costs me more over time.
The major difference is that we now have huge data plans and a handful of great messaging apps to choose from. I don't understand why this hasn't reached the US market.
I can't imagine communicating on an app that's not compatible with my friends' devices when there are so many alternatives out there.
And it is not an issue anywhere else on Earth besides the US, people just use third-party messenger apps and that’s it.
(Anyone remember the glory days of GAIM/Pidgin and multi-account messengers?)
For Apple to open iMessage, would require that android manufacturers enroll the devices.
I use an iPhone, and I try to get all my friends to use signal
In addition, their continued reluctance to add an export or any kind of meaningful history backup is also a negative.
Such things still exist, and even include iMessage ;-)
That implies there was a time they weren't. They always have. If anything, in most cases the signals have been more diverse and therefore weaker over time.
This is the closing statement in the article, but doesn't seem to be supported by the data and arguments provided.
Why would a generation entering the workforce and establishing their careers necessarily cause entrenchment of an existing trend? If anything, as the biggest reasons for Apple's popularity in that generation seems to be driven by social factors, their advantage could very well fade as they leave behind their childhood social circles and build new ones.
I certainly don't miss having a wire catch on something and yanking my ear.
Having hard numbers in a report makes sense to nail it home, but it's instantly obvious if you interact with people that age. (And I say that as a millennial that's used to a lighter version of the same shit from my peers.)
That said, it is easy to extend to other developed market. Even in developing markets like India and China, apple products are positioned as status symbols. Even if you disagree with that, it is difficult to argue against apple’s vertical integration of software, hardware and supply chains.
the android market has no equivalent and there is no “android” brand. for a good source of anecdotal data, look to the used device market. apple products retain value well.
Then when we move on to testing, the clients have a hard time finding someone to test on Android on their end. That leads to a lot more polish on the iOS side and Android being treated as an afterthought.
> Android has an incredible 97 percent market share in India
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/02/androids-new-oem-rul...
Not everyone can afford Apple's premium.
Last time that happened was about 20 years ago, over microsoft bundling IE with windows though.