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Comment by epolanski | Hacker News Reader

Not everybody wants/cares for an iPhone.

Realistically a 200 euros Xiaomi phone, to most users, is as good as they need it for seeing videos online and chatting.

If you want to spend more, at each price tier you have plenty of choice including: better hardware, better cameras, more memory, etc.

E.g. I do need dual (physical) sim phones. So I ain't buying iPhones ever for this very need.

Consumer trust is very debatable: I have been locked out of my apple id for 2 months in 2021, and that was a work machine I was locked out from. Tragic. Apparently it's not my hardware if Apple decides it's not.

Nowadays I only own an M3 Max because my employer gave it to me. But I don't even use it unless on the move, as I have a way more powerful desktop computer.

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It's true, but the main reason I haven't just switched to an iPhone is the ecosystem that lets me write apps without having to pay Apple money or use their computers.

If Google is narrowing their moat on this, there are a lot fewer reasons for me, personally, to stay on the platform.

Sure, but the alternative ain't better for it, no?

I'm not quite sure I catch your meaning; "it" is an unbound pronoun in that sentence.

If I assume "it" means "programming on a mobile device": yes, it is. Apple cares an awful lot about the developer experience, has massive support, and a deep well of shareable knowledge. Google is about the same (the developer experience is a little patchier; I'd generously call Google's approach to devex on Android "bag-of-cats vision" and since one is not developing on, generally, a vertically-integrated tech stack, one has to struggle a bit more to get the tools set up and maintained).

The big selling point for Android is freedom of that stack, and if they throw sand in those gears, the benefits of the vertically-integrated stack that you have to pay-to-play start to become actually enticing.

Price hasn't been a particularly compelling difference between iOS and Android for a while. Here in the states, you can get a new iPhone 13 for $200 USD, which is 170 euros at today's exchange rate.

https://www.metrobyt-mobile.com/cell-phone/apple-iphone-13?i...

That's a prepaid cell phone company (no contracts); not sure how many months (if any) you have to pay for to unlock the phone. Renewed and unlocked ones are about $270 on amazon.

Why would you buy a 5-year-old iPhone for the same price you can get a new Android with comparable specs though? If I'm gonna spend 2-3 hundred on a phone, I'd like it to last at least a couple more years. Regardless of OS, you're more likely to get that on a new phone vs any phone 5+ years old.

If Apple's still selling it, they'll almost certainly support it at least as long as an above-average Android manufacturer.

The current iOS supports things back to iPhone 11 and the SE2, so you can expect the SE3 and iPhone 13 to get at least two more years of support (no real guarantees, but they're still selling new stock of both, and they have a reputation to protect).

That's legacy machine, soon out of support. Not a sensible choice imho even if hardware might be still okay.

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