Apple knows it can’t compete with the flexibility, affordability, and other advantages of Android phones, so instead it makes me a social outcast.
The $3 trillion company thinks it can force me to buy an iPhone by encouraging my friends to exclude my Android phone from group chats. I won’t give in — and for reasons both practical and ethical — you shouldn’t either.
Start with the practical benefits. There are way more Android than Apple phones to choose from, and they tend to be less expensive. From Samsung to Google to OnePlus to Asus, a range of Android brands provide a range of options.
Apple, on the other hand, forces users to choose from a small selection of similar phones. They may be high quality, but they’re expensive and don’t allow users to pick their tradeoffs.
Consider an older user who doesn’t care much about camera quality, but wants great battery life. He can choose an Android phone like the OnePlus 12R, with a battery life of almost 19 hours, according to tech journalist Phillip Michaels. That beats the snot out of the 14-hour iPhone 15 Plus, the best battery life Apple can offer.
Then compare the prices. OnePlus 12R: $599. iPhone 15 Plus: $899.
A younger user who has the opposite preferences can opt for a phone like mine, the Google Pixel 7a (I own the older 4a). It costs less than $400, and the newest Google Pixel budget phones consistently trounce the two-year-old iPhone SE, the latest and only Apple phone in the budget price range.
An iPhone shopper has a one-size-fits-all choice, unless they want to shoot for a more expensive version of the same phone.
Once you’ve got an iPhone, the company draws you in with its ecosystem of AirPods, MacBooks, iPads, and Apple Watches that all work best together. This means even if you see a more affordable Android device that better fits your needs, you’d rather stick with the Apple software that connects all your electronics.
The best example in Apple’s “walled garden,” as some have called it, is iMessage. The default messaging app for Apple devices allows for an easy texting experience between Apple devices, but not Android phones.
As my friend Joshua Mistry rightly notes below, these green bubbles can keep me out of group chats. This is no accident: internal emails reveal why Apple executives haven’t allowed Androids to download iMessage. As Apple’s chief software executive said, the change would “remove [an] obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones.”
The reasoning hasn’t changed, as other executives noted iMessage keeps users “locked-in” to Apple products.
Josh may be in the Spikeball group chat, but he is a prisoner of the blue bubble.
