He asks, in a FOSS community.
What’s stopping you from switching to iPhone?
My lack of desire to switch to iPhone.
Why should I downgrade?
Apple’s stuff is:
- Locked down hard, meaning you get completely vendor-locked-in, and you can’t install alternative OS (there is none I think) or even apps from different sources without voiding warranty or using unsupported, unreliable hacks like jailbreaks for specific models.
- Privacy-invading. Sure, not as bad as proprietary Android distros, but still far from privacy-respecting
- Account-bound. Everything is tied to your Apple account. To even set up or use the product you need an account.
- As proprietary and closed source as it gets
- Ridiculously overpriced, so very low value for the money
- The company is known for its anti-competitive and monopolistic, even mafia-style behavior (e.g. when insisting on their 30% cut for all apps, insisting that apps use the in-app-purchasing system and not allowing “subscriptions from outside of Apple’s ecosystem”, stuff like that. If app developers don’t comply with ridiculous rules, they get their apps taken down, and since the AppStore is the only source for apps, this means they have 100% control and can kill any app which they don’t like or which they perceive as competition for Apple’s own apps.
Use GrapheneOS. It’s a secure, fully privacy-respecting open source distro of Android (based on the open source Android) without any Google services/apps by default, but with full Android app compatibility.
Being forced into the apple ecosystem. If I could use iphones with other products not specifically designed to work with apple (i.e. android auto instead of apple carplay) then I would maybe consider it.
Not saying that apple car play or android auto is better or worse, just that it would be nice to have the option to choose which one especially if other family members have androids.
Used an iPhone very long ago as my daily driver (I think the iPhone 4… the neon green one) until I discovered android.
I switched because Had so much more choices and that you weren’t locked down. If you have an iPhone you have to use Apple’s services no matter what. Want to uninstall safari, because it is a really awful browser? Well you can’t. Want privacy? No that’s not possible (I know what Apple advertises but just because an iPhone is built to be privacy-friendly doesn’t mean that services from Apple are privacy-friendly. And how will you prove that an iPhone could be considered privacy-friendly anyway?)
What also triggers me: with newer iPhones you do not have a universal backup option thingy. If you use your Phone with your right hand it is really annoying to constantly reach for the upper left corner to go back. On android: You can decide what gesture to use to go back. You can use three buttons or swiping gestures etc.
As other users mentioned, with android you have lots of choices. I for example have a Fairphone 4. I can replace my display myself without needing to pay extra for Apple Care. My Brother has a folding phone, I hate it, but there is the option.
Another great factor is customization. Apple does a great job, Android just does it better in some ways. “How?” You might ask, well, you can choose what launcher you want to use. You can choose what icons you like, and you even can choose an alternative App Store like F-Droid. And you can even choose the whole OS, like Lineage OS and Graphene OS. I for example use Kvaesitsio as a launcher, I mean look how beautiful it looks.
Picture from my Launcher, Kvaesitsio
Expensive and impossible to customise effectively, making it much poorer value than Android. Not that Android is perfect. The instant some form of non-proprietary Linux (like Debian w/phosh, PostmarketOS, etc.) becomes viable as a daily driver, Android is out as well.
custom roms, launchers, sideloading, rooting
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inability to unlock bootloader and run custom rom
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not having enough money to buy iPhone
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why is this post getting downvoted?
I think it’s being down voted because of the way it is phrased, it comes across as “You obviously should switch to iPhone so why don’t you?”
I don’t want to switch because I find iPhones and the UI to be bland and boring, the ecosystem is too locked down and there’s little to no customisation. Plus there is a lot of snobbery around apple products and that doesn’t sit well with me.
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I don’t like paying more for less, and I am devoutly opposed to the Apple design aesthetic.
How do you do that with your display name?
On topic, I agree. My wife has an iphone and I really don’t enjoy the ux at all.
I have two phones as daily drivers, one Android and one iPhone. Compared to Android, the iPhone is very restrictive and locked down. Adblockers don’t work and you’re forced to use whatever iOS interface it throws at you. Buttons and gestures move around with every update. There’s no way to view and manage internal files, no sideloading, lots of options that are just not accessible to normal users.
The positive side is that iPhones are very optimized and I can get similar performance to my Android phone despite the iPhone being older and having worse specs. The closed ecosystem also has its benefits, because it makes data very hard to get out, so I use the iPhone as a device to sandbox all the Meta crap that I’m forced to use.
