Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be pissed off with the assumption that we all have fucking iPhones?!

214 replies

Bogeyface · 05/10/2015 23:46

Some of us cant afford them, some of us prefer android, some of us just (shock horror) want to call and text so dont need a smart phone at all!

So why is all the latest tech geared towards a phone that is outsold by android phones 5 to 1?! Surely it makes more sense for business to use the Android platform on the basis that so many more people use it than to narrow their market to iphone users only?

I bank with Natwest, I would like to be able to use my phone to pay for things in the event that I have forgotten my purse, but I cant because I choose to use an Android phone.

This is leaving aside the whole thing about why iphones are seen as so wonderful. I used one for a while, they are counter intuitive and obscenely expensive. I will stick with Samsung Galaxy thank you!

OP posts:
blibblobblub · 06/10/2015 06:00

Wrt Apple Pay, you can get something similar - it's not an app but I think it's actually better. My friend has a Barclaycard and they've sent her a sticky mini-card, contactless, that she's stuck on the back of her phone to use in the same way.

And you can get iPhone contracts with unlimited data, not sure why you'd think otherwise Confused

I don't get why anyone would be so bothered tbh. If you don't like them don't have one...

KitKatCustard · 06/10/2015 06:03

I don't even have a smartphone. I've got a PAYG Nokia and get by perfectly well. But the assumption that everyone has a smartphone is very annoying.

Releaseasongbird · 06/10/2015 06:08

I don't think I've ever used Apple Pay.

However, I personally don't like android tablets or phones. I'm sure it's probably just because I'm really used to the iPhone but I find them really difficult to use. It's not being an 'isheep' :) just personal preference, as with most things.

KnockMeDown · 06/10/2015 06:11

Even MN have made their new app available for iPhone only, with the Android one "coming soon ".

GinandJag · 06/10/2015 06:26

I got iPhones for my 3 DDs earlier this year, and hey presto, they always have their phones with them and charged. I can spy on track them with Find iPhone, which is fairly handy.

InimitableJeeves · 06/10/2015 06:40

I just like Apple stuff because it works straight out of the box. Every other computer-related thing I have owned has caused untold stress setting it up. It's worth every penny just for the sake of preserving my blood pressure.

TheUnwillingNarcheska · 06/10/2015 06:45

Dh is IT developer and we have Android phones.

There was a spoof where they took an iphone and uploaded android onto it, took it to the streets to show people the "new iphone" people were impressed and then they were told this is what android tech is you sheep.

Android allows more choice and variety of phone rather just a limited number of models. All the people Dh works with (all IT) have android phones.

Lagoonablue · 06/10/2015 06:48

No. Love my iPhone. I'm a sheep.

MissFitt68 · 06/10/2015 06:51

Ewell let's face it, most androids are crap anyway! Why should 'the market' want to buy into it and create crap apps for crap phones

Ilikedmyoldusernamebetter · 06/10/2015 06:52

Panda techie types I know have always held that true geeks wouldn't touch iPhones or i anything else - true geeks (computer programmer types and those who if they want an ap programme it themselves for fun ... Hmm ) are Android all the way - ideally Paranoid Android...

Disclaimer not a geek, its just what I am told, living with somebody who programmes aps for fun when he's got home from programming computers...

I've had Android phones for years, as has DH and now DD - never ever experienced a screen cracking, I've only heard of iphone owners lamenting about that happening!

TheStripyGruffalo · 06/10/2015 06:56

I am always quite shocked to see children at DD's primary school coming out with iphones in their hands. Why would a year 5 child need an iphone?

gBean · 06/10/2015 06:59

Genuine question - why are iPhone users seen as sheep?

I've tried both. I can't get along with android. I like my iPhone, I like my iPad. Every time I renew my contract I look at other phones but I always end up with an iPhone because I prefer them.

Fwiw I know a fair few IT techs with an iPhone too.

Releaseasongbird · 06/10/2015 07:02

It's probably just their parents' old one and they have upgraded and given the old model to the child, Stripy.

My primary-aged DC likes my old one although I don't let him take it to school.

SanityClause · 06/10/2015 07:02

I think TheUnwillingNarcheska and InimitableJeeves's comments are two sides to the same coin.

A lot of IT people may have Android, because they can be arsed with the faffery. People who can't be arsed with it, choose iPhones. (Obviously not only IT people have Androids, but IME, they have never been as easy to set up and use.)

Also, similar to GinandJag, until she got an iPhone, DD1 may've just as well not had a phone at all.

backinl00p · 06/10/2015 07:03

Waves to kitkatcustard me too!

Bunbaker · 06/10/2015 07:14

Interesting that Apple fans can't get on with Android. Perhaps they have been brainwashed into believing that Apple are superior?

"and mainly buy iPhones because they were the first smart phones and are compatible with iPads and iMacs etc. Its a geek thing"

No - definitely not a geek thing. It is clever marketing from Apple. They make products that are only compatible with other Apple products unlike Android which is more flexible.

All the techy people I know don't like Apple. When they review smartphones in techy magazines they judge a product based on its technological capability. PC Pro, for example, think that the best smartphone around right now is the Galaxy S6. In fact most techy people I know don't like buying in to Microsoft either and tend to use Linux, which Android is based on because it is customisable.

Mistigri · 06/10/2015 07:15

If there was a good commercial reason to do it, apps would be offered for android. I imagine that it's a lot more profitable to develop apps for iPhone (immediate access to maybe a fifth of the market) than for the much more fragmented non-IOS part of the market.

We mix and match here - DH and I have android phones, I have an iPad, DD has an (ancient) iPhone, and I have a Windows phone for work (worse than the blackberry it replaced - which is truly saying something!).

teawamutu · 06/10/2015 07:16

I'm a geek, and i do think Apple gadgets are (v beautiful) tech for people who don't really like tech. Which is fine, as long as you don't bang on at me about how they're SO much better. It's like a particularly dull cult.

I do enjoy annoying my iSheep dad (not just a Steve Jobs fan, more a disciple) by pointing out the things my clapped out Samsung does that his £££ iPhone doesn't...

Bunbaker · 06/10/2015 07:17

I forgot to say that I get tired of the assumption that everyone has an iPhone.

Android is easy to use and there is no faffery. You can use Android phones straight out of the box. I think you just get used to how an operating system works and want to stick with it. Android is as easy as IOS, just different.

DrDreReturns · 06/10/2015 07:18

I'm an Android developer.. Personally, it mystifies me that people are willing to pay so much more for an Apple product that does exactly the same thing as an Android phone that costs a fraction of the price. There is definitely a group of people that will buy anything apple releases. My old boss was never going to have a mobile phone. Then Apple released the iphone, and surprise surprise he bought it.
As pps have said things come out for iphone earlier because there are only a few models to test for, whereas with Android there is more variety, hence more work to test things. I personally think that's a good thing! I like choice. We only do Android software because our clients are only interested in buying Android devices due to cost.

Ricardian · 06/10/2015 07:20

If you mean the stuff using NFC to allow a phone to pretend to be a contactless payment card, it needs the hardware to be present (which limits it to a small subset of iPhones and a rather mixed bag of Android phones) and requires a fairly complex software stack on top of that. To do that in the wild west that is Android versioning and customisation would involve work on each individual phone/OS release, and no single Android phone is worth the candle. If you're going to offer it, iPhone is far and away the single largest target, because in this case "Android" or even "Android Jelly Bean" isn't an homogenous target, and "Android Jelly Bean on Samsung S6" (or whatever) isn't a very large target.

"iPhone 6 and later with iOS 9 and later" is a very homogenous target with decent volumes. So it's inevitably going to be the first place to go for this sort of stuff.

Ricardian · 06/10/2015 07:21

In fact most techy people I know don't like buying in to Microsoft either and tend to use Linux

Except Linux is just a clone of Unix, which is what the real techy people want. And what do you think Apple machines run?

quangotango · 06/10/2015 07:23

I prefer android but have had iphones and use Google nexus devices as they are pure android, no Samsung stuff on top. I also work in IT. My considered opinion is that android is way, way, way better. BUT you have to have a degree of technically literacy to use them properly to their full capability. if you don't, virtually all of its superior features will go over you're head, you won't be able to customise it properly to suit and you're better off with an iPhone.

virtually all apps come to android eventually, for the reasons explained it takes longer and there may be the idd game not commercially viable. Google pay is imminent I believe.

quangotango · 06/10/2015 07:27

In fact, Android pay, and its available now.

megletthesecond · 06/10/2015 07:27

Yanbu. Tbh I hate smart phones full stop, too much faff. I've got android but want to go back to a basic phone.