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

[Bogeyface]

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!

murphys, thank you. Ideally, I'd like to turn it off at night tbh. It's a pain in the bottom that my old cheap handset could be switched off and this one can't.

It confuses me when people say that apple products are easier to use.

They do seem to be far easier for people with profound learning difficulties to use. I can manage android or apple products equally easily but I know my SN child would really struggle with an android product. He mastered the iPad really easily and has easily transferred that knowledge to using an iPhone because it is identical albeit just a much smaller screen. He hasn't a clue how to use his brothers android tablet or his dad's android phone or his brothers windows phone. Several charities will help with funding iPads for non verbal children and many speech therapists and special schools use them for non verbal children because they are very easy to use.

Ideally, I'd like to turn it off at night tbh.

I'm not clear what your use-case exactly is, but I have my iPhone set to automatically go into "do not disturb" at 11pm until 8am, which leaves the alarm still alarming, but disables all notification of phone calls, calendar events, texts or email.

There's an option to set it to ring if someone is persistent, and there's an option to allow calls from a specific list of people, but as a celebration of no longer, after 20 years, being an on-call IT manager I have both turned off (and if it's that important, the people that might need to get me have my landline number anyway).

For most people, do not disturb does "the right thing". You appear to want to have alarms muted as well (do you really have alarms set to go off in meetings?) which does, indeed, involve turning an iPhone off.

I never thought I'd see the day when Slashdot came to Mumsnet....

A few things:

• It's more accurate to say that featurephones have a larger market share than smartphones in the developing world (vs Android and iOS). Many feature phones use Android (it's free) and these markets are pretty price-sensitive
• iOS users have much higher rates of active use of apps than Android users, and that drives their purchasing patterns, and that is another reason why developers tend to build for iOS first
• It's not just that you have to test for a more fragmented environment if you build for Android because of versioning, different phones etc. It's also that it's harder to build for Android - the tools aren't as easy to use, it's tougher to create a good app, and the functionality isn't as seamlessly integrated
• Asymco is a good place to go for thoughtful analysis of Apple vs Android. It's clearly pro-Apple in basic stance, but Horace Dediu, the author, is nobody's fool and his analysis is very insightful. For example, he says this:

"The reality is that Samsung’s own smartphones are being disrupted by good-enough Android devices, typically made by Chinese brands. This low-end disruption is also affecting LG, another phone maker and Apple supplier.

Unlike Samsung and LG, Apple is less susceptible to low-end disruption. What Apple offers is a brand promise, an ecosystem, associated products and services and what amounts to a new market. It’s this parallel value network that competes with Android/Google, rather than with Samsung.

Samsung is a supplier in the Apple network and a licensee in the Google network. As a result, it has a near monopoly position [as a supplier of] a platform controller (Apple) and a commodity position with a platform licensor."

ricardian I had no idea you could set the times for do not disturb and add favourites who can get through. Thanks for that. I clearly need an iPhone because it thinks for me I think an android would overwhelm me possibly as I would have no idea how to customise and think I'd get a bit frustrated with it all. I will however ask a friend with a Samsung to show me it's capabilities and take it from there.

It's also that it's harder to build for Android - the tools aren't as easy to use

And if you don't like the API, never mind, there'll be a completely different and yet still mysteriously broken one along in a few minutes.

Iphones work better for non-techy types, the elderly or bewildered

Not my experience. Every non-techy person I know who has an iPhone - and there are many - has brought their iPhone round to me so I can show them how to use it. I have lost count of the number of times I've set up an iPhone for someone. (And I don't even have one, they're too big and heavy.)

Every non-techy person I know who has an iPhone - and there are many - has brought their iPhone round to me so I can show them how to use it.

The law of the excluded middle comes in, so may I just point out that just because iPhones may (I have no opinion) be better for the less technological, that still doesn't mean they're great, it might just be that Android is worse.

An iPhone is the only phone to have.

Just the best.

If you think Android users are hard done by, try a windows phone! I didn't get on with Android & refuse to go over to the apple side, so I have a windows phone that I love, but the availability of apps is awful. We're very much the poor relations of the app world.

(Honourable mention to BA, Barclays & Go Pro for thinking of us black sheep & letting us join in)

There are far too many assumptions on this thread.

Some people like red wine and some prefer white. Some people prefer Apple and some prefer Android. I don't think that one is easier to use than the other, it is just personal preference. And, yes there is snobbery from techy people, inverted or not, about buying into the Apple cult.

I have used a Macbook and it is great for surfing the internet. It powers up in no time. I don't like it for working on though and use my Windows laptop.

I don't like the fact that Apple products have no option to increase storage capacity or have a back button, but I'm sure Apple users are used to that.

How many Apple lovers have used Android properly, and how many Android lovers have used Apple properly?

Baaaa.

I had an iPhone 3G and then an iPhone 4S for 6 years. I've had a Google nexus 5 on android for 2 years. I've thrashed the life out of all 3 phones. The android phone is much more flexible and useful. I can play and convert all and any file formats, movies and music from all formats, I have full access to the hard drive, I can root it, everything is synced with my cloud provider (neither apple nor Google) I can open all my files simultaneously on my phone and any other computer, I can do everything and more that I could do on the iphones. Android wins in my book if you want to use your smartphone like a tablet/laptop, not just a smartphone.

I am an Android lover and previously used an iPhone for about two years until I switched to Android and have used Macbooks at work and at my parent's house (they are not particularly techy and like the convenience of Apple plus my dad is a serious photographer and loves the Mac-specific software he has on there for dealing with photographs). I use a PC at home because although Macs start up lovely and fast and are reliable, I want something that doesn't cost the earth and something that I can get games on (not just the big name ones, but the indie titles too). They also have a huge-screened desktop Mac which functions as an extra TV screen for DVDs etc and it's actually really good for that.

I switched because I wanted a bigger-screened phone and got a Samsung Note. LOVED it. Just everything about it seemed way superior to my previous iPhone - the camera which I use loads, the sound quality, the speed, the ability to swap batteries, the ability to add storage, the screen, the back button (I could NOT go back to not having one). It just fitted the way I like things. I loved the ability to add widgets to my home screen and have it displaying useful information rather than just rows of icons.

Upgrade time and I switched to a Nexus 5 - I miss the swappable batteries and the camera isn't as good as the Samsung but vanilla Android is an infinitely better experience to the Samsung Android that I'd previously used. I will definitely be getting something where I can easily use vanilla Android next time. Suggestions from Android lovers welcome!

I find the back button massively useful and genuinely would not like to go back to not having one - it's not within apps, it's when you eg click a link in Facebook which takes you to a browser page and then want to go back to where you were. I love being able to start reading something on my PC, leave the tab open, go out and get on a train and carry on reading where I left off. Several of the apps that I paid for on my iPhone are free on Android (with small ads). My phone and tablet (Nexus 7) and PC talk to each other really well. I have non-Google cloud storage based in my own home so I can watch any of the DVDs or read any of the eBooks or listen to any of the music I've stored on that wherever I am. I popped a load of DD's stuff on there too so when we were on holiday, we could just watch stuff she liked without having to cart more than a 7" tablet around (as long as we had wifi). I get my texts and other phone notifications on my PC and tablet as well as my phone so I can stick my phone on a charger anywhere in the house and not miss anything important if I am working at home. It's just better for me. It works better and it costs less - what's not to like?!

Absolutely the only downside I have noticed is that iPhone battery life is significantly better. Since I can no longer carry a spare battery as my Nexus does not have a swappable one, I have got round this by buying a solar charger. I put it in the very light kitchen/dining room extension (Velux windows, south facing). It charges up in about a day. If I know I'm going to be out for a long time and need to use my phone a lot, I take this with me and charge on the go (at no cost to me other than the initial outlay of buying the battery which cost less than £30 so def less than the price differential between my phone and an iPhone).

I would never go back to an iPhone.

I agree with Homehelp that I am surprised a 6yr old slash dot argument has appeared on mumsnet.

Fwiw, I work for a multi national used to be a developer and now a Solaris DBA handling petabytes of data, been in the industry ~20yrs and the majority of the grunt work is done on a Windows Box, critical systems are usually UNIX/Linux based and it's primarily done via scripting so no need for a Mac either.

Macs have a there place, but 'IT' is such a broad term now that people suggesting that because their DH and all colleagues use them as some vague justification that they are becoming industry standard and that they are nothing but a limited subset is misleading.

Apple products are good at what they do, they have been marketed extremely well, I've had plenty in my time got a few iPads and a surface pro, both have pros and cons.

Not really adding to the debate, just surprised to see a very old tired argument on here.

There are over 20,000 different Android devices with almost as many screen sizes and consequently it's much harder to design a reliable Android app than it is to design an iOS app

the landscape is very different to what it was 6 years ago, markets change and fluctuate. Don't see why we aren't allowed to discuss which OS we prefer just because people did 6 years ago. 16 years ago Sun was a going concern :)

I will definitely be getting something where I can easily use vanilla Android next time. Suggestions from Android lovers welcome!

AFAIK the only phones with unmessed with Android are Google's own Nexus phones, and I think Motorola phones are malmost entirely stock. Or of course you could buy any phone you like, root it, and install whatever version of Android you like! Even on an iPhone....

Yes, Motorola was something I had considered. Thanks! The bloke who came to fit my front door had a really nice HTC something which I will also be looking at. It had a lovely camera.

And an iPhone running Android would be hilarious, actually. If they weren't so expensive, maybe I'd give that a go - it would solve my battery issues!

I love my iPhone and iPad!

Every non-techy person I know who has an iPhone - and there are many - has brought their iPhone round to me so I can show them how to use it.

I am an Android fan myself but I can clearly see that this is not a sensible anti-iPhone argument.

People who have maybe never used a touchscreen device before (and maybe never used a computer before) find iPhones hard.

They also might find Android phones hard.

Think about the Aldi ads where they don't say "8/10 people prefer our crisps", they just say "8/10 people think our crisps are tasty".

I wouldn't be without my iPhone/iPad/MacBook Air. I have all my research (think 5000 pages) saved across all machines, plus as many ebooks as I can get. It all works brilliantly and has revolutionised the way I work.

Oh and that $90 bit of plastic sitting there doing nothing can be easily used with another $5 bit of plastic. But hey, leave it sitting and just whinge about it instead if you like. not the point, you don't expect to pay for something & then have it become useless after a couple of months.

But you can whinge and moan and gripe about apple all you like, I'm the one merrily using Apple Pay and you aren't. Shouldn't that be