Android phone manufacturers have vastly surpassed Apple in terms of innovation and offerings.
What is this vast innovation of which you speak?
I bought an iPhone 12mini at release and it’s still my only phone. It’s running ios18 very nicely and if I change it then it will only be for a larger capacity iPhone 13mini. The only feature I’d really like from the new phones is the Camera button but I can live without it.
Also it helps that I’m not the kind of person to upgrade for the sake of a new model every year. I’ve just bought an M4 iPad Pro to replace the previous model I’d had for 6 years and if it wasn’t for Apple Intelligence and the HDR screen (which is amazing) I would still be using the older model. Apple kit is beautifully made and just lasts and lasts.
You need only look at most of the iPhone/iOS tent pole features that have appeared over recent times.
A lot of them have been available on Android phones for years.
That is unlikely to change as there are still major features that have yet to come to iPhone, together with the fact that the big Android manufacturers bring two or more flagships to market every year.
IMO, Apple could definitely do more here.
What are the “Major” features that iPhone users are missing out on?
“Furthermore, Android phones are often more affordable than iPhones, making it easier for users to justify upgrading to a newer model more frequently. Many Android phones fall into the mid-range or budget categories, where lower prices and shorter lifespans encourage faster turnover.
As a result, Android users may feel less financially and emotionally invested in their devices, unlike iPhone users, who tend to pay more upfront for their phones.”
The words “many Android phones” should be replaced by “the vast majority of Android phones” to describe midrange and low price tier phones seeing as they make up more than 85-90% of Android sales, a metric no one conveniently discusses.
Try finding and then adding up all the vaunted premium (>$600) and ultra premium (>$999) Android models and their sales figures. One will find all that “innovation” or new features or new formats (Foldables) just doesn’t sell very well, or perhaps more tellingly, the Android market of premium and above buyers just isn’t very large worldwide.
Don’t believe me? Try CY2023 as the last known numbers.
Samsung Galaxy S23’s all combined - 33M Samsung Z Flip’s & Folds - 11M (a 65:35 split so 7.15M Flips (cheaper) and 3.85M Folds, hardly runaway best sellers. Total - 44M premium Flagship level phones.
ALL Android Foldables including Samsung’s = 15.6M to 16.5M depending on who you check with. That’s roughly 4.5M to 5.5M for all other Foldables makers, mostly Chinese OEMs. Big whoop.
Anybidy else? What about Google Pixels? Not all are flagship level given the mediocre Tensor performance or the midrange priced “a” series, but ok, let’s count all of them. All <9M of them, but let’s round it up to 10M which they “might” reach this year after 8 years of trying.
Add up the rest of the makers best “premium” models from Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, RealMe, OnePlus, even Nothing, etc. You’d be hard pressed to find those number but let’s give it 15-20M total all combined.
That’s Sammy 45M, other Foldables 5M, Google 10M and Android 20M AT BEST - 80M, and roughly 65M most likely. In 2023, 1.170B smartphones sold, 230M were iPhones, leaving 940M Androids. If 65M-80M were Premium, that’s just 6.9% to 8.5% of All Android Sales. So my 85%-90% midrange and low price is actually low!
That’s why the overall Android ASP is only $220, Samsung’s is $360, Xiaomi’s only $136, while Apple’s is $870 worldwide.
You need only look at most of the iPhone/iOS tent pole features that have appeared over recent times.
A lot of them have been available on Android phones for years.
That is unlikely to change as there are still major features that have yet to come to iPhone, together with the fact that the big Android manufacturers bring two or more flagships to market every year.
IMO, Apple could definitely do more here.
And just how many of those two or more flagships do they sell every year. We hear about all the splashy new features, the innovations, and their latest, greatest, all fine and dandy, but what are the results, the actual hard proof that all of that sells? In this area of Flagship sales, the big Android makers with flagships don’t just have Android competition, but they have Apple as a competitor too. Apple as in a prospective buyer with means to afford a flagship, but will those feature woo them away? As for the Android “premium flagship” buyers market and population, as vocal and vociferous as they are on most tech sites, they really are quite small in actual numbers and install base.
If you see my numbers above, they make up less than 7-9% of all Android sales. If that ratio held true to the entire Android install base of 3.5B users, at best that’s 315M Android Flagship users or owners, and they are likely the ones who are cycling through flagships, with very slow growth over the past few years since 2021’s Pandemic. The market and sales numbers for Android flagships with and despite the addition of Foldables, nixing the Notes for Ultras, adding the odd Pixels, Nothings, and now TriFolds, has not really changed or grown.
Is it demographics, lack of will or interest to spend that much, not “innovative enough” to part from older flagships (here’s where Android owners have lengthened their ownership beyond 3 years), or Apple has locked up most of the premium market in most all regions already given that 190-200M sales every year are the newest iPhones and the other 30-40M are discounted recent / older base and Plus model flagships, all but SE models at $600 or greater?
What about Google Pixels? Not all are flagship level given the mediocre Tensor performance or the midrange priced “a” series, but ok, let’s count all of them. All <9M of them, but let’s round it up to 10M which they “might” reach this year after 8 years of trying.
They sold 10 million last year alone. As of 2023 Google had sold approx. 40 Million Pixel phones. Add whatever they sold this year and the current Pixel 9 series, so perhaps 50 million now? The 8 series grabbed notable attention from consumers and the carriers, and the 9 series looks to be well-received even though the big upgrade should be next year. Yeah, we know. Apple sells a ton more. The fact that many here consider the Pixel phones to be competition is proof of a modicum of success.
Oh, one other thing, iPhones last longer, are generally more reliable, and are supported in reality at least 6-7 years, and of course continue to function well on their last iOS update for additional time. Plus it’s documented that they have higher resale value, and lead in the refurbished and used markets because there is a demand for them.
Older Android phones lose value rather quickly, and cheaper, less expensive midrange and low price Androids lose value very quickly, partly because there are so many of them and they are flipped every 2 years when their OS support runs out. Now given >850M Androids fall into that category,l every year, just what happens to the used, broken, or now mostly worth-less Android mid rangers and low price tier phones they are exchanging from? If even half of those end up as e-waste, that’s a huge huge e-waste problem and I rarely if ever hear about Android makers outside of Samsung offering ANY verbiage or ACTIONS to address recycling or materials recovery.
In my understanding, Apple has established robust self-recycling, user based recycling, or recycling and trade in gathering to address any iPhones brought to Apple or carriers, and shuttles the best for refurbishment or resale, Apple or third party, and the rest is recycled by Apple or partners. Given demand for iPhone repair parts, that’s another reason for Apple resale or reuse value vs Android.
Android phone manufacturers have vastly surpassed Apple in terms of innovation and offerings.
What is this vast innovation of which you speak?
I bought an iPhone 12mini at release and it’s still my only phone. It’s running ios18 very nicely and if I change it then it will only be for a larger capacity iPhone 13mini. The only feature I’d really like from the new phones is the Camera button but I can live without it.
Also it helps that I’m not the kind of person to upgrade for the sake of a new model every year. I’ve just bought an M4 iPad Pro to replace the previous model I’d had for 6 years and if it wasn’t for Apple Intelligence and the HDR screen (which is amazing) I would still be using the older model. Apple kit is beautifully made and just lasts and lasts.
You need only look at most of the iPhone/iOS tent pole features that have appeared over recent times.
A lot of them have been available on Android phones for years.
That is unlikely to change as there are still major features that have yet to come to iPhone, together with the fact that the big Android manufacturers bring two or more flagships to market every year.
IMO, Apple could definitely do more here.
Hilarious - Apple continues to show the way and the knockoffs continue to rip if off (funny how iOS Camera app and controls are now cloned on android down to the font colors) but they could be doing more! Sorry but you're still confusing "First!" with leadership. They are not the same.
Really? That is bordering on the absurd.
How many of the big announcements of recent years (software or hardware) were already longstanding 'Android' staples?
Even more absurd is the notion of 'first'.
Remember when satellite SOS on standard mobile arrived? No, Apple wasn't first there but it wasn't better either.
Huawei was doing high orbit satellite connectivity and when some Apple engineers were asked about the high orbit possibility, the response was that it was 'challenging'.
For the follow up flagship release, Huawei offered satellite voice calls.
Would you prefer I talked about battery technology (wired and wireless), battery chemistry? Antenna design? Camera technology? OS customisation etc?
It's Apple doing the 'knocking off' (as you incessantly say) and has been for a while now.
So much so that you can predict what will come to iPhone just by looking over the 'garden wall' at what's been on Android for a while now.
Comments
As a result, Android users may feel less financially and emotionally invested in their devices, unlike iPhone users, who tend to pay more upfront for their phones.”
Try finding and then adding up all the vaunted premium (>$600) and ultra premium (>$999) Android models and their sales figures. One will find all that “innovation” or new features or new formats (Foldables) just doesn’t sell very well, or perhaps more tellingly, the Android market of premium and above buyers just isn’t very large worldwide.
Don’t believe me? Try CY2023 as the last known numbers.
Samsung Galaxy S23’s all combined - 33M
Samsung Z Flip’s & Folds - 11M (a 65:35 split so 7.15M Flips (cheaper) and 3.85M Folds, hardly runaway best sellers.
Total - 44M premium Flagship level phones.
ALL Android Foldables including Samsung’s = 15.6M to 16.5M depending on who you check with. That’s roughly 4.5M to 5.5M for all other Foldables makers, mostly Chinese OEMs. Big whoop.
Anybidy else? What about Google Pixels? Not all are flagship level given the mediocre Tensor performance or the midrange priced “a” series, but ok, let’s count all of them. All <9M of them, but let’s round it up to 10M which they “might” reach this year after 8 years of trying.
Add up the rest of the makers best “premium” models from Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, RealMe, OnePlus, even Nothing, etc. You’d be hard pressed to find those number but let’s give it 15-20M total all combined.
That’s Sammy 45M, other Foldables 5M, Google 10M and Android 20M AT BEST - 80M, and roughly 65M most likely. In 2023, 1.170B smartphones sold, 230M were iPhones, leaving 940M Androids. If 65M-80M were Premium, that’s just 6.9% to 8.5% of All Android Sales. So my 85%-90% midrange and low price is actually low!
That’s why the overall Android ASP is only $220, Samsung’s is $360, Xiaomi’s only $136, while Apple’s is $870 worldwide.
Is it demographics, lack of will or interest to spend that much, not “innovative enough” to part from older flagships (here’s where Android owners have lengthened their ownership beyond 3 years), or Apple has locked up most of the premium market in most all regions already given that 190-200M sales every year are the newest iPhones and the other 30-40M are discounted recent / older base and Plus model flagships, all but SE models at $600 or greater?
They're doing OK as fledglings.
Really? That is bordering on the absurd.
How many of the big announcements of recent years (software or hardware) were already longstanding 'Android' staples?
Even more absurd is the notion of 'first'.
Remember when satellite SOS on standard mobile arrived? No, Apple wasn't first there but it wasn't better either.
Huawei was doing high orbit satellite connectivity and when some Apple engineers were asked about the high orbit possibility, the response was that it was 'challenging'.
For the follow up flagship release, Huawei offered satellite voice calls.
Would you prefer I talked about battery technology (wired and wireless), battery chemistry? Antenna design? Camera technology? OS customisation etc?
It's Apple doing the 'knocking off' (as you incessantly say) and has been for a while now.
So much so that you can predict what will come to iPhone just by looking over the 'garden wall' at what's been on Android for a while now.