Me too. I have ~20 members of my immediate and extended family that are iOS users. Since 2009, I've evangelized Apple devices to them, but if Apple pushes this through, I'm done. I'll find either a de-Google Android or feature phone to use and start encouraging them move off of iOS.
I mean, that's what I'm doing. I stopped buying apple stuff about 20 years ago. My phones are Android, which I'm not exactly thrilled with, but consider to be the lesser of the evils.
But let's be real, a smart phone is practically a requirement to participate in modern society, and there are two options. iOS and Android. "Opting out" is becoming increasingly hypothetical.
Oddly enough personal experience within my family is they try Android to get their feet wet, find it overly frustrating and end up getting an iOS device. At least 3-4 family members I can think of, one being my girlfriend who hated everything but the ability to customise it. Different strokes for different folks.
I’m a business-hours Windows user who drifted into Apple for all my personal devices, aside from a Windows box for amateur radio stuff, and an ever-changing fleet of Linux VMs at Hetzner.
It’s about time for a new phone, but the selection of suitable (that is, small) Android devices is dire, and I don’t think I want to get sucked further into Google’s ecosystem, either.
So I’ll buy myself what might be one last iPhone 13 mini, and start copying my iCloud photo collection off onto my still-capable 2013 MacBook Pro, and then my NAS, a month at a time.
That should give me a couple years to figure out what comes next.
My next phone will be an iPhone. I say this as a long-term Android user of over a decade. The Android platform has finally become too toxic and too user-hostile even for the likes of me. And that's quite a challenge.
If I'm gonna be ruled by an authoritarian mobile OS that constantly tries to "engage" me, I might as well go for a nicer one that still cares about UX and being less buggy.
My last experience with an Apple product was my Apple IIc in college. I have been an Android user since the original Motorola Droid with slider keyboard.
I am thinking about switching the family to iPhones later this year.
(I also feel like I live in fear of waking up each morning to find out the my Fi service will be shut down in three days.)
My SIL is one of them. She is a graphic designer and has been a 100% loyal apple user for 15 years. She had everything apple, including an iPhone. But for her last phone she decided to go for an android because she was fed up with several things on IOS.
I've got to say I have the exact opposite experience. It got to the point I now don't do apple/iphone support for family. The number of itunes issues, osx keystore issues, technical issues with phones was taking a lot of time, and user issues with the iphone never ended.
My parents, sisters, and any aunts/uncles nearby that I support are all on windows 10 with android phones.
My results.
1. Time spend supporting family 1/10th compared to before. Android phones just work for us, update often and cost less so the occasional "OMG I dropped my phone and its broken" issues pretty much went away.
2. Android phones are all running the latest OS, give or take a minor update (usually stick with google or samsung flagship or mid-range models). Updating doesn't brick or blow away app settings or cause issues for users.
3. Never had this issue, but most of my family doesn't use facebook on their phones.
4. I have yet to have an apple product last more than 2-3 years. My last iphone lasted 1.5 years before it started randomly crashing/glitching. My current android is 2 years in without any issues.
5. Skype/Duo works great for my family. There is a subset of the family that uses facetime, they don't talk to the rest of us as often anymore.
I use apple products for work. I tend to get a HW replacement for laptops every 18-24 months due to HW failures, I'm on my 4th laptop in 6 years all due to HW issues.
Sometimes its got to be just luck. we have almost exact opposite experiences
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