Comment by uhhhhhhh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by uhhhhhhh | Hacker News Reader

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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

> There is a subset of the family that uses facetime, they don't talk to the rest of us as often anymore.

To me, this is one of the greatest shortcomings of video chat. We went from a universal phone system to a mostly universal SMS system (most private networks still supported SMS) to a segregated video chat system, and it hurts relationships if you're not careful.

And that is entirely Apple's fault.

That is one of my main frustrations with Apple: In order to compel more people to use their platform, they made a proprietary communication service, and preloaded it on all of their devices. Now I have to deal with this arbitrary segregation, just because some corporation decided it would help their bottom line.

This is exactly the kind of practice rms warned us about decades ago, and there is nothing any individual can do about it.

Google Duo works just fine on iPhones.

The problem is that it isn't preinstalled, while iMessage and Facetime are.

Apple tries very hard to convince its users that its practices are not the problem, but those who choose not to use Apple products. Anything that doesn't come preinstalled is seen as an unnecessary inconvenience by most iPhone users.

Given that the app is free, and that people are willing to install apps their friends recommend, I don't think this is much of a barrier.

WhatsApp doesn't seem to have this issue, for instance.

> I don't think this is much of a barrier.

Unfortunately, many iOS users do, and Apple cultivates that attitude as its culture.

No, they just prefer what iOS provides, or they don't know many people who use WhatsApp. For all it's popularity elsewhere, here in the States, WhatsApp is not used very much.

I've never downloaded WhatsApp, mainly because I don't know anyone who's on it. That's a bigger barrier than anything being preinstalled.

> And that is entirely Apple's fault.

If Skype didn't suck so much it could be the cross platform standard.

We had video chat before the iPhone. It's part of the UMTS standard and was one of the major selling points when the carriers rolled it out in the early 2000's. I don't know much about its technical merits, it would surprise me if it was any good using today's standards, but it was cross platform and could have been built upon if the two new mobile OS makers had been interested. But since the iPhone didn't even have UMTS when it was launched it's no surprise Apple didn't include support for it.

I am sure the cell carriers would have been excited to charge a very hefty premium for that service, if anyone bothered to use it.

Skype was the 'goto' for a long time, but then facetime came out and it split the family into apple users and the rest of us.

I had apple products as well as others, I chose the rest of the family anyways :p

Strange. My 2012 iMac and MBA are humming along just fine. And they're refurbs. My "bought as new" stuff has been just fine as well. I still have an iPhone 5s that, save for the old battery, works normally.

I haven't encountered a bricked phone via an updated iOS, but I have had android folks who weren't running flagships try to get the latest OS, and brick their phones.

Lastly, when I do have an issue, the apple customer service has just been too good to me over the years. My friend dropped my phone recently, and unluckily for me, it landed on a metal rail, damaging the sleep button. But Apple replaced the phone for free. As well as a wireless keyboard my coworker had me bring in. I had no receipt for that one, but it took too long for them to locate a buyable replacement of that particular model, so the CSR just gave me a newer model, for free. YMMV of course, but they seem empowered to do far more than typical companies.

But this is all pointless; we can go round and round with anecdotes all day.

I do agree that Macs are built with quality. After the 5S, iPhones are not worth the premium you pay for them.

Take a look at what someone who repairs them on a regular basis says about Apple's quality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaJ8pDlxi8 .

While I've had issues with macbook pro's and 2 older iphines (all new when given to me), that's really the extent of my personal experiences. I've heard good things about them from others, so assume my experiences are a-typical.

I've never dealt with an apple support person, all my interaction has been through my companies tech staff who are competent.

Specific to apple hardware, it just seems better than the average windows/linux/android hardware, but you pay for it and can often find equivalently good hardware for a similar or less premium.

at the end of the day, use what your family IT guy will support for free, and if you're an IT guy, use what you like.

Moral of the story: anecdotes are not evidence.

This, in it self, seems like a generalization of an anecdote.

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