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Comment by readams | Hacker News Reader

The size savings though are real in actual apps and they are generally around 15%. People are really desperate here to find ways to make everything a bad thing. Apple does stuff like this regularly.

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iOS has been a fully controlled walled garden since day one though, while Android was supposed to be the "free" open source alternative.

And the market seems to signal Google that Apple is doing the right thing though? IIRC iOS has passed 60% in USA these days and is repeatedly pushed as a "secure and malware free" OS on HN.

It's pushed because Apple is seen as less privacy intrusive.

No, its because Apple is seen as a status symbol, has good brand reputation and locks users in the walled garden. General users don't know what happens behind the scenes.

For example, https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/27/22406303/imessage-android...

> In the absence of a strategy to become the primary messaging service for [the] bulk of cell phone users, I am concerned [that] iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove an obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones.

I just want to add that this is a uniquely US problem. Over here in Russia no one sends SMS or MMS to another person. So, consequently, no one uses iMessage either.

> No, its because Apple is seen as a status symbol, has good brand reputation and locks users in the walled garden.

Or, you know, maybe, just maybe, people actually, genuinely enjoy using these devices.

No contradiction here: being owner of a status symbol is enjoyable experience with very rare exceptions.

I meant that on HN most people who advocate for Apple do it because they "like the UX" or because "Apple doesn't sell their data as opposed to Google". Yes in the general population iPhones are very much high quality high status gadgets.

Android's worldwide marketshare is like 75%, though. These marketshare numbers haven't changed all that much for many years; and, to the extent to which they have, the more important battles were destroying all the non-duopoly competition. Even then, claiming that one's pet issue is clearly justified by marketshare is kind of nonsensical considering how complex these device ecosystems are... like, if I were to guess why iOS has better marketshare in the United States I would point to stuff like iTunes and Apple Stores, which might easily be so good in comparison to Play Music and [crickets] that even if they did everything else 100% wrong it might cause people to buy Apple over Samsung (which of course is the real competitor at this level, not Android really).

> Android's worldwide marketshare is like 75%, though.

Android’s only competition has intentionally priced itself out of affordability for two-thirds of the world’s population.

Switching to AAB would mean 0.4% savings for my own app. Which already is only 3.4MB large.

I really don't understand why Google is trying to force me into this (even for existing apps, every time you open the console it's just bombarding you with warnings that you don't use AAB).

They could just add a sanity check, if less than 50kB are saved by switching to AAB, just don't recommend/force it.

But they don't want that. Apps created after august won't even let you download the signing key so you could sign non-play store apks yourself. The only way this makes sense is if they want to prevent off-playstore distribution and verification entirely.

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