Why do young people in the US hate Android?
A recent survey of teenagers in the United States showed that 87% of them have an iPhone and have no plans to switch to another platform. They have their reasons, as described in an article by The Wall Street Journal.
Most teenagers in the United States perceive Android smartphones as outdated technology. For example, in April 2023, 20-year-old influencer Abdul Chamberlain posted a video in which he said: “In 2023, you’re telling me you still have a DROID? Are you 50 years old?” And here he means any Android smartphone, not a really old Motorola Droid. Chamberlain explicitly refers to Android phones as something that only parents use.
This is not an isolated situation, while Android smartphones are popular all over the world, in the US, iOS holds the lion’s share of the market. According to StatCcounter, iPhones now account for 57% of the US market, while all Android phones account for only 42.5%. In May 2023, the statistics were even worse – 62% for iPhone versus 37.6% for Android.
The study cited by The Wall Street Journal was conducted last year by the investment firm Piper Sandler among 7,100 teenagers. According to it, 87% of teens have an iPhone and the same percentage plans to buy a new iPhone when it comes time to replace their current device.
One of the reasons for this attitude toward iPhones is pressure from classmates. In high school, students who use Android smartphones are even teased by being called “losers” and “medieval”. iMessage chats on iOS are very popular among young people in the United States, where Android users are displayed in a different color, green, creating a kind of “shame mark”. In addition, many of the iMessage features available on the iPhone, including higher quality images, read notifications, text entry indicators, end-to-end encryption, etc., do not work on Android.
It’s ironic that Google’s own messaging system for Android uses the Rich Communication Services (RCS) platform, which provides the same features – end-to-end encryption, input indicators, read notifications, etc. – but… only to Android users. If a user with an iPhone enters such a group, he or she will not have access to these features, and his or her replicas will have a different color… also green.
At the same time, the love of teenagers in the United States for the iPhone is not a love of expensive things, because flagship Android models also cost a lot of money, and sometimes even more. It is rather a habit to the ecosystem, simplicity, the influence of advertising, and the environment. But it seems that Android has no chance of winning the hearts of young people in the United States and overcoming this trend.