When the first iPhone was revealed, many people were mesmerized. Back in 2007, the only major phones out were from Motorola, Blackberry, and Nokia, all of which were just flip phones, or just screens with physical keyboards. No phone at that time had anything like the iPhone, and many soon found out that it was a breakthrough product.

Many companies started copying Apple, some succeeding, while others failing, leading to the death of the three companies listed. But over the years, Apple has started to lose innovation. Sure, they have had their fair share of successes, but the competition has started to get better. Apple is starting to lose its grip on the smartphone industry, whether they like to admit it, or not.

Backstory

My first time with an iPhone was way back in 2011 when it first came out. My mom got the iPhone 4s and just seeing how cool it was really sparked my interest. It got me to become an Apple fanboy, loving every product they made. But it wasn’t until the summer when I finally realized the truth about Apple. When I started venturing into the deep world of Jailbreaking, I started figuring out more things. Sure, Apple phones were the trendy device to have, but were they truly the best?

As I kept on researching and looking into things, I started to realize the path Apple built for me, the customer. They wanted you to be locked into their products and their software. When I finally had the chance, I jumped on an Android phone. And while Apple may be the “popular phone,”  Android has proven it’s the better phone. The phone no one thought of.

Misleading Information

Apple wasn’t the first to make the touchscreen, yet they were the ones to make it mainstream. That was back in 2007 when Apple was still innovative and made good products. But now when I asked people what they like about the iPhone X, a good chunk of the answers were Animojis.

Apple’s phones are slowing down dramatically in innovation, and in having something special. While Apple had to remove the headphone jack to make their phones water-resistant, companies like Samsung kept the headphone jack and made it waterproof. Apple claims that it was a courageous move, but we all know that it was to sell Airpods.

On top of that, some of Apple’s claims are horrendous. Apple claims that the iPhone X is made with the strongest glass in any smartphone, but judging from drop test from many news sources, the iPhone is more susceptible, if not more, thanks to the glass back on the phone. Other examples are when Apple in 2011 claimed that Siri was an exclusive feature to the iPhone 4s at that time, even though the same developer for Siri published an app on the App Store in 2010.

Features that Apple claimed, but were rebuttable are solved by many Android phones. Samsung has the S8 Active, which actually has shockproof, waterproof, and has a MIL-STD-810G military rating, which makes it compete against things like the Panasonic Toughbook, the computers police officers use. Different Android phones use different voice assistants, like Alexa, Bixby, Google Assistant, and more, with each being customizable. The user can customize what they want their virtual assistant to be like. Which leads us to another point.

Restrictions

Apple has always been the company to put tight restrictions on all of their products. On iPhones and iPads later than 2012, they started using Lightning cables, a limitation of what the competition was using at that time: micro-USB. Every other phone on the market used micro-USB, yet Apple chose to use lightning as a standalone charger. It wasn’t because it was faster or smaller, but because it let Apple make more money by selling a different charger.

There are many occurrences that Apple has limited, like expandable storage via micro-SD. The counter-argument may be to buy more iCloud storage, but with a monthly fee, and being able to only use it on Apple products, it’s just something not practical. Instead, Apple’s solution is to sell a larger storage device which just prints them more money. But Apple’s limitations aren’t just in hardware.

Beginning with the Mac, Apple has tried not to let users switch to Windows software, and instead, use Mac OS. This thought process has continued on with their phones, making their phones run on iOS instead of Android, the leading software for all phones. Most smartphones use Android because it’s an interface that everyone has seen and knows. If you switch from a Samsung to an LG phone, the interface is the same. Yet with Apple, there is a learning curve.

With Android, you can customize almost any aspect of your phone. If you don’t like a certain way an app icon looks, change it. If you want to add shortcuts to your phone, remap buttons. If you want to run different launchers and change the software, then do it. But with Apple, the only customization is changing the wallpaper and moving the icons. Apple’s limitations really hurt the product they’re trying to make consumers buy as a personal phone.

The Truth

But here’s the thing. The iPhone may be the most popular phone on the market, but not everyone can afford a $1,000 phone. The argument may be to buy an older version of that phone, but you are limiting the features that you were expecting to have. The iPhone 8,8+, and X all have Bluetooth 5.0, but not the others. The 6s has 3D touch, but the SE and the 6 don’t. The 7+ and 8+ have dual cameras, while the normal sized phones don’t. Apple limits features for the newer or more expensive iPhone, when they know they can put it in all.

This brings me to my final reason: even if Apple knows the power and innovation they can put into a phone or product, they always hold it off until they can find a way to make money off of it. And this greed from a company this large has had me finally realize that there are much better alternatives. Android phones have many different price points, some from just $30, to $950, giving the customer the flexibility to choose what they want. The most expensive doesn’t mean it’s the best.

Not everything that came out first is the best in the long run. Ford was the first company to make an affordable car, but now, there are plenty of options, some better than others. We can still apply this concept to iPhones. Even though the iPhone was the first phone to introduce the touchscreen and good software, it may not be the best in the long run. Android phones have clearly shown that they are the superior device, giving customers the best features, the option to customize anything they want, and letting choose what they want on the phone they buy. Everything that Apple has clearly shown they don’t put on their phones.

Conclusion

I personally feel brainwashed as the customer, not because of the growing price of a half-baked phone, or the annoying restriction Apple puts, but because they have truly broken my trust. Being a long time fan of Apple products, the fact that Apple themselves know they have the power to make something innovative, but don’t to make more money angers me.

With all these things said, it goes back to the customer, the person buying the product. All these reasons really come back to personal preference, the person the companies are selling to. So whether you like Apple, or Android, here’s a question you can ponder about: Would you really buy a phone for the hype, or for the features?

Image credits to:

https://www.whichphoneisbetter.com/oneplus-5t-vs-apple-iphone-x-vs-samsung-galaxy-s8-plus/

https://www.macworld.co.uk/review/ipad/ipad-air-1-review-apple-lightweight-tablet-3473001/

https://support.apple.com/kb/sp643?locale=en_US

https://www.wired.com/story/torn-between-the-iphone-x-and-iphone-8-psychologists-have-a-name-for-that/

https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-galaxy-s8-active-available-att/

https://www.icloud.com/

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/customize-androids-icons-with-nova-launcher/

http://time.com/4941192/iphone-x-vs-iphone-8-plus/

https://www.pocket-lint.com/phones/news/oneplus/142555-oneplus-5t-release-date-specs-and-everything-you-need-to-know

http://worldversus.com/Android-vs-AppleiOS