Android phones form a major chunk of the smartphone market. That’s primarily because Android phones are available in all the price ranges and are the only viable option for the budget sensitive crowd. But let’s focus on the premium segment. This segment comprises of flagship phones from all the major names in the industry. iPhones are hugely dominant here, dwarfing the sales of their android competitors. With excellent Android flagships like the S7/S7 Edge,the Google Pixel and the LG V20, why are the iPhones still selling more?
Because it’s an iPhone
I know it sounds really shallow, but there’s actually some depth to it. iPhones are way better than other phones when you just want to get something done. They are simpler to use, easier to learn and the technical jargon rarely gets in the way of the whole experience. It is a close-walled consistent experience. Android, on the other hand, seems more complicated and harder to learn from the perspective of an average user.
iOS is definitely not as customisable as Android is nor is it as mod-friendly but the majority of people don’t really care about that. People just want to get stuff done using minimum effort. An analogy would be how motorheads love to tweak the hell out of their cars but the majority of us just want to get from Point A to B with minimum hassle. We don’t want to worry about how the mechanics of the car work. It’s that level of abstraction that iOS has and Android just doesn’t. iOS might very well be boring but the one fact about it that can’t be denied is that it just works.
Android’s consumer perception as a complicated and half cooked product full of bugs and errors doesn’t help it either. iPhone, on the other hand, is assumed to have bullet proof reliability and longevity. Android is perceived as the phone for smartphone junkies and nerds while iPhone is the phone for everyone. In a world where an average consumer intends to use his new phone for more than an year, an iPhone just seems to be the safer bet overall.
