(unpaywalled version on archive.today: https://archive.ph/03cwZ)
Interesting figure that comes out of the article: 87% of US teens prefer iPhones. Also the explanations given aren’t quite surprising, I guess it’s mostly because of iMessage. Teens will feel like outcasts if they get an Android phone while their friends still use iMessage because of the green bubbles.
It’s actually hilarious how we allowed consumerism to take us this far and that we have now peer pressure over smartphones.
“You’re telling me in 2023, you still have a ’Droid? […] You gotta be at least 50 years old.”
ouch 😔
That’s fair. As a developer that has been burned by Google dropping support for shit they created, I can’t say for certain it was malicious or just Google being Google.
They used to create a ton of tools and protocols and drop support a couple years later because it wasn’t worth it to them to maintain it. Lots of pet projects used to get promotions, but no budget for sustained support.
A big client onboarding and exposing major flaws could absolutely shine and unwelcome light and force them to take a critical eye and come to the conclusion of “yeah, everyone that worked on that has moved on, it’d take too many resources to revive it, and it’s just going to help our competitor anyway. Our business need for it is gone because does similar things. Cut the cord”
It sucks, and isn’t an excuse. I stopped using Google dev tools because of it long ago. Very unreliable. But I don’t think it’s the same intent as Apple by a long shot.