You Got an Android?

Bias check: I am extremely biased here as someone who desires to build a smartphone running Android. Now that that's out of the way, let's get into why it's not an inferior operating system compared to iOS and how Black people's perception of quality has helped maintain Apple's supremacy in the smartphone market.

I'm not gonna bog anyone down with all the technical jargon. I want to start by asking a simple question. What does iOS offer that Android doesn't have a direct answer or competing app for? iMessage? There's the Messages app. It's got read receipts and can send large files now, green bubbles and special effects be damned. FaceTime? Google Duo, and it works across platforms. Apple Pay? Google Pay. You get the point. There's parity across the platforms. But even still Google has better apps. How do I know?

Google apps are all I used when I had an iPhone. Search. Gboard. Maps. Drive. Photos. Chrome. Etc. The biggest problem I had with the platform was the lack of setting any of these apps as the default for launching specific actions. Of course Apple wants you to use their worse 1st party solutions from their walled garden of apps. It'll be a cold day in hell when I navigate with Apple Maps or search using a different 3rd party engine like Bing. And lo and behold Apple is reported to allow you to set new default apps soon. So how is it not basically an Android phone? Hardware you say? Let's talk about it.

Let's say you need face unlock for future proofing and convenience. Google has an answer for that with the Pixel 4 (and subsequent flagships). It also arguably works better than Apple's hideous notched solution by instantly logging you in to your home screen as soon as it recognizes your face. No swipe from the lockscreen necessary. “Oh, but the cameras on Android phones suck!” No they don't. That's just a flat out lie at this point. A $300 Android phone can take better pictures than any iPhone that exists right now and that's the Pixel 3a. Technically, this has been true since 2016. Take up your concerns with Instagram and Snapchat about why your stories look so bad on Android phones, because the hardware is there. 

So what is it that keeps Black people aggrandizing iPhones and other Apple products that work slightly less better than competing products? It's a two part answer.

Just as it is for everyone else and not just Black people, the ecosystem. The ecosystem is what makes people champion Apple products. When Google and other Android manufacturers were focused on pushing the envelope, Apple was focused on making sure all of their products worked well in unison. Now Apple is playing catch-up on feature sets and Google & other OEMs are playing catch-up in refining the overall experience of using their products together. They are in a situation where they are both working on the weaknesses of their platforms that they were not focused on earlier. All the while becoming more and more similar as they try to cater to their consumer bases who desire mostly the same things. Which is why Apple is more like Google and Google is more like Apple than ever before. But you wouldn't know it. Why is that?

Status and influence. Some Black people have long been obsessed with not seeming like we're poor or can't keep up with the Joneses. Black people are also the arbiters of "cool". We need to have the latest and greatest and freshest. Just like the Razr and Blackberry before it, the iPhone has become an icon of mobile phones. As all things Black became cooler and cooler and our influence in popular culture and music has grown so has the popularity of the devices our favorites use. Since they became rich and famous they can then afford the latest and greatest every year to influence your purchases of the latest and greatest every year. There's also a concerted effort to get the latest and greatest in celebrities’ and influencers’ hands as free promo. That's why certain design elements shift so people can know you have the newest one, because last year's iPhone isn't fundamentally different than this year's. It's just slightly better quality across the board.

You're really paying the "Apple Tax". The "I'm in the club" fee. The "look at me I can afford a $1000 phone" badge. Even if you're financing it. All to have that iconic logo show up in your mirror selfies… I get it. But I don't. Not when you can buy a $300 phone that does the same thing. Especially if you ain't got it like that. And the numbers say by and large we ain't got it. But we keep signing up for these programs that basically are a $200/year subscription to keep using the best consumer technology. That's on top of your $1000-1200/year phone bill if you get a decent rate at a carrier. 

To each their own though. If you have the money I totally understand buying the phone outright and then selling it the next year so you can knock the price down on the newer model. And really I only suggest this behavior for people who actually require the latest and greatest (you know who you are and aren't). That way you can get a phone plan that starts at $15 a month (think Mint, Google Fi) and save money overtime. But that's the thing again. Most of us don't got it like that. Or understand the logistics of buying and selling your own tech. Thus carriers and their convenient annual upgrade services lock you into a predatory cycle of overpaying for cellular service.

And while this may be okay for white people who have $10 for every $1 we have, we literally cannot afford it. Who are we really trying to impress with that logo? That's the question I'm begging. That's why I designed my phone without branding. I want people to buy it for what it can do. Not who else has it and how cool they look because they can afford it. In the future I want people to make jokes about the quality of Android phones only to be corrected when someone brings up the HALO. All these thoughts are what come to my mind whenever I see some skin folk shitting on Android phones because their limited understanding of consumer technology & marketing and thirst for exclusivity. Thanks for reading my thoughts on status symbols and Black people's ability to influence the perception of quality by the masses. Maybe it'll change something, but I ain't holding my breath. Ask me how I feel in 5 years. 😉