The latest US market share report shows the Android/iOS war might be over here. But salvation could come from an unlikely source.
TL;DR: Apple dominates the US smartphone market, but EU regulations may offer Android a chance for resurgence by enforcing messaging interoperability and standardizing hardware features.
If you think Apple will implement these changes outside the E.U. you gotta be insane.
Also with the news that Qualcomm is hiking prices again, Samsung releasing their least ambitious Smartphone lineup ever this year, Oneplus annihalting their core audience, Huawei being banned, Xiaomi releasing the most confusing product stack imaginable,
and Google taking another year off on adding meaningfull features to Android, is this really surprising?
No, there are definitly things that iOS has that are lacking on Android. Same is true the other way around of course. For example, Spotlight Search on iOS is awesome, Automations are a neat tool to have, Focus Modes - not something for me - but cool for those who want it, Lockscreen customization is really good now on iOS, Backups work way better, Idle battery drain - much better on iOS...
Idle battery drain, the bane of Android's existence. Remember when Google started to literally sleep components based on gyroscope movement data to try to save battery? And forevermore Android users were forced to deal with a phone that won't get notifications until after you pick it up?
The problem with Android has always been the hardware integration. The sleep problem is just one symptom of a larger integration problem that spans across media standards, availability of hardware features, subpar drivers etc.
Android still suffers from many apps being designed to work on background (which works on pure Android on the emulator), but being killed depending on the manufacturer running the OS, which require tech savvy users to fix them by tweaking obscure configurations.
Android is what happens when you have a technical engineer idealizing features instead of a product person thinking about the end user first. All the problems from Android seems to be a lack of effort to standardize things or to think how that feature will impact users experience of that product.
The fact most manufactures just care about selling the device and not support it after creates a perverse incentive to fool users with bad features as long as they look good on ads.
If you think Apple will implement these changes outside the E.U. you gotta be insane.
I'm interested in the logistics of this. I'm an EU citizen, I prefer using Signal for my messaging, but I do my share of Whatsapp with some people. What the EU mandates is that Apple provides an open API for everyone else to implement sending messages with to iMessage. So as an EU citizen, I will need to be able to use the API to send messages to other EU citizens. Will I be also able to send messages to people outside of the EU or will the API just say that's not permitted? Does that infringe on my rights as an EU citizen? If it does, and I need to be permitted, will a group chat for example stop working as I leave if I'm the only European?