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Reddit forces login to access old.reddit.com
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this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2026
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The US was the first place smartphones took off and in the first couple years iPhone was the smartphone, so the initial set of adopters got iPhones because android wasn't really a consideration. Then the network effect, people got what their friends or family had. Also, since a lot of people get their phones payed for through their cellular carrier contract, they not super price sensitive since the cost was buried in a monthly bill.
So lots of people are used to IOS, and don’t see a reason to switch. Especially now with the one major differentiator, walled garden vs open platform, is disappearing with Google locking down their platform.
Blackberry was the smartphone in the first half of the '00s. And circa 2005 even Windows Mobile smartphones were gaining some traction (by "smartphone" I mean devices that are essentially handheld computers that can run apps and do a lot more than just calls and texting). They both got swamped by the iPhone because RIM and Microsoft were short-sighted idiots who failed to see the potential market and saw no need to improve their devices much, until it was too late. The iPhone wasn't the first, it was the best (at the time at least).
Once Android bootloaders got locked down I jumped ship. I loved custom ROMs. I also used to side load a lot of apks/emulate games. Now my Steam Deck is my dedicated emulation hand held, before that a modded 3DS. My only reasons to stay on Android disappeared.
Also iMessage is just so much better than allo/gmessages/hangouts/etc. I waited for over a decade for Google to create and stick with an ecosystem.
I loaded all my music on Google play music, then it was google music all access subscriptions, then it was YouTube music.
Tried to get the family into hangouts video, then it changed to duo+allo, then they killed allo so half the family abandoned duo…
It’s an endless cycle with Google. The kill more apps than most companies will ever create. Nobody has any buy in with their ecosystem because it’s dogshit.
If you like the idea of playing 3DS games on an Android device, you might want to check out the Ayn Thor
I really was only playing GBC/GBA games on Android. I meant that I went on to emulate those GBC/GBA games on 3DS and didn’t need Android anymore.
3DS is pretty much the only system that I prefer to play on original hardware.
But dang that is an impressive piece of kit! I kinda want one just as a backup to my N3dsXL.