Sunday morning rain falls as Joe Caswell ‘19 sits at his kitchen counter in his home in Hollis, NH. He sips his coffee as his fingers move around on his Apple iPhone 7, connecting with multiple people with just one swipe of his finger. Students all over Hollis-Brookline are involved in different activities, but many have one thing in common: they own an Apple device.

When asked why he continues to buy Apple products, Caswell says, “The clean, simple design, its colorful operating system, and iTunes and the App Store. It is simply unmatched.” Joe also explained that the reason people stay with Apple is due to its unmatched user friendliness and compatibility with other Apple devices. iMessage is also a big reason why people stay with Apple products. Features like reaction bubbles, emojis, and keyboard games that only work when texting other iPhone users keep people around. Nobody wants to be the person who makes the groupchat green (when a non-iPhone user texts an iPhone, the text bubbles are green) and take away all those features.

On the other hand, Amy Norton ‘19 has experienced both sides of the debate. She has owned an iPhone 6 and a Samsung Galaxy S8, the latter of which is her current phone. “I switched because the iPhone turned away from the base things I really liked about them,” Norton says, “All these updates, which take an hour, just change things and make it complicated.” She believes that people are being held back from switching from Apple, because of the name brand and the fact that so many people have an iPhone. Norton disagrees with Caswell, saying, “The Google play store is far better than the Apple Store for work. The app store has better games, but Google Play is superior for professional use.”

Recent commercials for phones such as Google’s Pixel 2 show that Apple isn’t the powerhouse of the phone industry anymore. The field has leveled out, and some companies are making advances past Apple technologically, visually, and intuitively. For example, a commercial for Google’s Pixel 2 shows that the Pixel 2 has a larger screen display, unlimited storage through Google Photos, and has a 2,700mAh battery, which is nearly 1,000mAh stronger than the iPhone8. The cost is much less for a Pixel, which sits at $649 while the iPhone can get up to $949. Price is one of the issues Cordelia Scales ‘19 discussed. As Scales stated, “Why pay a bunch more money for something when the same thing costs much less? You just need to get the job done.”

Non-Apple users seem to be very happy with their phones of other brands. Apple users are very happy as well, but one wonders if they would be happier if they tried another phone.