Kids and Smartphone Brands

[AYDANN6ix9ine]

(Just sharing my thoughts)

 

So for me, I didn't have a smartphone until 2 months ago (I'm in 8th grade so kind of late to the party, I guess), when I picked up a Google Pixel 3a for $249. That was a good phone but I realized that maybe it would be good to get a more powerful phone for better long-term usability, so I did. I got added to my family AT&T plan and got a $600 discount on a Pixel 4 XL as a result. Now although this phone is terrible for $900, it is great for $300. All the features it includes and the Pure Google Experience I expect will do me well for 3 years.

 

But that isn't my topic of discussion. I am just talking about kids and smartphone brands. The only brands I hear in any smartphone discussions at school are "Apple or Samsung?" There are zero mentions of brands like Google, Huawei, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Motorola, LG, or any other Android phone brand. We were at a whole friend meet-up and my friends wanted to try out my cousin's OnePlus 7 Pro. They just said "Cool, I have never tried a Samsung before." It's sorta confusing considering how big brands that I listed, such as Huawei and Xiaomi, are actually very prevalent and successful. Why do you think that many young kids and teenagers are ignorant to other brands outside of the iPhones and the Galaxies?

[ManOverboard1224]

Apple and Samsung are the "premium" phones to have. Kids are easily swayed by those companies and since they are the 2 biggest its easy to see why. It's also not just kids non-tech people do the same thing. "oh i love your Apple''.

[BrinkGG]

Marketing. That's why. 

So many people I talk to think Samsung is "the brand that runs all the android phones" because they're the most popular. 

I'm not kidding. 

I just roll my eyes and move on. If someone is genuinely curious, I'll explain, but I'm not going to mansplain the difference between Samsung and the hundreds of other Android based brands. Not worth it. 

[FloRolf]

3 minutes ago, ManOverboard1224 said:

Apple and Samsung are the "premium" phones to have. Kids are easily swayed by those companies and since they are the 2 biggest its easy to see why. It's also not just kids non-tech people do the same thing. "oh i love your Apple''.

You don't even know how often i get the "Is that an iPhone or a Samsung?"

 

".... it's actually a OnePlus ...."

[ManOverboard1224]

4 minutes ago, FloRolf said:

You don't even know how often i get the "Is that an iPhone or a Samsung?"

 

".... it's actually a OnePlus ...."

I have a note 9 and pay with Samsung pay and every one is always like "oh your using Apple pay?" It's so much less work to just accept it then to stop and explain. I feel your pain.

[ezpickings]

Its usually just the general phones they have. I'm in the same grade as you. I have an apple and I only see kids with a Samsung and Apple. I'm guessing its based on the "trends". Its very rare for me to see a kid with a different phone. I even saw a kid with a Razer phone, RGB and everything.

[RonnieOP]

Samsung and Apple spend a lot of money on marketing. Oneplus and the like does very little marketing towards the casual buyer.

 

It also doesnt halp that when you go in most retailer stores i dont think any of them carry oneplus (atleast not in the states. Cant speak for other areas).

 

My kids have an LG and a Motorolla. At 9 and 15 they dont care about brands as much as being able to use the phones tbh.

 

But that really depends on the kid. My kids dont care about brands when it comes to anything. They see something they like and thats what they want. Most the time i doubt they could tell you the brand name.

 

 

[LamoidZombieDog]

its because everyone wants an iphone 11 so they look cool. samsung is for the techy kids that know a little more about phones, then the other brands are for the super smart kids that know a lot about tech.

[LamoidZombieDog]

Just now, LamoidZombieDog said:

its because everyone wants an iphone 11 so they look cool. samsung is for the techy kids that know a little more about phones, then the other brands are for the super smart kids that know a lot about tech.

also if a parent is buying a phone, they normally buy something like an iphone 6s if they have 100$ or some crappy LG Motorola e.t.c if they can only spend 50

[Lakobrija]

Well, here in Balkan, most used brands are Samsung and Huawei, then far away 3rd is iPhone. I'm rarity with my Xiaomi. Reason for that is simple. People who doesn't follow phones or tech in general in most cases only hear about most used/popular ones and just get 1 for themselves. Other reason is price range, you can get Samsung for every single price range, Huawei for mid/higher end have great phones. Older iPhones are also great,  because they are still supported my Apple. Parents usually don't spend a lot of money for their kids phones, at least not in my experience, so these 3 brands are ideal, known and reliable and not too pricy.

[Eschew]

Mm, in Malaysia I believe the smartphone market is mainly split (unequally) between Samsung, Apple, Oppo, Vivo, and Huawei. Enjoy this chart detailing Malaysia's mobile market share (Mar 2019 to Feb 2019), but please note I haven't looked into the data site's sampling methodology or reliability:

 

Spoiler

 

Interesting trend to note: Huawei's rise in market share/popularity from Aug 2019 onwards. At the very least, this lines up with what I've witnessed in Malaysia.

 

Back on topic: Not sure how kids nowadays feel about their smartphones, but as a kid, I never felt comfortable using Apple's iOS and I've only only owned Samsungs or Nokias. Sometimes I dream back to the feature phone days. I used to own one of these:

 

Spoiler

 

Ah... The good old days.

[Commodus]

On 3/12/2020 at 2:51 PM, AYDANN6ix9ine said:

(Just sharing my thoughts)

 

So for me, I didn't have a smartphone until 2 months ago (I'm in 8th grade so kind of late to the party, I guess), when I picked up a Google Pixel 3a for $249. That was a good phone but I realized that maybe it would be good to get a more powerful phone for better long-term usability, so I did. I got added to my family AT&T plan and got a $600 discount on a Pixel 4 XL as a result. Now although this phone is terrible for $900, it is great for $300. All the features it includes and the Pure Google Experience I expect will do me well for 3 years.

 

But that isn't my topic of discussion. I am just talking about kids and smartphone brands. The only brands I hear in any smartphone discussions at school are "Apple or Samsung?" There are zero mentions of brands like Google, Huawei, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Motorola, LG, or any other Android phone brand. We were at a whole friend meet-up and my friends wanted to try out my cousin's OnePlus 7 Pro. They just said "Cool, I have never tried a Samsung before." It's sorta confusing considering how big brands that I listed, such as Huawei and Xiaomi, are actually very prevalent and successful. Why do you think that many young kids and teenagers are ignorant to other brands outside of the iPhones and the Galaxies?

 

A lot of it is simply due to the brands people are exposed to -- you're approaching this from a very North American (maybe European) perspective.

 

Huawei and Xiaomi have little traction in North America (Huawei is effectively blacklisted).  OnePlus?  It's for enthusiasts -- it has almost no presence in the US, and I can't imagine many 13-year-olds browsing phones at T-Mobile stores.  You might have a better case for LG and Motorola, but that's partly because they don't compete as well in the same high-end space as Apple and Samsung.

 

Yeah, it's frustrating that some kids will label every Android phone "a Samsung," but I wouldn't expect most people your age to have extensive knowledge of phone brands, let alone enough clout with their parents to get a OnePlus or Xiaomi phone.  Until there's another brand that really captures the public imagination, it'll probably be split between Apple and Samsung for a long time.

[EL02]

The sad part is that this doesn't only apply to kids.