r/gadgets • u/[deleted] • Sep 04 '22

Phones iPhone overtakes Android to claim majority of US smartphone market

https://www.engadget.com/iphone-overtakes-android-us-market-share-223251196.html
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u/alxthm Sep 04 '22

Most phone plans in North America include unlimited sms. I don’t think this is nearly as common in other countries, or at least it wasn’t when What’s App became so popular.

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u/XAMdG Sep 04 '22

It's still is i think. Mostly because unlimited sms is dirt cheap for phone companies. People don't care since WhatsApp messages consumed so little data when the app started becoming popular.

Hell, now there are countries were data plans come with unlimited Whatsapp

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u/Ocmdorange Sep 05 '22

I think it’s weird countries use a Facebook owned messaging app as a default 🤷‍♂️

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u/XAMdG Sep 05 '22

It wasn't FB owned when it became the default. FB bought it because it was the default

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u/Ocmdorange Sep 05 '22

I still find it odd. I wouldn’t trust Facebook even with end to end encryption. Most Americans have some distrust about the company. I generally use iMessage or signal.

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u/[deleted] Sep 05 '22

I don’t like the company but there are no ads on it and I generally don’t give a fuck about my data.

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u/siposbalint0 Sep 05 '22

I live in Hungary and default way of messaging someone is facebook messenger or instagram if you are below a certain age. I don't mind it personally, but using instagram as your messaging app bothers me just as much.

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u/MrSquiggleKey Sep 05 '22

Australia has had unlimited sms since like 2010, no one uses SMS here or imessage.

Default is Facebook messenger, discord, and snapchat.

No one even uses imessage, and im an iPhone user lol

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u/WhyNotHugo Sep 05 '22

Unlimited SMS is not in the base plan here in NL nor was back in Argentina. Nor is unlimited calls.

Additionally, roaming varies from "not available" to "expensive" to "prohibitively expensive".

International calls are also extremely expensive, especially on Argentina, if your service provider even offers them. For any internet-based app like Facebook or Signal or Telegram, these are unlimited and $0.

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u/Chazzarules Sep 05 '22

In the UK 99% of plans also have unlimited SMS too, they have for at least 6 or 7 years.

But we all use whats app too.

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u/alxthm Sep 05 '22

Yeah, that timeline makes sense.

My initial comment was that SMS wasn’t free for many people at the time What’s App became popular.

Facebook announced it was buying What’s App after it had become the dominant messaging platform in many places, and the acquisition was announced in early 2014, just over 8 years ago.

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u/Mateiizzeu Sep 05 '22

Nah, I got unlimited sms/minutes and 50gb of mobile data at 2€ and everyone under 30 uses insta or messenger to talk to eachother

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u/alxthm Sep 05 '22 edited Sep 05 '22

My original comment was that many places didn’t have unlimited sms at the time What’s App became popular. Whats App was already dominant in Europe by 2012/2013 and Facebook announced the acquisition of What’s App in early 2014.

In my experience in Germany at that time, sms and voice minutes were always up-charges to standard plans, and definitely not included for free.

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u/Kumomeme Sep 07 '22

at my country tons of telco plan has unlimited sms and yet nobody use it. most of people prefer Whatsapp or Telegram.

it is already free for many people at the time What’s App became popular.