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Older model Apple iPads on sale...

Our family owns way too much of both, overall more Apple devices than Android.
That said, Apple is a fairly closed system (getting a little better), and makes things much more difficult or in some cases impossible.

Sometimes its really good (usually for security) to be fairly closed, but sometimes it is bad.

Here's a handful of examples that have impacted me:

1 - Parental Controls. Until IOS 12, screen time reporting and controlling on Apple sucked if you didn't jailbreak. Developers couldn't control enough of the app ecosystem to limit app usage. IOS 12 finally offers this functionality, but still, we are limited to what we get from Apple. For years, we could use parental controls on Android that would block or limit apps and have all sorts of controls we could never have with Apple.

2 - Bluetooth devices. Specifically, I use OBDII adapters to communicate from phone to vehicle. Any cheap $10 bluetooth adapter works with my Android phone. Since Apple won't support just any device and limits the profiles, we used to have to buy expensive wifi or apple certified devices instead of the cheapo Bluetooth ones we could use with Android phones. Fortunately, wifi ones have really come down in price lately, although you still have the issue that you can't be on wifi and talking to the car at the same time, and have to pay a little extra.

3 - 3rd party device and app interaction with OS and apps. Specifically, I can talk to a few examples. A) My non Apple Watch (I have and really like a few Apple watches, but I sometimes prefer to use my Pebbles because they can go a whole business or vacation trip without a charge) is limited in functionality on Apple versus Android. Since it was not allowed to work with imessages, it could only (sometimes, depending upon carrier) send a seperate SMS as a reply to a message you recevied. That SMS would never show up in the phone and would be gone from your thread. There were plenty of other apps you couldn't take action on. Now that no one is paying the carriers, you can't respond to messages at all on the iphone. B) I've had the occasional battery issue on both devices. With ios, I'm stuck with the limited information Apple provides to me (or to developers of apps) to diagnose. With android, I get all sorts of stats, can run and create debug reports to see find app details of processor, wake time, kernel time, battery usage, etc) to find the battery killer. Once I find it, I have all sorts of controls on individual processes to upgrade, revert to older versions, kill, etc. You can do none of that in IOS. I can do nothing with sytsem services and can only uninstall apps.C) . Check out the list of apps that work with Android Auto versus Carplay. Android is much more open to 3rd party apps, although thankful we can now use Waze on Carplay. Apple is like the kid who doesn't like to share, and you have to take them kicking and screaming to get some 3rd party developed items instead of theirs.

4 - You are stuck with what Apple gives you, and no option to change it. You listed a big "apple plus" is that every phone and ipad works with the software. That should be corrected to every device that Apple allows. I have a 4th generation ipad that still works fine for email, twitter, browsing the web, etc. Unfortunately, it is forever stuck to IOS 10, so there are now apps that won't work with it. Same for the kids earlier ipads. They generally surf web and watch youtube, so they work fine for that. But I can't even put on some simple newer apps, because they don't support those old versions of the os. I get that the performance of those chips won't hold up to the demands of newer features and more advanced apps, that is perfectly understandable. But I'm talking some very simple apps that I can't use because the developer started on IOS10, and the ipad is stuck on 9. Likewise, due to the move to 32 bit architecture, I have a bunch of aps that I paid for and work just fine on the older ipads, that I can't use on the newer ones. I also get progress, and that if the developers wanted to they could have upgraded the apps, so more blame needs to go to the developer, but Apple took my money (and kept 30% of it) and now I have apps that I can't use) So, to say "The BIG Apple plus is that every Ipad or Iphone is compatible with all the software they offer." Is totally false. Every app or software is compatible until apple decides it isn't. They will obsolete your device at their schedule, and there is nothing you can do about it.

Again, for many people (often including me) the Apple stuff works great, and they don't care about playing in the OS, or using non Apple devices and such with it. Apple has a loyal following and many upgrade every year so they don't care about Apple's planned obsolescence scheme. But it is limited. I also didn't touch on the obvious - you are limited in devices apple sells and at their price points. All sorts of manufacturers make Android devices at all sorts of price points. Choice is usually better.

I still like my Apple stuff though. I'm just not blind to their downsides.

Edit: I forgot the stupidest one of all. Apple and their proprietary connectors. I believe we are finally going to see Apple move with the rest of the world and keep going to USB-C. But there are a bunch of lightning (and 30 pin) docks, cables, adapters, etc floating around that people had to spend money on because, Apple does Apple and makes its own standards.
 
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Lots of passionate views.
I am beginning to think it’s a lifestyle thing then. Looks like a bunch of people using a phone sort of as a computer replacement. Some of you see a computer that can make phone calls and I see it as a phone that can do other things. I am not the type that likes to tweak things to my taste. If I like it as is I buy it. If I don’t I will not buy it.
Thank you all for your input. I think the debate is centered totally around what you think you need your phone to do besides texting and calling.
 
We started with android devices because they are 1/2 the price of apple.

If you were buying phones that cost half what an iPhone costs you were buying crap, low-spec phones. Try comparing equivalent devices sometime.
 
If you were buying phones that cost half what an iPhone costs you were buying crap, low-spec phones. Try comparing equivalent devices sometime.
I should rephrase. The androids were always discounted more with a contract.
Holy cow, and you called me argumentative!
 
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