“The first thing I look at before making friends is if he / she has an iPhone.” He states it candidly, in the comments to a video on TikTok, probably a very young user, struck by the question she has just read on the display: “I don’t have an iPhone, why? What changes?”. It is a question that accompanies the short clip shot by a teenager, ironic but at the same time provocative, because apparently – at that age – an apple on the body of your smartphone still makes the difference, fifteen years after the launch of the first. iPhone.
To those who ask her “Are you proud of it?”, The girl replies “Yes” and then, accused of being superficial, adds: “I also have friends with Android but I’m more connected with those with iPhones”.
The exchange, crystallized by two screenshots and went viral on Twitter at the beginning of January, aroused hilarity, bewilderment, disdain, disbelief in those who have long since overcome adolescence. But to those who went down hard, with the judgments, someone replied: “They will be 9 years old, needless to blame. They are children”.
The Wall Street Journal thought about it – just a week later – to impose a forced reflection on the tech preferences of the very young, with an investigation that tells how, in the US, adolescents who do not own an iPhone would be discriminated against by those who use smartphones. Apple.
Anniversaries
Fifteen years of the iPhone, the phone that changed the world
by Bruno Ruffilli
It all depends, in a nutshell, on the iMessage app which allows two (or more) iPhone owners to exchange text messages, images, emojis, stickers and special 3D avatars using the internet. The iMessage chat is made exclusive by what, to the less attentive, might seem an insignificant detail: the color of the messages. If they are blue, they were sent from another iPhone. If they are green, however, they come from an Android device. And this, according to the interviews conducted by the WSJ, makes the difference.
Grace Fang, a 20-year-old college student in Massachusetts, claims to have met “people who had Android and apologized for not having iMessage”. “People who have an iPhone – added the girl – seem to dislike the green bubbles of messages and show a negative reaction towards them”.
Jocelyn Maher, 24, from New York, said she was laughed at by her friends and her sister for using an Android smartphone to flirt with a guy.
Jeremy Cangiano, in the last year of his MBA at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, tried to make some money by selling T-shirts with “Never date a green texter” (“Never go out with someone who sends green messages”). The boy had noticed that on TikTok the memes on the color of the bubbles on iMessage, and their weight on the interactions between the boys, were increasing exponentially.
Innovation Almanac – January 9, 2007
The speech with which Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone, word for word
by Riccardo Luna
While iMessage, with its peculiar functions, guarantees iPhone owners to be part of a small and apparently privileged circle, on the other hand, it prevents those who are part of it from leaving it. A thesis that the WSJ supports with the documents made public by the Epic vs. Apple, in particular with a series of e-mails sent by Craig Federighi, Phil Schiller and other Apple managers who said they were worried about a possible iMessage version for Android: “This would remove an obstacle to families who own iPhones and therefore could give their children Android smartphones. “
Hiroshi Lockheimer, Senior Vice President of Android, Chrome OS and Chromecast as well one of the founding members of Google’s Android team, published the WSJ investigation on Twitter stating: “Apple’s iMessage lock is a documented strategy. Using peer pressure and bullying as a way to sell products is hypocritical for a company that sees humanity and fairness as a fundamental part of its business. Standards exist today to solve this problem.
The official Android Twitter account picked up on Lockheimer’s harsh words, trying to soften them with hearts and a simple concept: “Messages should bring us together.”
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