You don't have to avoid Android devices, just buy Google ones. Most of the others are filled with crapware and bad customizations anyway, no idea why any savvy HN reader would want those.
Which is easy to say, if you’re on silicon valley wages.
But a student trying to develop for Android can’t afford devices that start (!) at 908.35 USD. (Price of the Pixel 5" with 32GB storage, in Germany, right now).
And Google just dropped support for my phone, the Nexus 5X (which I bought for 324 USD, on sale, just before they stopped selling it)
I never developed for iOS, because a platform that has in my home market (the EU) a marketshare similar to what Windows Phone 7 had in the US (below 15%) is useless. Especially when development starts upwards of $3000.
I’m comparing between developing on Google devices, and non-Google devices.
A new mac Mini with 8GB RAM is 819€ in Germany. A new iPhone 7 32GB is 759€. That's 1578€, or $1880. Add a one-year developer subscription and you're still below $2000. Your claim is just plain wrong.
The developer subscription isn’t just 99$. You need to pay with a credit card, the cheapest credit card available in Germany has an annual fee of 39.99€, unless you move > $1300 a year via a CC. (I don’t have a CC, neither do 90.1% of Germans)
So, you have $150 annual fee just for the developer account. Plus an additional massive cost every I time I need to replace the device.
The starting costs are significantly higher; maybe not 3k, maybe just 2k, but that’s the same anyway: Completely unaffordable.
> the cheapest credit card available in Germany has an annual fee of 39.99€, unless you move > $1300 a year via a CC
Only if you ignore the free credit cards that are independent of a current account from Advanzia, Santander Consumer, Barclaycard, Hanseatic, Payback, Targobank, ICS, and some I forgot.
Then there are also a lot of unconditionally free current accounts that offer a card (credit or debit) that can be used to pay that subscription, such as those from DKB, Comdirect, ING-Diba, Consorsbank, Wüstenrot, Norisbank, Fidor, N26, and so on.
Those offers are not hard to find, some of them are available for over a decade or more now. Even pretty much every consumer bank you can name in Germany has such a card on offer for less than 40€ yearly. That includes small cooperative banks. If yours does not you should consider switching (or opening a second account), competition is fierce.
Santander, Barclay, Hanseatic, Targo, DKB, Comdirect, ING-Diba, Consors, Wüstenrot, Noris, and N26 require that you have at least 600€ each month of movement via the bank account, or at least 1200€/year via the card.
I’ve tried getting a card from all of them. All of them refused, as I’d not use them enough.
> If yours does not
I’m a customer at 2 major national german banks (postbank and commerzbank), and a local one, none of them (or their subsidiaries, such as comdirect) offer this.
I just want a credit card, I’ll use it at most once a year, for at most 100 bucks. That is not available from any bank.
The only offer that exists even similar in cost is the old MyWirecard offer, and they closed my account due to not using it enough.
All of the ones I listed have at least one free offer without 600€ requirement, not sure you got that idea from. I am a customer at some of them without using the account at all and don't pay any fees. Some of the banks are quite picky and refuse customers for no apparent reason but none of them I know even asks how much money you plan to spend with it so that couldn't be a reason. If all of those banks have refused you there has to be something seriously wrong with your credit report, I would get a free § 34 report from Schufa and Creditreform to check if everything is correct if I were you.
Postbank has a Visa or MasterCard for 29€ yearly. Comdirect has a free Visa Debit card. I have it and have not used that account for over two years now apart from downloading the statements. Nothing happened so far and I haven't paid anything.
In your case the easiest solution would probably to order the British prepaid card from Revolut which is available for a one-time 8€ fee and I don't think they refuse anybody. Just note that they are not regulated as a bank but as electronic money so I wouldn't leave large sums of money for a long time on the card (but that's not something you want to do anyway).
> If all of those banks have refused you there has to be something seriously wrong with your credit report, I would get a free § 34 report from Schufa and Creditreform to check if everything is correct if I were you.
My credit report is perfect, and I’ve had no issues with that – but the problem is that I, as student, currently have zero income, and zero spending.
> Comdirect has a free Visa Debit card
Only in combination with the Girokonto, which is only provided if you have any monthly income. Same with Hanseatic. Check their AGB, or call them.
> Postbank has a Visa or MasterCard for 29€ yearly
Same story with this, I’m a customer at Postbank, have a Sparbuch in the 5 digits, but I can’t get a free Visa or MasterCard until I’ve > 670€/month income, and I won’t pay a single cent for a credit card.
> In your case the easiest solution would probably to order the British prepaid card from Revolut which is available for a one-time 8€ fee and I don't think they refuse anybody. Just note that they are not regulated as a bank but as electronic money so I wouldn't leave large sums of money for a long time on the card (but that's not something you want to do anyway).
I’ve had one with them, too, they closed the account because it wasn’t used often enough.
Oh quit the nonsense! I'm paying nowhere near 40€ for my credit card in Germany (and have no minimum transfer volume requirement). Also, ⅓ of Germans have a credit card: https://www.bundesbank.de/Redaktion/DE/Pressemitteilungen/BB..., and it's not like this is the only occasion where one might be useful.
Not to mention that all that gives you the ability to, you know, sell apps on the App Store and recoup your expenses. $2000 is a very reasonable entry price for something you could be making your living with. It's expensive for a hobby, granted, but it's not like the stuff you buy is single-purpose. And it keeps resale value amazingly well.
You can really stop it with the made-up numbers now. This is ridiculous.
I bought a Nexus 5 (that was supposed to give you the Google experience) after my iphone 4 and was the worst phone that I ever had.
I barely managed to not throw it against the wall for several times.
After less than 2 years I sold it and bought an iPhone 6s that I still have and I use happily without any "phonicidal" thoughts.
I wasn't comparing Google Phones to iPhones, but to the rest of the fragmented Android market. iPhones don't come with bloatware and crapware either. But what issues did your Nexus 5 give you?
Not the parent comment, but my Nexus 5 power button got stuck and bootlooped my phone.
Replaced the motherboard myself, a year later, same issue.
Bummed about it because otherwise it's a good phone at a great price. Only thing I complain about other than that is how terrible the camera is, but for a cheap phone that's a few years old, it's unfair to compare to today's devices.
