Phone thieves in London are increasingly selective, often returning Android phones to victims and keeping only iPhones, the newsletter London Centric reports.
In January, someone named Sam was walking past a Royal Mail depot in south London when eight men blocked his way, robbed him of his phone, camera, and hat, and then returned his Android after seeing it was not an iPhone. The thief bluntly told him, "Don't want no Samsung," and ran off, Sam told London Centric.
Quite a few Android users across the city have experienced the same thing. Some have had their phones taken only for thieves to discard them moments later, or hand them right back after checking the brand.
Experts say that the probable reason for this trend is the higher resale value of iPhones globally. An advisor at cybersecurity firm ESET told London Centric that thieves chase that Apple-driven profit, as Android often has a lower value on the secondhand market, and some criminals think it's not worth getting charged over something less valuable.
Reports over the last decade show this preference is long-standing. Previous data from the UK government's Home Office shows iPhones regularly top lists of models most likely to be stolen, years before criminal groups began focusing on shipping Apple devices abroad.
For Android owners, the current pattern may be a cold comfort: While your phone might be less desirable to some, it could save you a headache down the line.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday November 24, @08:39PM (5 children)
A man, not capable to defend himself against eight robbers?
That's really a nobody.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Monday November 24, @09:34PM (3 children)
Some say mere robbers... Some say they were the beggars... Some say they were the Hao...
Dogs were found beaten that's all I'm saying.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday November 25, @06:37AM (2 children)
... we just know them as... The Stigs.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday November 25, @09:46AM (1 child)
So, a while ago my niece gets into an argument with her mom which I naturally filter out until the "we got the sports channel at home" retort catches my ears. Wondering, I ask what on earth could the little couch potato possibly want to watch on the premium sports channel when I'm admonished by the child for not having the premium package for her to watch Formula 1. Caught off guard, I asked her mom how did she ever get into racing but no one has an explanation. Conversing with the girl, she seemed oddly opinionated about electric vs. combustion, wanted a Ferrari, was collecting figurine cars and had a favorite racing team and all...
Fast forward a couple weeks, I spot an ad for a new feature called "F1 The Movie" and that it's an Apply TV original production. I'm then reminded how she got into the Apple ecosystem through a birthday iPad she insisted on since "all her friends have one" and how that led to her buying an iPhone...
I miss the simple days when Clarkson would crane up a Hilux on top of a condemned skyscraper before demolishing it to see if the Toyota would start without it being part of a massive marketing campaign just for entertainment value.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday November 25, @10:02AM
It was highly enjoyable when it was the lads, but less so when some of them became the louts.
(Score: 5, Funny) by driverless on Tuesday November 25, @06:24AM
And look at those robbers too:
"Don't want no Samsung", in the capital of the UK no less! What happened to "I say my good man, this appears to be an inferior product. I am disinclined to accept it. Pip pip".
(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Monday November 24, @09:17PM (9 children)
Why Android phones are so bad even thieves don't want them:
1) No upgrades after shipment or at most like one or six months of support max. At least an iphone has mfgr support for more than six months. There's a security bug in Android? Tough $%^& buy a new phone. At least iphones will get patched. That having been said there are orders of magnitude more bugs in Android apps than in Android itself
2) Android phones are shipped with gigabytes of preinstalled bloatware. Usually about 1/3 to 1/2 the storage is taken up by bloatware. One of the best features of a jailbroken rooted android custom rom is not having bloatware, you get tons of storage and cpu cycles for free... I'd guess the popularity of custom Android roms is some fraction of the popularity of "The Linux Desktop(tm)" so essentially most android phones walking around in the wild are crap.
3) Unrepairable. Yes the end user consumer can't replace an iphone battery but generally for about every 100K citizens in an area theres 1 to 3 phone repair shops / kiosks who can fix an iphone for you. As for Android hardware in theory they could but the parts are unobtainable, or the replacement battery is just as old and near dead as the battery it's replacing, etc.
I will say that I enjoy disposable android phones. My $50 motorola has been running well for some years. I'm sure this makes people who spend $1000 on a new iphone every year very jealous. However, what I do with my phone is unchanged in many years, so I don't really care about upgrades. I see the fad of multiple cameras is still going strong, the S26 has ... FIVE cameras. Only about 4 or 5 too many.
(Score: 3, Informative) by shrewdsheep on Monday November 24, @09:33PM (3 children)
I beg to disagree.
1) Depends on the brand. Motorola has good support for ca. 3 years. Not as good as Apple admittedly, but if you are careful enough to heed Lineage OS compatibility, you get updates forever.
2) Again depends on model. For example, motorola is fine. Again, root the phone or use Lineage OS to get a clean phone.
3) I have replaced screens both on an iPhone and an Android device. No big difference. PITA in both cases.
4) Fun citations from iPhone users: "I have to first transfer my photos before I can install a new app". "I have to stop navigation, my battery is low", "I cannot switch to an Android or I would lose all my apps"...
I buy older models in the price range below Eur 200. Resell value close to zero, I understand the thieves.
(Score: 3, Informative) by jelizondo on Tuesday November 25, @03:45AM (1 child)
Just to affirm that Motorola has longer support. I have been using their phones for a while now, currently I own two of them. One was replaced, for free, under warranty about 10 months after purchase.
Would not touch an Apple product with a 10 ft pole
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Tuesday November 25, @04:35AM
I may touch one...
But I'd really feel Stoopid to pay for one.
I see them as too crippled to be of much use to me.
( I feel even more antipathy toward new cars...they are way too complex. They should put most of that crap in a phone app. And a charging cradle to hold the phone in a useful position.
I would go for continuously recording built in dashcam, backup cam, and car cam feeding a TF card and a local WIFI hotspot treating it as standard live streaming video and downloadable segments for historical footage.
With the backup cam displaying on the phone screen during reverse and/or the rear view mirror ( that has a backup snap over conventional mirror stored somewhere for graceful fallback for dead electronics ).
I need all my mental bandwidth for collision avoidance, not trying to adjust HVAC or entertainment systems.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Informative) by driverless on Tuesday November 25, @06:31AM
You can always find at least one brand somewhere that offers decent support, but for most Android stuff it's like the OP said. For example my Oppo (cheap Chinese) still gets all the security updates years after release, but no OS upgrades. Cost around USD 100 and had most of the features of a Samsung at ten times its price at the time it was released (my big ones were dual SIM, NFC, and 5G). Also, I pretty much knew when I was buying it that it'd never any OS upgrades, but like still being a user of Windows 7 that's not a loss and possibly even a feature.
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Monday November 24, @10:17PM (1 child)
I understand your position, but maybe research a little further than Motorola. I've had a Motorola and their updates were .. non-existent. They'll never get money from me again.
Nokia brand phones are using base Android One -- so no bloatware, just Android. And about 2-3 years of updates. At price 1/5th of Apple, that beats Apple in costs and you always have newer hardware. But even Chinese ones offer 5 years of updates these days. Same for Samsung, but I don't like most of these thanks to their bloatware that needs manual disablement. Then again, I got a Xiaomi 15 for my wife for €100 refurbished and she uses it mostly for messanger... so.... and it promises security updates until 2032.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday November 24, @11:47PM
Google One is really the way to go unless a viable alternative arises with a more open model. My current Nokia got updates for rather a long time to the system itself.
It's also worth recognizing that Google has been moving more and more of the functionality into apps that can be more easily updated without relying on the carriers to push updates.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Tuesday November 25, @08:28AM
I have a Samsung XCover Pro. I bought a 5 back in 2020, a 6 in 2023. Both still receive monthly security updates. I gave the 5 to my father-in-law, so I don't know if it gets every update the same as me but my 6 still gets Android and UI One updates all the time. Every month.
I bought it from Amazon, not Samsung. There's no special package, I never registered the phone, nothing special.
So... 1) is nonsense. 2) The Samsung "bloatware", I uninstalled and hid. It was things like a file explorer and a photo gallery. Less than 1% of the storage was used. The phone absolutely FLIES. I used it as a DeX workstation all the time (like literally now)
3) Both phones have a removable battery, a headphone socket, dual-SIM. Changing the battery is literally "open the cover with a fingernail, change the battery". There are thousands of original or comatible batteries on Amazon for both phones still.
So... stop buying cheap shite and then pretending that that's all Android is or that it even has a correlation to being an Android phone.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 26, @04:50AM
I purchased an iphone. The regret is great. Never again. I like Apple, really, I do. I just can't fork out that amount of cash of cash for a device that won't work.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday November 26, @06:19PM
You sound like a BMW driver explaining why his $100,000 status symbol is superior to your $30,000 Chevy. Like a Porsche or a Cadillac will take you to the store, an iPhone is a status symbol and will look up a Wikipedia article no easier or better than the cheapest Android.
And support? I don't know a single iPhone owner who doesn't buy a new one every year "just because". Why would they need support? The most that goes wrong with any phone is it's dropped.
When masked police can stop you on the street and demand that you prove citizenship, your nation is a POLICE STATE
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 25, @12:10AM
I buy inexpensive Motorola Androids ( arm64-v8a ) from HSN.com . They often run older model clearance of package of 2 for under $100. They come bundled with a year of service ( but limited usage... I think 1500 minutes and 1500 MB ). Walmart sells reload cards. Not such a good deal for a regular user but quite handy for backup use, like left in the car.
While in their youth, they are handy for burner phones to share required contact info , conduct searches , and try out suspicious software apks and questionable web sites. Knowing Factory Reset is always an option if I step in the wrong place.
So far, I have side loaded them via apks obtained from sites like apkmirror.com .I will not put personal info on these phones. I consider them minimum security tools, as I would a nice signal generator.
I use 128 GB TF cards to extend storage. This is for apks ( mostly analysis , network troubleshooting tools , sensors , oscilloscopes / spectrum analyzers , signal generators , basically a Star-Trek tricorder ) and storage of key files to other systems ( like my legacy PC based CAD system backup that contains damn near everything I have worked on - those early Futurenet, Spice, Eagle, Mathcad, even DOS6.22 . Part of My "Doomsday" kit. ).
When the phones service times out, I buy another phone, re-establish my environment in it on another TF card, and keep the older phone, as all of the rest of the phone, is still working. A lot of the stuff I work with is in the audio range, and mostly I just need confirmation the thing works. I can generate really accurate frequencies in the audio range, while I settle for "close enough". I have a dozen older Androids confiured this way.
I tether my expired phone to my main paid phone to continue to use businesses' loyalty apps on the sanitized expired phones. And use those free email addresses. Sometimes they insist on texting, then I send them to a soon-to-expire burner. Just in case they share my contact info with another business partner that has the determination af an advertising executive , believing that constantly pestering any body that reveals contact info can be pestered into a purchase.
I flat do not want an I phone for the same reasons I avoid the later Microsoft products, but still use what I have up through WIN7 - Offline.
If I need a file, I will download it onto a phone then vet it through VirusTotal. Then FTP it over. If I wanna browse - it's the phone or an android tablet loaded with a browser du jour. I do not want to risk corruption or compromise of my personal files.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Kell on Tuesday November 25, @02:18AM (3 children)
I use a dumbphone. Nobody wants my phone, but my last one lasted 14 years until they shut down 3G. My new dumbphone isn't as good, but still better than an invasive, spyware-laden, data-slurping thief-magnet.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Tuesday November 25, @06:55AM (2 children)
Mine is only 8 years old. It only has 2.5G, but I see no reason to replace it, just for this. Even if it had 5G, there would be little point in browsing the internet on a 240✕320 screen. Still works great as a phone, though.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 25, @11:09AM
You could buy another one. Then glue them back-to-back. That would give you 5G.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday November 26, @06:23PM
When your carrier stops supporting it your choices are a new phone, a new carrier, or no phone.
When masked police can stop you on the street and demand that you prove citizenship, your nation is a POLICE STATE
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by sonamchauhan on Tuesday November 25, @03:03AM (2 children)
This may lead to a rise in fake Android cases and wallpapers for iPhones
But I really hope for is better policing and social reform... Carrot, stick and social reform movements
(Score: 3, Insightful) by anubi on Tuesday November 25, @04:48AM
This has been going on long before I Phones.
I remember as a kid the fad about the two little feet stitched into T-shirts that tripled the price ( hang-ten ), and those blue jeans that had that little loop stitched into the hiney pocket ( Jord ache ) that sold for a premium price.
Marketing.
The people that were good at this now enjoy comfortable retirements.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 5, Funny) by driverless on Tuesday November 25, @06:34AM
It's OK, when Farage gets in he'll reform things, all foreigners will be asked to leave, crime will drop to zero, there'll be full employment, and everyone will enjoy an above-average lifestyle.
(Score: 5, Funny) by SomeGuy on Tuesday November 25, @12:30PM
How confused would a thief get if someone had no cell phone?
"He had nothing in his pockets except these worthless green leaflets!"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DadaDoofy on Tuesday November 25, @06:02PM (1 child)
The open ecosystem of Android phones makes it dangerous to store anything of importance on them. Most of what "phones" are used for these days involves having important data close at hand. Not surprisingly, this makes Android phones virtually worthless to anyone other than those with Apple Derangement Syndrome™️.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Wednesday November 26, @06:30PM
It makes it useless as your main computer. I never EVER use my phone for commerce! Reading the newspaper, sure. Phone calls, text? That's what a phone is for! Light meter for my antique 35mm SLR as its own camera, db meter, calculator, all sorts of very useful stuff that has nothing to do with commerce.
I have no problem letting someone use my phone. I'll not let anyone use my wallet. IMO doing internet commerce over the phone is brain dead stupid. That's what dedicated computers are for!
When masked police can stop you on the street and demand that you prove citizenship, your nation is a POLICE STATE