Getting an iPhone Out of Necessity

[Murph5150]

My company is changing over their servers meaning if I want company emails coming to my phone, I'll have to get an iPhone. The server change won't happen until August or September; purposely because that's around the time the iPhone 7 will be released. Android phones will no longer be compatible with the new servers.

I'm assuming I'll lose my paid apps.

My PC is a Windows 10 i5 Samsung. Will the iPhone be entirely incompatible?

How do OS updates work? Are they OTA?

So many concerns and questions have arisen amidst the news. My personal phone is the Droid Turbo and my business phone is currently the Motorola XPE. I'm not looking forward to learning a new operating system.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[hallux]

In what way are they changing the servers that it won't be compatible with Android? Most of the MDM suites will support both OS's, and if it's straight EAS Android supports that also.

It sounds like the company is trying to cut some costs by intentionally leaving some of the user base out and is choosing to only develop policies and test MDM apps against iOS.

As for your paid apps, yes. You COULD contact the developer and see if they'll transfer your license to the iOS apps but it's unlikely.

As long as your PC has iTunes it's compatible. That said, with the prevalence of cloud storage/computing these days what computer you have is meaning less and less.

OS updates are OTA, though they can also be done through iTunes.

I suggest a visit over to the forums at imore.com for iOS-specific help.

 

[Golfdriver97]

I'd challenge it. There is no way to have the emails be picked up via GMail or MS Outlook?

 

[kramer5150]

I think its compatible through iTunes, which is the worst part about it all... IMHO. Hopefully there is a work-around but I really don't think there is. My cousin is a hard core PC/Windows guy, gamer and PC builder. His wife is hard core iPhone gal, and they are forced to use PC iTunes to connect with her 6S+. Drives them crazy. You can not take (say) 1-2 pictures off the iPhone and save them on the PC. iTunes HAS TO sync the entire phone memory over, which shouldn't be that bad except iTunes is big, bloaty and very slow at doing seemingly the simplest of tasks. If you are used to how a PC+Android setup manages files, PC+iTunes will probably be an adjustment for you.

There "might" also be some NTFS / FAT32 compatibility issues, depending on usage. But don't quote me on that.

I am not sure how well iPhones merge into google drive, music and the more remote aspects of the google ecosystem.

iPhones are solid devices and even iOS I personally find tolerable despite my preference for Android. Its iTunes and apples control over lightning accessories that continually turned me off when I was on an iphone. As far as iOS updates go the all-apple ecosystem works VERY well compared to Android. Data comes straight from the mother ship, they are fast, efficient and (for the most part) they work reliably.

 

[hallux]

iTunes should have ZERO impact on mail delivery. iTunes is not an active conduit for email routing from the PC to the phone. If they're relying on iTunes for mail sync/delivery, that means your PC would have to stay connected all the time, though I don't think iTunes has that capability anyway.

I stand by my thinking that they're changing MDM conduits and just didn't want to put in the time/effort to support both iOS and Android so they chose the one that most people would complain about missing if they didn't do it. I work in a large corporation, providing IT support, I see the issues and trouble that comes up when trying to provide conduits for both platforms. We happen to be on a single MDM platform on both iOS and Android, but Android poses some challenges and the setup on both is quite different. iOS is using the native iOS apps for mail, contacts and calendars where Android is using sandboxed apps provided by the MDM platform.

 

[Almeuit]

You can also check out our sister site (iMore | The #1 site for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and all things Apple!) for assistance with iPhone from the experts .

 

[kramer5150]

Oh one more thing... if given a choice, go for the 6S+ and not the smaller one. The 6S+ gets surprisingly good battery life.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Food for thought.... What if you got an iPod? Would that still allow you to get the email, and still have the Android phone?

 

[Murph5150]

In what way are they changing the servers that it won't be compatible with Android? Most of the MDM suites will support both OS's, and if it's straight EAS Android supports that also.

It sounds like the company is trying to cut some costs by intentionally leaving some of the user base out and is choosing to only develop policies and test MDM apps against iOS.

As for your paid apps, yes. You COULD contact the developer and see if they'll transfer your license to the iOS apps but it's unlikely.

As long as your PC has iTunes it's compatible. That said, with the prevalence of cloud storage/computing these days what computer you have is meaning less and less.

OS updates are OTA, though they can also be done through iTunes.

I suggest a visit over to the forums at imore.com for iOS-specific help.

I'm totally not savvy when it comes to computers. Saving money sounds exactly like something my company would do.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Murph5150]

Food for thought.... What if you got an iPod? Would that still allow you to get the email, and still have the Android phone?

Yes, however I'm usually away from my desk most of the day.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Murph5150]

I appreciate everyone's feedback. I'm not familiar with some of the computer jargon used, but it definitely sounds like they are trying to save money. Before I choose a new iPhone I'll probably wait and see what the iPhone 7 will be like.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Golfdriver97]

Yes, however I'm usually away from my desk most of the day.

Posted via the Android Central App

Does your phone have a built in hotspot?

 

[Murph5150]

Does your phone have a built in hotspot?

My Androids do. I haven't used them though ever since my plan went to capped data.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[hallux]

I'm totally not savvy when it comes to computers. Saving money sounds exactly like something my company would do.

Posted via the Android Central App

The 2 TLA's (three letter acronym) I used are:
MDM - Mobile Device Management
EAS - Exchange Active Sync.

 

[kramer5150]

Speaking of wifi hotspots... that was always a weird thing with my iphone 5C and macbook Pros. If the iphone wifi is left ON (which I normally do) and then try to activate the local hotspot. It would not always work well, or consistently. The macbook or iphone would get "confused" which wifi function to prioritize. Not sure if this same thing happens with a PC and iPhone.

Compared to my LG V10 as a hot spot its much more consistent. It just pops up a window asking me to deactivate wifi before it switches over to the hot spot.