iPhone VS Android

[nickgalaxys4]

Hi all.. I made the switch to Android as soon as the GS4 came out so the GS4 is my first Android device, I am a techie person love having the greatest and newest. I am in the IT field so maybe that plays a role. I want to know why some of you made the switch from Apple/Windows/Blackberry to Android. I came from iPhone 4S before that had a Blackberry Can't say anything about Windows never had a phone from them. The one reason why I left Blackberry was the phone were made for business people, I loved BBM but really that was the only thing I liked about it. I went to iPhone just like most people have an iPhone and that's why I got one I really got it for the name. I left Apple because the screen of the phone to small, no customization, no features like Galaxy has, and the list goes on and on. I got the GS4 and love everything about it the air features,multi window, size of the screen, so much more. So like i said before I gave you my reasons of why I got an Android I want to know why you all made the switch and why you like the phone you have. Just for fun..

 

[ledfrog]

My chain of events was this: Blackberry to non-smartphone to iPhone then to Android.

As you said, Blackberry was mainly a business type phone and while BBM was awesome, it was only really awesome when you were chatting with other BBM users. Once I found my way to the iPhone, I was hooked. But in short time, I realized I was mainly hooked by the ecosystem that having a smartphone today requires. With iPhone and all other i-devices, you're very integrated with iTunes, iCloud and the App Store. While these are not horrible services, I just found that I was using Google more; mainly because I was a Google user way before the first iPhone came out.

As Google became more entrenched in the Android project, they started offering services that rivaled Apple. So for me, my reason for switching was just because I saw more value in Google's services as they pertained to my usage. In other words, I was already using Gmail, Google Apps, YouTube, AdSense, AdWords, Analytics, Google Voice, Feedburner and the list goes on and on. Once Google changed their app store to Google Play and started adding all the media content (music, movies, tv shows, etc.) it really was a no-brainer for me. To top all that off, I use Google as my main search engine as well as for my social networking profile on Google+ as I slowly phase Facebook out of my life!

Wow, after going over all that I really am a true Google user!! Interestingly, I haven't said anything about devices yet. But then again, that's the point I was leading up to. Today, the choice between iOS or Android isn't so much about devices and specs anymore. I think you're going to find users that have become entrenched in their own preferred ecosystems and they will sort of be stuck with whatever devices those ecosystems provide. The phone wars are dying down now that major playing fields have been established. And just like there are major Google users using Android and major Apple users using iOS there are plenty of Microsoft users using Windows.

Of course there are tons of people that aren't as connected as say I am and it's these people that will still buy phones just because it has a certain feature or because they get tired of one operating system, but for the rest of us, the manufacturers are going to have an increasingly harder time to make us switch.

I am currently a user of the Nexus 4 as my phone and the Nexus 7 as my tablet. I went a step further and decided to use pure Android devices since I got sick of Samsung's TouchWiz version on my Galaxy SII. In just one week, I'll be the proud owner of the Google Play Edition of the HTC One which is yet another stock Android device!

 

[Droid4Core]

I switched to an s4 from a nexus 4 and an iPhone 5 before that. The main thing that lured my away from good ole non customizable, small, monotonous iphones was the simple ability to do as I wish with the phone that I forked out money for. Sure the iPhone 5 looks pretty great but that's about where its beifits end. IOS is outdated and lacks the features and options that android has. Sure theirs jailbeaking but a stock android can do that with out even re booting. Iphones are in bearable without jailbreaks and the time in between each one is just painful. Although some of the Jailbreakers are coming to android now! saurik, geohot ect. I'm looking forward to a bright future with android and all of the talented developers coming it's way.you can take my freedom! But I'm just not gonna buy your phone bruh

Sent from my SGH-I337 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[spawndoodling]

I went from BlackBerry to Windows Phone to Android.

My BlackBerry purchase was an ill-advised buy, but back then I had T-Mobile and the Android phones were just not cutting it for me. I was coming from a dumb phone and at that point, Android was still stuck in Gingerbread and felt like a mess to me. My BlackBerry Bold ended up being the real mess. Funny thing is I never had a problem with this thing with regards to typical functions like QWERTY, calling, texting, Web browsing, and good battery life. Blackberry made a rock solid phone in this regard. But the Bold simply felt ancient, although it was Blackberry's top of the line phone and I paid good money for it. Never any apps for it, Twitter and Facebook apps were seriously flawed and broken, and the lure of BBM faded when nearly everyone I knew switched to Apple. On top of the endless white screens of death that led me to having six Blackberry's in an eight month time frame. I don't blame this on RIM - I seriously believe T-Mobile was duping its premium handset insurance subscribers with poor refurbished options.

So then I switched to Windows Phone via the Nokia Lumia 710 midway through my contract. I tried with all my might to love that phone. I did everything I could. The lack of apps is truly stellar though in the way it makes you feel like you are truly behind. All of my friends and family jumped on the Instagram bandwagon at about the time I made the purchase and it was just agony knowing how out of it I was. On top of that, I got fed up that apps I expected to work - like Spotify, Twitter and YouTube - simply didn't work in their full capacity on a mobile device. In 2012. I had to use third party apps that offered great experiences with drawbacks like bugs and ads. That being said, I was rooting for Windows and Nokia so much. I still am in many regards. The UI was simply amazing - people always laughed at me but this phone had awesome software and even hardware. I still maintain that the camera on the 710 takes better pictures easily than my Galaxy S3. With my s3, I have to fiddle with a million settings to get a really good photo. My 710 seemed to know what was going on the entire time. Nokia's suite of apps - specifically Drive - are spot-on. But after a while, you just get fed up. I feel bad for Nokia, but I don't feel bad for Microsoft. Microsoft cut out everyone who believed in WP7 and brought no viable updates to WP7. They seemed not to care and for someone who was so enthralled with the UI and hopeful that the platform would succeed, this was disheartening.

Enter the Galaxy S3. I was lured into the Galaxy mostly because of a deal with Sprint (T-Mobile just sucks in the suburbs) who began offering 4g all in my area. I originally thought I'd get the iphone simply because everyone I knew had one, but I just didn't feel like I was getting the best product when I looked at both side by side. The Galaxy just felt superior. The iphone felt old and out of date. I didn't like that the things most important to me wouldn't be upfront. HTC simply wasn't an option a few months ago; there was no One and the EVO just felt inferior. I remember turning on the Galaxy S3 and being like, wow I finally have a phone I don't want to throw at a brick wall.

It's been great and I'm definitely staying on the Android train now!

Sent from my SPH-L710 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[tgp]

The reason I'm all in with Android now is due to what anti's call the "slow, buggy, cheap, whatever other negative description you can throw in here" Android. My first smartphone was a Palm Treo 700wx (I think I have that right) with Windows Mobile on Alltel. Later Alltel was taken over by Verizon, and I eventually got an HTC Diamond, also running WM. When WP7 was released in the fall of 2010 I was waiting for Verizon to get a WP7 device. In the meantime I had moved from the Midwest to the East where I now had access to a plethora of prepaid low cost carriers. I was paying Verizon around $125/month for a smartphone with unlimited data & a dumb phone for my wife. I gave up waiting for Verizon to get a WP, and purchased 2 LG Optimus V's for my wife & I. Now we both had smartphones with umlimited everything, and the monthly bill was about half of what I had been paying Verizon. Anyway, since I make a living it IT, it wasn't long until I rooted my Optimus V and started flashing. I had lots of fun, and in the process I became hooked on Android. And, a few of my co workers got WP's and I saw what a half baked solution they were (still are to a point).

Now my wife has a Galaxy Nexus and I have a Nexus 4. Obviously we're no longer with Virgin Mobile, but we're still prepaid. Our combined monthly bill is still around $60, we have great devices with the latest updates, and we couldn't be happier with our mobile solutions. My plan now is to purchase the new Nexus whenever it's released, pass my current phone down to my wife, and sell hers to help offset the cost of the new one. We'll see how that goes...

Since I work in IT, I sometimes am asked by customers to help with their mobile devices. If they had an Android phone I was all over it, but I hardly knew where to start with iPhone or WP. Because of that, I started carrying a 2nd phone. I have an iPhone 5 and a Lumia 521, and I swap my 2nd SIM card between them as I feel the urge. I actually like the iPhone well enough that if Apple would release a device with a larger screen, and would allow a little more customization, I wouldn't have a big problem switching. I don't see that happening anytime soon though, and even if both of those things came to fruition I probably wouldn't jump ship anyway when it came down to it.