Like I said in an earlier post: The strength of Android is in it's flexibility and ability to be customized. The strength of iOS is it's simplicity, which is a direct result of it's lack of flexibility and ability to be customized.
Android is plenty easy to use. Start it up, click on the icons for the programs you want to use, and they run. Just like on an iPhone. Deleting icons you don't want, and adding ones you do, is extremely simple. It's just DIFFERENT than the way iOS does it. It's only when you want to start changing the default way Android does things that it gets complicated. And if you're trying to change it to work like iOS, you're going to be very frustrated. Accept Android for what it is, and it works just fine. Not like an iPhone, or a Windows phone, or a Mac, but like Android. Just as an iPhone works like itself, not like Android, or Windows, or anything else.
Oh, definitely not like a Windows phone. The only similarity I see between Android and Windows phones (the old Windows) is that they both offer lots of flexibility. But the interfaces and ways of interacting are completely different.
iOS is much easier to use because you don't need to learn as much. There simply aren't as many things you can change. That's good for ease of learning, bad for making it suit you. Steve Jobs believed that you should adapt to the way he thinks it should work. Google seems to think you should be able to adapt the device to the way you want it to work. I'm very glad to be able to make my phone mine, and not be forced into a configuration someone else chose for me.
And, of course, if you've already used iOS for several years there's no learning curve at all. I suspect, however, your wife had some learning curve when switching TO the iPhone, but just doesn't remember. If she were an Android user switching to an iPhone, I suspect she'd be just as frustrated because things wouldn't work the way she's used to, and you can't customize iOS to work that way.
As far as insults, maybe Crester's "closed-minded" is a little harsh, but read what you wrote: "Basically, she wants an iPhone with a bigger screen and has no interest in extra features, but she doesn't want to install too many apps or 3rd party tweaks. She certainly will not go for a new shell or anything like that." But then you say "she wanted to feel like her new phone was something different again,"
Wanting an iPhone with a bigger screen doesn't sound like someone who wants something "different." Nor does being unwilling to accept that "different" will require unlearning "same.". Based on your description of what she wants, and is and isn't willing to do, I think there are only two realistic choices: your wife makes a conscious decision that she's willing to actually accept something "different," (and maybe invest some effort into learning and understanding the differences) or she sticks with the iPhone. Making a Galaxy work like an iPhone just isn't in the cards. There's nothing wrong with either decision. As my sig says, choose the device that works best for you. Many millions of people feel that's the iPhone.
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