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Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Posts Guide on Converting to Android from iPhone
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Android just isn't there, yet, in my opinion.
You could have a speedy device running the latest build of CyanogenMod and think everything is great - until you see "Google Play Services" murdering your battery and keeping WiFi on constantly.
Keep in mind that Google makes money by keeping track of you for advertising purposes. I don't care that I'm being watched, I care that my device loses 25% battery before lunch without me even touching it, because Google's services just keep doing their thing, non-stop.
I don't like searching the Play store for an app and getting two pages of malware and fake apps instead of what I'm looking for.
I don't like having to open Greenify all the time to make sure to block any new applications that are trying to stay running all the time.
It's a pain to be a janitor to your phone. I wouldn't want to subject any family or friends to that.
We had a third of our office switch from Android to iOS this year. What was the biggest difference for them? Stability, reliability and frequency of updates. One user had terrible performance and hard locks all the time with their Android. They've never had to reboot their iPhone once.
Another user only used Android version 1 and 2 during the past 4 years, because they never got updates from HTC or Samsung. Since moving to iOS, they've updated their phone half a dozen times in the past few months. The third user had issues where their Android just wouldn't power on correctly.
Want a phone you can tinker with and mess with and hack and spends hours customizing? Get an Android.
Want a phone with a comically HUGE screen? Get an Android.
Not everyone want that.
Want a phone that just works? Get an iPhone.
Want a phone that does a thousand things? Get an iPhone.
Want a phone that can be simple to use? Get an iPhone.
Want a phone that has great resale? Get an iPhone.
You could have a speedy device running the latest build of CyanogenMod and think everything is great - until you see "Google Play Services" murdering your battery and keeping WiFi on constantly.
Keep in mind that Google makes money by keeping track of you for advertising purposes. I don't care that I'm being watched, I care that my device loses 25% battery before lunch without me even touching it, because Google's services just keep doing their thing, non-stop.
I don't like searching the Play store for an app and getting two pages of malware and fake apps instead of what I'm looking for.
I don't like having to open Greenify all the time to make sure to block any new applications that are trying to stay running all the time.
It's a pain to be a janitor to your phone. I wouldn't want to subject any family or friends to that.
We had a third of our office switch from Android to iOS this year. What was the biggest difference for them? Stability, reliability and frequency of updates. One user had terrible performance and hard locks all the time with their Android. They've never had to reboot their iPhone once.
Another user only used Android version 1 and 2 during the past 4 years, because they never got updates from HTC or Samsung. Since moving to iOS, they've updated their phone half a dozen times in the past few months. The third user had issues where their Android just wouldn't power on correctly.
Want a phone you can tinker with and mess with and hack and spends hours customizing? Get an Android.
Want a phone with a comically HUGE screen? Get an Android.
Not everyone want that.
Want a phone that just works? Get an iPhone.
Want a phone that does a thousand things? Get an iPhone.
Want a phone that can be simple to use? Get an iPhone.
Want a phone that has great resale? Get an iPhone.
Or they're businesses, or have friends on it....but lets forget that bit and spew nonsense instead. It seems to be the theme of this thread.
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I don't even like or use gmail and since android phone require you to use gmail to activate and purchase stuff no thanks! At least Apple lets you use a email account you have already to use as your iTunes account.
Yes, it is indeed a pain to janitor your phone. It would be nice if people could code their apps correctly, but this is the price we must pay to have completely unlockable devices. I for one am glad we have that option. I get tired of the walled garden. On the flip side, I love being able to install apps and restrict their privileges as I please. Android's app ops is great, but it sucks that it needs to exist.
Walled garden is great for some and I would recommend it for most people. I don't push android on my friends and family, but I'm sure glad it's around for myself. I would say android requires more tech know-how.
Really?
"and suggests gifting iPhone users with devices running an entirely different operating system for the holidays"
Remember 2 things.
1. The look on your face when you opened the package from Grandma that had socks in it.
2. Gift Receipts.
"and suggests gifting iPhone users with devices running an entirely different operating system for the holidays"
Remember 2 things.
1. The look on your face when you opened the package from Grandma that had socks in it.
2. Gift Receipts.
Google is doing a lot of stuff right though... I recently went from an iPhone 4 to a Nexus 5 (my iPhone had become too slow with iOS 7) and though it admittedly took a bit of adjustment, it works fine for me and is better in many ways (though a regression in others).
The bigger screen is way easier to type on, and the extra browsing space is brilliant. It's only 1cm wider so holding it is no big deal. Since iOS 7 the user interface is actually quite similar. Some apps are worse though (especially the apps that try to Mimic an iOS 6 interface such as the Engadget app
)
The phone is lightning quick and the notification led saves me from noticing missed calls only hours later. Apple should have had that years ago. I know you can use the camera flash but I never put my phone face down and it's annoyingly bright for notifications.
It's also nice to have a bit less of Apple's arbitrary restrictions (background apps!), although I do miss the 'safety net' of the App Store. Having to check apps to see if they're not spyware is a new thing to me and not a way forward.
4G 'just works' on the Nexus - If I'd had an iPhone I wouldn't have been able to use it on 4G on my carrier's network, just because they haven't been 'certified' for iPhone LTE by Apple (which involves them paying Apple a large sum of money apparently). This kind of dirty dealing is really not on, especially when it applies to factory unlocked iPhones too.
But the main thing in my opinion is price. I have a top-of-the-line phone for half the price of the iPhone 5S (unlocked). I don't do long-term contracts because I travel a lot.
Yes, I miss the brilliant apps of iOS, the great push notification system and the touch ID of the 5S. But is that worth double the price? To me, no.
If Apple does end up offering a 'middle tier' phone for around 400 euro I'd consider it, but I'm not buying 2 year old tech for that price. I was so hoping the 5C would have been that...
The bigger screen is way easier to type on, and the extra browsing space is brilliant. It's only 1cm wider so holding it is no big deal. Since iOS 7 the user interface is actually quite similar. Some apps are worse though (especially the apps that try to Mimic an iOS 6 interface such as the Engadget app
)The phone is lightning quick and the notification led saves me from noticing missed calls only hours later. Apple should have had that years ago. I know you can use the camera flash but I never put my phone face down and it's annoyingly bright for notifications.
It's also nice to have a bit less of Apple's arbitrary restrictions (background apps!), although I do miss the 'safety net' of the App Store. Having to check apps to see if they're not spyware is a new thing to me and not a way forward.
4G 'just works' on the Nexus - If I'd had an iPhone I wouldn't have been able to use it on 4G on my carrier's network, just because they haven't been 'certified' for iPhone LTE by Apple (which involves them paying Apple a large sum of money apparently). This kind of dirty dealing is really not on, especially when it applies to factory unlocked iPhones too.
But the main thing in my opinion is price. I have a top-of-the-line phone for half the price of the iPhone 5S (unlocked). I don't do long-term contracts because I travel a lot.
Yes, I miss the brilliant apps of iOS, the great push notification system and the touch ID of the 5S. But is that worth double the price? To me, no.
If Apple does end up offering a 'middle tier' phone for around 400 euro I'd consider it, but I'm not buying 2 year old tech for that price. I was so hoping the 5C would have been that...
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I have a friend who is a software engineer who writes apps for both Android and iOS. He says that in terms of coding, they're extremely similar. Both unix-based platforms. It always amazes me how people are foaming at the mouth over android vs. iOS when if you take away the skins and the built-in apps and restrictions they're pretty much the same.
Couldn't have said it better myself. I've tried several Android devices especially since my carrier T-Mobile didn't offer the iPhone until earlier this year and eventually came to hate all of them.
As an iOS dev I wouldn't really agree with that, the programming language used is radically different (Objective C for Apple vs Java for Google). As are the APIs. For example the approach used to make a table/list view is totally different, Android wants to have a link to a dataset and works everything out itself while iOS wants every line handed to it whenever it's about to display it. Either approach is good and bad in some ways (Apple's is snappier, Google's is less work to the developer).
As a dev you never really have anything to do with the unix underpinnings of the system as you're running in a sandbox and all low-level stuff is abstracted by APIs.
But I do agree they are very comparable platforms to the user and I'm happy with both. I still use iPads because Android's tablet apps aren't up to scratch yet IMHO, but on phones I think they're pretty well balanced. Both have advantages and drawbacks.
Is it a crime to say that in addition to everything else I love about Apple, I just love their design better than Google's?
Though Google tends to push it more often than not, Android isn't exclusively tied to Dalvik. If you wanted to, there's nothing stopping you from coding right to the platform using C or C++, or even using a mix of the two.
Ah I wasn't aware of that, I'm not an Android dev (yet). Though I've been looking over the shoulder of an Android dev while he was developing the Android counterpart of an iOS app I was working on. I wasn't aware you could program in C too, could you still use the same APIs?
In that case a common line could be found as Objective C is backwards compatible with C (though most API calls must be made in the ObjC syntax)
Ahhh there it is. I mentioned this but didn't feel like looking around for the link.
I still don't see anything wrong with this strategy of providing a guide to try to recruit new users. Makes business sense.
I'm sure it helped apple increase market share. The customer still has to decide what works best for them but if they are interested in switching I see no harm in a company helping them make it easier.
This means "most of" means 3 people at best, but one of those friends is a fake Twitter account and the other a fake Facebook acct. So, Mr. Schmidt could claim that 2/3 of people he surveyed preferred Android!
Oh god. He's Google's chairman and he's showing enthusiasm for his company's products. What a shocker and a crime.
It's no different than Tim Cook/Phil getting onstage during the keynotes to say how each product is "amazing," "revolutionary," "state-of-the-art technology" blah blah blah.
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It's nothing that I hate about Google but when People like Eric run any Company, I have an opinion that I will try not give a single cent to that Company!
Try to attach 3 pdf files with Mail app...good luck...
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I would disagree... Yes, Javascript benchmark means you can open site faster in iOS than Android... but how much faster?
Also, Android just kicks iOS ass by large margin. Look, I am not fanboy of anything, but I just love the openness of Android and it is a lot easier to use than iOS nowadays....