How 'Locked' are users to iOS (or any OS?)

[Tiger8]

So a couple of years back, moving from one platform to the other meant risking all your iTunes and App store purchases and having to start fresh. More importantly, your notes, photos, iCloud, all those things are gone.

However, with the rise of third party photo sharing apps, messaging apps such as whatsapp and Viber, music apps such as Spotify, of course Netflix / Google Play, Google Now, Google Maps, OneNote, are we really **that** locked in Apple ecosystem?

 

[maflynn]

No one is ever really locked in. You may need to repurchase some apps, but generally speaking its not too difficult to move to a given platform.

I'm rocking with a Nokia Lumia Icon at the moment. My music is on the phone, as is my contacts and calendar. Most of my apps are available and I really didn't skip a beat in the transition.

I will say moving away from iOS means a loss of tight integration with OSX. While 3rd party apps have come a long way, there's still some holes. For instance in iTunes, I can share various pictures from my Aperture library, there's no way to do that. I can export and upload them if I feel the need. Its not a feature I'm really worked up about so I'm not missing it. My point is there are pros and cons to switching platforms but that doesn't mean you're forced to live your life on one platform.

 

[sunking101]

Yes. How do we get all the paid for apps onto another platform? I have around $500 worth of apps. For those who just have photos and notes, it's a simple (if laborious) process to swap them over.

 

[TC03]

I'm not really locked. If I wanted to switch to Android, I could do it easily. Maybe some apps have to be repurchased, but the costs for that are irrelevant given the price difference with Android handsets.

The lock is much more mentally. I'm so used to lock screen notifications, Control Center and the smoothness of Safari and the OS that I couldn't switch without feeling homesick. Too many usefull little things in iOS.

 

[Macman45]

There are quite a few free apps which allow Android devices to communicate with OSX and iOS. I just got done fixing a buddy up with just such a setup

He has a Sony Experia phone, and a Nexus N7 which I gave him. His main computer is an iMac 21" one little app allowed me to upload all his pictures and videos straight in to Aperture without a hitch.

It would make sense for him to have an iOS based tablet and phone, but his wife won't allow it. So we found a workaround meaning he's not locked at all.

 

[Mlrollin91]

I'm fairly "locked" into the ecosystem. I'm very reliant on streaming my OSX/iOS devices with my Apple TV. I would never leave OSX, but I also cannot see myself ever leaving iOS. Even if I don't like something, I will just adapt to it and deal with it. Also, between apps and hardware, I am extremely invested.

 

[MinEderPlayz]

I'm fairly "locked" into the ecosystem. I'm very reliant on streaming my OSX/iOS devices with my Apple TV. I would never leave OSX, but I also cannot see myself ever leaving iOS. Even if I don't like something, I will just adapt to it and deal with it. Also, between apps and hardware, I am extremely invested.

THIS exactly is why I will never leave OS X or iOS either.

I have a few hundred $ worth of apps and several iOS & OS X devices. I am very happy with all of my devices and if there are minor flaws I just deal with them (e.g. the Spotlight keyboard lag on iPad Air). I have moved here from Windows & Samsung mobiles... Compared to what I had to deal with back then, iOS and OS X are like a sunny beach with beautiful water - not the Siberian ice desert I came from. Also, my whole life relies on certain iOS features, believe it or not... Auto-syncing reminders, tabs, calendar entries, AirPlay streaming, etc.

 

[Cod3rror]

I like background audio playback from YouTube or any other video source that iOS can do.

No other platform can do that.

And there are quite a few apps that are on iOS and either lack or are of worse quality on other platforms.

That said thought, iOS is starting to feel very locked-in in general to me. Apple should be thanking online cloud services like Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive, it's them that make transferring and managing files easy, without them iOS would be quite limited.

 

[westrock2000]

So a couple of years back, moving from one platform to the other meant risking all your iTunes and App store purchases and having to start fresh.

Why would there be any other expectation? All programs are platform specific. You can't transfer a program from a Mac to a PC, you can't play an Xbox game on a PS3.

That is the entire basis of ALL electronic devices.

 

[0007776]

It depends on how many paid apps they have. Most of mine are free ones, so if I wanted to switch it wouldn't be too bad. If someone has invested a lot of money in paid apps then they would have to rebut all of those so they are much more locked in.

 

[deluxeshredder]

I'm not really locked. If I wanted to switch to Android, I could do it easily. Maybe some apps have to be repurchased, but the costs for that are irrelevant given the price difference with Android handsets.

The lock is much more mentally. I'm so used to lock screen notifications, Control Center and the smoothness of Safari and the OS that I couldn't switch without feeling homesick. Too many usefull little things in iOS.

Android is very smooth now and had Control Center-type quick toggles for several years before iOS 7.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

I don't have a lot of paid apps for iOS, but I do have a lot of iTunes music and movies as well as OS X app licenses. I'm never going back to Windows for my home computer, and I really like iOS and the feel of my iPhone 5. I had a BlackBerry Storm2 and will never go back to them. I haven't had an android, but the size of them is kind of off putting. I guess you could say I've locked myself in intentionally unless Apple does something to really irk me.

 

[sunking101]

Why would there be any other expectation? All programs are platform specific. You can't transfer a program from a Mac to a PC, you can't play an Xbox game on a PS3.

That is the entire basis of ALL electronic devices.

Exactly, and the same problems exist when moving from Android to iOS.

 

[Tiger8]

Why would there be any other expectation? All programs are platform specific. You can't transfer a program from a Mac to a PC, you can't play an Xbox game on a PS3.

That is the entire basis of ALL electronic devices.

True, but things are changing. Many people are shying away from buying 'apps', people and now buy 'services'; so a few years back convinience of syncing music you bought on iTunes makes it worth it, but many people are moving towards music subscription service (Spotify) that works on anything. Same can be said, to a lesser degree, to video services. Heck, I know people are frowning now, even Microsoft Office is a subscription service.