We all know there's a ton of other phones out there (specifically, Android phones) with nice big screens, file systems, Flash, better Google service integration, customizability, more APIs, real multitasking, quick toggles for settings, ect, ect, ect...
But there's something holding you back.
This common approach (and it sounds like this post might be doing the same thing) is as if for
everyone Android is a better option but something is
restricting people from jumping ship to where the grass is greener.
But I disagree. Google is nice, but not quite the integration I want. Like it or not, not everyone loves Google unconditionally.
I've said this many times here, but I don't look at individual features and think "I MUST HAVE THAT." I think in terms of what the phone can do for me on the aggregate. Multitasking is quite useful in a multi-window environment, but we don't have that on our smartphones, not even on a 4 inch screen. And in the environment we do have, the backgrounding processes that iOS has tend to work perfectly fine, without draining the hell out of my battery.
I'm not going to say we'll NEVER need true multitasking (just like I think it's ridiculous to call an iPad a "PC," or to suggest that full-powered desktop computers will go away), but the smartphone technology out there and even for the foreseeable future doesn't seem to have a way to make real use of it yet.
Flash: If I remember correctly, NO phone going forward is going to have official Adobe flash support. And as far as I'm concerned, the sooner Flash dies, the better. We need to move on.
The bottom line is, I like my iPhone and I like iOS. I have used other platforms, I've tried out Android devices, I've tried out Windows Mobile, and I've tried out QNX. I could use them if I had to, but I don't
want to.
Although the other platforms have some nice ideas, they aren't well integrated at best, and appear half-baked at worst. The interface and workflow of a phone are important to me if I expect to keep using something longer than a week without getting frustrated, and iOS by far has kept my attention the longest.
And that's really important to me, because I need something that works and will continue working. I'm long past the stage where I can mess around with some cool new interface and grow tired of it and have to migrate to something else, losing a couple days of doing anything productive, while I migrate and get used to the new thing. It has to work, and has to keep working for me.
iOS does that. The others don't.
There's stuff that you can't live without on our iPhone. What are those things for you?
My iPhone. Period.
Think less about why you don't like Android, and more about the things about iOS you do like. No need to talk about Android battery life, stability, ect. Be specific, too. For example, instead of "Better integration with my Apple products" say something like "I can sync my photos and music with my Mac flawlessly"
Okay, where to begin?
So far, my Office's e-mail/collab4 system (Zimbra) requires the use of a separate app to work correctly on most of the android devices my coworkers have, and requires a semi-desktop tether on Blackberry. On iOS, "it just works" for calendar, contacts and e-mail.
I like how well it handles multiple e-mail accounts, calendars and contact sources. I like that my apps work on my iPhone and my iPad without any fuss, and how everything syncs well between them and my desktops at home and work.
And though this is a more recent thing, I really liked how, when I upgraded from the iPhone 4 to the 4S, I could just log into my iCloud account and restore from an online backup, and right there in the Apple Store, my old phone just kinda re-incarnated itself into the new one. The apps downloaded themselves all int he same place they used to be. My e-mail/contacts and calendar accounts were there, waiting (though understandably I did have to retype my passwords). All of my iTunes-bought music and videos showed up. IN a nutshell: I was in and out of that store with new phone in hand, and it was already set up exactly the way I wanted it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that could've happened on any other platform.
I could keep going, but I'm already pretty long-winded on this post.
