My experience switching from Android to iOS
Posted: 2015-09-26 07:03pm
I've never been a fan of Apple products. As a gamer in the 90's, it was hard for me to understand why anyone would pay more for a Mac that had lower specs, less software support, and almost no games. After Jobs rejoined the company at the helm and they began reinventing themselves with the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, it always seemed like you could get more for less with other companies' products, and Apple never seemed to have the latest features. For instance, my Nokia N82 had a much better camera than the first iPhone along with 3G support, could play a wider variety of video codecs, and the Symbian OS had more apps. When the inferiority of Nokia's offerings became too much to bear, I switched to Android with the Galaxy S2, HTC One X, and then LG G3. I loved each one more than the last, and sang the praises of the OS, which was a dream compared to the barely-functional Nokia N8's OS aka Symbian's death rattle.
Over a few years, however, I began to notice more and more issues. While blazing fast and beautiful at the time of sale, the phones did not age well, and after a year swiping and app launches became sluggish. Idiosyncratic phone and app behavior was as much the rule as the exception, and most of the cutting-edge features that I was so excited about when I bought the phone barely worked or were not capable of the task I was attempting to put them to. Most of this was minor, but it added up to a frustrating experience. The final straw came when I started working for an app company that does alcohol delivery, and the app we were required to use would constantly lose connection to the server and display a notification that said "Service Message". This would cause a beep that slowly drove me insane and I ended up downloading a paid scripting app just go get it to shut the hell up (I couldn't just turn off its notifications because I needed to know when there was a new task assigned to me). Admittedly, this is the developer's fault and not Google or LG's, but the problem did not exist on the iPhone version. It finally dawned on me that this is not unusual. The iOS version of an app is almost always better performing and more trouble-free, and it's not hard to understand why. When a single phone model represents a large fraction of total smartphones, its userbase is more likely to spend money on apps, and the company that makes it only releases one new model per year, to fail to optimize for that phone would be a sign of mental illness. Attaining the same level of polish with each phone in an ecosystem that sees hundreds of new models each year from different manufacturers would be impossible. I decided that on my next upgrade, I would no longer settle for the second-class citizen version of every app.
Don't get me wrong, I still chafe at the idea of closed ecosystems and proprietary technologies. But as much as I like the idea of being able to customize my Android phones, I never actually did. As much as I liked the ability to dig deeper into the nuts and bolts of the phone, I only did so when it was misbehaving, which was often. Since I had signed up for Verizon's Edge when you could still upgrade phones after the first year, I decided to exercise the option and step-up to a 6S Plus, which arrived yesterday. I also took advantage of Apple's 24-month installment plan to get a new iPad Air 2 and ditch the clunky Asus netbook that was half a decade past its point of obsolescence.
That a brand new iPad would be an upgrade from a c2008 Atom-powered netbook is not a surprise, but it was some of the best money I've ever spent, as I was suddenly able to be productive in the car between delivery orders, in coffee shops, and in the office. When I had to work on that horrid netbook, I would procrastinate endlessly because something as simple as editing an Excel file became a laborious chore. The phone upgrade I was less certain of, since technically it was a downgrade on paper. The LG G3 had a 1440P screen vs the 6S+'s 1080P, 13 vs 12 MP camera, 3 vs 2 GB of RAM, 4 vs 2 processor cores, etc. It was a perfect demonstration of the Android vs Apple mentality. Despite having lower specs, the iPhone's screen looks much nicer, as do the photos and video, and everything is much snappier. More importantly, the little usability and compatibility issues have vanished. No more waiting for a page to load, going to press a link and then have it move positions just as my finger hits the screen, causing me to click an ad instead. No more "Service Message", no more random disconnects and server errors in my banking app. No more finicky camera behavior when scanning barcodes. No more music files getting stuck or playing a different file when it reconnects to my car's bluetooth. It seems petty to complain about these little issues, but I use my phone so much that these things really do affect the amount of stress I carry with me on a day-to-day basis.
I now find myself with the exact mentality I would have ridiculed a couple of years ago. I don't care if the new Android phones have better specs because the user experience will still lag behind. I don't care if there is a new feature that isn't available on iDevices, because I know that Apple will wait to implement it until it's ready be used without a lot of hassle or compatibility issues. As much as I like what Microsoft is trying to do with Windows 10's integration of OS for smartphones, tablets, consoles, and PC's, I'm sure they'll make a hash of it at first because if that idea was ready for primetime, Apple would be doing it with iOS and OSX. It may be anathema to my PC origins, but it's a much more comfortable way to live.
Anyone have similar or contrasting stories?
Over a few years, however, I began to notice more and more issues. While blazing fast and beautiful at the time of sale, the phones did not age well, and after a year swiping and app launches became sluggish. Idiosyncratic phone and app behavior was as much the rule as the exception, and most of the cutting-edge features that I was so excited about when I bought the phone barely worked or were not capable of the task I was attempting to put them to. Most of this was minor, but it added up to a frustrating experience. The final straw came when I started working for an app company that does alcohol delivery, and the app we were required to use would constantly lose connection to the server and display a notification that said "Service Message". This would cause a beep that slowly drove me insane and I ended up downloading a paid scripting app just go get it to shut the hell up (I couldn't just turn off its notifications because I needed to know when there was a new task assigned to me). Admittedly, this is the developer's fault and not Google or LG's, but the problem did not exist on the iPhone version. It finally dawned on me that this is not unusual. The iOS version of an app is almost always better performing and more trouble-free, and it's not hard to understand why. When a single phone model represents a large fraction of total smartphones, its userbase is more likely to spend money on apps, and the company that makes it only releases one new model per year, to fail to optimize for that phone would be a sign of mental illness. Attaining the same level of polish with each phone in an ecosystem that sees hundreds of new models each year from different manufacturers would be impossible. I decided that on my next upgrade, I would no longer settle for the second-class citizen version of every app.
Don't get me wrong, I still chafe at the idea of closed ecosystems and proprietary technologies. But as much as I like the idea of being able to customize my Android phones, I never actually did. As much as I liked the ability to dig deeper into the nuts and bolts of the phone, I only did so when it was misbehaving, which was often. Since I had signed up for Verizon's Edge when you could still upgrade phones after the first year, I decided to exercise the option and step-up to a 6S Plus, which arrived yesterday. I also took advantage of Apple's 24-month installment plan to get a new iPad Air 2 and ditch the clunky Asus netbook that was half a decade past its point of obsolescence.
That a brand new iPad would be an upgrade from a c2008 Atom-powered netbook is not a surprise, but it was some of the best money I've ever spent, as I was suddenly able to be productive in the car between delivery orders, in coffee shops, and in the office. When I had to work on that horrid netbook, I would procrastinate endlessly because something as simple as editing an Excel file became a laborious chore. The phone upgrade I was less certain of, since technically it was a downgrade on paper. The LG G3 had a 1440P screen vs the 6S+'s 1080P, 13 vs 12 MP camera, 3 vs 2 GB of RAM, 4 vs 2 processor cores, etc. It was a perfect demonstration of the Android vs Apple mentality. Despite having lower specs, the iPhone's screen looks much nicer, as do the photos and video, and everything is much snappier. More importantly, the little usability and compatibility issues have vanished. No more waiting for a page to load, going to press a link and then have it move positions just as my finger hits the screen, causing me to click an ad instead. No more "Service Message", no more random disconnects and server errors in my banking app. No more finicky camera behavior when scanning barcodes. No more music files getting stuck or playing a different file when it reconnects to my car's bluetooth. It seems petty to complain about these little issues, but I use my phone so much that these things really do affect the amount of stress I carry with me on a day-to-day basis.
I now find myself with the exact mentality I would have ridiculed a couple of years ago. I don't care if the new Android phones have better specs because the user experience will still lag behind. I don't care if there is a new feature that isn't available on iDevices, because I know that Apple will wait to implement it until it's ready be used without a lot of hassle or compatibility issues. As much as I like what Microsoft is trying to do with Windows 10's integration of OS for smartphones, tablets, consoles, and PC's, I'm sure they'll make a hash of it at first because if that idea was ready for primetime, Apple would be doing it with iOS and OSX. It may be anathema to my PC origins, but it's a much more comfortable way to live.
Anyone have similar or contrasting stories?
