BACK STORY:
Employed at a major cellphone company (@Moto), I’d been involved with the entire evolution of Android Phones from the first days of the Cliq all the way to Atrix HD. So, safe to say, that I’ve been a loyal user of Android phones till very recently 🙂
WHY MOVE ?
With my recent exit from Moto, the best thing was that I had to find me a new phone – Yay! Being a product manager by trade, had been exposed to quite a bit of the Android landscape and the shortcomings of devices available. Or maybe I was just unleashing the closet Apple-fanboy in me ! Here was my criteria:
- Phone retains charge for at least a day of heavy use.
- Very few Android phones do power management well.
- In fact, Moto’s RazrMaxx is probably the best out there. But, I know that one a bit too well !
- Phone can make and receive phone calls reliably, always.
- This was a big deal as I’ve had numerous calls dropped on me using my a-phones, albeit with test software every once in a while.
- Have had inconsistencies even on the recent Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
- There’s only so many digs from friends/family that one can take 😉
- Phone can take photos and videos well enough and reliably
- Being a dad of two runts, there are always opportunities for picture-taking. And heaven forbid that your phone isn’t actually ready for this eventuality !
- Android phones do a pretty good job but sometimes good enough isn’t enough.
- Worse still, the phone reboots when the kids hold their goofy smiles for a nanosecond.
- Apps, Accessories work and work reliably.
- This one is a little more debatable as apps improve all the time, whether on iOS or GPlay.
- But have had scenarios where my Pandora or Spotify doesn’t work reliably and same BT connectivity.
(Footnote: This move was done back in Oct ’12 and me, myself and my lazy self are finally getting around to write now! )
DOING THE SWITCHEROO
Now to get the actual device. But no, Apple doesn’t, in its infinite wisdom, make their latest phones available to you easily. Want last year’s models, sure we’ll even shave a bit of $$$ off for you but want a new one , wait for 3-4 weeks to get one shipped or go wait in line. Anyway, long story short, got lucky at a store for a iPhone5 after 3-4 days of calling around. ugh!
The activation was a breeze. However, their assigned genius to help start me off was giving really basic info. like how to add contacts, make a phone call, etc. Not really something I could not get online. Worse, he couldn’t be bothered to answer the tougher questions I had. Unboxing was eazy-peezy and the whole software update over-the-air was nifty but not a wow factor for an android user.
Lesson learnt: Try and wait for some 3 odd months before you go to buy a new iphone and definitely skip the genius waste-of-time step.
GOT APPS ??
For brand new users to iOS, its great since you start from scratch. However, for android users, its cumbersome to transfer over apps from their old android device. Apart from the keep-old-phone-open-and-download-corres-apps-from-apple-store, there didn’t seem to be an easy approach. Although I understand the inherent challenges, this is a sore pain point for the switching users. Imagine a user that has ~50 apps (like moi!) on their android device arranged carefully in various folders on diff. parts of their homescreen. Good luck with that !
LESSON/PRODUCT IDEA: Come up with a service to synchronize the apps across platforms. May not be foolproof (apps may not exist or only paid versions exist) or straightforward (thank to apple’s walled garden), but can’t imagine people wouldn’t pay for this service. I would!
IMPORT CONTACTS INTO iWORLD – DONE. MAINTAIN IN gWORLD – Ummmm …
So, you had a life prior to using an iDevice, ok no problem. Just bring your contacts over here i.e. import. What is that you say, you don’t want to ?? <groan/> – Apple thinks it best if you forget about the outside world and just start living in the iUniverse. Sorry, Apple. Fail.
Fact of the matter is most peeps have a gmail (or <insert other web-mail> account) but its a little troublesome when you want to use your device with syncing to cloud contacts. This is where the support docs get a bit murky. Check this out for a detailed howto.
The downside is that you can’t use Siri to access your contacts and such. That wasn’t as much of a consideration for me anyway since Siri is hokey, at best.
YOUR ID, PLEASE
Ok, so, Apple has this (daresay, well-deserved) reputation for making things easy to use (some might argue too easy). So, what happened when they rolled out their ID’s infrastructure ? Was somebody sleeping at the wheel or do folks think that this is actually easy to grok ??
What am I talking about, you ask ? Well, I’m referring to the various ID’s that Apple has in play in their iDevices. For eg.
- Apple ID
- App Store ID
- Facetime ID
- iCould ID
Those of you having a single iDevice in your household may be wondering why the rant. Now, just imagine the fun when you have a household with 2 personal iPhones, one ipad, and perhaps a couple of iPod’s. Do you use separate ID’s for all, the same or slightly separate ones depending on the use ? If you use separate ID’s for each then how do you synchronize app purchases and if you use the same id for all then how do you segregate the identity ? Imagine sharing your contacts on your wife’s iDevice or worse on the home iPad where the kids can get to it and wreak havoc !
To be fair a lot has been written about this topic here and here but its clear that Apple either doesn’t care about families or would prefer to appear that way as to address the problem in an intuitive fashion would be too difficult, perhaps.
LESSON: Read these articles before you register your id’s on your device. Will save you a lot of headache once you’re up and running.
IN SUMMARY: +0.6
Still Under Construction
So, in summary, whatamisaying ? Well, I do like my iPhone5. It retains battery well – not as phenomenal as the iPhone4S, but given an LTE radio, that drain is only to be expected I guess. Haven’t heard about one dig about missed calls from my peeps. Love the camera on this thing – pics are stupendous for the tiny form factor. The apps/connectivity work like a charm. Having said that there are a few issues as outlined above. Not deal breakers in total but at the same time it definitely affects the user experience. Its about time that Apple or someone creates something on the lines of a Concierge app for switchers and others. One size does NOT fit all.
[Footnote: let me know, in the comments below, if I missed some resource that would have made this easier or other issues that you faced with your iDevice]
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A self-avowed gadget-head, fitness enthusiast at heart and a big data specialist by trade.
Cogitations of a Technogeek 
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