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Apple's First Android App Makes It Easy To Move To iOS
Mark Wilson writes: Apple has released its first ever Android app. No, there's not an Android version of Safari or anything like that, but a tool designed to simplify the process of switching to iOS. The predictably named Move to iOS will appeal to anyone who was persuaded to switch allegiances by the release of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, or indeed iOS 9. The app can be used to move contacts, messages, photos and more to a new iPhone or iPad, and is compatible with phones and tablets running Android 4.0 and newer. It works slightly differently to what you may have expected. Rather than uploading data to the cloud, it instead creates private Wi-Fi network between an Android and iOS device and securely transfers it.
Rate the chances of a reverse app to assist migrating from iPhone to Android making it into the Apple store?
I'll go with never.
I pre-ordered an iPhone 6S and I'm moving over from years of being on Android phones. I'm very interested in this app. I took a look at the review on the Play Store (which are mostly one-star reviews), and they all seem to be from Android fan boys about how switching to an iPhone will be the worst decision one can make. Other reviews seem to criticize the apps design scheme.
These are phones, people. It's not a religion. These things aren't your children.
"Allegiance" is such a harsh-sounding word. I prefer "inertia-induced lock in".
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
My last several phones were flagship phones from Samsung and Motorola.
I don't want to turn this into an 'Android vs Apple' debate, but I'll list my current grievances with Android:
Updates. Updates suck and are always cause for panic. Sometimes they work well, sometimes they don't. And if they don't, it takes a long time for a fix to come out (if at all). I had this problem with my Galaxy S3. There was an update that killed the battery life. No fix for it ever. The S5 recently (February) had an update to 5.0 and it caused tons of issues. Most people are still dealing with those issues.
Anywhere in the Google/Manufacturer/Carrier chain updates can be blocked because someone doesn't want to support or test them, or because they just want you to upgrade to a newer phone. The Moto G may skip the carrier portion, I'm not sure.
Every day I need to cancel the scheduled update to my phone. It pisses me off. I don't want it. But evey morning I need to stop it from happening or I'm going to get it anyway. And if I accidentally hit the wrong button in a waking up fog, I'm screwed.
I don't like the way Notifications work in the newer Android OSs.
Google Play Services & other Google apps seem to start eating into my battery life.
Apple solves a lot of these problems:
Updates. Apple has gotten these wrong in the past, for sure. But at least they fix them and do it quickly. Tons of people bitch and it makes the news. Things get fixed.
Updates come right from Apple to the phone. They don't have to go through the carrier at all. Apple's current (and upcoming) iOS work on devices all the way back to the iPhone 4S (which dates back to 2011). That's product support. Hell, Verizon still sells iPhone 5Ss new and CPO iPhone 5s. That's not to say that I'd have an iPhone that long, but knowing it'll be supported is good and help resale value quite a bit.
I can choose when updates come in. I don't get bugged every day. If I deny an update, it doesn't ask me again and again.
Notifications/Silence/Vibrate works a lot better than on Android Lollipop. I know it's a feature that they originally stole from Android.
Decent music/album art/photo syncing with a computer.
It sucks that the latest crop of Android devices don't have removable batteries anymore. I really liked that feature.
Things I'd miss on Android phones:
The blinky light LED on the front. I really like the notification light. I like being able to glance at the phone and see what I've missed.
The goddamn 'Back' button on the hardware. There's no reason not to have it.
Removable external storage.
Install apps from anywhere. I hate Apple's 'walled garden' approach.
That's your opinion on why people switched away, but if you use actual facts - i.e., adoption rates of phones and polls conducted asking people why they bought the phone they did the main reason that people switched away from iOS was that they didn't offer large phones and Android manufacturers did.
When the 6 and 6+ launched the trend swung back the other way.
I'm sure there were some converts because of price, but from the adoption numbers it's pretty clear people wanted bigger phones and went to Android to get them only to come back when Apple also offered them.