“I have not conducted a scientific survey on this subject, let alone a statistically significant one. I have only asked approximately 100 people I know who have been Android users for anywhere between one week and two years,” Anton Wahlman writes for TheStreet. “In addition, I have been paying attention to comments from numerous other people on message boards and hearing from friend-of-friends.”
“A few months ago, all of these anecdotes started to develop a clear pattern,” Wahlman writes. “Let’s be blunt and get to the bottom line: A very large share of Android users are unhappy to some degree, and intend to switch platforms either when the iPhone 5 becomes available, or when their two-year contracts expire.”
MacDailyNews Take: De-bunch those panties, Fragmandroid settlers: Scientific data also supports Wahlman’s conclusion. See: Bloodbath: More than one in four Android users, over half of BlackBerry users plan to buy Apple iPhone 5 – September 28, 2011. You know you green-trashcan-heads want iPhones+iTunes+App Store+iCloud.
Wahlman writes, “So what kind of complaints are we talking about precisely? One particular complaint appears to dominate almost completely: battery life. I can’t recall a single Android user I’ve talked to who doesn’t complain in a very angry tone about battery life… Many Android users not only know that they are experiencing unsatisfactory battery life, but also that some of the competing platforms such as iOS and BlackBerry typically offer much better battery life. They know it when they go out for the evening and the Android is dead after three hours or less, whereas the iPhone and BlackBerry devices carried by their friends are still going strong five or 10 hours thereafter.”
“Other complains about Android appear far more scattered and uneven. Some find the interface a bit complicated. Others don’t like the media options when compared to iTunes. Overall system stability and consistency may be an issue. And so forth,” Wahlman writes. “What does all of this mean? It means that outside of the geek world in which users tinker with their devices, many are fed up with poor battery life and perhaps another lesser issue or two, and will switch to the iPhone 5 or other devices within the next two years.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Don’t underestimate iCloud. As more people learn what it is and what it does, they will realize that no platform can remotely match what Apple’s iOS and iCloud offer users.
I will continue to misunderestimate iCloud as long as it does less than MobileMe.
That’s weird. I wasn’t aware that MobileMe backed up your iPhone’s data to the cloud and allowed your photos to automatically be backed up, as well, so you don’t lose them if you lose your phone before importing. I guess I should have paid more attention to what MobileMe could do.
With that out of the way, I’ll be honest that I’m a little sad to see Gallery go, but web.me.com and iDisk are both unnecessary in today’s world filled with cloud drives and free web hosting. Are they as elegant? Not usually. But they’ll work well enough.
Besides, if there’s enough demand for them, they’ll come back. Probably for a fee.
So, you’re saying you’ve never “misudnerestiemated” iCloud?
Yup.
My friend, a self-confessed Android fanboy, complains about his battery life often. Recently he’s been trying out an application that claims to extend battery life. It works. Now his battery last 6 whole hours! Now, he has a rooted phone, but still, I couldn’t help but laugh when he was excited about 6 hours of battery life when I use my iPhone all day at work and rarely drain it more than 50% in any 24-hour period.
And just yesterday he was wondering why Google didn’t build an app to backup an Android phone to a computer; you know, exactly what iTunes does.
Wanna keep your iPhone’s battery life long and strong? Don’t play Words With Friends that game can drain a full charge in Android time.
Words With Friends is one of the things I’m doing all day at work on my iPhone.
Google does not make an app to backup to your PC because it is completely unnecessary on Android.
The system backup goes on your SD card and the Cloud.
Factory restore the thing, sign in and unless you are using some off the wall or pirated apps you’ll find all your stuff comes back.
When I buy music from my iPhone, the songs automatically download to my computer when I open iTunes. Does android do that?
I would guess not but I can’t say that I care, I don’t buy music on my phone. I didn’t buy music on my phone when I had a 2nd gen iPhone.
I can see this being a nice feature for people who do consume music on their phone though.
Sounds pretty cool.
This is all well and good if you intend to use the exact same device forever, but if you upgrade to a new device, your backups may not work. Not so with iOS and iCloud.
Excellent point. Most of these android features are half assed implementations that don’t really work for anything more than letting dishonest fandroids claim that android does it too.
I had an iPhone before a droid and moving over (at that time) was a nice experience. I only had to plug into my computer once (the night I decided to root it) and other wise the whole thing was very smooth and ‘cloud’ integrated.
I hope the iPhone takes everything farther than Android does, I mean the OS is likely days away from release, if they don’t raise the bar with the new release then WTF have they been doing this whole time?
Really unless you’ve used both of them for a length of time then the only thing half baked here would be your assumptions.
Apps I have no idea, on my first droid. I did however borrow my wife’s android and after logging into google all my contacts, txt messages and various other things appeared.
Granted I did have my SIM card in her phone, so I have not tested this one a ‘virgin’ phone. I’m thinking it works because I didn’t see any of my data until after logging into google. It seemed to be sep from my SIM.
“outside of the geek world in which users tinker with their devices, many are fed up…”
Of the 100+ people he talked to, there were no geeks? Oh yeah, he writes for TheStreet.
Geeks use iPhones, not android. Android users are wannabe geeks…. people who don’t understand technology but follow a other ignoramuses that front like they’re geeks but really aren’t.
Real Geeks recognize great Technology and have been Apple fans since the beginning.
I know geeks on both.
You sound like a guy I used to know, except he said that real programmers used assembler and the rest just thought they knew how to program.
Hopefully you aren’t as big of an ignorant douche bag as he was.
WRONG, real geeks understand multiple platforms and dissimilar technologies. They enjoy learning them all, and can quickly identify strengths and weaknesses on them all. They find the best solution based on the problem, not the brand.
Still doesn’t stop articles coming out claiming that battery life is somehow bad for the iPhone and good for (name-your-android-phone).
Would be interesting if Apple agreed to reimburse T or VZ for a potion of thr early termination fees for switchers right after the initial rush, say January, when business tends to slow. Might give any waiting out their android contract a reason to move early.
Any migration, coupled with any licensing fee to Apple for its patents is going to kill Android. The handset makers are already selling for razor thin profits at low volumes. Take away their volume and their profit per SKU, and all but the hardiest will bail out.
Then add in the Google-Motorola merger, where Google will be predisposed to supporting their own platform at the expense of all the others.
I see a bad moon rising.
Unfortunately, just as with Winblows, many are willing to continue to suffer rather than venturing outside their comfort zone.
“They know it when they go out for the evening and the Android is dead after three hours or less..”
I say that’s rubbish as are numerous similar posts here.
I love my Mac but I also am quite fond of my Android phone. It’s busy all day and I plug it in to charge at night. Easy. Just like your iPhones right? Claims of a three hour battery life strike me as nonsense.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d have an iPhone too but I pay a tenner a month for my HTC with unlimited landline calls and internet use, etc. Not a cat’s chance of matching that for an iPhone deal- best I could find here in UK was around £35.00 pm..
Samsung models RUNNING android from one phone to the next (low-end compared to high-end models) are not consistent.
THE USER INTERFACE is NOT the SAME.
And some features are missing. So to assist someone with a question on their Android phone really BLOWS.
1st question an assistant will do is what model do you have,
fallowed by – oooops sorry I think that was discontinued.
POINT HERE IS – the evolution of Apples iOS has been steady and gradual – not a mess. You need time for users of all ages to get accustomed to the UI. Not glamourize it with eye candy.
This issue is also found in HTC.
Android is a mess.
Android uses Java which is a huge disadvantage. it means they must have twice the CPU and RAM to do the exact same thing Apple can, that’s what kills Android battery life.
Face it Android is a kludge and not elegant at all.
Microsoft would be hard pressed to invent something as bad as Android for a phone OS.
I left AT&T to get the EVO and haven’t been dissapointed yet. (I made myself the superuser for the device so my experience is better than most)
I use gmail and google docs. so it makes sense to use a phone that is based on those platforms. It is hard to bet against google, they pretty much own the internet so you could make the argument they hold all the cards.
Plus (no pun intended) the more open source approach that google uses as compared to apple will exponentially serve them better in the long run as mobile devices progress and HTML 5 becomes the way.
i keep hearing people talk about apple computers and devices becoming the standard, but the data simply doesn’t lead that way.
i know that mac fanboys certainly won’t let the facts stand in the way of a great story/fantasy.
http://searchengineland.com/report-116-million-mobile-media-users-ios-driving-majority-of-non-pc-traffic-96383