After decades of being a diehard Windows PC user, 2 years of being a Google/Android user and fan, and a long time disliker of Apple I'm very seriously considering moving both my smartphone AND tablet ecosystem of to Apple. This is no whim but based on years of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. For years I've been trying to create the "perfect" gadget solutions for myself. But I had an epiphany today and realized that: All of Apple's competitors have too many problems.
Microsoft
With MS I really wanted to like WP8 and W8 Tablets. The UI is quite nice, is fluid, and the devices look good and solid. But once you scratch the surface (pardon the pun) you discover a multitude of little shortcomings and imperfections on all of the devices. Some lag more than others, some OEM's devices have too many bugs or defects bugs according to one group, while the other group insists theirs are the least buggy. WP8 itself has started to tread down the dark and unpleasant path of carrier controlled updates made worse by differing hardware OEM's. Do I get an Atom CPU tablet? Ivy bridge? Wait for Haswell? Bay Bridge? Which OEM has the best reliability track record? Which device has the least problems with firmware? Driver support? Where are the apps? Will Windows RT survive? Oh and here's my personal (not) favorite (which also applies to Android): Will the WP8 phone I want be on my carrier?
Android
Not going to lie to you. Android offers a freaking huge list of features nobody else does and allows you to do virtually anything on your devices. But the cost is too high for me lately. Once again, there's the finger nail biting over which brand to buy because of fragmentation, choosing which OEM makes the highest quality, which OEM has the most XDA developer love, which OEM has the fastest OTA updates (which also varies from year to year!) and on and on and on. The devices themselves still aren't as up to snuff as Apple's quality control, but with the ball being in Apple's court that I can just walk into an Apple store for a fix. I take Google's joke of a laptop (the "chromebook pixel") as somewhat of an indicator of where Google's head is at for technology. Compare that to any current Macbook and there's no contest. Macbooks >Windows 8 laptops >>>>>>>> Chromebooks. If the Chromebook Pixel is an indicator on Google's vision of technology, then I'm beginning to think Android 4.2 is the best we're ever going to see out of them. As for the Nexus phones, they're good... for $350. I wouldn't pay $600 for one though, that's for sure.
Blackberry
This had promise for me until they crammed a 2 year old version of Android in it as a virtual runtime. To be honest I wouldn't be happy with the most recent version. I don't want a hybrid OS. I understand why BB did it - because they had no choice really so from a smart business viewpoint it was a wise decision. But I don't like it. Luckily for BB, the average buyer won't be the wiser. However, it is one single OEM making their own OS (like Apple) which is a big plus. But the bottom line is I'll never be an early adopter of any tech. I'll give them and their app store a year or two to percolate because they have their own fairly significant (for me) share of issues at these early stages.
It's inevitable that some offended users of the above listed platforms are going to take exception to my point of view of those companies. Rest assured folks I could list quite a few more criticisms so I don;t want you to get the wrong idea that this is all I have to say about them, but I don't want to make this any longer than it already is.
The bottom line - The catchphrase that Apple critics hate when Apple owners use it: "It just works" is something I'm finally going to concede is simply true. Yes iOS is boring and hasn't changed really much at all externally for a long time as mobile tech measures time. But Apple makes the most reliable mobile devices, proven every year, they have the highest quality app store on the planet, and the performance of their devices is top notch. That's something that I just can't ignore, nor can I ignore the fact that all the discrepancies that WP and Android devices suffer from between different OEM's makes choosing a device a headache and an exercise in uncertainty. Some will disagree with the response "choice is better". I used to believe that as well until I realized that when all of those choices haven't yet matched Apple's reliability, customer satisfaction and review ratings, then it's not very much of a choice at all.
footnote: I see no reason to believe Apple is simply going to sit on their hands and not modernize the UI of iOS within the year. They have some of the world's top notch designers and engineers and the wallet to afford it.
Microsoft
With MS I really wanted to like WP8 and W8 Tablets. The UI is quite nice, is fluid, and the devices look good and solid. But once you scratch the surface (pardon the pun) you discover a multitude of little shortcomings and imperfections on all of the devices. Some lag more than others, some OEM's devices have too many bugs or defects bugs according to one group, while the other group insists theirs are the least buggy. WP8 itself has started to tread down the dark and unpleasant path of carrier controlled updates made worse by differing hardware OEM's. Do I get an Atom CPU tablet? Ivy bridge? Wait for Haswell? Bay Bridge? Which OEM has the best reliability track record? Which device has the least problems with firmware? Driver support? Where are the apps? Will Windows RT survive? Oh and here's my personal (not) favorite (which also applies to Android): Will the WP8 phone I want be on my carrier?
Android
Not going to lie to you. Android offers a freaking huge list of features nobody else does and allows you to do virtually anything on your devices. But the cost is too high for me lately. Once again, there's the finger nail biting over which brand to buy because of fragmentation, choosing which OEM makes the highest quality, which OEM has the most XDA developer love, which OEM has the fastest OTA updates (which also varies from year to year!) and on and on and on. The devices themselves still aren't as up to snuff as Apple's quality control, but with the ball being in Apple's court that I can just walk into an Apple store for a fix. I take Google's joke of a laptop (the "chromebook pixel") as somewhat of an indicator of where Google's head is at for technology. Compare that to any current Macbook and there's no contest. Macbooks >Windows 8 laptops >>>>>>>> Chromebooks. If the Chromebook Pixel is an indicator on Google's vision of technology, then I'm beginning to think Android 4.2 is the best we're ever going to see out of them. As for the Nexus phones, they're good... for $350. I wouldn't pay $600 for one though, that's for sure.
Blackberry
This had promise for me until they crammed a 2 year old version of Android in it as a virtual runtime. To be honest I wouldn't be happy with the most recent version. I don't want a hybrid OS. I understand why BB did it - because they had no choice really so from a smart business viewpoint it was a wise decision. But I don't like it. Luckily for BB, the average buyer won't be the wiser. However, it is one single OEM making their own OS (like Apple) which is a big plus. But the bottom line is I'll never be an early adopter of any tech. I'll give them and their app store a year or two to percolate because they have their own fairly significant (for me) share of issues at these early stages.
It's inevitable that some offended users of the above listed platforms are going to take exception to my point of view of those companies. Rest assured folks I could list quite a few more criticisms so I don;t want you to get the wrong idea that this is all I have to say about them, but I don't want to make this any longer than it already is.
The bottom line - The catchphrase that Apple critics hate when Apple owners use it: "It just works" is something I'm finally going to concede is simply true. Yes iOS is boring and hasn't changed really much at all externally for a long time as mobile tech measures time. But Apple makes the most reliable mobile devices, proven every year, they have the highest quality app store on the planet, and the performance of their devices is top notch. That's something that I just can't ignore, nor can I ignore the fact that all the discrepancies that WP and Android devices suffer from between different OEM's makes choosing a device a headache and an exercise in uncertainty. Some will disagree with the response "choice is better". I used to believe that as well until I realized that when all of those choices haven't yet matched Apple's reliability, customer satisfaction and review ratings, then it's not very much of a choice at all.
footnote: I see no reason to believe Apple is simply going to sit on their hands and not modernize the UI of iOS within the year. They have some of the world's top notch designers and engineers and the wallet to afford it.
..... a New iPad - 16 GB WiFi
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