How entrenched were you into the iOS ecosystem before you moved on?

[Calidude]

Just thought this might be an informative thread for people like myself who had an iPhone for years and went to another phone.

I'll be frank. The only thing I had was an iCloud account and less than 20 bucks in apps that I found were useful enough and high-quality enough to deserve payment. I was jailbroken since I first started using the iPhone and continued as such for the nearly 3 years I had an iPhone.

My transition involved only 2 things:

1. Moving a contact list I've been carrying along since I was 15 with my Nokia 3300 series. I've had Gmail since it first came out so this was more of a merge, and it took me only a few minutes since iCloud lets you export to VCF, which Gmail accepts flawlessly.
2. Plugging my @me.com email into the Android mail client. Another 2 mins.

That's it. It was easy for me to leave, and I still have my Apple ID active in case I ever need to switch back, with all those apps waiting for me. How about you?

 

[Wrathwitch]

Never had Gmail before I switched. Always used and still am using Yahoo for main mail account. Hotmail for my second.

Like you I maybe had under $20.00 in apps. I have ATV though so I need to keep my iPad to run my media off of my iMac to my TV downstairs.

Mostly music in iTunes which was easily transferred to my Android when I found a good app for it.

No biggie for me.

I think if anything, that the one thing I would desire of the handset manufacturer would be some semblance of customer service that Apple offers. I can't help but feel with this phone, unless I pay the Future Shop or Best Buy's ridiculous warranty plan, that if something goes wrong, I am without a phone. I hear (belatedly) that my Carrier offers some sort of insurance policy and I am sure it has to be cheaper than F Shop's but I had to buy F Shop's because there was a problem with the phone and I was ONE DAY past my return 14 days time.

 

[rillrill]

i think i've spent around $50-$75 on apps and games. i haven't bought a single song from apple. i've maybe bought one episode of a television program. overall, i've been very careful with not buying apple's closed system media. now that i've decided to switch to android soon, i'm really glad i didn't go all in with apple.

does anyone use amazon for their media?

i have a kindle and love the fact that i can put a book on a number of devices. how's the amazon movie streaming? i might start buying from amazon if i can do the same.

 

[Calidude]

i think i've spent around $50-$75 on apps and games. i haven't bought a single song from apple. i've maybe bought one episode of a television program. overall, i've been very careful with not buying apple's closed system media. now that i've decided to switch to android soon, i'm really glad i didn't go all in with apple.

I'm surprised more people don't boycott Apple's media offerings on general principle.

 

[rillrill]

yeah, it was weird in the early 2000's when the digital distribution business was taking off via iTunes. i had a record label and we were like, "what the ****. put some albums on iTunes." we didn't sell a whole lot, but when we did I asked myself, "why are people paying for some invisible product? this is incredible." these days i subscribe to rdio and music in general has suffered such a deflation i'm glad i got out of the business when i did. the only mp3s i've bought i couldn't get the music anywhere else. no ecosystem is the best ecosytem.

 

[Calidude]

we didn't sell a whole lot, but when we did I asked myself, "why are people paying for some invisible product? this is incredible."

That's why smarter people generally pirate and spend their money on physical goods instead.

 

[daveathall]

Good topic for discussion.

I started off buying an iPhone 3GS and was sort of hooked from there on in. I bought a Mac Book Pro, iPad, various iPods and accessories.

I have bought each iPhone (3GS, 4 and 4S) and was really worried that my Galaxy S3 wouldn't integrate with my MBP for contacts and calendars, so much so that I kept my iP4S for a good month until I was certain that I could "cope", TBH, I'm not the most accomplished of technical users but with a bit of googling and some apps I needn't have worried, most of it was straight forward. Also, unlike others, I don't use my phone as a replacement for my MBP when out and about, I'm just not that accomplished.

Im not the greatest user of apps but find that the one's I used mostly on my iPhone (Sonos, Photobucket, Photoshop, Kindle and Tapatalk) are present in the play store and are free and work the same as iOS, 1Password I didn't find to be useful in Android but use aWallet Password instead. The only app I miss is the apple TV remote which isn't a great loss.

I do find that changing launchers and adding widgets allows me to have my phone as I want it, some of the widgets are great, Flipboard is one of my favourites, others I don't find so appealing, I like a clock but don't see a use for weather, that sort of thing, but the choice is mine.

After reading all the stories of woe about Android, I must admit that I was really worried about changing, but TBH, IMHO there is a lot of scare mongering about, my SGS3 does everything I want, there is no lag, the interface is very smooth, all the things that had kept me away previously I found to be more or less untrue, well in this incarnation of Android (ICS) anyway.

I still like Apple products and will see what the new iPhone has to offer (I still have an upgrade pending) it will have to be different in a greater degree than 4 to 4S was, otherwise I will be looking elsewhere, the new Nexus could be the answer.

 

[Jessica Lares]

At least $1,000 in apps (since the app store opened), and $5,000 in iTunes.

You think that's a lot? I've bought at least 100 apps in the Amazon App Store (not including FAotD), and I buy at least 10 albums a month at their MP3 store now (costs less than paying for Spotify for a year with their deals). And I got my first Android device in November.

I just pushed all my iTunes stuff to my Amazon Cloud Player the day they announced upgrades. Took me two whole days, but was worth it.

But if that iPad Mini does decide to show up, it'll be okay because it's still all there. And I still use my iPhone 4 and have been buying more and more apps for it since I switched.

I don't use the address book feature, e-mail, or calendar on my phones, and push my photos off every 1,000 shots (every week), so nothing was needed to transfer over. It was very easy.

 

[ugahairydawgs]

I'm surprised more people don't boycott Apple's media offerings on general principle.

We boycott too much as it is.

 

[BFizzzle]

We boycott too much as it is.

i disagree, if people would boycott or stand up for what they believe in too much, there wouldn't still be corrupt companies taking advantage of consumers, there wouldn't be a corrupt government in charge etc.

 

[ugahairydawgs]

i disagree, if people would boycott or stand up for what they believe in too much, there wouldn't still be corrupt companies taking advantage of consumers, there wouldn't be a corrupt government in charge etc.

What is corrupt about Apple in terms of their iTunes Store?

 

[fox10078]

Besides Apps, Not at all.

I already used Google syncing for everything on the phone, (Cal, Contacts, Mail) so it was a seamless switch.

 

[Calidude]

We boycott too much as it is.

I would say not enough, really.