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Would you pay for Apple's iCloud/Continuity services if it was available on Android?
- Thread starter LIVEFRMNYC
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The S3 is not running Android and the S2 is on a massively outdated version. Sadly, Samsung gave up on Android Wear.
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In some ways, but you’re also going to possibly be paying for the minutes in the future. Also, you won’t be able to use the same number as your phone (to my knowledge) which means you have two numbers.
It's not really an issue now tho. I still get my notifications and can reply from Android Messages app (just installed and tested).
My issue back then was (when I first got the S2 classic), I wanted to respond from my watch using the default app included, and I couldn't reply back to the Android Messages app back then, which was my main issue.
I'll think I'll switch to using the Android Messages app as my default. Since the UI is better.
Afaik iMessage video and pictures are uncompressed, last I checked no other available service aside from sharing (some) cloud storage links are uncompressed. I'm not sure if RCS messaging fixes this but I'm excited about that
I would pay about the same as for a Hulu or Netflix or Dropbox account, $9.99/mo or $99/year. Therefore, Apple would charge $349/yr based on the rule of 3.5x
This isn't address to just you. For many of us it's not an issue of whose cloud storage is better, but the difficulty in transitioning from the Apple platform to another, or mixing the two platforms when you start off with everything already in Apple's cloud.
I personally use 3 Macs, 2 iPads, 2 iPhones, 1 PC, and 1 Android tablet (Fire). I started out heavily invested in Mac (since the late 80's 512K Mac and still have my .mac email), while using Flip phones > Palm OS > Windows CE on my phones. I had to use apps like iSync and then MissingSync to get my Apple data onto my portable devices. Then in 2008 I bought my first iPhone 3G (near the time Android came out), and ever since Apple has increased it's hold on me while I'm mobile as well. I was the first person in my city in line for the iPad in 2011.
The iCloud syncs tons of stuff between my devices, including my contacts, calendars, notes, reminders list, mail, documents, passwords, URL links, news and stocks settings, home automation and health info, plus my wallet, game center, and Siri settings. My devices all backup automatically to the iCloud each day, and it's used to lock my devices to my personal Apple ID and helps me find them if lost or stolen.
It seamlessly lets me answer and make phone calls on most of my devices (iPhone, MacBook, iPads, and Apple Watch), making it all look like it came from one phone number that I share.
And finally I also have my all of my photos/videos (42000+ files at 190+ GB) on my Mac and duplicated in iCloud Photo Library, to be accessible to each of my Macs, iPads and iPhones. And I have 7 years of iMessages uploaded to the cloud (dating back to 2011). Since 2003 I have grown to an 8TB iTunes Library that includes almost 600 movies and almost as many episodes of various TV shows, that can only be watched on Apple devices (except for via MoviesAnywhere, which would exceed my Xfinity [home] or AT&T [mobile] Bandwidth to fully utilize that streaming service on my devices.)
While some of these services have data that I could somehow port and then sync between Mac and Windows or Android via Google or Hotmail and others, it's not always easy (and the services that Mac OS supports innately are often limited to only syncing contacts, calendar, reminders, mail and notes).
Most other things outside of Apple's iCloud require separate apps and plug-ins to work, and they are not all tied together into one service, where the iCloud is built into the OS. It's not a simple matter to port your iCloud Photo Library to a private photo hosting service that works with Mac, iOS, Win, and Android.
And it's not possible at all to get all your stored passwords for the past 8 years out of Apple's Password Keychain and into something like 1Password.
So, if the iCloud sync control panels that we have on Mac and iOS were available on other OS like Windows and Android, Apple would be letting a lot of potential hardware buyers get away. By locking it to the hardware they can continue to keep people locked into the iTunes ecosystem, and the Mac/iPad/iPhone ecosystem.
I don't see it being something Apple would like to do, unless the cost was high enough to equal the hardware they would buy in it's place. And the service would have to be good enough for people to stay with it even when they have no more Apple hardware remaining.
I must be the only person in the world that has no issues with iCloud speed.
it certainly looks that way.
For those in deep in Appleland, I'm not seeing an acknowledgment of the indirect cost of those services caused by the significantly higher prices for comparable devices that use the ecosystem.
it certainly looks that way.
For those in deep in Appleland, I'm not seeing an acknowledgment of the indirect cost of those services caused by the significantly higher prices for comparable devices that use the ecosystem.
Maybe because they don’t find it relevant to whether they like the services?
Perhaps. Or it could along the lines of "I got a free iPhone when I signed up for a 2 year cell contract".
Most of the people on here didn’t get the iPhone free on contract, I would imagine.
I was thinking it was more that they decide to use those services even though they could use others. You can use any of the Google services you want on an iPhone, after all. Microsoft’s too. That being said, I doubt most people use Apple services even on their iPhone. It has become a meme that Apple is bad at services.
I didn't mean that literally. I apologize for not being clear. I was attempting to express the notion that people don't often consider the indirect costs when determining the value of something. They might look at Apple services and think that because they don't have a monthly bill for them (except for higher storage capacity tiers of iCloud) that they aren't "paying" for them. They are... indirectly through the higher prices for the hardware.
Not quite. Although a majority of Google services are available on Apple hardware, it isn't a complete suite and not all components are up to the same functionality as on non-Apple hardware. There's enough of a difference that would cause people not to use Google services on Apple hardware. That is one of the reasons why I've been slowly migrating away from Apple... Google services on non-Apple hardware are overall a better experience for me... and there are more hardware options to choose from.
It’s not like gmail was never hacked. If you don’t use Apple cloud services and don’t want to use google services what is left? Custom AWS application?
Make that two. It used to be really slow in the past but in say the last 3-4 years it’s been fine for me.
iCloud drive and photos is already freely available for Windows. This is why I'm not speaking on that.
it certainly looks that way.
For those in deep in Appleland, I'm not seeing an acknowledgment of the indirect cost of those services caused by the significantly higher prices for comparable devices that use the ecosystem.
I acknowledge that it costs more to live in Apple's world, I just think there are aspects to living in it that even out the cost/benefit ratio (at least for me). The ease of use, the fact that my entire family (outside of one hold out), all of my co-workers and somewhere in the neighborhood of 95% of all of my friends are on an iPhone & the company's commitment to data privacy all add value to me outside of what you get when you open the box. The benefit alone of iMessage is a strong pull to the platform. I realize that there are alternatives that would work similarly and throw in some additional features, but it's not built in. And getting someone to start adding apps to replace something that is built in is not something most "regular" users are going to entertain/regularly use.
Could I use Google services, buy an Android phone, a computer running Windows or Linux and save a bunch of money? Sure. But I wouldn't enjoy it as much.
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Not at all. It had a rough start, but it is rock solid for me now.
Ok there's that and I use Apple maps for my commute because they completed a really thorough mapping of my county and the three adjacent counties I drive through on a regular basis. Those are the two things from Apple I would love to take with me. I would like FaceTime, too, because of the kids, but we could always use Duo. Unless Google gets bored with that, too.
Which Apple service is actually worth paying for? iCloud's download/upload speed is as slow as it can be when you compare it to Google Drive/Dropbox/One drive, Apple Music is a mess compared to Spotify when it comes to buffering speed, UI, song recommendations and playlists. iMessages, there's no point on it when almost everyone Worldwide uses WhatsApp. Siri = useless, Maps, don't even need to say anything about it...
To every Apple service there's a better free alternative available.
To every Apple service there's a better free alternative available.