Eight year iPhone user switches to Android. Here's why.

Identifying myself as an Apple fan in 2007 was not something I did, but rather an honest look back. I probably should have. Apple products were fascinating to use, they felt more alive, more human than their competitors, not to mention their superior build quality - doesn't that sound like a fan? Yes, in 2007 my snobbery was in full swing. I bought their all-in-one iMac, which was by far the best in its class. OS 10 was snappy and made mundane tasks like minimizing and maximizing Windows fun with clever animations and my first-generation iPod. Nano transported me to the future with a wheel gesture one click at a time and then the iPhone happened.

It was like Steve Jobs put Disney's Tomorrowland in an aluminum box. I wanted it as soon as I saw it, unfortunately my boss at the time was the one who paid for my phone and he kind of hated Apple, he wouldn't let me get it because the iPhone wasn't enterprise ready. First world problems. I missed out on having the original iPhone, but not its son, the iPhone 3G. It was even worth the wait. After breaking my screen for three months in a funny and painful story, but almost at the same time, a new competitor entered the mobile market: Google's Android and nothing for me.

Android was this confusing, slow, aesthetically challenged operating system that looked like a different kind of mess in each equally mediocre one. A piece of hardware could be found running through a developer's dream because of the flexibility of its software. It was a designer's nightmare. Let the nerds play. I often thought I would stick with the beautiful device and soon found less ugly and slow

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s. It became possible for them to be less ugly or not. It was firmly glued to the iPhone and Apple software ecosystem. iTunes was a big part of Apple's hook over the

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I spent about $2,000 on music and apps alone. Migrating music to Android was possible if you wanted to spend an excessive amount of time moving songs. Of course, Apple's highly restrictive DRM was removed while I was trying to organize and link hundreds of album art image apps that, for me, at the time we're mostly graphics-intensive games, would get lost and weren't good either. options

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after year. I decided to stay and see what. the innovators, i.e. Apple, have pulled up their sleeves and hope to remain cutting-edge smartphones a little taller a little wider a little thinner a little more power a little less skeuomorphic a little more bright colors a little, maybe a little, it's been the prudent move since 2007, as its bottom line seems to indicate, but prudent can often mean stagnant stagnant can often mean boring from then until now a lot of things happen that made spending a lot of money on boredom every less tolerable to me

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are some of those things in no particular order number one, all the apps I used on a daily basis were available on both platforms number two, the music industry moved to a dominant streaming model iTunes went from be the industry standard to one of many options, examples Spotify Google Play, etc.

Number three, I played my purchase. Mobile games are becoming less and less as time goes by. Apple's profit margin appears to have become a barrier to innovation and has made product dilution - that is, tons of different iPhone models with different specifications instead of focusing on the meaningful progress of one model - a easy way to do. a lot of cash, it's hard to know how much, if anything, Steve Jobs' death has to do with your current product philosophy number five. Google dominated Apple in the cloud services department. Mac and MobileMe failed and iCloud was too little too late for For me, almost all the web services on my phone, examples, web maps, storage, email, business tools, etc., were designed and developed by Google and I was happy with what they offered.

Sixth, the Nexus line of phones gave Google a way to show stock Android. Apple revolutionized the world. cell phone industry by taking over service providers and giving

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s a stock trading experience Nexus was Google's way of doing the same, it was well received and inspired other manufacturers, examples Samsung to minimize its divergence with the stock listing standard Google even made it possible not to Nexus phones will adorn a near-standard experience with the launch of something called Google Now Launcher number seven. Google introduced a modern and elegant design language material design for designers and developers to follow to provide a more unified

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experience in relevant applications that have a defined design language. was something I always appreciated about Apple number

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, while taking Apple's best industrial design cues, other companies have made equivalent premium hardware in many ways, arguably better with unique additions, most notably the Samsung S7 Edge and the Huawei Nexus 6p.

All of these reasons were in my head for a couple of years, but it was the last few that forced me to take my duty as a consumer and step away from the iPhone for a while. I can use my phone comfortably. I kept my iPhone 5 for six more months because the iPhone 6 didn't seem worth the upgrade and the 6 plus was huge. My hands are quite small, so when I finally gave in to the 5.5-inch 6 plus I had to develop a precarious rocking technique to use it. Sounds familiar. Holding the s7 edge was a surprise due to the bezel list design and curved glass.

Samsung was able to fit a 5.5-inch screen into the space practically occupied by a 4.7-inch iPhone 6. In fact, I have gained great comfort without giving up any screen size. my screen resolution is almost double and the black levels on the lively AMOLED screen are astonishing. I can play retro games without hacking an emulator app and some file transfers, both of which can't be done on an iPhone without jailbreaking the OS. Let me play Nintendo Super. Nintendo Sega Genesis and most other retro consoles in my free time. This is a big deal for someone who grew up in the '80s and '90s.

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's something wonderful about seeing the classic Italian plumber here. Oh, to hear the Sega jingle and be able to run and gun. against anytime, anywhere without voiding your warranty. I can see my wallpaper. We smartphone users see our home screen more than a hundred times a day. That's a lot of time looking at the same app icons, names, and layouts. Wallpapers are a great way to personalize phones but there is a problem in iOS very often the key aspects of your chosen wallpaper are covered by app icons, you can't realistically do anything about it, you can jailbreak , but even then it's a flub instead of her face being covered because Apple can now see her and I've lost exactly zero efficiency.

Plus, I'd been using that basic Home screen for over a year, meaning I saw those app icons and labels more than 35,000 times, a quarter of a million times after seven years. I know a phone icon will open my phone app at that moment. bird, yes Twitter got it, forced labels are painfully redundant, let alone an eyesore on a device seen thousands of times, IMHO Apple's iPhone is no longer the most lively and humane option. Steve Jobs proudly and imprecisely argued in 2007 that the iPhone was five years ahead of the competition. The quote five years ahead was almost nine years ago.

Many have noticed that it is said that moving away from the iPhone may be the first step backwards, it may take five or ten years, but I am sure Cupertino will find another way. to make me want it as soon as I see it