Apple fans who converted to Android?

Lawstud

So I am planning to jump on the smartphone bandwagon. I have always been an apple fan and have been holding out for the iphone 4. However, my head has been turned by the HTC Desire.

I was wondering if there are any iphone owners who jumped off the apple ship and bought a HTC desire or other android smartphone? If so i would like to know your reasons for the switch and weather you're happy with your decision?

Thanks!

hardCopy

I'll let you know when mine arrives. HTC Desire on order, been an iPhone owner for 18 months, iPod touch before that.

Reasons for switching include barriers to entry for developers, high prices with o2, stupid tethering charges and couldn't face another 18 month contract.

Also, the Desire just looks the business.

Darksaga87

Got my desire about 2 months ago. Loving it. I miss my games I had on my itouch, so im robbing my dads upgrade and getting a cheap iphone to switch back and forth with. The GF will be chuffed have a desire on day and an iphone the next!

If I had to make an absolute decision, android all the way!

Korvanica

I switched, I will never look back....

nice1franko

I switched a month ago just because I was sick of the 'closed' apple system.

The Android's not without it's problems but glad I switched.

54kroc

I'd wait for the new iPhone if I were you,I got the desire and it is a great phone but I don't think it will be better than the new iPhone.
You've waited this long so another month won't hurt.

Keano

cork45 wrote: »

I'd wait for the new iPhone if I were you,I got the desire and it is a great phone but I don't think it will be better than the new iPhone.
You've waited this long so another month won't hurt.

I waited until I seen what the iphone had to offer and it still didn't impress me. Lots of great PR from Apple that's about it.

Atomic Pineapple

The iPhone 4 will be better hardware wise than the desire there is no doubt about that, the OS is what you should be really making your choice on.

Do you prefer Apples locked down do what we tell you approach or Googles open and make your own choice approach?

Keano A Legend wrote: »

I waited until I seen what the iphone had to offer and it still didn't impress me. Lots of great PR from Apple that's about it.

As usual, Apple are master's at making it sound like they have revolutionised something when actually someone else done it ages ago and Apple are only implementing it now.

Apple are experts at taking stuff other people made , putting it in a nice shiny packet , claiming its something they've done all by themselves and then selling it to the mass public through clever advertising.

Gummy Panda

I have desire three days. Got sick of itunes as its poop on a pc.

Loving the freedom and control on Android

CombatCow

Got the Desire on O2 bill pay yesterday and Im blown away by it! Iv used A LOT of phones and this is just fantastic, cant fault it...does everything I want.

Lawstud

the OS is what you should be really making your choice on.

Im girlfriend has a 3gs and I like the OS on the iphone. On Sat I visited every moblie phone shop to ask if they had a display model of the Desire as i wanted to get a feel for the OS before i parted with my money. To date i have been watching youtube videos of the the Desire. Most were very unhelpful to say the least particularly Vodafone and o2. Most shops had an iphone on display.

Anyway a guy in the Meteor shop gave me his collegues Desire to have a look at. I must say it seemed to be on a par with the iphone. It also appears that Metoer offer great value for smartphone users at €30 per month of 200 texts, 200 mins and 1gb. However, i was told(not by the guys in meteor) that the web browsing experience on meteor is not great. Is there any truth to this?

I miss my games I had on my itouch

Is it far to say that games on the Desire dont run as well as on the iphone or is it a case that the android market place is just lagging behind the app store and that the games for android will improve.

There is also the issue of the price with the iphone as i mentioned above. I am a light user in terms of calls and texts. Ideally i would like to pay around €30 a month. I undersatnd that 3 are going to release the iphone so ill see what their prices are like and whether their entry to the iphone market has any affect on the prices offered by Vodafone and o2.

As a side is it just me or is the €35 per month deal that vodafone offer for the iphone which entitles you to zero mins and texts an absolute scandel? Its this type of BS that is pushing me to a different carrier.

Thanks for the replys.

Darksaga87

Anyway a guy in the Meteor shop gave me his collegues Desire to have a look at

Guy in the meteor store in drogheda done that for me, you arent from drogheda are ya?

djgaillimh

Lawstud wrote: »

As a side is it just me or is the €35 per month deal that vodafone offer for the iphone which entitles you to zero mins and texts an absolute scandel? Its this type of BS that is pushing me to a different carrier.

Thanks for the replys.

Yeah it's a joke. That and the early release of the Desire were the reasons I chose Meteor over O2/Vodafone.

I haven't had any issues with browsing on Meteor's network, but I don't know how good their coverage is outside Dublin.

Cianos

I switched from an iphone 3g to the Desire. Overall I prefer the Desire, but I think the iphone is more 'fun' to use. There's a lot one can do with the Desire and the more you use it the more you like it. But starting off I did find it quite unintuitive. Apple put a lot of thought in to every aspect of the iphone OS and it's totally polished and intuitive. There still isn't that level of finish for Android, but as everyone says "give it time".

As for the apps, so far it seems the iphone apps are streets ahead of the android market, and it'll probably stay that way. The demographics are quite different between iphone and Android users, and those looking for cute and fun apps to determine their value of the phone should just stick to the iphone.

The more tech orientated will get a lot more out of the Desire though with its freedom and it seems the most impressive apps so far are those that would appeal to the tech heads rather than fun quirky games that are in abundance on the iphone.

The basic concept of the Android OS is much better imo. The multiple homescreens make it effortless to switch between screens for quick reference. So setting up the phone the way you want it will make your overall experience a lot better. It's very nice being able to check your calendar with one finger movement, then check your emails with another, your To Do's with another. Having the Music player widget right there on a homescreen makes it very easy as well compared to having to launch the "ipod" app etc etc.

For anyone who has the time and interest to put the effort in to learning about the phone, the Desire will be a lot more rewarding. For most people though I think the iphone is better because it's way more intuitive and 'cleaner'.

Goodshape

I switched. Had iPhone for about 2 years or so, switched a couple of months ago and very happy I did.

Outlined most of the reasons I prefer Android in this post: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66346315&postcount=55


I'd agree with Cianos though -- iPhone is probably more "fun". It's a better games console and a better media player (Android does both these things just fine, but iPhone does them better). But once you get in any way series about things, I'm fairly convinced that Android trumps the iOS.

hobochris

Lawstud wrote: »

Anyway a guy in the Meteor shop gave me his collegues Desire to have a look at. I must say it seemed to be on a par with the iphone. It also appears that Metoer offer great value for smartphone users at €30 per month of 200 texts, 200 mins and 1gb. However, i was told(not by the guys in meteor) that the web browsing experience on meteor is not great. Is there any truth to this?

I used to be with O2 I switched to meteor, and the difference is unbelievable,O2 3g is far slower then Meteor.

I was told the same as you by an O2 rep, he was clearly talking out his ass.

Pittens

Quick question - does anybody here pay for apps?

hobochris

Pittens wrote: »

Quick question - does anybody here pay for apps?

nope.

Pittens

tks, HoboChris: Maybe I should not hijack this thread, and ask that on another thread.


EDIT:

here:
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055939824

Cianos

hobochris wrote: »

I used to be with O2 I switched to meteor, and the difference is unbelievable,O2 3g is far slower then Meteor.

I was told the same as you by an O2 rep, he was clearly talking out his ass.

I've also gone from O2 to Meteor and I've found the browsing to be great so far.

Lawstud

Is changing/customising your Desire/Android phone much hassle? For instance, lets say you wanted to change the default music player, keyboard or SMS function. Does it involve you having to search lots of websites for "computer codes" and enter a load of "computer language" (excuse my ignorance - not much of a tech head) into your phone etc in order to do what you want?

What are ROMs. Again excuse my ignorance.

I know that the Desire is due to be released on 3. Does anyone think that they will match Meteors entry price point of €30.

Keano

Lawstud wrote: »

Is changing/customising your Desire/Android phone much hassle? For instance, lets say you wanted to change the default music player, keyboard or SMS function. Does it involve you having to search lots of websites for "computer codes" and enter a load of "computer language" (excuse my ignorance - not much of a tech head) into your phone etc in order to do what you want?

What are ROMs. Again excuse my ignorance.

I know that the Desire is due to be released on 3. Does anyone think that they will match Meteors entry price point of €30.

It takes about 2 seconds to change the change the app and no coding required

Abelloid

You can have multiple apps installed and it will ask you each time which you'd like to use to view a pic or listen to music etc. or you can set to just one, it's very simple.

Lawstud

Whats the deal with updates? I understand that android is currently running 2.1 and is due to update to 2.2 (FroYo). Do these updates come when they are supposed to? It seems (from my cursory reading on the net) that there are people running different versions and that OS updates can be delayed for no apparent reasons. Would not be happy with this. Is this true?

When are you all expecting the official release of FroYo in Ireland?

Thanks for all the replies.:pac:

EGriff

The nexus one is the only phone that has froyo at the moment. For the desire we have to wait for htc to fiddle with it and put their sense skin on it. There's rumours of it coming in late june but i wouldn't hold my breath.

jd83

I have a nexus one running froyo. I used to own a iphone. The reason I got rid of the iphone was o2. I had huge problems with them and didnt like having to jailbreak to change and its too expensive to go down the factory unlocked route. So i got the nexus. It does everything my iphone did and more. It was cheaper. With froyo i have tethering and chrome2phone and its a lot faster that my 3gs was. I wont be buying anything made by apple for a while. Iphone 4 has nothing really that would make me change. I dont need a hd screen, i use fringe to video call on my phone. If i needed a hd camera i think you can actually root and make the camera on the nexus hd. Android is just much more user friendly. I can make the phone look and do what i want.

Mr E

I thought this article on Lifehacker was interesting (Title: iPhone vs. Android Showdown: Which Phone Is Best for Power Users?)

Its a closer race than you might think. Note: This is Android vs. iOS 4.

Abelloid

How did they tie on multi-tasking?

Atomic Pineapple

JustinOval wrote: »

How did they tie on multi-tasking?

Its a VERY high level overview of both Operating systems