Changing from iPhone to Android turns out to be a painful process – for me at least.
I should have expected it really. Google does some good stuff with its free software, but is definitely short on the User Experience dimension, when compared with Apple. Things never quite work the way one expects, and generally the software is ugly.
Having said that the once timid Apple has now grown so confident its exploiting its undeniable success with over priced hardware and software which locks in users. As a result we all pay more for Mr. Jobs version of toys for the boys. That’s enough of a reason for me to look forward to commodity hardware, built by companies who know about consumer electronics, enabled by free software from Mr. Google, even if the software isn’t as good.
My third iPhone had deteriorated to the point where the battery wouldn’t last more than a couple of hours. My iPod had suffered the same fate. The battery on my MacBook Pro is shot as well, and the DVD writer doesn’t work. Meanwhile the iSight camera on my MacBook gave up the ghost some time ago.
Replacing the iPhone, which didn’t work as a phone most of the time, became the next, and urgent, project. But, you’ll have noticed, the iPhone 4 is a frighteningly expensive piece of kit. The new Google Nexus S would save me £300 over the iPhone 4, and I’d get to have some “boys fun with toys” in the process.
Apple didn’t stand a chance. Off to Carphone Warehouse yours truly ran. The Nexus S looks and feels a really nice piece of kit and the salesman made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Of course I dove in, not thinking about the changes I’d need to accommodate. That’s part of the fun. Right?
Well it turns out not to be so much fun.
The salesman omitted the part about me being without a cell connection for 5 days while somebody switched the service over. That particular change was supposed to happen within a couple of hours.
But that problem pales into insignificance when compared with the challenge of setting up the phone to work the way my iPhone did stuff.
To be fair to Mr. Google and the Marketplace I’m pretty much there now, with email working and Twitter clients and podcasts and music. And the phone is a gorgeous piece of kit.
The cell service will get switched on tomorrow, my Google Reader is back in action, Hootsuite and Tweetdeck are doing a job and I can now listen to Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow while I walk my dog, without the battery dying.
And I’ve saved £300 in the process.
But the story ends with the time its taken to make the transition. From Saturday lunch till Tuesday dinner I’ve done little else other than find ways to make the Android machine deliver to me that which the iPhone 4 would have done in 10 minutes.
I guess Mr. Jobs has figured out thats a problem people will pay to avoid.
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