I am no geek, but after two months with my state of the art iPhone4S, I confess I regret not having acquired an Android device. Here’s why:
- iTunes: this major lockout strategy of incompatibility has kept me many years away from purchasing an iPod. Closed systems are not for me.
- Music: I am a music lover that owns hundreds of original CDs. I am not willing to waste my time converting my music to a format that will not play on any other devices.
- Movies: I was also unable to store an original digital copy of a movie on my iPad (and therefore iPhone). I am no genius, but that is something that should be crystal clear.
- Freedom: why does Apple has to decide what programs or apps I can or cannot install on my device?
- iTunes: you depend on a single computer to be the host of iTunes.
- Flash: this antiflash crusade is ridiculous. I want to be open to the world, not only to the part that Apple wants.
- Battery: it must be the only phone that cannot stand one single day without charging.
- Complement dependent: the phone looks great, although I don’t like the glass back. However, it is not functional and accessories are required, at least the typical bumper to prevent sliding and short range unavoidable accidents.
- Lack of compatibility with other devices: when trying to receive pictures from other phones via bluetooth I did not manage to establish a connection. I felt like the weird one, I was out. My old Nokia had no problems with that.
- Screen size: it is too small for my needs, typing is awful.
- When you are typing on, let’s say, and app for Facebook, if you accidentally type elsewhere on the screen, you lose everything you had written. You cannot go back. That is very annoying. Furthermore, trying to edit text is complex, sometimes the cursor disappears.
- Compatibility of files: I work on windows and when I want to bring files to show through my iPad I have to save them on my Dropbox folder. Many formats won’t play.
- E-mail push: even when connected to wifi, the iPhone does not always receive e-mails on time, I have to open the mail and wait for it to synchronize. For a device that is constantly sending information, I find it to be a huge mistake. Comparing to a Blackberry or even a Nokia this issue leaves the iPhone in a very bad position. There are other important compatibility issues with:
- Gmail, not being able to delete an e-mail from the phone.
- Hotmail, where e-mails have to be erased 3 times (iPhone, iPad and Hotmail via web).
- USB: are you serious?
I know going to another OS in the future will be unpleasant, from the contacts in the address book to the files and info I have on the different apps, but so far it looks like Apple leaves me with no choice.
Pau Fernández 
Well, I have no vested interest in keeping you on an iphone, but I have a few comments to what you’ve written in your post, for the sake of making your life simpler while you still own an iphone (assuming you won’t switch to an android tomorrow):
1.1 You can convert your music to mp3, which will play on any device, and itunes works just fine with it.
1.2 With movies you’ll need to use mp4, which I admit is annoying, but again, it’s easy enough.
1.3 You can install Cydia, and then many more apps are available for you to download, even without Apple’s consent (just beware that there are implications regarding the warranty on the device).
2. Actually, Apple seems to have won this battle, as flash is really dying. Yeah, many websites are still in flash, but note that Adobe has announced last week that the Chrome browser for android won’t support flash either, so in about a year or so, the alternatives won’t be really pushing flash forward compared to an iPhone.
3. Yes, the iPhone battery life is the most problematic part of the device. There are ways to enhance it a bit (lower brightness, turning off GPS for many apps that don’t really need to know your location, etc.), but those are workarounds, and you shouldn’t be limiting your usage just because of battery life, that’s for sure. Keep in mind that you can’t really expect to have the same battery life as in lower end phones or blackberries – the screen by itself consumes a lot of energy, and don’t forget that you probably use the iPhone much more than any other phone you’ve ever held in your hands (that’s at least my case).
4. You see similar accessories sold for Samsung Galaxy phones and others. There’s an ecosystem of 3rd party manufacturers that build their businesses around these devices. I don’t think it’s unique for Apple’s.
5. Never tried over bluetooth, but there are excellent apps for syncing photos between phones, tablets and computers over wifi (try PhotoSync).
6. I wish it had the screen size of the Samsung Galaxy SII. However, then I would probably complain it is too wide for my hand or pocket. A much thinner bezel would do the trick in my opinion – keep the iphone the same size, and give more real estate to the screen (today there’s a 3rd of the front panel which isn’t screen, and that’s a shame). Rumors are that the next iPhone will be mostly screen in front.
7. That’s app dependent, so you should take that to the developers of facebook for iPhone and not Apple. It doesn’t happen on WhatsApp for example (you start typing, and when you get out of the conversation and back inside, the text you typed is still in the input box waiting for you to continue.
8. For “office” files, yeah, that’s the never ending story of the fight between MSFT and APPL (and others too – try opening a powerpoint presentation on google docs and see if it looks any better than it would on your ipad – not all the blame is on apple here). However, there are ways around it. For different types of files there are different apps that help you open/play the files properly.
9. I think you can define gmail as an exchange server when you setup your account on the mail app, and you get real time push. Yeah, it’s really annoying that you can’t delete. Hope they fix it.
10. Many devices don’t have USB input. Amazon Kindle for example has its proprietary connection which serves only for charging (which could have been done easily with USB). However, the apple connection allows you to do other things as well, and the data transfer speeds needed for those tasks were much faster than USB rates when the first iPod came out. Now, with all the accessories industry around the apple docking connector, if apple switches to USB3.0, they will be crucified for killing all those 3rd party manufacturers…
Hope this helps…
Thank you for your comments, they propose solutions to most of my comments. However, the functions I stated are basic. To do with your phone what I did with my Nokia should not be rocket science. I have to download apps and get deep into it.
I had a great experience with an iPad and I had great expectations with the iPhone 4S, for which I waited so long (well, for the iPhone5). Expectations were high. I believe they did not deliver according to their slogan “It just works”. Now I look at comparable devices and I don’t see the difference in hardware.
Your comment will definitely help me get more juice out of my iPhone. Thanks Gaby
QuotesChimp tend to view insurance companies as a monolithic whole, with no difference among companies, the policies they offer, or the premiums they charge. The truth is quite the opposite. Insurance companies come in a wide variety of types and sizes and, as we shall see, many approach business in sometimes fun�damentally different ways.
My husband and i felt really more than happy when Raymond managed to do his preliminary research with the ideas he discovered through your web pages. It is now and again perplexing to just always be giving out information and facts many others might have been trying to sell. And we take into account we have the writer to thank for that. All of the illustrations you have made, the straightforward website navigation, the friendships you can give support to create – it’s most excellent, and it’s facilitating our son in addition to the family imagine that this topic is pleasurable, which is extraordinarily mandatory. Thank you for the whole thing!