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Comment by gailees | Hacker News Reader

The Nexus 5 has the opportunity to pull a lot of disenchanted iPhone users to Android. What would it take for you to make the switch?

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I have been an iPhone user for upwards of three years, and used an iPod touch for two years prior to that. I hate iOS 7. The aesthetic is too bare and feels excessively simplistic, and the new animations have totally stripped me of the ability to perform multiple operations in quick succession. The OS looks worse and performs worse. (Not to mention the sheer volume of bugs that Apple neglected to fix. I might be able to tolerate iOS 7 if it hadn't broken the built-in dictionary, my lock button, and myriad other things. Unfortunately, it's been weeks and Apple has not issued fixes for any of these bugs.)

I've polled a fairly large number of students at my high school, and not one has reflected favorably on the change from iOS 6 to iOS 7. I'm not sure how other demographics feel about iOS 7, but the opinion of my cohort seems to be overwhelmingly negative.

iOS 7 has caused a major regression in the functionality and enjoyability of Apple's mobile products, and I think a lot of people are unhappy with the changes Apple made.

I've been eagerly anticipating the Nexus 5 since the day of iOS 7's release. Nothing will make me happier than to never have to tolerate iOS 7 again.

Another anecdote. My facebook wall was full of "I hate iOS7" posts right after it came out. A few folks I know switched, a few said "now it's just like Android" (whatever that means), and the rest are just gritting their teeth for the next couple years hoping Apple sorts it out before the end of their contract.

I know a few people who are fine with 6 or 7, but I've never heard a single soul say "iOS 7 is freaking awesome!".

All the people I know who are approach 40 or older loath it for both aesthetic reasons as well as not being able to see anything with the stupid design.

For the record, I'm over 40 and think iOS7, quirks and all, was a wonderful thing to happen to my iPhone5, and I can barely stomach looking at iOS6 things. But then, I'm not a standard iOS person: I only have iPhones because of work/dev reasons, for personal use I shop at Google, and in my ideal world, WP8 lived up to its potential, Surfaces were cheaper, and both had become a huge success.

We don't need anecdotes. Anyone can search for iOS 7 on Twitter and see reactions in real time. The majority of iPhone users said they loved it when it became available.

https://twitter.com/search?q=iOS%207&src=typd&f=realtime

here's the Tweets I just got (in English) as of 10:33pm Eastern. Yes....2 out of all of these "love" it. A ringing endorsement.

* Literally trying to change your wallpaper with iOS7 is the worst

* Don't Like The Blur Effect In iOS 7? Remove It Using This Simple Trick

* i've just noticed that 2days ago even on "Apps for iOS 7" ... So ugly :)

* I hope there aren't that many changes to the OS because a sista is still lost with ios 7 update..

* iOS 7 has made my iPod crash so much I can't even

* I would call but I think I've been blocked.. Damn you new IOS 7 for that option

* I swear if my phone makes me update to the new IOS7 ima flip out on someone!!

* For iOS users, avoiding iCloud gets harder with Mavericks http://zite.to/1g5kcKg this is going to be bad 7 iOSs one ID

* I finally downloaded iOS 7 and I actually really like it now

* Finally updated to iOS7. Everything is beautiful.

* I feel like I'm the only one who still hasn't updated their phone to the iOS 7

* Dear everyone, the iOS 7 Voice Memos app has a bug where it "saves" but ultimately fails to record all recordings above 15 minutes.

* Man fuck this iOS 7 update.

* Trying Tweetbot 3 because you nerds wouldn’t shut up about it. It’s like a syringe of pure iOS 7, straight to the eyeball.

* delete and reinstall the app. sometimes when the iOS gets updated like it did from 6 to 7 some stuff gets jacked up.

* iOS 7 is completely and totally overrated. It makes my phone crash so much. -.-

* Yo my iPad never messed up until ios7

Who are these disenchanted iPhone users? I'm not trying to bait you, I'm genuinely curious who you think will switch. iPhone users are generally considered to have the highest satisfaction of any mobile phone users.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/10/17/jd-power-ranks-app...

I'm switching to try something new, on a device well suited for no contract plans. I bet Nexus will steal more customers from Samsung than Apple though

I have seen my share of longtime iPhone owners complain loudly about iOS7. I can imagine a few of them switching when the opportunity arrives. Also, some carriers are not "subsidizing" handsets anymore; for upfront payment the low price and fantastic value of Nexus hardware has a huge edge over the iPhone 5C.

Many people also complain loudly about the latest Windows or the newest MacOS but they're not exactly jumping ship. Why do you think the case is different for iPhone users?

For one, phone upgrade cycles happen much more regularly than computer upgrade cycles, so there are more opportunities to switch.

Mobile/appliance environment is much more portable, and many people invest less in it. A couple of ideas:

- Desktop devices tend to last much longer before being completely replaced (unless you're a gamer). Even if you change your desktop machine, you often keep your keyboard/mouse, external NTFS drives, etc.

- There are more platform-specific apps that can tie you to a certain OS, either because of the app itself mat not be available (Games?), because you'd have to buy it again (Photoshop?), or because of the investment in workflow (MS Office?) or data (iPhoto?) that you have already made for it.

Once a mobile platform reaches a reasonable level of availability of popular apps, it's essentially viable for anyone to switch to. Unless you are addicted to Hay Day or rely a lot on Paper, or something like that, it's easy to move to a new platform. That's why it's also crucial that aspiring platforms make it totally easy to port stuff, and here's a place where Microsoft has made a huge mess with all their awesome but somewhat restricted tools, and constantly moving goalposts and platform strategy (C#? .NET? Silverlight? XNA? WPF? WinRT? HTML5? C++? Native or Managed or /CLR or...? I don't even know anymore).

All that said, OSX and Macs are much more popular now than say 5 years ago, so there is some ship jumping. The cloud really is eroding people's attachment to they desktops, and that's the reason Chromebooks and even Linux have even a chance at reaching the mass market.

Me.

Recently began work on a mobile project where we deal with a few recent Android phones and tablets. I already bought myself a Nexus 7 and it's fucking awesome. I can't wait to drop the iPhone and get the Nexus 5.

Both have their merits but in the end it's the screens size to me. Make the iPhone thinner, give it a killer screen, and I'll go back but until then, Android.

Screen size seems to pull many people from iPhone. I find larger displays uncomfortable though (heavily using one handed) but it seems that people want that.

Kinda off topic, but what's the email client situation on Android? I don't use Gmail and the last time I used Android (ICS I guess), mail clients were from stone age.

No idea but I'm not too picky. As long as I can read it and search it I'm fine, so I just use the standard Gmail app. I like the larger screen because I want to have one device with all my music on it, with the ability to read on the commute.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/30/ae-android-email-app/

So.. according to the discussion and screenshots of a couple of alternatives;

No. There are no decent email clients on Android?

I'd say that a (sleight) majority of my friends have been unhappy with iOS7, and have expressed a willingness to explore Android now that the "big iOS upgrade" has already hit and they don't have much to look forward to.

iOS 7 is pretty universally loathed among people I know...

Not to mention people who are price-sensitive. The iPhone and leading Android phones are very expensive, especially considering that they are locked into an exorbitant contract with a carrier. The Nexus 5 allows people to get first-class hardware and software at half the market price of most other phones and frees them from the tyranny of contracts.

For context, if our family of three were to buy only Nexus 5's and switch to T-Mobile's $30-per-month, unlimited-everything plan, we would save almost $100 per month over our current situation.

Contracts are an atrocity, and the Nexus program is the best way to circumvent them while still using superior hardware.

Most Apple customers won't be switching as the customer satisfaction indicates. Apple is also more successful in pulling customers from Samsung than the reverse. Samsung is a better proxy for the market because they completely dominate Android sales. Nexus phones are only sold to "Android enthusiasts" and pretty much have no distribution.

>Among buyers who switched brands, Apple took three times as many from Samsung (33%) as Samsung took from Apple (11%)

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/08/19/apple-samsung-survey-...

Individual Android phones beat the iPhones, it's just that Samsung sells a lot of cheap phones too, so the JD Power methodology disadvantages them.

It's similar to the stats that looked at selling price that always favoured smartphone only corporations (Apple, HTC, RIM) and hid Samsung's progress.

"Samsung smartphones beat last three iPhones in user satisfaction"

http://m.computerworld.com/s/article/9241257/Samsung_smartph...

I'm one. iOS 7 didn't solve any of the problems with iOS, it just made them look different. I'm tired of not being able to open things in the app I'd like (not Safari, not Apple Maps, etc). I'm tired of a useless home screen of apps that I don't really use--I'd rather have useful things displayed like I can on Android.

I do like Apple's hardware and it's build quality. I have a Nexus 4 for testing and it's nice, but its lack of LTE meant it wasn't going to be a daily use device for me.

The idea of a well-build non-customized Android device with LTE and NFC (so I can use a YubiKey with it) is very appealing.

I've wanted to play around with one for a while, but don't want to commit until I've had a chance to live with it for a month. So, what would it take? A low price. If they offer a model at Nexus 4 prices, maybe...

I'd also like stronger per-app privacy controls and sandboxing. I have this vague idea that installing the wrong package on an Android phone can mean doom, and that many apps request permissions that are far too broad and on install time (rather than when they need them). I'm unsure whether I'm just ill-informed on this or not.

That said, I'm not a disenchanted iPhone user so perhaps your question wasn't aimed at me. I recently upgraded to a 5s and am very happy.

In regards to too generous permissions--I can certainly see that sometimes. The one flashlight app I was using wanted network connectivity, access to contacts, etc. The solution? Find a new one that only needs use of camera hardware. Not always the easiest thing to do, but certainly an option.

In 4.3, they silently included the App Ops configuration to offer gating of permissions. Mixology doesn't need Calendar access? Turn it off.

BUT, that said, plenty of apps DON'T ask for too broad permissions, and sometimes you'll even find that app devs will put notes in the patch notes explaining why they need to increase permission scope (if they do).

I don't know about this feeling about installing the wrong package can mean doom. Doom in what way? This seems a bit silly.

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I meant "doom" in the sense of loss of personal information and/or spyware. Basically, the things you were outlining. I'm glad to know that you can control these things as of 4.3 though.

> So, what would it take? A low price. If they offer a model at Nexus 4 prices, maybe...

Previous leak shows prices starting at $349 for the 16GB model (http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/17/4850738/nexus-5-google-pl...)

Combine that with GoPhone or T-Mobile for $50-$60 a month and you can save a _lot_ of money over 2 years.

That combined with T-Mobile's $30-per-month unlimited plan makes for a ridiculous value.

http://www.gadgetreview.com/2013/06/t-mobile-has-a-secret-pl...

I'm not a iPhone (I have Nexus 4) user but looking at the screenshots of iOS 7 it looks way better than iOS 6, why are the people complaining? Have they made the usability worse, or are they used to the "old" (in my opinion ugly) look of iOS6?

I'm not a smartphone user at all, but I do have an iPad that I use frequently.

I find iOS 7 sterile, lifeless, joyless, and flat. I like colors and depth, and iOS 7 seems all about being colorless and flat.

That's just my opinion, though. Others, I'm sure, enjoy the iOS 7 look and feel.

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