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[numble]

All this information seems deliberately vague. Rate of switchers could mean multiple things. Highest rate of switchers is especially meaningless, blackberry might have had the highest rate of switchers from iPhone ever this quarter if it's 0.1% and it used to be 0.05%. Plan to repurchase by 'brand' - is that company or OS. If by company, the 86% does indeed seem dangerously low if accurate. It seems strange that such a successful company is using such vague metrics to describe their performance.

You can look at the ChangeWave report if you want, it doesn't seek to be vague. I don't understand why it matters if it is about switching phone manufacturer company or OS. Do you think there are people that plan to change the manufacturer of their phone, but stick with iOS? It is manufacturer, of course.

I don't see how the rate of switchers is meaningless--an uptick in percentage of iPhones being bought by former Android users is useful as a trend.

They refer to a lot of metrics besides just these, you know. Its an hour-long financial call that is devoted to detailing different business metrics. ASP, channel inventory, growth in China, estimated gross margin for next quarter, growth in visits to retail stores, and foreign exchange implications being some of the more important ones.

 

[ChronotriggerJM]

Why not both?

Spoiler

I can't afford anything ios, fixing mundane tasks on the in-laws 6's will have to suffice

 

[Brofist]

Pretty happy with the move from an iPhone to a Nexus 5, but depending on the state of phones early next year I may go back.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Even if you are not removing the SD card, your phone still have to be tethered to the Pc.

It doesn't have to be physically tethered to a PC. You can transfer through your LAN too. Let's be realistic though, when you are connected, the transfer rate is significantly faster which means you're only connected for a short period of time anyway. Its significantly quicker than having to upload to the cloud and then download to the device.

I really don't think people needs constant access to 2TB of stuffs on their phone. Anyway,most phone accept card up to 128GB of stuffs, not to mention sandisk new 200GB sdxc micro SD card cost like $400 now. That means $2k if you are buying 10 of it for 2TB worth of storage. If you want to access 2TB of content on your phone, you are better off using 2x1TB Google drive compared to 2TB SD cards in the end.

Relying on the cloud to access your data only works if all or most of your data is in the cloud. The whole point of another storage point to access the data is that the data is available there be it on a PC which you tether your phone/device to to transfer the data or access it in the cloud. The cloud is expensive to store a lot of data compared to a HDD that lives in your computer and even double that for redundancy back up of that data.

Local transfer = Way faster, way cheaper
Cloud transfer = Way slower, costs to store data every month, eats up data cap of your phone plan, but available if you're not at home

 

[FullMetalx117]

I'll probably never buy anything other than iphone just because of iMessage and how every single one of my family members has the iphone/basically most of my friends. The blue messages though...read/receipts, group messaging, etc.

I never understood the price argument...a phone is something you use every single day. If you're like me, the phone is probably used cumulatively for a few-several hours every day. Why not buy something that's a joy for you to use?

 

[ArtHands]

It doesn't have to be physically tethered to a PC. You can transfer through your LAN too. Let's be realistic though, when you are connected, the transfer rate is significantly faster which means you're only connected for a short period of time anyway. Its significantly quicker than having to upload to the cloud and then download to the device.



Relying on the cloud to access your data only works if all or most of your data is in the cloud. The whole point of another storage point to access the data is that the data is available there be it on a PC which you tether your phone/device to to transfer the data or access it in the cloud. The cloud is expensive to store a lot of data compared to a HDD that lives in your computer and even double that for redundancy back up of that data.

Local transfer = Way faster, way cheaper
Cloud transfer = Way slower, costs to store data every month, eats up data cap of your phone plan, but available if you're not at home

If you are going through lan, might as well go cloud storage then. You are still being tethered to your PC to a certain extend here.

I am pretty sure we are talking about using cloud as storage for phone use, not for backup purpose. I don't see the point of comparing it with a HDD under the current context.

And Dropbox/google drive offers free 15GB here, while it cost around $9 for a 16GB sd card. That's cheaper to you?

 

[Marty Chinn]

If you are going through lan, might as well go cloud storage then. You are still being tethered to your PC to a certain extend here.

Man LAN is up to a gigabit in speed. 802.11ac means I get a significant amount of that speed. The max I'm going to get from going to the cloud is going to be 20 times slower. So no, going through a LAN is still way better than going through cloud storage.

I am pretty sure we are talking about using cloud as storage for phone use, not for backup purpose. I don't see the point of comparing it with a HDD under the current context.

There's no real difference. Cloud storage means you either need to dramatically curate your data to fit on the cloud if you want to do it for free or you have to pay to get more space. In either case, you're putting only a fraction of your data accessible to your phone. In the end, some things just won't be accessible so in a way it defeats the purpose. The point in comparing it with a HDD space is the amount of data you can store locally on a PC in your home relative to what you can store in the cloud.

And Dropbox/google drive offers free 15GB here, while it cost around $9 for a 16GB sd card. That's cheaper to you?

15GB is chump change when you have phones that are 64GB or 128GB in capacity. You could store the entire cloud plus have plenty of room to space on the phone directly. If you have an SD card expansion, you can inexpensively store that on your phone and avoid the slow transfer speeds and hit to the data cap.

Cloud storage is still way more limited, costs more to use it effectively, and soooooooo much slower than dragging and dropping to a phone even if you do it through WiFi on your LAN.

 

[Face it Tiger..]

Long time iPhone user here (from OG iPhone days), almost 8 years and I made the switch to Android (from 6 Plus to Mi Note) recently and loving every minute of it. At least Xiaomi did a fantastic job with both the hardware and software.

this post is a lil bit old,

but still of course you went with a company that would have been sued by Apple if it was based in America.

every bit of that UX is a pastiche. minor changes to scrape being an outright copy.

 

[Vyer]

None of speed test of wifi vs LAN matters if you aren't putting 2TB of data on your phone. Which most people aren't (nor have any reason to).

 

[Marty Chinn]

None of speed test of wifi vs LAN matters if you aren't putting 2TB of data on your phone. Which most people aren't (nor have any reason to).

The point of the speed is how long it takes to transfer the data that you do want on the phone. Going through USB or WiFi is significantly faster than going through the cloud. It could just be a megabytes and it's still way faster to do it locally.

 

[Goodlife]

You're missing the point. Each OS excels in different areas. Being able to select which app to open something in or to define a default app is a big thing iOS is missing. It had nothing to do with Google buying Waze or that it's a third party GPS app. The point is something trivial on Android is cumbersome in iOS so the same agreement can be flipped around in the number of areas that Android is better at than iOS.

You going to explain exactly what you did for the task to take 30 minutes?

 

[Heavy_D206]

Apple is so great with their forced updates and limiting everything to Apple services only. Who wouldn't want one!

 

[Marty Chinn]

You going to explain exactly what you did for the task to take 30 minutes?

Think you're replying to the wrong person.

 

[Goodlife]

Think you're replying to the wrong person.

Indeed I am, sorry about that....
More coffee needed

 

[Hidden One]

I just switched from Apple to Android (S6)/and find Touchwiz to be incredibly clunky.

Google really shit the bed by only offering a 6" stock Android phone this year.

This. I like the S6 but I cannot wait to go back to Apple in october. My s6 apps crash all the time and the interface is really slow at times.

 

[Hasney]

Honestly, the Plus got me to consider switching back since jumping to Android after the 4S. It helped that the Samsung S4 was shit mind you.

Extremely happy with my Nexus 6, but if Apple can increase the anaemic RAM, increase the resolution on the Plus only, make the screen 6" and shrink the ridiculous bezel, I'll consider it again in the future.

 

[Marty Chinn]

This. I like the S6 but I cannot wait to go back to Apple in october. My s6 apps crash all the time and the interface is really slow at times.

That's a Google problem introduced in Lollipop. It wasn't like this in Kit Kat. It sucks but it's not usually the norm. This is just a bad year to buy an Android phone.

 

[pringles]

Apple is so great with their forced updates and limiting everything to Apple services only. Who wouldn't want one!

What's limited to apple services only?

 

[Ollie Pooch]

Apple is so great with their forced updates and limiting everything to Apple services only. Who wouldn't want one!

Forced updates ?

And limiting In what way? You can use other streaming / mapping / browsing / chat apps.

 

[ArtHands]

Man LAN is up to a gigabit in speed. 802.11ac means I get a significant amount of that speed. The max I'm going to get from going to the cloud is going to be 20 times slower. So no, going through a LAN is still way better than going through cloud storage.



There's no real difference. Cloud storage means you either need to dramatically curate your data to fit on the cloud if you want to do it for free or you have to pay to get more space. In either case, you're putting only a fraction of your data accessible to your phone. In the end, some things just won't be accessible so in a way it defeats the purpose. The point in comparing it with a HDD space is the amount of data you can store locally on a PC in your home relative to what you can store in the cloud.



15GB is chump change when you have phones that are 64GB or 128GB in capacity. You could store the entire cloud plus have plenty of room to space on the phone directly. If you have an SD card expansion, you can inexpensively store that on your phone and avoid the slow transfer speeds and hit to the data cap.

Cloud storage is still way more limited, costs more to use it effectively, and soooooooo much slower than dragging and dropping to a phone even if you do it through WiFi on your LAN.

That transfer speed is a compensation for the inability to carry out the transfer while i am outside with my phone. I need not even wait for the files to finish transferring before i can head out if i use the cloud storage system.

You can use that hdd all you want at home, sure. But that still doesnt change the point that it is irrelevant when we are talking about the storage solution for phone here. Lets not use hdd to murk up the discussion here. Nobody is going to carry a hdd around just to access the files in the hdd on their phone.

You keep saying it cost more to use when its really no much different. It cost $2 per month for a 100 GB on google drive, and cost around 20x more to get nearly that kind of storage on sd cards.

 

[Heavy_D206]

What's limited to apple services only?

My girlfriend is always bitching about being forced to use iTunes to get music on her iPhone. Personally I fucking hate iTunes so I won't even touch her phone.

 

[PaulExcellent]

Went from Note 4 to iPhone 6 back to Note 4 last month.
I loved the iPhone accessories, the app store, and the way worked with my Mac, but I'll be damned if I give up SD cards, extra batteries, and amazing stylus support for that.

Still, a TON of people don't need that, so an iPhone is the logical choice. Good for Apple, though. Changing things up definitely helped them.

 

[pringles]

My girlfriend is always bitching about being forced to use iTunes to get music on her iPhone. Personally I fucking hate iTunes so I won't even touch her phone.

Tell her about spotify. Back in 2005 I disliked using iTunes too. Now I maybe use it once a year.

 

[Wiktor]

The whole concept of storing all of your content on one physical PC, and then having to be able to access that PC to move it on or off... Just seems kind of archaic as needing tons of storage and multiple cards on your phone. Having on-demand access anywhere where connected with lightweight storage requirements just to me makes way more sense today.

internet is in many places terribly expensive and also very slow. I can transfer gigabytes of data to my phone through cable in mater of minutes or spend hours doing so by cloud, after which I will run out of my monthly limit and either pay like crazy for every additional MB or have the net speed dropped to such levels that even accessing email will be a problem.

 

[Psyrgery ES]

I'ved had many Android phones and an iPhone.

Never going back to iPhone.

Never going back to an Android phone which is not a Nexus.

I <3 my Nexus 5

 

[borghe]

internet is in many places terribly expensive and also very slow. I can transfer gigabytes of data to my phone through cable in mater of minutes or spend hours doing so by cloud, after which I will run out of my monthly limit and either pay like crazy for every additional MB or have the net speed dropped to such levels that even accessing email will be a problem.

how are you people constantly transferring gigabytes of data 365 days a year? I mean I get if you're saying "if I needed to, I could", but in practice how much data re you really transferring on a regular basis. I mean I don't feel hamstrung ever with cloud services, and I'm on LTE probably 50-60% of my phone's daily life.

 

[XOMTOR]

My girlfriend is always bitching about being forced to use iTunes to get music on her iPhone. Personally I fucking hate iTunes so I won't even touch her phone.

Jailbreak her phone; it's literally a one-button operation and has no effect on the device (unless you start installing tweaks by the truckload). After that, you'll have access to the file system and can drag 'n drop or even easier, use a program like iFunBox. No need to ever use iTunes again.

Speaking of iTunes, I used to hate it but once I came to grips with its unorthodox methods, I think I'd actually miss it if I moved to Android. Of course if I wasn't jailbroken and had to rely on it, I'd probably feel differently.

 

[borghe]

yeah, I get the hatred for itunes. I mean you REALLY have to go bugging about with the app to get it to a point where it is basically drag and drop. I never even bothered with stuff like (external to my phone) photos, music I just synced my whole library, etc. It is pretty shitty for device management.

It's not an excuse, but still Apple has improved cloud services over the last 5 years to bit by bit remove the need for itunes. 2011 was icloud backup... which was unquestionably my biggest use. 2012 was iTunes Match which has been unquestionably worth the $25/year I've paid for it. I forgot when Photostream was, but at minimum it eliminated the annoyance of getting my shot pics from one device to another device. iCloud Photo Library didn't remove any annoyance, but it DID make "drag and dropping" RAW photos from my Canon trivial. I plug in my camera, import the pics to Photos on my Mac, and they show up on my devices a short time later.

Again, none of it excuses iTunes... but really.. I think the only times I've plugged my phone into my PC in 3 years was to grab shot movies off of my phone for editing. And now with iCloud Photo Library... I can even get away with not doing that depending on the situation. If it's a movie I shot like a half a day ago or longer, the video is probably already on iCloud, and downloading it to my Mac at 30Mb is largely trivial.

full disclosure though, I pay for 200GB of storage from Apple, along with iTunes Match and Apple Music.. still, all of it together provides convenience unmatched by managing things from my PC (and that I don't have bandwidth or cap problems)

 

[345triangle]

Pretty sure Shaq had an iPhone 4 for a while

i bet he did! and i bet it was the best phone for him to be using at that point.

 

[345triangle]

oops double post, sorry. i'll elucidate on OP to make up for it.

there was a definite point circa 2012 when android was much more interesting, innovative, and useful than iOS. i switched around then, went back to iOS with the 5S in 2013 (android phone died/iOS 7 was intriguing), and now i can't see myself going back to android full-time given the incentives of each company.

apple pretty much has the high-end phone market to itself at this point. android is an amazing thing to have happened to the world and will continue to have a huge impact for some, but it's increasingly hard to justify on the most important device i carry when iOS just works so much better on the fundamentals.

 

[Schlep]

I'm seeing a lot more Galaxy S6/Edge in the wild than I ever did S5. Purely anecdotal, but it doesn't seem to be a huge surge for iPhone the way it was when the 6/6+ was first released. Honestly, I feel like this was just PR speak to offset the lower than expected iPhone sales numbers.

Personally, I would never own another iPhone. Too much of a hassle to do what I do daily on Android or even Windows Phone. GF has one, though, and it works well for her. It's all personal preference, imo.

 

[Cellbomber]

Sure I switched back if you count a company issued phone. I technically didn't leave android. After several years away I don't really see what has changed with ios. Sure it's smooth but so are most phones nowadays.

I wonder if any of these stats factor in Users of company phones? Apple is killing it in this area for sure.

 

[Marty Chinn]

That transfer speed is a compensation for the inability to carry out the transfer while i am outside with my phone. I need not even wait for the files to finish transferring before i can head out if i use the cloud storage system.

How often are you thinking, oh shit, I need to transfer a gigabyte of data as I'm walking out the door? This whole concept of I need to leave right now but can't transfer my files seems like such a non issue that you can't wait for the files to transfer over especially since they're WAY quicker to transfer via USB or even WiFi.

You can use that hdd all you want at home, sure. But that still doesnt change the point that it is irrelevant when we are talking about the storage solution for phone here. Lets not use hdd to murk up the discussion here. Nobody is going to carry a hdd around just to access the files in the hdd on their phone.

Why is it irrelevant? I'm talking about HDD storage versus cloud storage. Local storage versus cloud storage. It's not irrelevant. I never once implied someone would carry around a HDD with them. A HDD is cheap and can store a lot of data. The cloud is not cheap and stores very little data before they charge you for it and then you get charged a monthly fee that adds up quick the more data you have. The cost is not irrelevant when you're talking about a monthly charge that is constant as long as you have the data in the cloud.

You keep saying it cost more to use when its really no much different. It cost $2 per month for a 100 GB on google drive, and cost around 20x more to get nearly that kind of storage on sd cards.

Well it depends on how much data you are storing. I find if you're not storing everything in the cloud then the cloud being a point of access becomes less of a solution to get access to your data. Why? Because there's still going to be data on your computer that's not in the cloud so you need that local storage anyway. 15GB of data is not a lot of data and once you go pass that, you start getting charged more than you would if you just did things locally. On top of that you're dealing with coverage, bandwidth limitations and data caps. That's a lot of costs and bottlenecks you're putting up with to save on taking a couple minutes to copy over the data to your phone locally. If you're doing small files, it's super duper quick, if you're doing large files, the cloud isn't as effective.

 

[mangochutney]

why does android market keep increasing though?

Perhaps he forgot to mention that more people are switching from iPhone to Android too

 

[LegendofLex]

Perhaps he forgot to mention that more people are switching from iPhone to Android too

Certainly not enough to offset the tremendous growth in iPhone sales, though.

 

[TouchMyBox]

precisely no-one was saying this in 2010.

Does that make me a nobody?

I was posting pictures of how comically small 3.5 inch devices were in my hands back then when people were saying "4.5 inch phones? Nobody could ever hold something that enormous!".

I could kinda use one, but I had to use the tips of the sides of my fingers to use the keyboard, and would often press the wrong key, and would get kinda painful after a short while.

 

[WalkMan]

Basically use Android if you don't care about security. Android has barely gotten to including a usable fingerprint reader. They have also barely started to understand the concept of a security enclave.

I always laugh at people who tout jailbreaking your phone. Makes my life easier. If you want to know how bad Android is, just wait until next week.

 

[HardRojo]

The bigger size is making me consider to switch to iPhone. Not to mention I've been having a lot of problems lately with my Galaxy S4.

 

[Alchemy]

Apple is so great with their forced updates and limiting everything to Apple services only. Who wouldn't want one!

What services? I basically use OneDrive, Google Everything, Chrome (and Safari cause I'm weird and split up my browsing tabs between browsers), Netflix, Amazon Prime for music and movies, none of my social media apps are Apple services, use Google Maps for navigation...

I guess I have to use iTunes if I hook up my phone to a computer, which I hardly ever do to the point of not even having a lightning cable near any my computers... and iCloud for backups? Shit even all my contacts are on my Gmail account.

 

[Wavebossa]

I guess I have to use iTunes if I hook up my phone to a computer, which I hardly ever do to the point of not even having a lightning cable near any my computers... and iCloud for backups? Shit even all my contacts are on my Gmail account.

The bolded is the number 1 reason why I will never go back to an iPhone.

I like my Drag and Drop tyvm

 

[Zabuza]

I love my Nexus 5 for the most part. But there's a few flaws drawing me towards an iPhone next year.

 

[Willectro]

The bolded is the number 1 reason why I will never go back to an iPhone.

I like my Drag and Drop tyvm

This. Last I used an iPhone, the reliance on iTunes was maddening. Apple badly needs to cut the cord and put iTunes to rest. No one else is doing this shit anymore - maybe things are changing for Apple to, idk.

The quotes in the OP have a lot of "from our point of view", allowing Apple to state anything. I guess their demographic appreciates the popularity of a platform over function.

 

[infiniteloop]

Apple badly needs to cut the cord and put iTunes to rest.

Yeah, if only they did that 4 years ago.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Yeah, if only they did that 4 years ago.

Isn't iTunes still required to transfer your music over?

 

[Willectro]

Yeah, if only they did that 4 years ago.

So close, yet so far. IIRC, this was referring to the reliance of a computer to initially setup an iPhone.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you still cannot transfer media files from a pc/mac to an iphone/pod/pad without the use of iTunes or 3rd party software/mods/hacks/etc which is insane. I still cringe when my Mom asks if I can put a CD on her iPhone.

 

[infiniteloop]

So close, yet so far. IIRC, this was referring to the reliance of a computer to initially setup an iPhone.
.

That and WifI sync.

 

[Alchemy]

Guess I'm weird for not hooking my phone up to my computer. Not that I disagree with drag and drop being nice, just isn't something I've missed since switching.

 

[borghe]

So close, yet so far. IIRC, this was referring to the reliance of a computer to initially setup an iPhone.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you still cannot transfer media files from a pc/mac to an iphone/pod/pad without the use of iTunes or 3rd party software/mods/hacks/etc which is insane. I still cringe when my Mom asks if I can put a CD on her iPhone.

Transfer what media? Music? Yes (iTunes Match or Apple Music). Photos? Yes (iCloud photo library). Videos? Eh, there are a number of hacks ways, but sort of yes. The last big leap.

Cringe at putting a CD on her phone? I rip the CD in iTunes. Then magic. Now it's on my phone (really iTunes Match or now Apple Music). I do nothing extra besides ripping it. Don't even need to drag or drop anything. Even better, by doing nothing more than ripping it it's now also on my iPad and of course my Mac.

 

[Syriel]

So close, yet so far. IIRC, this was referring to the reliance of a computer to initially setup an iPhone.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you still cannot transfer media files from a pc/mac to an iphone/pod/pad without the use of iTunes or 3rd party software/mods/hacks/etc which is insane. I still cringe when my Mom asks if I can put a CD on her iPhone.

Doesn't iTunes match do the same thing as Google Play Music match?

Yes, you need to have iTunes installed and yes, you need to pay for it, but aside from those two requirements I thought both features were supposed to be more or less the same.

 

[ArtHands]

How often are you thinking, oh shit, I need to transfer a gigabyte of data as I'm walking out the door? This whole concept of I need to leave right now but can't transfer my files seems like such a non issue that you can't wait for the files to transfer over especially since they're WAY quicker to transfer via USB or even WiFi.



Why is it irrelevant? I'm talking about HDD storage versus cloud storage. Local storage versus cloud storage. It's not irrelevant. I never once implied someone would carry around a HDD with them. A HDD is cheap and can store a lot of data. The cloud is not cheap and stores very little data before they charge you for it and then you get charged a monthly fee that adds up quick the more data you have. The cost is not irrelevant when you're talking about a monthly charge that is constant as long as you have the data in the cloud.



Well it depends on how much data you are storing. I find if you're not storing everything in the cloud then the cloud being a point of access becomes less of a solution to get access to your data. Why? Because there's still going to be data on your computer that's not in the cloud so you need that local storage anyway. 15GB of data is not a lot of data and once you go pass that, you start getting charged more than you would if you just did things locally. On top of that you're dealing with coverage, bandwidth limitations and data caps. That's a lot of costs and bottlenecks you're putting up with to save on taking a couple minutes to copy over the data to your phone locally. If you're doing small files, it's super duper quick, if you're doing large files, the cloud isn't as effective.

How often do you think i am transferring several GB worth of stuffs from pc to phone/microsd card then? I am streaming video directly on phone/tablet. I can also download all my tv series, ebooks, music directly into my tablet, or directly into the micro sd card through my tablet. All done without plugging in my phone.

If you are frequently downloading several GB worth of stuffs on pc and then transferring them into the micro sd card, instead of downloading straight into the microsd card or tablet/phone, i suggest you to rethink the way you do things.

The topic here was never about hdd storage vs cloud storage. It was you who force it into that direction. If you go back and see the post you first quote me, it was about transferring stuffs into your phone by plugging in phone to pc/using cloud. But if agreeing with you is what it takes to drop the hdd talk, then sure. Hdd is better than cloud. Now back to the topic.

Lets talk 512GB or 1TB then if 15GB is too small for phone. I see google drive offering 1TB at $10 per month. I see the recently announced microdia 512GB card at around $1000, $2000 to get 2 of the cards to get that 1TB. Suppose you want 1TB of storage on your phone in this case, what will you choose then? A $10 per month plan on cloud, or $2000 for 2 512 GB microsd card?

Coverage/data cap issue is really no different from the issue of needing a cable to plug your phone or needing to seek a pc to download a file and then plugging in your phone to transfer that file to your phone. Sure it works. Its just that it is archaic and that there are already alternatives that doesn't involve plugging in the phone. Cloud is one of them. Direct download into sd card via tablet/phone is another.