Should a heavy Microsoft User move to iOS or Android?

[liamfoneill]

Okay, so I spent about 20 minutes yesterday posting a question like this but wasn't logged in when I posted it so have no idea where it went. I'll try to keep this to the point as I am eager to hear everyone's opinion.

I am a heavy MS user. I pay for Office 365, Xbox Music, extra OneDrive storage for my personal account, I have an MSDN subscription and I develop apps on Microsoft Azure. I live fully in the MS ecosystem. I own a Dell XPS 15 2014, Dell Venue Pro 8 64gb tablet and also a Lumia 1520 unlocked.

That being said, I am ready to make the move to either iOS or Android and I'm just not sure which. The reasons are primarily the lack of applications that would make my life on the go a lot easier. I live in the UK. I picked my current bank (Barclays) primarily because they offer a good Windows phone app. However many other services I use simply don't offer a WP app, or if they do if has have the feature set of iOS or Android apps (I'm looking at you, Instagram!)

I don't want to sound like I am beating a dead horse to death, and I genuinely am a huge WP, it's just a shame a lot of third party developers of services I use are not also fans. I want to be able to book my flights, buy train tickets, access my work email and other things on my phone, which through no fault of MS' simply is not possible today.

My question is: What platform does a MS user pick? I use OneNote heavily, rely on MS office, have my life stored on OneDrive and have spend hours crafting the perfects playlist selection on Xbox music. I know all of these things are on both platforms, but I am eager to hear from other MS user's that have an iPhone 6/6+ or Samsung Note 4 or similar. I know most of the MS apps will be similar on both, but I would like to know what other insights are to be gained from a MS user who uses in iPhone 6/6+ or latest Android handset on a daily basis and how well this fits in their lifestyles.

Also is anyone else thinking of making the same decision. I will wait until the next Lumia flagship is announced anyhow

 

[jimkraz]

I moved from Windows phone to iPhone 6 and at the moment await my Apple Watch, I have desktop pc, Surface Pro (original) and Surface RT (original), I also use a iPad though have excess to both iPad and iPad mini, I moved my wife to Windows Phone, convinced my son and his partner to do likewise, but the iPhone 6 came out, I switched and don't regret it.

 

[Batwell95]

With Android you can use apps like Word Excel Powerpoint and i believe Onedrive

 

[Microsoftjunkie]

I'd probably go Apple. MS seems to favor osx/ios slightly more than android. Both platforms seem about even on MS services and apps. Since you already have O365 you don't have to pay with either platform.

If it was me, I'd go Apple.

 

[Japser]

I think Android and iOS are pretty comparable when talking about Microsoft services. So I'd just go with the OS (and phone) you like most and not focus on the Microsoft part of things.

 

[sinime]

I would go Android if it's an iOS or Android choice... My wife and I tried iOS a couple of years back and couldn't get back to WP fast enough. IOS just seems very restrictive if you aren't all in with them, and as bad as groove music is, iTunes always grinds my gears. That said, I think both my wife and I are going to try out Android for a bit and see where MS and Windows 10 go before, hopefully, jumping back. Just not sure I'll be able to resist the new WP flagships that haven't been officially announced yet.

 

[tgp]

I think Android and iOS are pretty comparable when talking about Microsoft services. So I'd just go with the OS (and phone) you like most and not focus on the Microsoft part of things.

This is exactly what I would recommend. I use Microsoft's services on both iOS and Android, and the difference is negligible at best. Go with whichever OS you prefer otherwise. You'll get great Microsoft services on either.

 

[Ian Too]

Well Liam, I feel for you. You have been force to choose between constraint and exposure, between iOS and being locked into Apple's ecosystem or Android and handing all your personal information into the tender care of Google.

For what it's worth, I'll go iOS when I'm forced and that is what I advise, but I'm staying put until Windows Mobile is completely untenable.

I have never trusted the internet enough to bank through it and I think this conservative approach has served me well. I'll never forget what I felt when I learned of Apple's GOTO FAIL bug, which had been introduced with iOS 6 and fixed with an update to iOS 7. This bug was simply an extra line of code that said GOTO FAIL, but what it did was break the authentication of any TLS connection, so if you shopped online with your iPhone, iPad or Mac (the fault was also in OS X) you were probably safe.

What this proves is that while the technology for secure transactions exists, it is easy to break the implementation such that there is no warning of a breakdown. So you see, this concern over the availability of apps may not be so pressing, because security measures could be undermined in the app, the phone or even server side. If you must bank etc online, using IE or Edge would seem to remove one layer of potential screw-up.

And then there is Google. Their official motto may be "do no evil", but I think "it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission" is the operative one. Right from Streetview they have gathered data without regard for citizens' personal privacy and have only modified their policies when authorities have intervened. What is more, Google had so little regard for our data that it was sent between their servers unencrypted enabling the biggest illegal data theft in history by the NSA, GCHQ and who know who else. (In fairness, everybody including Microsoft, Facebook and Apple fell into this trap.) Google do now encrypt data kept on their servers, but guess who is the one group who don't have access to the password? Yep, it's the user whose information it is.

Put simply, I do not trust Google as an organisation. I'm sure there are many people in Google who are fine people and who do good work, but the corruption is right at the top and not even their web searches are reliable any more. So you see an alternative is not merely a matter of preference, but necessity for me and that alternative seems to be good old aunty Microsoft. Who'd have thought it?

Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[Pete]

You guys realise that this thread was 3 months old before it was resurrected. I feel that Liam has moved on by now in whatever direction he chose....

 

[sinime]

You guys realise that this thread was 3 months old before it was resurrected. I feel that Liam has moved on by now in whatever direction he chose....

Nice

 

[Xsled]

Now I am curious what he did. Though we will probably never know.