Why did you switch from iPhone to Lumia?

[paradox-sj]

I was without a doubt a mobile iProduct fan boy and LOVED my iPod too no end. I converted countless people to mobile iProducts back in the day including getting my company to standardize on them. That said I am also a tech enthusiast and the mobile iProduct platform became very stale in a Windows 3.1.1 kind of way. Static icons on a desktop was great in the 90’s and 2000’s but oh so boring.

Live Tiles
I LOVED Active Desktop in Win7 so when I first saw live tiles, I was hooked. With a single glance I could get relevant information without the need for clicks. What a concept right?! It was simple beautiful and increased my productivity.

Better tech/Better company
Wireless charging, OIS and a camera to die for. Better battery life. Built like a tank. (Lumia) And not looking to monetize me without my permission and acknowledgment or gouge me or price.

Potential
I also believed that it would be only a matter of time before that hardware would catchup to the software. That is as we moved from Mainframe, to desktops, to laptops to mobile phones. That we would eventually have the power and abilities of the former larger device on the smaller device. That Roaming Profile would become the standard and TRUE pocketPC would be in everywhere. Well imho that day (has almost) has arrived. (July 29th) In a cloud first, mobile first world, who would be in the best position (after the DOJ shackles were removed) to execute on this? None other than M$ and I say that with a smile.

900>920>1520

 

[LoveAsYouKnowIt]

Here are my reasons:

1. No More iTunes!
2. OIS in Camera
3. No more annoying badge over my icon because I didn't read that email!
4. Wireless charging
5. Good ecosystem! (Read: No iCloud crap)

 

[RJ Priest]

I fell in love with Windows Phone for the following reasons over the iPhone:

Windows Phone 8 Design Language
iOS is dated and boring. The whole concept of static desktop icons are a relic of the last century in UI / UX. Live tiles and metro design in Windows Phone 8 was exciting, refreshing, and the logical design for a touch screen device. I immediately fell in love with WP8 metro design, and it's a shame that we've lost the panoramic background images such as the photos hub.

Even though I initially loved solid colour live tiles, I think that the parallax scrolling tile background images introduced in 8.1 are an excellent idea. I love having the background image with transparent tiles, and I believe that had this been a feature upon Windows Phone 8 launch, it would have gone a long way to win over people who would say, "I hate the tiles" without even trying it.

Hardware Design
To this day, I still feel that the Lumia 920 is the most beautiful phone ever made. For me, it was love at first sight. Again, very refreshing to see such a design (I wasn't really aware of the Lumia 800 / 900 before hand). I find the typical iPhone "rounded rectangle" profile to be very uninspired and "done to death" by other copycat phone manufacturers. The profile of the Lumia 920 is brilliant - a perfect blend of form and function, which looks stunning and fits in the hand wonderfully. The only criticism is that it is slightly too thick for those who consider thinness to be a critical attribute for their mobile device.

Gotta love that PureView Zeiss plate which accompanies the camera lens on the rear of the phone. The physical camera button is a simple yet brilliant idea, and I'm amazed that other manufacturers haven't "ripped this off" from Nokia. The speakers facing the southern end of the phone rather than on the rear side also looks and sounds great.

Software Features
At the time of it's launch, Windows Phone 8 (again, to use the word "refreshing") was a bold breath of fresh air. It dared to do what others couldn't, and offered innovative features. The social media integration of Windows Phone 8 was fantastic. It was great to fire up the photos hub and be able to quickly pull up a photo from one of your own or your friend's facebook albums. Live tiles, toast notifications, the games hub with Xbox integration and mobile Xbox games, offline maps, etc. Again, it's a combination of the features and metro design which drew me to favor Windows Phone over iOS.

THE CAMERA!!!
...and finally, the Nokia Pureview Camera. Even though I was excited over the UI design of Windows Phone 8, and the physical design of the Lumia 920, it was the camera that really put things over the top. Nokia's PureView technology combined with a Zeiss lens and the low light capability was arguably the single most desirable feature that Windows Phone offered for me. Because the photographic experience is very important to me, when Nokia later debuted Nokia ProCam with the Lumia 1020, it really put things over the top, making Lumia the place to go. The HAAC microphones on Nokia's devices are also a huge selling point for those such as myself who want to capture the best video possible.


Final Comments:

Apple gets it right in one critical area - AVAILABILITY!!! On day one, you can easily go and grab an iPhone from any carrier, or directly from Apple. Until Microsoft Mobile can show us the door and let us walk through it, it will be difficult to sell future phones.

Despite how much I wanted a Lumia 920, I couldn't get one due to carrier exclusivity. After waiting the rumoured 6 months for exclusivity to end (if it ever did, Bell / Telus / Verizon never picked up the 920 cuz it was now "old"), I then waited to see if Canada would get the Lumia 925 (it didn't), so I had to settle for a Samsung ATIV S. I imagine that I'm only one of countless lost sales of the Lumia 920 due to exclusivity. After 2.5 years of crying for a Nokia PureView device, and with my 2 years contract on the ATIV S ending, and no flagship devices on Bell in Canada (at least they finally offer the 830, but I didn't want to "side grade"). I was able to pick up a Lumia 1520 back in late May 2015, and I absolutely love it.

Again, a tragedy that the Lumia 1520 was never offered in Canada, and was an exclusive in the USofA in a handicapped form on AT&T. Nokia lost many potential sales because it's silly to think that we want to switch carriers. It's 21st century culture, we can't be bothered to do anything, lol.

I absolutely love the Lumia 1520, and at least as things currently stand, nothing the iPhone offers would ever take me away from my Lumia. :smile:

 

[coconutxyz]

I'm also bored of ios status icon and wanted to try windows phone after 3 years of owning an iPhone 5..the only things I missed are the general touch responsiveness and smoothness of ios...640 XL doesn't seems to register my swipe or tap accurately..and alien blue is stutter free compared to readit..and seriously why isn't there any music app that has on screen volume control slider...

 

[LABcrab]

Although I didn't switch from iPhone to Windows (instead, I switched from Android to Windows Phone 7, and now run Phone 8.1), I still contemplated getting (and even developing for) an iOS device. The reasons chose Windows rather than iOS, #1 = least and #2 = most, are as follows:

1. Easy to customize. I think the iPhone is cookie-cutter, where both the colour and OS-accessible storage options are very limited and unchangeable once purchased. Meanwhile, the Samsung Focus (with Windows Phone 7.x) accepted microSD cards. Today, nearly all Windows 8.x devices support microSD, and those that don't generally include more GB than the base iPhone models. iOS also has few colours, with even (Product) Red being unavailable! Most Windows Phone offer many colours, some as user-changeable plates. Speaking of which, I changed my Lumia 810's colour from a regular black plate to a Qi-enabled cyan plate. Yay for wireless charging!
2. Carrier availability. From the HTC Radar to a wide range of Lumia (625, 810, 1020 and 1520, just to name a few), many Windows Phone are compatible with AWS 3G carriers like T-Mobile USA and (my carrier) Wind Mobile. I save lots of money on my monthly bill. In contrast, only half of the current iPhone lineup is compatible with Wind, and even then, some early iPhone 5 models are unsupported.
3. Universal Apps. Although the Mac is my main computer, the Mac App Store has a very limited app selection compared to the iOS App Store. Most of the "download on the App Store" apps are unavailable on Mac. What gives? Windows, meanwhile, lets me use paid and free Universal Apps on the device of my choice: phone, tablet or PC. This is much more convenient to use on a large screen.
4. Phone selection. The iPhone line only has 10 devices; only six run the latest OS. Windows Phone 7 had 28 devices and Phone 8.x has over 120. Instead of iPhone's haute couture boutique, Windows feels like an optical store, where I only pay for the features I want.
5. Developer incentives. With their current duopoly, Android and iPhone only seem to offer "a large crowd" as a developer incentive. This is disadvantageous in a way, however, because it's difficult to stand out in a crowded market. Microsoft offers many incentives like the Developer Movement (Canada only), Dvlup (worldwide) and App2Cert (pilot project) to reward developers for building apps on its platform. I've earned several free devices this way, but best of all, I've learned valuable tech experience I can use to improve the world.

I am a happy Windows Phone user and I enjoy supporting the underdogs. I find that they, unlike Android and iOS, promote innovation.

 

[KeithMr]

I switched from an iPhone 4s to a Lumia 830 when I switched my consulting practice to Office 365 Enterprise from Google Apps.
Windows Phone provides a complete, reliably-connected mobile office with Office 365 integration (including SharePoint) and full Lync/Skype4Biz. I am always connected to my clients, related work, or in-process documents.
Reasons: connected to Office, OneDrive, outstanding camera, battery life, live tiles, and phone quality.
A week after getting the phone I showed it to an artist/graphic designer who spent 9 months working at an Apple Store - I showed off the 830's main features and a few of the Zeiss camera's pics. She said, "Now I'm envious!"
Would never go back. Now looking to trade my iPad for a Surface,

 

[Alfetta159]

A job issued me an iPhone 4. I had to keep it in an Udder Box which was horribly clunky. I was frustrated by the fact that I couldn't charge from any USB port, I could only use a couple of different computers to sync, and I had to connect to a computer just to rearrange the Windows 3.1 style icons much less to move music onto the phone.

Then I got an HTC HD7 first generation Windows Phone. I could charge from any USB port. I could wirelessly sync photos and music. I could use my Microsoft Account to keep everything in sync with my other devices, and I could arrange tiles much less apply color to the phone anytime I wanted. People who were still stuck on iPhones would say, "Wow, you're phone is so big, what is that?" Later, I got a Nokia Lumia 925 and couldn't believe what nice photos it takes.

I'm looking forward to Windows Mobile, and I've never looked back at the iPhone while it's been trying to catch up in so many ways.

 

[sabilv]

here's the reasons why i move from android to lumia:

1. it was nokia at that time, my first device was lumia 520
2. I found windows phone os is very unique, compared to iOs and android
3. the simplicity of the whole enviorment, its easy to use and no annoying things
4. its microsoft products! I believe with them.
5. no need to worry about custom rom and other things to make your phone better, it already perfect out of the box!

 

[geno47]

i switched from an iphone 4 to a lumia 520 because its a nokia. the rest just follows:

simplicity of the OS
live tiles
battery life
camera quality (esp my 1020 and 1520)
being unique in itself

 

[The Werewolf]

Microsoft gave me a free Lumia. (really)

 

[Jonah Brown1]

I have owned the orginal iPad (it still works), the new iPad Air, Nexus 7. when I was browsing for phones I had read the for a budget phone Windows gave you a quality phone and a good price. So I got a Lumia 625 PrePaid phone and really liked it. I did get mocked by others because of the limited number of apps, but to me it was suppose to a phone. Also the camera was really good. I love to take photos.

Many months later I got a HTC M8 One with Android on a deal and I really really wanted to stick to Windows. Now after a month of Android I am planning on buying a unlocked Windows phone. Probanly the Lumia 640XL. Seriously this Android drains soo fast and apparently the HTC drop some fancy camera features so yeah I want my Lumia back.

So yeah Microsoft did a good job, keep it up.

 

[luvkv]

I never had a android or ios.. .. I started with symbian.. And now using windows.. ⌒.⌒:3

 

[Chaosz911]

I was an Apple ****** a few years ago, but got tired of Apple restricting my devices of their full potential. After that I went Android and that worked fine, no complaints there. Along came Microsoft. To be honest everyone at my work (sysadmins) was laughing at the idea of Microsoft phones, but without ever owning one. I got curious and purchased a Lumia 1520 and never looked back. My next phone will definately be a Microsoft phone and my collegues started switching as well Why? It just works, it's affordable, and even the lowend devices have a 'snappy' feel to them. Projects as Continuum make it only more promising!

 

[H Franci]

Well for my case i like the ui & simplicity. hving tiled apps wherein u cn simply customized as per ur needs & not hovering clickin around to get into a specific apps that i need.. Its all in one glance.. Plus yeah.Windows 10 new features. To unite all in 1 regardless what device u use...

 

[Darron Smith1]

Here's my story;

I am a previous owner of an iPhone 3, and iPhone 4. Just as I was tiring of the same-old-same, Apple was set to reveal the iPhone 5! I couldn't wait! I was SURE that Apple was going to "WOW" with something different! When I saw that the iPhone 5 was just a longer "same-old-same" I was so frustrated I didn't know what to do. At the time, my impression of Android was that it was trying to mimic iOS. My brother had a Cyan Lumia 800. After checking it out and having him walk me through the features, I started keeping up with Windows Phone. WP8 was looming in the near future and I was excited again for something new. I pounced on a white Lumia 920 the moment it became available, and never looked back!

After a couple of years, the camera flash on my 920 stopped working, so I went out and purchased an off contract Lumia 1020. The happiness I've experienced with my Windows Phones spilled over into my owning a Surface 2, and then stepping up to the Surface Pro 3, from which I am currently typing! Over the years I've been paring back my Google usage. I'm "all in" with Microsoft. I've switched from Evernote (Which I loved!) to One Note, from Gmail to Outlook.com and from Google to Bing. My MacBook Pro is relegated to extremely rare usage.

Oh, the power of a phone; Completely shifted my entire ecosystem!

Getting through this dry spell with lack of new phone hardware has been a challenge, but with word starting to get out on the new Windows 10 Mobile devices, it's time to start getting excited all over again!

 

[shaunydub]

I was using a HTC Desire on Droid that died so I moved to Galaxy S2 and thought it was amazing, all the possibilities of Android.
Then it got messy, battery issues, apps crashing, apps incompatible with the current build, new builds not coming to the phone after a certain time as newer phones were the priority and old phones forgotten.

I decided to change to HTC Titan and WP mainly because:
Xbox - being an Xbox gamer since the original box and owning a 360 this was great.
Speed & Stability.
Battery Life.
Something that looked different to the same old icons on Droid and ios.
Live Tiles - man they were amazing to actually have info updated and not need to open an app.
Messaging integration with SMS / Facebook all in one place.
People Hub.
Office.
And I just liked it after playing with it.

Since my Titan I moved onto a 920 and 1520 as my main devices and have a 520 somewhere as a backup device.
Sad that some of the features that I came to WP for have changed or are not exclusive anymore but I want it to keep going and succeed to lets see what happens with W10 and the next flagships.

 

[MarkusDindu]

I didn't switch from iPhone to Lumia, I switched from an L925 to an iPhone 6 Plus, and I love it. The iPhone 6 Plus is gorgeous, and I love being able to unlock my device with the touch of my thumb. The cpu in the iPhone is faster than anything available on WP, and I no longer have to put up with an awful "Resuming" message every time I want to perform a task. The battery life on the 6 Plus is better than almost every other flagship on the market, and it easily lasts me two full days. People here complain that the icons on the iPhone are boring, but seriously, who cares. I don't sit and stare at my home screen, I'm too busy enjoying the latest and best apps and games on the market. It feels good knowing that if people are talking about a cool new app that just came out, I can pull out my phone and immediately download it and try it out. When I was using my WP, I was always bummed out that I couldn't download any of the cool new apps, and it made me feel like a second class citizen. Apps like Periscope I'm totally in love with, and I enjoy having all of the apps for the local businesses in my city. Now that I can use my phone to pay for mostly everything with Apple Pay, I couldn't imagine going without it,

If Microsoft would have come out with a flagship months ago when I needed a new phone, I would have definitely bought one, but I'm really glad that I bought my 6 Plus. It's better than Windows Phone in every way. There is no way I would give up all of these awesome apps and games, they are what matters most to me, and probably the general public feels the same way. It's all about the apps.

 

[realwarder]

Such an obviously spam post.

 

[initram5]

I fell in love with the live tile, the camera quality, the oled screen, the dark theme, the keyboard, the nice system sounds. Comparing my Icon/930 to iPhone I'm confident that I made the right choice.

 

[anon(257207)]

So I had the iPhone 6 for a few months and my daughter wanted to get a new phone for Christmas, So I decided to use an upgraded and get the lumia 830. I had the Microsoft Band already syncing with the iPhone 6. I got the lumia and really liked the interface, The lack of apps was frustrating for sure, I was missing a good app for my Hue lights, My credit union, and of the gadgets like AR drone, etc.. even the weather channel app is not as good on the windows phone. The lumia 830 looses connection to the Band and needs to be rebooted about once a day or evey other day, the hue app crashes and looses it connection to the hue hub all the time, just not as stable or as good of an experience. I lasted till about 2 weeks ago from xmas and now im using my daughters old iPhone 5c. All the apps work no rebooting and no crashing. I want to love the windows phone i really do I love my surface pro 3 and my xboxes but just can not get there with their phone.. maybe someday... I have a year worth of payments on the 830 from att so i may switch back and forth