For all of you hating on the articles about moving to iOS. My experience.

Somerichs

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I originally posted a version of this in the comments to the article about 5 tips for moving to iOS.

Windows phone/mobile diehards had plenty negative to say about that article, along with the one yesterday about things converts will love about the iPhone.

I don't expect that I'll change (m)any minds with this, and I'm not really even trying to. I just want to share my experience and my take on this particular topic. If you're all in on your Windows Phone and Windows Mobile, God bless and more power to you. It takes a certain kind of person to be able to do that, but I'm not him (or her).

I wanted to be, but for my specific situation it just wasn't feasible.

So, I ditched my Windows Icon on Verizon back in January 2016. "New every two" was up, my Icon was doing some funky things, no new Windows phones were available, I couldn't upgrade beyond windows 8 (I think; i don't recall the version I was on, but there was a newer one available that was a PITA to move to for someone not overly techy and with not a lot of free time), and not a soul I knew used Windows Phone.

All my family members had Apple devices, so it was really a no-brainer to switch to an iPhone to get us all on the same ecosystem to be able to text, video chat, and be able to easily track what they're doing on their phones. (There was no way on earth they were all moving to WP).

Like I said, I didn't want to necessarily, but I didn't have much choice given the above. And you know what? I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm soooooooooooo glad I did.

I was a WP evangelist, too. Always talking about how good the cameras were, how cool live tiles were, etc etc, to anyone who'd listen (their listening lasted all of about 13 seconds before their eyes glazed over and I could tell they'd tuned me out).

But the point eventually came when I tired of all the sh*t that came with being on WP: The neverending waiting and wishing and hoping for the next great phone, for the next great software upgrade (slow ring, fast ring, insider previews, reboots, etc), for a fast camera, for the next halfway decent app to come to the windows ecosystem.

Ok, actually, I take that last one back. I didn't care a whit about the "App Gap" when I was on WP. I didn't use all that many of them and don't care too much about games, so it wasn't a big deal to me.

Not a big deal, that is, until I moved over to an iPhone (I've got the iPhone 6S, by the way). I found a ton of apps that were actually useful in my everyday life. From banking (I use a relatively small credit union in socal that never would have had an app on WP, along with a Cap One CC), to entertainment (HBO, Showtime, Starz, Epix) to sports (watching March Madness games on my phone was really cool), to lots of useful travel apps. Honestly, even if I could go back to WP now I don't know that I would.

All in all, and this is the point I most want to make to you diehard windows phone adherents, I just had to recalibrate how I look at my phone. I loved my Icon. LOVED it (ditto for my 928 before it). And I looked at it as a cool piece of technology. I know, there's no shortage of people who feel that way about the iPhone, but I'm not really one of them.

These days, as an iPhone user, I view my phone as a tool. That's it. I need my phone to be able to reliably make calls and send texts. I need to be able to keep in touch with my family. I want to be able to take reasonably good pics with it (and with my iPhone 6s, they're pretty darn good).

The iPhone does all of those things exceedingly well, and very reliably. It just works. It almost never crashes (ymmv). The camera is lightning fast shot to shot. All the things I struggled with on my Icon are non-issues on my iphone. I certainly ain't no apple ****** (still use PCs and that will never change), and I don't talk up my iPhone every chance I get, but as a tool it does what I need it to do and that's enough for me.

So, blast away if you want on this, but I don't regret ditching WP, not for a single second. I do have occasional pangs of what could have been, but MS dorked it up, pretty much at every turn.

Now, that said, I haven't completely ditched the MS ecosystem. From my years using windows phones, I'm dug in on several fronts. My main personal email address is on Outlook. I also used OneDrive for my cloud storage, so I've never moved over to iCloud, and I used OneNote a lot too. And of course I've always used MS Office.

I continue to use all of those things on my iPhone:

  • I do all my backups (camera roll and all) to OneDrive instead of the icloud, and it works without a hitch. The OneDrive app is great.
  • MS Office apps are great, too (i use them sparingly, however).
  • I have the Outlook app, and it's ok, though I prefer using the iphone mail functionality (I hate the focused inbox).
  • I never got into Groove because I was already dug in on Amazon for music back when I had my 928 and Icon, and the Amazon Music app is incredible on iOS.
  • I also still play the xbox game Wordament.
  • The Microsoft Pix app is very cool, too (contrary to popular belief, it was not created in order to make your camera go slower. :smile: ).
  • I almost forgot about Microsoft's Wordflow! I pulled down that keyboard app and it works like a charm, too.

Love it or hate it, it's true that MS has done a bang-up job on their iOS apps.

If you really make a point to use what's available from MS, you can mitigate a lot of what you likely dislike about the apple experience (iCloud, iTunes, keyboard).

So that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. My life with an iphone is just waaaaaay easier. To quote Kramer, "I'm out there and I'm lovin' every minute of it!" :)

I gave up the struggle and the pain and the annoyance and the frustration that is inherent in owning a Windows Phone, but I still get to continue to use all the great stuff I love about Microsoft that they do well. You can try to tell me below there's nothing annoying about your Windows Phone experience, but I'll know your lying, even if you can't admit it to yourself. :devil:

And for the record, too: should MS actually defy everyone's expectations and come out with a new phone or whatever is the next evolution of mobile telephony, with an experience that isn't as painful as it is a joy to use, I'll happily jump back in with both feet.

In the meantime, though, I urge you to join me and just give up the ghost. Come to the dark side. I'll buy you a beer when you get here. You'll see just how simple it can be to own a mobile phone. :)
 

libra89

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This was an interesting write-up. I really have to give you props on your honesty here. I'm glad that you realized what works for you and that your iPhone is really a tool for you that works well. That's good to hear.
 

LuxuryTouringZone

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"For all of you hating on the articles about moving to iOS. My experience."

Perhaps Apple should build a Windows 10-powered iPhone variant to bring peace to the people.
 

Drael646464

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I feel like apple is more of a MS competitor than google is. iOS has good software, even if the platform is kinda dull, apple seems more ambitious, and market saavy.

Windows PC loves your devices tm, regardless :)

Might be this is in the wrong section tho.

I'm moving from android and bb10 to windows 10 mobile. I feel like now is perfect timing, just as things are IMO about to start to get exciting, with the windows store about to be hotting up due to xamarin 2, windows s and windows on arm + Cortana skills and fluent design, timeline coming, over the next year or two, IMO things will be interesting for win10 mobile users.

But I think the MS experience on iOS, if you swing that way (and have the cash) would be good. Equally blackberry on the android side would probably offer a pretty good MS experience.

Re: the articles....

Still we don't really need articles persuading people to leave the platform.

It would be better to phrase it as how MS services work with other devices, rather than 'woe is me, the sky is falling windows 10 mobile users!", all the time. Its a contagious general FUD that really has a great deal less basis than many make out.

I mean if someone, like many 10 mobile users is sitting on a four year old phone, often running an OS revision it was never optimised for sitting in the fast insiders ring beta bleeding edge, complaining about instability. All they need to hear is "get another type of phone, windows phone is dead, its all microsofts fault", and they don't know any better - they haven't tried 3 different platforms on modern hardware.

And its clickbait, those articles, and honestly with the ads making this site nearly unusable, and the clickbait articles, I think this site goes too far.

I mean lets face it "how to move from iPhone to windows 10 mobile" or the same for android would generate twice as many clicks anyway, and there are people doing just that (even if its less), and its clearly clickbait they want, so why not?

Equally, and even more topically "moving from MacBook to surface laptop" would be a very good guide to write, given I think quite a lot of people are considering such a move, at least I've heard to the bone apple fans saying just this sort of thing.

I'm all for people using whatever devices they damned please. But I think the sort of articles you are speaking of, are misleading and lazy, the way they are written AND presented.

Your post you just wrote is probably a more helpful guide for those wanting MS software on iOS, than anything I've read on the front page.

I mean unless you are talking about an ecosystem conversion (like mac to pc), if you are using Microsoft services for example the same guide could be written better as

"A guide to Microsoft services on the iPhone"

or

"What the best Microsoft apps are on the android platform"

and actually have a wider audience (like current users of those phones). Those same articles could then also be posted on the sister sites, like crackberry, imore, and android central. Seems like a much better way of doing things.
 
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kaktus1389

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Nice one. I myself have been considering moving to iOS if Microsoft decides to ditch us all again. I am happy with my 950, but I am curious about other platforms now too and the main reason for this is that Microsoft actually has Samsung Galaxy S8 in their store. I did not see that coming (or did not want to?), but after that I realized that if they don't care about their platform, why should I? On the other hand, I don't want to buy a new phone after about 8 months as I planned to stick with it until 2018, but if by miracle I get some extra cash during the Summer, I might as well jump in to get an iPhone as a secondary device, just to see what is it like in the neighbour's courtyard.

I checked out iMore and Android central for a bit and I was surprised to see that iMore members are actually more friendly and responded a lot more to my thread than people on Android Central (I got a single response there). The only question is which iPhone to buy if I were to buy one (and iPhone 7 is not an option).
 

libra89

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Nice one. I myself have been considering moving to iOS if Microsoft decides to ditch us all again. I am happy with my 950, but I am curious about other platforms now too and the main reason for this is that Microsoft actually has Samsung Galaxy S8 in their store. I did not see that coming (or did not want to?), but after that I realized that if they don't care about their platform, why should I? On the other hand, I don't want to buy a new phone after about 8 months as I planned to stick with it until 2018, but if by miracle I get some extra cash during the Summer, I might as well jump in to get an iPhone as a secondary device, just to see what is it like in the neighbour's courtyard.

I checked out iMore and Android central for a bit and I was surprised to see that iMore members are actually more friendly and responded a lot more to my thread than people on Android Central (I got a single response there). The only question is which iPhone to buy if I were to buy one (and iPhone 7 is not an option).

I would suggest the SE if you don't have a thing against small screens.
 

kaktus1389

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I would suggest the SE if you don't have a thing against small screens.

Unfortunately I prefer medium to large screens (950 is a sweet spot for me, though the 640 XL was good for me too, lol. When I see people taller than me using that tiny iPhone 5 I wonder how they can accurately touch anything on the screen
 

libra89

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Unfortunately I prefer medium to large screens (950 is a sweet spot for me, though the 640 XL was good for me too, lol. When I see people taller than me using that tiny iPhone 5 I wonder how they can accurately touch anything on the screen

One hand typing is king. Some people do the 2 thumbs typing but 1 hand works best.. Hmm that's hard. Maybe the 6s or even the 6.
 

vhl71

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While i tend to agree with OP's comments on iOS i could never move to iOS or android for following reasons:

The ui is too boring - love the windows ui
Dail sim capability of my Lumia 950
Camera - nothing comes close to Lumia. Wife has the iPhone 7 plus. It's not even close
Wireless charging and nfc - i used them a lot
Glance screen. - i cant tell how much I use and enjoy this

So everyone is different i guess

Sent from mTalk
 

camaroz1985

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I think there are lots of things to like about all the platforms and having options makes things even better. There are definitely pluses and minuses to each. Maybe that is why it is so hard for me to decide. A year ago, I wouldn't have thought of using anything other than Windows Phone, but now that I have used both iOS and Android, it is hard to pick just one to use. So option D is to use all three and drive yourself completely mad. I don't recommend that to anyone though haha.
 

libra89

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I think there are lots of things to like about all the platforms and having options makes things even better. There are definitely pluses and minuses to each. Maybe that is why it is so hard for me to decide. A year ago, I wouldn't have thought of using anything other than Windows Phone, but now that I have used both iOS and Android, it is hard to pick just one to use. So option D is to use all three and drive yourself completely mad. I don't recommend that to anyone though haha.

Yep, we have similar minds. It is hard.

I like how simple iOS is, along with the size of the SE.
I like the Pixel's cameras and being able to customize, along with those excellent radios.
I like how Windows phone has so much personality inside and out, considering the excellent balance of customization and simplicity.
 

anon(50597)

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While i tend to agree with OP's comments on iOS i could never move to iOS or android for following reasons:

The ui is too boring - love the windows ui
Dail sim capability of my Lumia 950
Camera - nothing comes close to Lumia. Wife has the iPhone 7 plus. It's not even close
Wireless charging and nfc - i used them a lot
Glance screen. - i cant tell how much I use and enjoy this

So everyone is different i guess

Sent from mTalk

I can agree with most of your points except:
The current iPhones have NFC (Applepay uses it I believe). Maybe that's all you can do with it though?
The iPhone cameras are quite good. To say its not even close is an exaggeration.

There are things about all OS's that are superior. The iPhone works fluidly, does what it does well, and has the best customer support.
The UI is boring as he** though!

Sent from mTalk on my SP4
 
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@Somerichs i think i kind of understand you. for computers, windows is my platform of choice - nothing can replace what i can do with a windows computer. not gonna change my mind on that.
for phones, for some reason, no windows phone ever compelled me all that much. the UI is nice and all, but something just felt lacking ( and i'm not just referring to the apps). the only windows phone that ever excited me is still mythical - I'm referring of course to the surface phone.
 

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