Android is, in my opinion, the "best of what's currently available." Mind you, this does not imply that it is "good".
I dearly miss PalmOS and the Tungsten and Treo product lines, as well as the Psion brand. Those terrific PDA's had features that modern phones still lack. Conversely, I think modern phones come with a plethora of features that aren't really positive. But then, I'm not really a fan of the whole style where you can barely touch a device anywhere without operating it in some way. This is just my personal opinion.
The #1 reason why I would never choose Apple's products is that, while they excel at what you're supposed to use them for, their platform is way too locked down for my taste. As a device owner, I want the ability to customise stuff and install (and remove!) whatever the hell I want (including ads!), and Android delivers that in far greater measure than Apple.
My first smartphone was an iPhone. Most things were counter intuative. I also had to jailbreak it to do the things I wanted. A lot of it was basic stuff. The one I remember was that I wanted to use certain Bluetooth devices that would only work when jailbroken.
Once I tried Android there was no turning back. I've used Apple devices for work and it is still counter intuative but things like Bluetooth are less restrictive at least. Still you shouldn't have to try to break or hack the system you're on to get basic settings that aren't available by default.
Android. I like being able to install apps from places other than the official app store. Do I do it often on my phone? No. But I also have an Android-powered retro handheld gaming doodad (Retroid Pocket 3) and that's full of all kinds of homebrew, from Sonic fangames to emulators to a sourceport of Mario 64 that could never be gotten from the Apple appstore.
Do I like Android? Yes, but as much as I used to. I used to really look forward to exploring a new version of the OS, but over the past five years or so there's been a steady march to iOS-ify it and dumb it down. Now, when I install a new version of Android, I get a sinking feeling in my stomach as I see all the nifty stuff being removed :(
It depends on a lot. I currently have an iPhone, and I like it, but I've never had an Android phone that was my daily driver.
If I switched, what would I feel like I'm giving up, without having any experiential knowledge of what it would be like?
iMessage and privacy. Or at least the perception of privacy.
Preface to state that blackberry 10 and Microsoft Windows phones were much better than iOS and Android for almost everything except getting devs to build apps on their platforms.
I like the idea of Android. I want there to be an open ecosystem and different types of devices that can look similar or look different.
It’s a real pain in the ass to manage Android. There was admin mode, now there’s enterprise mode. Also there’s Knox, with various options and licensing that overlap with your mdm. Oh and gmail enterprise is the email app but you need to include chrome, unless you’re using Knox but oh yeah never mind that was deprecated you’ll be using gmail. Also the dual-profile thing isn’t very seamless. Also depending on the phone vendor, model, and OS version the UI will be different. Good luck teaching anyone the changes or talking them through screens.
It’s so bad that Microsoft developed Outlook for Android and app-level management to largely ignore the nonsense that was managing android devices.
Over on iOS, the UI has largely remained the same since release. MDM isn’t great but it’s gotten better. It’s a breeze to manage compared to iOS. Apps are pretty consistent in design.
Windows phones never really got around to MDM, but blackberry phones were always easy to manage.
IOS is simple better for enterprise and most non-technical users that need a smartphone and have no interest in customizing it.
I've never liked how much apple locks down their operating systems... It takes so much effort to install any software that's not on the app store, and last time I used an iPhone you couldn't even put app icons wherever you wanted on the home screen.
But being totally honest, I use Android because Android phones are way cheaper, I couldn't afford any remotely recent Apple device even if I wanted one.
Being able to side load apps, especially things like revanced for YouTube premium bypassing has been amazing. Nowadays everyone is trying to extract dollar from you, having these apps helps you get a great experience without being smashed with 15s ads after you've watched 5m of content
Android. I have an ipad and I hate how restricted you are in iOS. There’s no (official) sideloading of apps (yet).
Browsers suck hard. Everything is basically Safari with a skin. I wish I could get Firefox with full extension support.
I feel like I’m constantly battling the OS when I want to do something that seems really simple.
Case in point: you cannot remove photos from your photostream (or whatever it’s called).
You can add them to albums, sure, but they will also stay in the main feed. I want to move them and unclutter my feed.
And finally, and this might be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think iOS is intuitive at all. I constantly have to google how to do things, only to often find I simply can’t, or not easily at least.
I prefer Android but am using a iPhone 13 mini. If imessage was on android I would drop it in a heartbeat. Apple's platform is amazing and if you are all in on it then you can prosper. The second you try to use an apple product or service different than apple intends, you will have a bad time.
I support apple for their privacy and update stances but I do not like their unwillingness to embrace other platforms.
Android all the way. I'm just not comfortable with the Apple ecosystem at all. iOS definitely has its advantages with the devices that run it being standardized. However, while I don't necessarily need bleeding edge everything, I enjoy personalizing things to taste, and ultimately do not like devices nor operating systems that are locked down tightly.
Android because it makes more sense to me, although that is probably because it is similar enough to windows type systems.
I have never enjoyed working with Apple products other than the iPod. It just feels like it is holding my hand and forcing me to do things a certain way that hides the details I care about.
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