I have a dilemma.. iPhone or a mid range Android phone?
I’ve been out of contract for 4-6 years now, the current phone I use is a battered HTC Hero (came out in 2007?), and it’s currently got a bulging battery which won’t hold its charge.. and looks of ‘what the hell is that thing!?’ from people who spot me using it.
Thanks to the limited budget choices of ‘modern technology’ and our ‘generous’ network operators.. Boils down to the choice of iOS or Android. I’m also considering a card payment system for on site visits, so security is a must.
I’d also prefer up to date security when dealing with clients networks/systems from the phone or tablet, something Android couldn’t keep up with.
Some of the services I want to offer make the iPhone choice more popular.
- I want to be able to send receipts or efficiently time track jobs on site.
- I want to be able to pull up system/parts specifications from our testing database or invoice system
- The software I’m looking at for on site payment processing and booking in jobs, customers and retrieving information all have iOS apps, but ‘coming soon to Android’.. By which time it’ll be Android 5+ only leaving my 2.1 Hero, or an Android 4.4 alternative.. screwed and back to square 1.
- In terms of user security and tracking. It works better.
- It’s 1 OS rules all model works out cheaper than buying a high-end Android, better way of future proofing.
- Remote Apps can allow me to create invoices/estimates in the field, place orders out of office and also in some case remote assist clients.
- HDR photo mode looks nice to use, on all models since 4s.
- Actual regular updates for security. My HTC only ever had 1 update in its lifetime and that was at least 4 years ago.
And the points of why I don’t want to choose iPhone.
- Its Apple.. From a technical aspect its horrendous to work with.
- Expensive unless I go for a crippled/feature missing versions such as 4s or 5c
- Even though I can replace the screen myself, it does get expensive with iPhones being the only ones I’ve seen break consistency (Winning with 5 iPhone/iPad screens replaced to 1 Android tablet). My HTC Hero has been dropped 3 times and ran over.. and all what happened was a few dents and a scratch on the casing.
- Bad build quality, especially in the 6 series (Bendy ones).
- Being able to use the new services to remote connect to a problem PC would have clients expect me to do it from anywhere!
- Siri, Apple’s voice assistant.. The whole thought of it is just.. gimmicky?
- Apple’s mapping software was and probably still a little off.. Would you like to travel by road or river? Luckily Google Maps has an App for iOS.
I used to like Android, Here’s why I’d go for it again:
- Base integration with Google email, Apps and reliable search/mapping.
- Open system so you can make your own apps.
- The Apps on the services I’m looking at using to do my job efficiently are ‘Coming Soon’
- Actual USB connectors, I can fit mini A and B into my Hero at the moment. All Apple phones are ‘Lightning’ based cables which seem expensive to replace.
And the bad points:
- My HTC hero only ever got 1 update.. from 2.0.6 to 2.2.1, and that took at least 4-8 months for HTC to push to Vodafone then 2-3 months onto handset, this was 4 years ago.. Seen the same lack of support/updates with many more Android handsets. I can see this happening again.
- Decent supported handsets such as the Nexus’s are very expensive, Support comes directly from Google and the Nexus 5, despite being at least 4 years old is still getting updates.
- 1000’s of Apps to try.. Still no filtering on good bad or the ugly.
- lots to choose from, maybe too many models?
- Manufactured devices with branded OS seem bloated and ‘designed to fail’
- ‘Coming Soon’ might as well be classed as ‘You’ll be lucky’ and ‘Prepare for Disappoint’.
- They are either behind and trying to catch up with Apple, or just introducing new things to drive prices higher.
And for the people who says ‘what about Windows phones?’
- It’s Windows. If I wanted to carry around a Windows device I’d get a Surface or netbook. While it seems easier to do, again new features and security and lack of apps is an issue.
- Not really a mobile solution and issues with RT/normal windows interactivity. Would mean the stuff I want to use can be done via web interfaces.
- More susceptible to malware, though I could possibly roll it back each time.
And Blackberry?
- How are they still going?
- No really.. how?
It’s possibly looking like an Apple phone for me, as the integration with the tools I use is already there and decent Android handsets what aren’t already out of support are somehow more expensive.
