Moving from one device to another will get you to spend more

Jul 28, 2014 15:16 GMT  ·  By
I read a story about some guy on the Internet switching from iPhone to a Windows phone device. His reason was related to the camera of the new device. For him, the 41-megapixel camera in some Nokia phone would make a lot of difference. 
 
And he may be right. The iPhone doesn't have the best camera in the world, but it is the most used device on Flickr and other photo-related sites. The problem with switching is not the device or the current camera capabilities, but the new world you are entering. 
 
Buying a phone 10-15 years ago didn't really matter. You could have switched from a Nokia 3310 to a Sony Ericsson or to a Motorola feature phone just by getting the SIM card inside your device and inserting it in the new one. It was that easy. Yes, you would lose the Snake Game on your Nokia Phone, but there were other 8-bit games on your Sony Ericsson, so that was not a problem. 
 
The specs don't matter anymore
 
Try and do the same now. If the phones are both running on Android, it is a little bit easier. If you're trying to move away from the iPhone because the camera in some Nokia handset is better this month or the screen in a Samsung Galaxy S 5 is larger, you're running into a lot more issues. 
 
Buying a smartphone doesn't only get you the microprocessor, RAM, touch display and a nice shape, but it opens possibilities for getting into a world of apps, design, and UX. Users of a new Smartphone will not be interested if the microprocessor has X GHz or X.2 GHz. They will mostly not care about the battery having that many mAh, but how long that is going to hold charge. The current smartphone batteries are measured in "is it going to last more than one or two days?"
 
The ecosystem
 
The most important detail about your phone is the ecosystem it creates around it. If you buy an iPhone, you know for sure that you are going to buy apps from the AppStore and they are going to be virus- and malware-free. You also get the peace of mind that you put your credit card once when you set up your account and all payments are handled by iTunes
 
No worries with malware stealing your credit card information, no hassle with entering your credit card information on shady websites or different App Markets.
 
Having your fingerprint used as a way to pay for an app that you know works with your iOS Device makes a big difference. 
 
The ecosystem is made of the apps that are working fine and are being actively developed and checked by the App Store staff. Most of them are free, but you will eventually pay for some of the apps and games or go through in-app purchase to get new features for your favorite app. 
 
If you were an iPhone user when it first came out and you use an iPhone now, you know you have probably paid some amount of money for apps. Those apps are in your iTunes account, always available to download, always free. 
 
Are you willing to give that away for a phone that has a camera with more megapixels? Would you buy the phone and then try to find worthy replacements for those iOS apps? Can you even find good replacements? The guy that moved from iPhone to a Windows Phone device says the Instagram app is still in Beta and it looks like a basic photo uploader. The same app has been on iOS for at least four years and the features keep adding up.
 
Do you still think you are paying a premium for Apple products? Then the peace of mind, malware absence, and millions of apps are not for you!