I arrived late to the Apple party. When I was a coder I loved PCs and felt that Apple Macs were merely expensive toys for those working in the creative industry.

Yet, no matter how powerful the computer I bought, Microsoft Windows seemed to grind it to a snail's pace within months. I was fed up of waiting five minutes just for my computer to come to life every time I switched it on, not to mention the ridiculously long updates to install every few days, eventually, I took the plunge and I bought my first Mac. It was a revelation; I could simply open up my laptop and within seconds carry on working, wasting hours a day watching a spinner while Windows opened a new programme was a thing of the past. Mac’s are great, you don’t have to worry about viruses, the blue screen of death, downloading drivers to connect to hardware, everything just works. Consequently, when Apple released the first-ever iPhone I bought one immediately and soon, I began to classify myself as a pretty big Apple fan.

"I took the plunge and I bought my first Mac."

There’s a lot to be said for devices that simply work, and that’s the great thing about Apple’s closed ecosystem. Apple controls the hardware and the software, it all works together seamlessly, you can just pick up where you left off regardless of the Apple device you are using, a stark contrast to the wild west of the Android and PC world. After Steve Jobs’ passed away, I was initially optimistic that Apple would remain innovative and continue to create awesome products, but as the years went by and Apple churned out virtually the same devices with a few cosmetic upgrades it became clear that Tim Cook was much more interested in profit than innovation. Still, I thought that the iPhone X would be awesome, after all, the richest company in the world with the best talent in the industry had been working on this project for years. I bought an iPhone X on the day they were released, I have to say, I was pretty disappointed.

The iPhone X is not a bad phone, and the screen is impressive, but the screen is not edge-to-edge as marketed by Apple, and many Android phones have superior screens. The lack of a home button makes navigation on the iPhone X difficult, not to mention Apple have removed the headphone jack which has proven to be a pain. The iPhone X is harder to use than the previous iPhones and lacks the magic of the products Steve Jobs had worked years to create.

"After Steve Jobs’ passed away [...] it became clear that Tim Cook was much more interested in profit than innovation."

Running an app development company, I have overseen the creation of countless apps and submitted them to the app store on a regular basis. While I understand that Apple has to review every app submitted to the store to ensure the quality of the apps available remains high, the guidelines are fairly ambiguous. Sometimes apps we fear may face rejection are approved quickly, and other times, Apple scrutinises the very aspects they have accepted in our other apps and continue to reject our submission. It all feels very arbitrary and Apple seems to be getting stricter all the time. It’s difficult to deal with the uncertainty of App Store submission, especially when our clients are paying a lot of money to have an app developed, often with a fixed release date. Sometimes, Apple changes the goalposts and removes apps from the store which fall foul of their new guidelines and policies.

So, when my contract was up on my iPhone X I considered the unthinkable, I looked at the new (at the time) Huawei P20 Pro phone. The screen is awesome, it has amazing battery life, 3 cameras with Leica lenses, and Touch and Face ID embedded in the screen. This was a million miles ahead of the iPhone of the time. So, I took the plunge and turned to the dark side; I left behind the safety of iOS and switched over to Android! Perhaps the most striking aspect of my Huawei P20 Pro is its survival skills. The robust hardware withstood the ultimate test as it fell out of my pocket and plummeted to the ground from an astonishing 62 meters high on the notorious Stealth ride at Thorpe Park, surviving without even as much as a scratch.


"I took the plunge and turned to the dark side; I left behind the safety of iOS and switched over to Android!" 


The honeymoon period was great, after the initial pain of moving over all of my photos and downloading all my apps again, I had a newfound love for Android. It felt liberating being in an environment where I had regained control, everything is customisable, being able to set Google maps as a default rather than Apple forcing you to use its substandard offering is great. However, after a few months, once the novelty wore off, I started to miss my iPhone. The Huawei P20 Pro is a great phone, but Android just isn’t as polished as iOS. Apple products work flawlessly, whereas on Android, I often encounter issues and small annoyances start to mount up. I miss iMessage, access to Find My iPhone, Family Sharing and the integration with my Mac. Google photos, for example, do not have an application compatible with Mac so you can only access your photos on a website, which is a pain if you don’t have an internet connection. So, I haven’t changed back yet, but I’m tempted, I’ll wait to see what Apple comes up with next year. If they finally crack the battery life or add supercharging I think I’ll switch!

"After a few months, once the novelty wore off, I started to miss my iPhone."

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November 15, 2019
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