With the next incarnation of the iPhone reportedly days away from debut (currently rumoured as the iPhone 5S) I’ve found myself evaluating whether or not I want to continue in the Apple mobile ecosystem. While I have been a huge fan of the iPhone since the iPhone 3G days, I’ve found myself slowly checking out other platforms. I’ve heard a lot of people theorize that Apple needs to have a new major feature addition (ie. the next SIRI) but personally I disagree with these folks. The iPhone had an extraordinary run of subsequent major “revolutionary” additions, but the public can’t expect a single company to constantly think up home-run features every year – it’s not feasible. Although there are some great things that my Nexus 7 does that I wish my iPhone would do, there is a certain level of stability and ease that Apple offers that none of its competition does – which brings me to my first point.
Keep the Stability: Apple has already announced that they are undergoing a major change in the feel of iOS, so I am concerned that they are going to change more than just the theme of the phone. If Apple has done a major overhaul of iOS, it stands to reason they could lose the stability that their platform has become known for. If they lose the stability I think they’ll find a hard time keeping some of the more techy people like myself who are willing to trade features for stability.
iMessage Improvement: While iMessage is a feature that appeased many people since it was announced in 2011, the service has undergone little change and is still plagued with a variety of issues. I frequently find myself encountering iMessage outages or dealing with quirks that force me to send messages through alternate methods. BlackBerry Messenger will be arriving cross-platform soon, so Apple needs to pull up their socks and make some major improvements.
Ability to set the default Browser: Sorry to tell you this Apple but Safari has had its moment in the sun -t it’s time to realize there are better options available for iOS (Chrome). I’m tired of opening up a link from my email only to find it’s opened in Safari, which I would have yanked off my phone ages ago if it were an option.
Finally, I need you to give me hope: As I said, I’m not expecting something revolutionary, but I do need to see that you care about me. The iPhone 5 was largely a catch-up phone but I do need you to show me that you’re listening to what us consumers want. We need a new feature debut that demonstrates that the company we fell in love with year ago still exists. All I’m asking is that you show us a glimmer of hope – if you do this we’ll know that one day that a “revolutionary feature” will make an appearance again when you’re good and ready.
While there are a lot of great things that I have liked about Android and my Nexus 7, there’s still a large part of me that isn’t ready to abandon the Apple ship yet. I do admit that currently I’m much closer to tipping to Android then I ever have been before but I still WANT to see Apple win me back. I’ve been a Windows user my whole life and I have to admit that for the last year I’ve constantly been considering switching to a Mac – mostly so that my Apple ecosystem operates smoother. The problem is that every time I go to price out what I want, I can’t shake the feeling that I’ll have abandoned iOS within the next few years.
