It’s always entertaining to read what happens when longtime iPhone devotees switch to another platform, regardless of whether they like their new platform of choice or absolutely hate everything about it. CNN’s David Goldman, however, is a somewhat unusual case — he’s a self-described former “big Apple fan” who dropped his iPhone last year in favor of the Moto X, Motorola’s little-bought Android phone that came in with lesser specifications than other Android heavyweights released last year such as the Galaxy S4 and the HTC One.
However, if you’re expecting Goldman to talk about how he ran screaming from the Moto X and never looked back, then you should prepare to be surprised — Goldman is completely in love with Motorola’s last flagship phone.
“It’s by far the most useful gadget I’ve ever owned,” Goldman gushes. “I can check the time just by taking the phone out of my pocket. When I want to change directions while I’m driving, I don’t hit any buttons — I literally just speak to my phone, ‘OK Google Now, navigate to…’ When there’s traffic, and I’ll miss my meeting if I don’t leave soon, my Moto X will tell me to get going. An app called Trigger automatically puts my phone in vibrate mode the second I step into my newsroom… Android’s widgets are better and more convenient than the iPhone’s badge notifications. Google is far, far superior at backing up photos than Apple. iCloud in general is a confusing mess.”
This is certainly different from the impressions we wrote about earlier this week from design expert Hillel Cooperman, who described Android’s notification bar as “always oozing like an open sore” that leaves a “pile of tiny incomprehensible turds appear at the top of my screen, uglifying it to no end.”
In large part, this boils down to what you want to have from your smartphone. The iPhone provides a smoother, more consistent user experience than many Android devices, but the way that Google’s services are so tightly integrated into Android makes Android phones more useful for some people. Despite the wailings of fanboys who want to declare that one is objectively better than the other, it turns out that both platforms have something valuable to offer to different sets of users.
The same goes for Goldman’s love of Microsoft’s Surface Pro, which he says has essentially replaced his iPad as his go-to tablet because of its ability to double as a laptop. He says he doesn’t love everything about Windows 8 but he’s gotten used to it and besides that he says, “there is nothing better for watching Netflix in bed than the Surface, with its kickstand and screen optimized for HD videos.”
Are Goldman’s tastes for everyone? Sales numbers suggest they certainly aren’t but that doesn’t mean that they’re wrong. Different users want different things from their technology and we should be glad that there are so many incredible gadgets out there right now that are competing like crazy for our business.
For the other side of the coin, check out our coverage of a design expert who switched from iOS to Android and hated almost everything about it.
