Long-time Windows Phone fan goes iPhone (what?!)

I did it. I dragged my body (and my wallet) to the closest Apple outlet and bought an iPhone 6 Plus. For those who knows me, and those who follow this blog, this is breaking and shocking news.

Oh!

Why did I do it? Here we go:

• My Lumia 1020 is more than 16 months “old”, and are pushing the limits.
• To get the latest OS updates relatively fresh one must install the WP Developer Preview, and even then there is a lot of waiting.
• Even though a lot of new apps have found their way to the Windows Phone Store, there is a lot of blank spots there:
  • All Google apps (BTW: Shame on you Google!)
  • Dropbox (coming, I know. But when?) (released 22. January 2015, see comment below)
  • Twitter (it exists, but not updated since July 2014) (updated 20. January 2015, see comment below)
  • Instagram (it exists in beta, but not updated since March 2014)
  • Vine (it exists, but not updated since December 2013)
  • LinkedIn (it exists, but not updated since December 2013)
  • Yammer (it exists, but not updated since July 2014 – shame on you Microsoft (!) )
  • The Office-apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) are better on iOS – shame on you Microsoft (!)
  • YouTube (still shame on you Google!)
  • Official Facebook app (I don’t really care – but the lack of it is not good)
  • And so on…
• I wanted a relatively safe OS-environment, so Android (while Note 4 was extremely high on my most wanted list) was out of the picture.
• I wanted to be sure to get the absolutely latest OS updates at once they’re released (Android out of the picture again – together with Windows Phone).
• I wanted a big, well built and well designed smartphone with a high quality screen (no phone out of the picture – but you get the picture!).
• “The camera – have you forgotten the camera?” I hear my Nokia friends scream. Well, nothing still beats the camera on my Lumia 1020 – but it is getting close. Very close. And while the 1020 picture quality is extremely good, it has happened pretty often that just “that picture” was taken 4 seconds to late. Yes, the 1020 camera is slow. Very slow. And yes, the camera on the iPhone 6 Plus is fast. Very fast! And the picture quality is good. Also in low light (but Lumia 1020 Xenon flash – I still love you!).
• Startups. What? Well yes, I really want to be one of the first to try all the great new apps from startups all around the world (like Ensafer Messenger), and those apps are almost non-existent on Windows Phone, and they are almost allways released first on iOS.

You get the picture. A lot of waiting for apps and OS updates. And a lot of frustration. I’ve been realtively calm about all these apps, I’ve used web-versions of some of them with pretty good results. But not excellent results of course. And I have not mentioned all the niche apps (local banks, airlines, coffee-shops and so on).

So here I am, installing all the great apps on my brand new and shiny iPhone 6 Plus. I have to say: Impressive so far!

On the corner of my desk lies my lovely, good old Nokia Lumia 1020:

Well equipped Lumia 1020

With the Glance Screen showing me the time, a little hand-over-gesture and it shows me the weather. And if I pick it up and lay it down on the wireless charger, it charges! And a little NFC-touch and it plays music load and clear on my Nokia MD-12 NFC speaker. So no, I will not stop using my Nokia Lumia 1020 – I’ll check for OS and app updates now and then – and I will shoot some great shots with it.

I really do believe Microsoft will get back in the business with Windows 10, and they will release great smartphones. But we’re probably talking about autumn 2015. The big question is: Will the apps be there too?

Maybe I’ll do a blog post comparing these two great smartphones. Maybe!

Updated 22. January 2015:

Yesterday was the big Windows 10 day with a lot of news from Microsoft. For a complete summary take a look here. The good news for existing Windows Phone 8.1 users is that their phone will get the update to Windows 10. Good!

Interestingly enough, Twitter finally updated their app for Windows Phone two days ago. As mentioned above, it’s been 6 months since the last update from them. And today, Dropbox finally released an official app for Windows Phone. This is good news, as both Twitter and Dropbox are important players in the app universe.