This weekend, Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt released a handy-dandy guide on how to switch from the Apple (AAPL) iPhone to Android.
Too bad switching from the iPhone to Android is a much more complicated process than anyone would want to deal with.
Granted, the steps aren’t impossible for anyone with basic computer skills. But the 879-word block of text on Google+ is anything but inviting.
Contacts have to be synced between iCloud and Gmail. Music and photos must be backed up on a computer, then transferred back over to the Android phone using iTunes, Google Music Manager and Google+. And you have to enter your credit card to Google Wallet just to get access to your music.
Full disclosure: I have an iPhone. The iPhone-to-Android process doesn’t seem that hard. But it does seem like a step backward, hearkening back to downloading iTunes songs on a PC and using a USB cord to transfer them to an iPod. That kind of file transfer was revolutionary in 2001. In 2013, the cloud has replaced the USB, but it still seems like there has to be an easier way to set up a phone than switching between several different apps and devices.
Unsurprisingly, the comments on Schmidt’s Google+ post are divided in three camps — those grateful for the guide, those who think it’s too complicated, and those who think that anyone who thinks it’s too complicated is a Luddite who has been using Apple products too long.
In the Google+ post, Schmidt references the fact that Android has 80% of the world’s smartphone market share. That data point isn’t as straightforward as it appears , but what is straightforward is that the user-friendly design that Apple pioneered has raised the bar … and if the switch to Android is as tedious as it appears, the bad user experience is likely to leave a bad taste in Apple defectors’ mouths.
So although Schmidt’s guide is intended to help iPhone users make the switch, it might just drive away potential customers who were on the fence.
As of this writing, Carla Lake did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
