Apple is developing a new tool to make it easier to transfer data from iPhones to Android. The operators fear that the lack of switching weakens their hand in commercial negotiations with Apple, which holds the mobile industry’s strongest card in the iPhone.
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Implausible as it may seem, according to a report by the Telegraph, Apple is working on an app that will help those users who want to leave its walled garden for the free, albeit somewhat messy, land of Android. Essentially this is an opposite to what Apple’s Android app does. The Move to iOS app helps former Android users import contacts, message history, photos, videos, web bookmarks, mail accounts, calendars and free apps to their new iPhone. He believed that the company’s products should not make it easy for it users to switch to other platforms.
It’s not clear when such an application will be released, if ever.
In September Apple published their very first Android application, Move to iOS.
While Apple has yet to officially launch such an app, the report claims that Apple has privately agreed to do so, presumably to avoid any anticompetitive complaints or lawsuits.
Apple should also be confident in iOS to stand on its own.
Successive sets of customer satisfaction figures show Apple’s dominance is not exclusively built on locking customers in, but on ensuring they are too happy with its platforms to want to switch. As Tim Cook noted, the percentage of users switching from Android to Apple is at an all-time high.
Apple’s challenge will be to make them happy when they do, ensuring they never switch back.
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Negating the “lock in” criticism will enable Apple to focus on platform advantages, things like security, privacy, upgradeability and useful device life, as well as integration with Macs, iPads and wearables.
