Feel like you’re caught in the crossfire in the mobile-phone war between Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS? Each company would like to help you come over, unhurt, to their side.
Google has published a handy-dandy guide for giving up your iPhone for good. It contains useful tips like:
- How to bring your music and photos with you.
- How to transfer all your contacts from your iPhone to your Android phone.
- How to set up email (“Don’t forget to turn off iMessage,” the guide says.)
- How to find apps on Google Play, rather than the Apple’s App Store.
The Google gambit comes after Apple published its own guide to switching from Android to iPhone last month.
Who’s winning out? Globally, it’s not even close. In Q2 2014, Android controlled 85% of the market share compared to iOS’s 12%, according to research firm IDC. In the US, the race is tighter: Apple had 43% to Google’s 52%.
But when it comes to switching, Apple may have the edge. A 2013 survey by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, an industry firm, found that more Android users were switching to iPhones than ever before—and that Apple stole a far higher percentage of users of Samsung phones—which run Android— than Samsung took of iPhone users.