The CheckerBoard

There were a lot of reasons behind Apple's move away from Google as their mapping provider (mainly because Google wanted more user information that Apple was willing to provide - that was why Facebook integration didn't show up in iOS until 6). That being said, Google has an iOS version of Google Maps that's in the pipeline, and there are published methods to get Google Maps on your iPhone right now without jailbreaking or hacking.

Over the years I have purchased a few iPhones but until the 5 came out, I never used any of them on a daily basis (the iPhones I purchased were for my young kids). Having used phones and tablets with competing operating systems (primarily Android and WebOS), I have never liked the iPhone's operating system, but I've always admired the iPhone's hardware. Well, after 2+ weeks of living with my iPhone 5 (and ~6 months with my iPad 3), I find that I still really dislike iOS. It's just archaic compared to the latest versions of Android (even WebOS BLOWS IT AWAY and WebOS has been dead for more than a year). I was hopeful that iOS 6 would be an actual improvement and UPGRADE, but there is no improvement, and in fact, with what they did to the maps app, I'm just really pissed off that Apple tries to spin it as an "upgrade".

Where the iPhone still shines is in the hardware and the responsiveness of the user interface. It's a really, REALLY nice piece of phone hardware. I have found that the battery life of my iPhone 5 is generally inadequate though (the Android phones I've used have been MUCH better), and one thing I've always hated about the iPhone is that there's no way to swap the battery out for those days when you need to actually USE the phone. I'm not a heavy user of my phone but on an average day I have to plug my iPhone 5 in before 5PM to make it through the full day. Also, my iPhone 5 has given me a lot of problems on the data side. LTE and WiFi are stupid fast, but 3G is ridiculously slow most of the time, and where I live, LTE coverage is supposed to be everywhere but the LTE signal quality drops in many areas so it downshifts to 3G a lot, and when that happens it's just miserably slow on 3G. It's so slow that most things just time out, which renders it mostly useless. I don't have this problem on my iPad 3, for whatever reason - it holds onto LTE for much longer and when it does kick down to 3G it's still not too bad speedwise.

I will admit that I'm a bit more of a power user, and that's the main reason why I don't like iOS. For the basic functions like the phone app and messaging app, it works fine. I find that the apps for the most part are identical to the Android versions, though there are a few cases where the iPhone app is clearly the "lead platform" and it has a few more features than the Android version (for example - the iPhone's CBS College Sports app allows you to stream live games, where the Android version doesn't). In limited cases, the opposite is true.

I have been waiting to upgrade for a while and before it came out, i though I might buy the iPhone 4s. But the screen on the 4S was just a smidge too small and the real deal-breaker was that it was still stuck on 3G. The iPhone 5's screen and form factor is perfect for what I was looking for, plus it has LTE, so that's how I ended up purchasing the iPhone 5 in the first place. I would have gone with a Galaxy S3 or even the HTC One because overall I think they are better phones than the iPhone 5 but the current crop of high-end Android phones are just physically too large. If the Android guys come out with something that is more competitive size-wise and quality-wise with the iPhone 5 I will switch in a heartbeat, because I know I can sell the iPhone 5 easily and for good money (that's another HUGE plus of the iPhone).

And none of those methods are as good as the old app.

How can you knock Google's own app before it's even released?

I work for Verizon and can tell you that I receive a free droid device and essentially use it as a paperweight. I pay to have an iPhone because honestly it is by far the most reliable phone that you can get. If your knowledgable about the ins and outs of android you can manage, but i cant tell you how many droids I have to troubleshoot, hard reset or replace on a daily basis. I've been training for a year and a half on android devices and still don't know everything. I was very intrigued by the S3 and as far as android goes its the best on the market currently, but as soon as I almost made the jump a major issue arose from the phone. I don't know if anyone has had the problem but the S3 is dropping 4G service when trying to make phone calls and there is currently no fix.

Honestly it just comes down to personal preference, but if you depend on your phone for work or if its your only means of communication go iPhone.

on my iPhone 5 (Sprint), the data side has improved a little bit in the past few months but it's still wayyy too slow whenever I'm on 3G. I was in Detroit last week and there was no LTE anywhere, so I was pretty miserable on 3G. Thankfully my iPad is on Verizon and VZW had LTE most places there and if it didn't have LTE the 3G was quicker than 3G on sprint, for whatever reason. I don't know why 3G sucks as bad as it does on the Sprint iPhone 5 but it's MUCH slower on Sprint than my previous phone which was 3G only. There's NO way I'd keep my iPhone if I didn't live in an area with LTE coverage (Sprint has pretty good LTE coverage in ATL) unless they fixed all the 3G problems.

As a tech support lead for a telecom here in Alaska, I see people calling in for cellphone issues on a regular basis. The ratio of Android to iPhone calls is right around 7:1, and even just comparing the S3 to all iPhones it's about a 4:1 ratio up here.

Simply put, people want feature-rich devices. iPhone sorely lacks.

http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/apples-iphone-share-to-peak-in-2013/240146488

And here is the projection of their plateau this year.