Due to complaints by European mobile operators, Apple is reportedly under pressure to provide software that would permit iPhone owners to easily switch to Android, The Telegraph reported yesterday.
Operators believe that the lack of a data transfer tool can act as a potential deterrent for technologically challenged customers from leaving Apple’s ecosystem. This also gives Apple an upper hand in negotiations over them, which the operators are looking to nullify.
“Major European telecoms operators are concerned that only a tiny fraction of customers ever move off the iPhone, in part because of the technical hassle of transferring data,” reads the report.
Apple already offers a tool for iPhone owners to easily import their contacts, messages and photos from an Android device to an iPhone. However, the ‘Move to iOS’ app cannot transfer data from an iPhone to an Android device.
Indeed, it is no secret that the iPhone has stolen away almost all the available profits in smartphones. It is also no secret that carriers are dependent on those affluent iPhone consumers to drive most of their profits as Android isn’t very profitable.
That being said, I’m not so sure pressuring Apple to make such an app will yield desired results. But given the iPhone’s undiminished popularity and strong pull of the iOS ecosystem, Apple stands nothing to lose were it to provide a ‘Move to Android’ app of sorts to those who would decidedly drop their iPhone and switch over to Android.
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Apple is under Pressure from European Carriers to provide a “simple” tool to switch to Android