Interesting Hints To Schmidt's Perspective on Android In iPhone Switch Guide

Eric Schmidt's explainer on switching from the iPhone to Android shows some hints of interesting biases and viewpoints from one of the captains of Google.

Over the weekend, helping customers switch from their iPhone to an Android alternative was apparently at the forefront of Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt's mind.

So he decided to write an explainer for people who might be looking to switch from the iPhone and posted it - naturally enough - on his Google+ page. Most of the post, which is rather lengthy, contains practical and useful advice for how to get the most out of your Android phone (I even decided to try AT&T visual voicemail based on his endorsement), along with the expected Google cheerleading. But some of the post gives away some interesting biases Schmidt might have.

A World Of Options: Here Are Three

For one, while Schmidt emphasizes how "there are so many choices for you" with Android, boasting that 80 percent of the world use the operating system, Schmidt has a surprisingly short list of high-end Android devices he recommends.

"Many of my iPhone friends are converting to Android," says Schmidt in his Google+ post. "The latest high-end phones from Samsung (Galaxy S4), Motorola (Verizon Droid Ultra) and the Nexus 5 (for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile) have better screens, are faster, and have a much more intuitive interface. They are a great Christmas present to an iPhone user!"

But what about the critically acclaimed HTC One, brand-new LG G2, or unique camera-specific entries from Sony? No mention of those, as either Google hardware or Samsung seems to be on the top of his mind. Of course, Samsung and Apple are the top phone manufacturers, but it's interesting that "so many choices" for Schmidt boils down to just two (and a half, counting Motorola) choices.

Google is the New Apple, So Apple is the New PC?

For anyone that was born before the 90s and is old enough to remember Apple's Switch ad campaign, the notion of Schmidt writing a "switch guide" from iPhone to Android will already detect hints of irony. But it gets better.

Schmidt directly compares the iPhone/Android switch to that era of PC/Mac switching: "Like the people who moved from PCs to Macs and never switched back, you will switch from iPhone to Android and never switch back as everything will be in the cloud, backed up, and there are so many choices for you."

First, there's the reality. As ComputerWorld mentions, a November survey from industry researcher CIRP shows that more Android users are actually migrating to iPhone than they were last Thanksgiving season, with more than 20 percent of iPhone buyers switching away from Android.

But there's also the strange comparison. In the 90s "switching" era, Apple was an insurgent company focusing on a few computing products with innovative, elegant, user-friendly design, fighting against a behemoth order of operating system that ran, in various configurations and states-of-the-art, on myriad machines built by multiple manufacturers with varying merits.

Sound familiar?

Android is great, with many features that, run on the best hardware, match or best Apple's best iPhone on several grounds. But the 900 word switching guide, with steps and sub-instructions, belies Schmidt's comparison. And Schmidt's focus on Samsung and Google hardware, despite the "Android for All" design of 4.4 KitKat, underscores which are the most important devices for Google.

Image: Guillaume Paumier, CC-BY.