ZDNet:
With iOS 9 Apple is making a direct play for Android users with an app to help them migrate their data and apps to the iPhone.
The new app, called ‘Move to iOS’ will be released this fall with iOS 9 and is one of two apps targeting the Android platform, the other being Apple Music.
According to Apple, the apps will allow Android users the ability to securely transfer “contacts, message history, camera photos and videos, web bookmarks, mail accounts, calendars, wallpaper, and DRM-free songs and books” wirelessly to an iPhone.
Great move by Apple to make this process as easy, painless and efficient as possible.
Where can I download this now? I am still trying to pull data off my wife’s old android phone.
The second sentence of the linked article says, “The new app, called ‘Move to iOS’ will be released this fall…” 🙂
“Finally.”
As Apple was talking about Apple Music, I was in the middle of a discussion about the likelihood of Apple Music coming to Android, since Beats Music had remained cross-platform after Apple purchased it. I posited that Apple might use Apple Music as a trojan horse to get Android users without an Apple ID to sign up for one and get them familiar and comfortable with the Apple ecosystem. I further posited that the app could be updated to scan the Android device for apps and suggest App Store alternatives.
2 hours later, I got a text linking to this story. And they say that Apple can’t read your iMessages. 😀
I think some Android users hate the perceived Appke lock in, or even the real (really bad?) DRM.
I love the last screen that offers you to dispose your Android phone for free at an Apple store. Really makes you feel grateful they don’t charge for it 🙂
Too late. He saw a squirrel.
I have a strong urge to insert a “[sic]” almost anywhere in a ZDNet article.
There is no DRM for music on iTunes. Hasn’t been for years. Apple had DRM-free music even before Amazon did, by striking a deal with EMI, which is what led to Amazon to strike deals with the remaining publishers for DRM-free music (the cynic in me thinks the remaining studios gave Amazon DRM-free first to try and keep Apple from being the dominant player in digital music sales).
I feel pretty confident, however, that music pulled down through Apple Music will be difficult to pull off a device that isn’t jailbroken/rooted. I wonder how it will work on iTunes for Mac/Windows. There might be actual DRM on those files, since they are technically “rented”, not purchased.
In my experience, however, only a very small subset of Android users care about any sort of lock-in or DRM. The real piece of the puzzle that will prevent Android users from signing up for Apple Music will be that they don’t have any sort of free tier at all. So they can’t get BeatsOne or Apple Music Radio without a subscription.