It’s been real, Android.

This is probably the best picture I could find. Kinda cool, eh?

While my job involves taking calls for a cell phone company, I wouldn’t really call myself an expert. So, please take all of what I’m saying with a grain of salt. So, there.

So, by the time you’re reading this post, (probably) I will have become an official user of an iPhone. I’ve been using Android phones (specifically the ‘Droid”* line of phones—the OG, Droid 2, and Droid Bionic).

*Allow me to digress for just a moment. Unless you own one of these phones, (the OG Droid, Droid Eris, Droid 2/D2 Global, and Droid Incredible included) YOU DO NOT OWN A DROID. You own a phone that operates on the Android OS. That’s it. So, stop claiming #teamdroid on Twitter when you’re working with an EVO/MyTouch/Galaxy S/et al. I know that this is petty, but I’m all about telling the truth.

I’ve stuck with Android and resisted the flirtations of Blackberry of iOS and Windows Phone (sleep on the Microsoft boys if you want, but that OS is pretty solid). I’ve rooted my phone, added custom ROMs, done snapshots, stolen free Wi-Fi for my computer—I did all the cool things. Of course, I also tweeted/listened to music/blogged/listened to the first and last pitch of the MLB season also. All the fun things. So why change that? Well…

Agony, thy name is Force Close.
If you’ve had an Android phone, you’ve seen it. It could be Tweetdeck. The Calendar. Gmail. The DIALER. The Browser. Facebook. Text Messaging. If it’s something on your phone, it’s probably force closed before. Why does this happen? Sure, you have the easy reasons (maybe you need to clear the cache on your Twitter app, maybe you have too many text messages saved, maybe they need to do an Occupy Force Close also…the “reasons” are endless). But, the dialer? Really? Text messaging? The stock keyboard? That’s not supposed to happen.

Hey, why don’t you just stay on for a change?
Sure, if your battery is dead, then the phone should power down. (You’d be surprised to know that this is not that well-known of a fact) But with a full charge? When the phone is just sitting there? When you want to listen to a podcast? When you’re trying to snap a photo of someone in a Neil O’Donnell Jets jersey? Yeah, that’s not the business, folks.

The apps are better. Stop joking.
Sure, this is probably subjective. But I’ll give you a list of applications where this rings true:
-Spotify
-MLB At Bat
-Watch ESPN
-Foursquare
-Facebook
Those are popular applications. They’re all better on the iPhone. Also, notice how all the messaging applications mimic the bubble style conversation that is so popular on, that’s right…the iPhone? Yeah, that’s not a mistake.

It works!
As you read earlier, I take calls for a cell phone company. I have never, ever, ever, ever, ever gotten a call from someone with a software problem on their iPhone (or iPad, for that matter). Frozen screens? Nope. Keyboard suddenly disappearing just because you hit the space bar? None of that. That’s…kind of a big deal.

So, okay, maybe this isn’t enough to sway you. Think about this: Google and Samsung are unveiling the next version of the Android OS (and the fancy Galaxy Nexus) next week. Most people (and most of those people are Android fanboys) see this as the phone that will finally topple the iPhone. We do realize that it’s taken about four years, right? Now, don’t get me wrong—I LOVE the things that I can do on an Android phone. I can make things look pretty much however I may be feeling that day. And, if I don’t like it, I can go to something else quickly. The Android movement has been swift and relatively stunning. But none of that matters when the phone doesn’t stay powered on. Or if it freezes to the point that you have to take the battery out. You shouldn’t have to take your battery out of the phone, folks. Power it down? Sure. But still. The biggest difference for me in iOS is that the thing WORKS. I can’t say the same for Android. So, again, it’s been fun Android, but I’m leaving you for an iPhone. I’ll miss you a little bit, if that means anything.