And then I got the Nexus 4.
When the latest Google flagship Android device shipped, I almost expected it to turn out as yet another "take-a-look-and-sell-it-on-ebay" experience. Little did I know.

It's now almost two weeks since I switched the Nexus 4 on for the first time – and meanwhile I completely moved to it, leaving my iPhone 5 at home. Do I miss anything? Nope. Except iMessage. More on that later.

My motivation is not to bash Platform A over Platform B. On the contrary: I will try to summarize my very personal findings and experiences based on years of using iOS. I've seen the Apple platform evolve while Android was playing catch-up for so long. When iOS 6 came out, for the first time I complained about the lack of innovation in this major new release. I asked myself, whether we might see Apple beginning to lose its leading position in mobile platforms.

One of the biggest advantages I found during my daily use is the level of cross-app and OS level integration.

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This also is the area where I was most disappointed when Apple introduced iOS 6.

In fact, I think iOS has reached a point where usability starts to significantly decrease due to the many workarounds that Apple has introduced. All of these just to prevent exposing a paradigm like a file system or allowing apps to securely talk to each others. There is a better way of doing this. Apples knows about it but simply keeps ignoring the issues.

On Android, it's quite the opposite. One can see the most obvious example when it comes to handling all sorts of files and sharing.

Let's assume I receive an email with a PDF attachment which I'd like to use in some other apps and maybe post to a social network later.

On iOS, the user is forced to think around Apple's constraints. There is no easy way to just detach the file from the email and subsequently use it in what ever way I want. Instead, all iOS apps that want to expose some sort of sharing feature, do have to completely take care for it themselves. The result is a fairly inconsistent, unsatisfying user experience.

On iOS, you might use the somewhat odd "Open in…" feature – in case the developer was so kind to implement it – to first move the file over to Dropbox, which gives you a virtual cloud-based file system. If you're lucky, the other app, from which you want to use the file next, offers Dropbox integration, too, so you can re-download it and start from there. All because Apple denies the necessity of basic cross-app local storage.

On Android, it's really simple.

I can detach the file to a local folder and further work with it from there. Leveraging every single app that handles PDF files. In case I receive a bunch of mp3 files, I can do the same. And every app that somehow can handle audio playback, can reuse those mp3 files.

Another great example: Sharing stuff on social networks. On iOS, I have to rely on the developers again. Flipboard, as one of the better examples, gives me the ability to directly share with Google+, Twitter and Facebook. On my Nexus 4, I have 20+ options. That is, because every app I install can register as a sharing provider. It's a core feature of the Android operating system.

But it goes even further: On Android, I can change the default handlers for specific file types – much like I'm used to from desktop operating systems.

If, for example, you're not happy with the stock Photo Gallery application, that shows up whenever an app wants you to pick an image, you can simply install one from over a hundred alternatives and tell Android to use it as its new default. The next time you post a photo with the Facebook app – or have to pick an image from within any other app – your favorite gallery picker shows up instead of Android's own.

All of this is entirely impossible on iOS today. I've stopped counting how often I felt annoyed because I clicked a link to a location in Mobile Safari and would have loved the Google Maps app to launch. Instead, Apple's own Maps app is hardcoded into the system. And there's no way for me to change it.