iPad and iPhone users urged to switch to Android by Eric Schmidt

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Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has authored a guide to help Apple iPhone users make the switch to the Android mobile operating system.

Published on Schmidt's Google+ profile page, the guide talks users through setting up an Android device for the first time. It then details how to go about porting their contacts, messages, photos and Google apps from an Apple iPad or iPhone.

"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," Schmidt wrote.

He then goes on to have a slight dig at Apple's Safari browser while advising people to use Chrome instead. "It's safer and better in so many ways. And it's free."

It's not uncommon for the two firms to take pots shots against each other, as Apple CEO Tim Cook often injects a few sly digs about Android into the firm's iPhone and iPad launch day presentations.

For example, during Apple's WWDC keynote earlier this year, Cook claimed more than a third of Android users are relying on OS software that's around three years old.

"This isn't just bad for users. This version fragmentation is terrible for developers," Cook said.

"In fact, if you do the maths iOS 6 is the most popular OS and in second place is a version of Android created in 2010."

Schmidt's post, which was published over the weekend, comes at a good time for Android, as figures released earlier this month by market watcher IDC revealed that 81 per cent of the smartphones shipped in Q3 2013 featured Android.

During the same three months, 12.9 per cent of the smartphones shipped during Q3 had iOS running the show.

The timing of Schmidt's post also suggests Google will be doing all it can to encourage sales Android handsets ahead of the all important Christmas sales season.

Caroline Donnelly is the news and analysis editor of IT Pro and its sister site Cloud Pro, and covers general news, as well as the storage, security, public sector, cloud and Microsoft beats. Caroline has been a member of the IT Pro/Cloud Pro team since March 2012, and has previously worked as a reporter at several B2B publications, including UK channel magazine CRN, and as features writer for local weekly newspaper, The Slough and Windsor Observer. She studied Medical Biochemistry at the University of Leicester and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism at PMA Training in 2006.