Samsung frees fanboys from iPhone with freeware

Apple 'make it easy to migrate' strategy applied

Apple waged a broadly successful campaign to persuade Windows PC owners to migrate to the Mac by making compatibility tools readily available, and now Samsung is trying the same trick - on iPhone users.

Today it said it would give iOS defectors a free copy of Easy Phone Sync to anyone buying a Galaxy smartphone. The utility was designed to facilitate shifting iTunes-managed data - media files, primarily, but also contacts and archived text messages - to Android phones.

The tool also allows iOS users to continue to use iTunes to manage their handsets, Android this time.

Reg readers - iTunes refuseniks to a man jack of 'em - may not be interested for personal usage, but perhaps they have an iDevice-using acquaintance who is looking to move out of Apple's walled garden into Google's - the online advertising giant's stonework has more gaps than Apple's - and Samsung's offer may be just the persuasion they need.

Of course, Samsung, in touting how it's "making Easy Phone Sync available for free for UK customers" is being a tad disingenuous since, as far as we can tell, both the Windows and Mac app, plus its Android-hosted companion, are free in any case, being Galaxy-fied versions of developer Media Mushroom's exisiting Easy Phone Tunes - iTunes Sync app.

You can get the Android app from Google Play, and the desktop tools from Media Mushroom's site. ®