I would not have said it was as bad as some were saying. Even though the iPhone UI was smoother, I still could not go to it for a couple reasons.

1) customizations---Android has always had this on IOS. Even as Google was working out the kinks withe the UI of Android, they still had things that I just liked. I have been totally dependent the widgets on home screen apps. Its kind of funny. I love direct dial shortcuts that are one touch to call my most used contacts. I have a home screen widget that has a clock and weather integrated. I can tap on the weather part of the widget and it opens whichever weather app that I want it to (and i can change which weather app at any time). And i have been able to do this for a 4 years. And while the UI transitions and animations were not as "pretty" as IOS at the time, I preferred function over form.

2) I HATE ITUNES and I have always hated iTunes. I left their closed system years before after having extreme difficulty trying to side-load mp3's onto my daughter's ipod. It drove me nuts. Then when I read about how Bruce Willis who had thousands of dollars invested in his iTunes was having difficulty being able to pass his library on to his children (or so the story said), it confirmed my decision was the right one. The licensing for iTunes music is that you do not own the music. Now I am mot sure if there are similar legal issues with Google Play music or Amazon MP3, which is where i buy my music when I do buy it (I now subscribe to Google Play Music streaming (similar to Spotify) and was an early adopter so I only pay $7.99 per month for unlimited access). Of course with that I do not own any of the Google play music in the streaming service unless I purchase it outright. But, If I do purchase a song, which I rarely do, I can download it in MP3 format. Why is this important to me? Because it is a universal and unlocked music format and I am not locked into the iTunes ecosystem. And i can put these MP3's on any compatible device i want.

To continue point 1, while the razr had its problems, Since Android 4.4, Android has been, IMO Android has surpassed IOS in the innovation department, to the point where Apple has been really scrambling to keep up. Jobs said the iPHone was the perfect sized device and would never make the screen bigger. But the 5 got a bit bigger, and now the 6 and 6+ are huge compared to the old 4. The market demanded this. The notification pane was on Android from the beginning (2009 I think) but Apple introduced their version of it in 2012. I have been using Google Wallet for over a year with my NFC chip on my last two Android devices--its been available for more than 2 years on various devices. . Apple did not give this feature to users until this year.

The iPhone camera was always good, but there are several Android devices that have either equaled or surpassed the iphone in IQ....If you think a phone can take a better pic than a real camera.