Yeah, that'll win over those iPad users! :)

I don't understand why iOS users feel so entitled to support from competitors' services. I don't see Apple making Android apps for iTunes, iMessage, or FaceTime (which Apple claimed it would make an "open standard").

And remember that this is a matter of perspective. The lack of good support for Google services on iOS is a good thing for me - it'll increase the number of people using Android, thus hopefully getting me better Android apps for my phone and tablet.

I don't think they do at all. Most of Google's core services are built on top of standards like SMTP, IMAP, CalDAV, Jabber, etc, so they can be consumed by any device.

Apple is the one writing most of the extra code here because they want to make sure Google's services run smoothly on their platform.

While we joke about how crappy it is now, Apple's iTunes for Windows was a good example of playing nice on a competitors platform in an attempt to impress their customers and bring them to your side. It worked.

Google's business is 'harvesting & indexing personal information' so they kinda need to support iOS.

Well yeah, I'm not quite convinced that it's a winning strategy (or even what Google are doing). But personally, I can never go back to iOS from Android because of the integration with Google products- Gmail, Maps, etc.

You can stop using those products.. that's one way out.

Right, but I don't want to. It's nowhere near worth dropping all of those things just go back to iOS.

Not trying to change your mind, but I personally have a strong distaste for being tied to one product because I use another (unrelated product). It's the reason why I've never bought a song or movie on iTunes. I was where you are a while back with Google products, but email is just email. I don't want my phone purchases to be influenced by what email provider I use; that's just silly. I'm currently using Outlook.com and couldn't be happier with it.

This is not quite right.

Gmail isn't great on any Android device. If you have only used Android, it might seem great. But after you try the built-in iOS client, your standards will raise a bit (not intending to offend!).

In my experience, nothing that Google has produced for the mobile platform(s) is great.

Seriously? You think the iOS mail client is better than the Android Gmail client? Because... it just isn't. For me, anyway. Each to their own.

Of course Google has made great things for mobile. Maps are unparalleled. Google Now is fantastic. The Google+ apps are actually fantastic, it's just that no-one is using them.

What about the Gmail app that is available to everyone that is on ICS and greater ?

A bunch of screen shots included in the link, tablet view as well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...

Couldn't you say the same thing about Apple? Almost every one of their apps is bested by some third party app.

Is there any serious mail (not GMail) client for iOS except for Apple's own and Sparrow? And it's hard for me to invest in Sparrow now.

Wow, bold words, not even Maps?