Switching from a Apple centric life proved to be a bit of a pain in the ass. iCloud services like iMessage, contacts and calendar are simply not supported outside of the Apple world. So I decided to go Google. I am now using Google to sync things like calendar and starting to rely more on Gmail. Initially, I thought I was compromising but I now realize that I've gained freedom. I can now move to any platform I want to, and my data will be in sync.