So what did you do before you had it? You would have waited until you got home or to work to get emails, you would have had to write down your progress at the gym on paper O), you would have had to have read an actual book O), I'm sure you already had an mp3 player. It kind of balls up a load of things which already exist into one thing which may be a bit more convenient, but its not exactly life changing is it? All it really does is give you internet access, and there isn't a single thing I can think of urgent enough that it simply can't wait until I get home. As you have just said, you can now reply to my idiotic posts on the move, which is really going to enhance your life... Sony Ericsson...k500? k550? k400? Something like that.
but Potguy, it does. For those who need it, and need that urgency, the smartphone is an invaluable tool. I need to have email access on the go, and I can't carry round books with me all day, and the having a phone that has all my music rather than both a phone AND an iPod makes life that bit easier. As for the 'writing on paper' stuff at the gym, well there are obvious benefits to recording it electronically rather than writing it down, even more so when the instrument you use is something you have with you 24/7. Also there are times, not often but are times when I do need internet coverage on the move. In fact not long after buying the phone I sold my Satnav and my iPod because they were redundant, it also means when I'm looking for somewhere, a quick stop and google makes it that much quicker to find rather than hopelessly walking around asking strangers.
But just a few years ago you wouldn't have been able to do any of that, and everybody got along just fine. I'm not questioning what people spend their money on, its completely up to them obviously. I just don't foresee a time where I need internet access on the move, where I can't just carry a book I'm reading with me, where I would use my phone at the gym, or need a music phone when I already have an mp3 player. The map/sat nav thing is a valid thing, but I can think of a million and one things that I would personally rather spend £500+ on. Just not for me. My £500 is better spent elsewhere, especially since 99% of the time I know where I am going, so the internet would only be used to check emails, look on these forums and occasionally look at faceshyte.
I agree with Potguy. I can see how some features might be useful in a work context but they really aren't necessary for most people and it's just another example of creating need. I use my phone to call and text. I don't need a camera, I can walk along the street listening to my own thoughts so I don't need music, I have a healthy diet so I don't need to spend time playing games or reading books on the toilet, I can read a map so I don't need a satnav, my watch tells the time so I don't need a clock, I can write appointments in my diary while I make them on the phone and none of these solutions to life's little challenges requires a battery so I don't have to remember to charge anything. I really don't need to look at wfcforums or update facebook while I'm out and emails can wait until I'm home. I can also see how once you hand your life over to a smart phone you might wonder how you managed without, but it's very easy.
You can say that about just about anything though, can you imagine a time where people... bla blah blah blah
I just think Apple have created themselves a wonderful little market which didn't exist before, gives only marginal benefits to users for a massive, inflated price. Plus, they release a new one every year which hardly does anything differently and it sells millions on the first day. As afanof says, it is creating need. Nobody needed this, it hasn't changed anyone's life. It just does loads of things that could already be done on one phone, for an immense cost. Its not like penicillin, or central heating. Nobody is saying 'do remember a time when mobile phones on had two colours, and snake was the talk of the playground'. It will undoubtedly be useful for a small number of people who may find it outstandingly useful to be able to do all these things on one phone - people with jobs where they need to have constant internet access mainly. But for the vast majority of the population I think they have been conned by effective marketing into believing they need something which solves problems that didn't exist until Apple told them they did. If you need constant internet access it will be invaluable, but for me everything else is just bumpf which costs hundred and hundreds of pounds.
Apple didn't create the smartphone, in fact the first one was made in the 90s. Apple made them fashionable, which is what Apple do best. I still don't understand what you're getting at about not everyone 'needing' them, so what? You don't need the internet, some people don't need a car, some people don't need umpteen garments of clothing and pairs of shoes. For those who do need it, great, it serves a purpose, for those who don't need it, it's just the convenience/image. The same rule applies to just about any luxury item in life and always will do. People aren't being conned either, that's rubbish, they know what they're buying and how much for.
Exactly. I said I didn't get it. My original post was just a couple of lines saying I personally didn't understand the attraction towards them. I don't understand why somebody would spend so much money on something 'fashionable', but that is just me. People can do whatever they want and they can spend their money how they want to. I never said anything that suggested otherwise, I was only saying I personally don't get them at all. I wasn't expecting any sort of response to be honest, it was just a comment.
I see, fair enough. Well it's how the world works really, there's a lot of materialistic people out there, and a lot of good marketing campaigns to take advantage of them. I have a Blackberry for work, serves it's purpose incredibly well.
By your definition we don't need TV or cars or penicilin or segways, because once upon a time we didn't have them and people did just fine. However, we do have them and they serve a purpose. If you want to get in a philisophical debate about the simple life Vs technology dependence, I might agree with you, but until I turn my back on the rat race and go and surrender myself to a composting toilet, living in a tithe barn and growing all my own food, I need a smartphone. And there is simply no reason to spend £500 on a smarphone. The HTC Wildfire is an entry level Android for about £150 on Pay as You go.
I wasn't looking for any sort of debate, I was simply saying I don't understand the attraction to them, and I was talking about iphones because that was the thread topic. I gave no definition of anything, and I wasn't trying to impose some sort of Mormon-esque sentiment on anybody. I own four guitars, I'm sure lots of people would consider them outside my sphere of 'need' too. All to their own. I didn't realise it would touch a nerve to say that I don't see the attraction in them, as I don't see any benefit for myself in getting one. I wasn't questioning anyone who buys one. I'm sure lots of people wouldn't see the benefit in getting themselves a guitar either.
I don't need a map or satnav, I've got my phone, I dont need a diary, I've got my phone. It's just as easy to question why you would bother carrying around a massive map, when you can just use a phone. How much does your watch cost afanof? Because unless you have a complete brick from the 80s, your phone will tell you the time, yet you wear a watch anyway, to make life easier, you've probably even spent alot more one one than you have to, you can get a perfectly reliable casio for £10, but still people pay alot of moeny for one, not even because it will do a better job, just because it looks nice. And I actually needed to use my phone yesterday, I was in london, and instead o hunting round overpriced shops in the city centre, I ordered a brithday present off amazon, if i had waited until i got homw, it would have been too late.
Hey, it's a free country...well it's not really but in the context of phone purchases, it is as near as dammit. I was going to get an iPhone 4 but (IMHO) iPhone customers are treated with more contempt than “It's in my blood” football supporters. Not only do phone companies force you on to tariffs you don't need, in order to acquire these objects but they compound the issue by asking you to stump up a cash deposit as well. Only for numpties – or so I thought. I plumped for a rival product, the Samsung Galaxy S. It only has thousands of Android apps, not hundreds of thousands...whoopee-do. It does have a better screen and camera than the iPhone 3G but then again...whoopee-do. Read the reviews and they drone on about the “flimsy” rear cover..say what? It's perfectly fine and has never “fallen off” or caused me minute one of grief. So why was the Galaxy S, the biggest mistake I have ever made – phone wise? The Galaxy S has “bug” where it occasionally cannot detect any wi-fi signals, no matter how powerful they are. Turn the wi-fi on and off...nothing. Turn phone on and off...nothing. Manually enter wi-fi parameters, in an effort to force the phone to lock-on to a wi-fi signal...nothing. Even removing the battery whilst phone is still switched on...nothing. Only one thing will restore the phones' ability to receive a wi-fi signal; a return to factory default settings. You can back-up your contacts, you can store your music/photos on a micro SD card. Some applications allow data to be exported from the phone and therefore backed-up but an awful lot won't. So when the phone “gives up the ghost” you lose data, you have to re-load all your apps, not to mention the utter waste of time and energy. I have had the phone a couple of months and it has “jacked” me twice, Samsung don't give a tinker's cuss about the problem. The moral of this dreary tale? The iPhone may be an over-priced plaything, for people concerned more with appearance than common sense but...at least the f*****g thing works.
I went to 5 meetings last week. 4 in London and 1 in Birmingham. I didn't take any information with me, just my phone. When I got off the train at the relevant station, I just opened my calendar, looked at the location of my meeting. Copy and pasted it into googlemaps, and found my way to each of them all on perfect time. I could have looked up all the locations on my desktop, printed of little maps and taken them all with me, but I didn't need to. I don't NEED my phone, but I sure do like it.
There are far more rivals to an iphone than that. HTC's are just as good as an iphone. Add the fact google dont monopolise everything to do with it means the apps have alot more freedom. For £4 I have one which literally lets me reprogram my phone, I dont have to really on some techy guy at the company to come up with an idea i can do it myself. It annoyed me that my phone went to landscape while i was texting in bed, so i told it not to do that between certain times and turn the brightness down, I often forget to turn my phone to silent, so now whenever im at uni, its does it itself, when i get home, it turns wifi on, and if i ever lose my phone, I can text it a keyword, and it'll text back with gps co-ordinates
Apple products remind me of one of the tech "laws"!: If you can't change the battery, you don't own it.
I will never understand peoples Classist outrage with Apple products. The level of hate is incongruous with an electronic product. It's just a phone! It's not trying to persuade you to vote for it to become president so it can decide how to spend your tax dollars. It's not marshaling forces for an invasion of the Balkans. It's not looking down your sisters blouse. It just sits in your pocket waiting for your to make a call with it. Why the hate?
The reason for my Apple hate stems from one Christmas when I spent over £600 on 3 iPods for the kids. They were wonderful and the kids loved them. After 12 months they all stopped working. No amount of resetting or sending back to Apple got them working again for any length of time. Online forums told me they did this all the time. I would never buy another Apple product.
That is a rational reasonable reaction, though most who hate Apple have never owned or used the products.
no? i've lost my phone on a bus/night out/at uni. I say to friend/workmate/family: "text me "lostmyphone"", they get the location back, I know where it is.
I wouldn't say that I “hate” Apple products, as a matter of fact at this very moment, I am having a bit of a “Should I...shouldn't I?” crisis about whether or not to replace my ageing desktop with an Apple machine. I am more intrigued by the people who buy Apple products; than the products themselves. The point regarding battery life was well made. Batteries are the Achilles heel of most portable devices and the inability to easily replace a rechargeable battery, generally stops me from buying it. On the other hand, I get rid of phones way before the battery packs in, so that shouldn't be an issue. Then there's the “You WILL use our software” aspect. I would like to choose the applications I use thanks; not a device which must use a particular application. Apple has a “death-grip” on all suppliers of applications, for their family of devices. Then again, most of Microsoft's problems stem from their operating system being stymied by rubbish applications. Everybody blames Windows when their system crashes, nobody blames the cheap crap they loaded off a magazine disk. Apple sells primarily on design, and a rather paternal “We know what you need better than you do” philosophy and I have to say, it seems to work. However, just as I could never buy a B&O television, knowing that it was basically a Phillips TV in a pretty frock, I do have issues with the prices Apple ask. For what are, after all, pretty small improvements, (if there are any at all), in performance.
What sells the iPhone and iPads for me is the intuitive access and the fact that things work as they're supposed to. Apple gadgets do what they do perfectly. My colleague just explained how his 2-year-old can operate his iPad - can start and shut down applications, find the game she wants in a subfolder etc. She's 2! and a girl! That's Apple's primary competitive advantage. Secondly they are constantly ahead of competitors with regards to new products. The ipod, touch-phone, the tablet etc. They took existing technologies and made them accessible for the masses. To me design is down to third on their list of competitive advantages. I am like you, I'd never get a B&O tv because design isn't above quality in my book and certainly not something I'd pay what B&O charges to get it. Same with Apple's computers - I'd love one but won't pay the extra dosh compared to an equivalent PC. But their phones aren't differently priced than the equivalent competitors (HTC and Samsung top phones) and the iPad isn't too expensive either however there's little to compare with. And if I were to purchase a phone for my self today and I was getting a smartphone - I'd get an iPhone.
I don't hate Apple, I think they are extremely clever. I hated some of the I'm-better-than-you-because-my-laptop-is-purple-I'm-going-to-get-it-out-in-Starbucks Apple owners, but there are fewer and fewer of them around as Apple has become very common rather than an outsider product. There are still a disturbing number of Apple zealots queueing up for days to be able to get the iphone 7 (Now with marginally faster wi-fi :O) so they can hear their leader Steve Jobs tell them what to buy in his daft turtle necks. They are the people I don't like. They created a niche of simplicity in a market that used to be regarded as techy - a niche that has become a mainstream market which they have all to themselves! They are an example of what effective marketing can do; the white, clean lines and colours are now the status quo for almost all computer equipment, television equipment, mp3 players, headphones and the rest of it. Electronics now all come in white as a direct result of Apple! Remarkable really. People genuinely like the products to an extent they will pay pretty much whatever the asking price is. I can't think of anything except petrol which can rival it in that regard. £300? £400? £650? It doesn't matter, it will still have a queue of 500 people at its launch and sell out on the first day. Fair play to them. They found a product that lots of people crave and so they can flog it for a massive price, which is fine.
No so - everybody is copying their design, interfaced, security models etc... But as the first in a market they have an advantage. They MADE it mainstream. But they are not infallible and they do gamble every time they "create" a new market. http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/rotten-apple-apples-12-biggest-failures-231
Yes but nobody buys them. Everybody in the world has coloured their outer casings white, but Apple loses no money because they are the only product many people who buy their sort of products want. I think loyalty is the word I am looking for. They have many utterly loyal customers, which is unusual these days.
who's seen the advert for the 4, where the army man in the barracks is having a video call with his misses giving birth? tbh, you can video call on most phones. you've been able to for about 5 years or more now. so not sure how it advertises the iphone. its just like a special moment, but the iphone was there so apparently the iphone is special as well. they tell you its good rather than making you really believe it
I like how you've got away with that comment so far......... The guy who sits next to me at work has just got an I-Phone 4, and from being totally unbothered about them I am now suitably impressed enough to be enquiring about one when my current contract runs out in May. Like others have said on this thread, the things it does it does very well. Some of the apps run internet sites such as Paypal much better than actually using the d*mn PC! The battery life does appear to be a shocker though. Me and the kids have various flavours of IPods, and the only thing I hate about them is ITunes, otherwise they work very well too. At work I have a few Apple Macs with various flavours of OS-X, and they also do what they need to do with far fewer problems than the PC's ever do, (though Windows 7 is a major improvement). Unfortunately they are so expensive compared to the equivelant PC, and much more difficult to upgrade hardware wise, so I'm happy to stick with PC's for sometime yet.
