There's something ugly happening inside of me, and I'm not all that convinced that it's a good thing. I just got a new toy, the iPhone 4. This is the first time that I have opened my doors to Apple. Some may say that I'm way behind in the times, but there is a reason for this. You see I have always loathed Apple, not because of their products per se, but because of the marketing of their products. They always hold something back that SHOULD have been in the first release, only to update the product less than a year later and this annoyed me to the point of shutting them out of my life.
The reason why I have cautiously opened my door to an Apple product is because I have had a run of very bad phones. Infact, my phone history is abit of a mixed bag. During the 90's I was always the first to have the latest phone. I was one of the first to have the 6110 and be amazed at how it could read out your location on the main screen. After that was the 7110, the first phone to be able to send emails, albeit a very long and confusing way, but never the less, it could be done. After this came my first smartphone, O2. The reason for this purchase was simple, it had windows media player and I wanted to watch cartoons on my daily commute. When I first got it, it was great, it had a good camera, quite a large screen and the usability was good. However this relationship turned sour when the software stopped working and I had to take it to a repair shop. Things got quite ugly when the owner refused to repair it when I made the receptionist cry (long story). So I got it back, but it wasn't fixed.
After this, like anyone who's just got out of a bad relationship, I wanted a break, so I got a simple Nokia phone. I was satisfied, it wasn't anything spectacular, but I knew that it would serve my needs.
Once this contract was up I was ready to get back into the tech horse and get myself a wiz bang phone, one that I could be proud to call mine once more, so I looked at the Blackberry Storm. I had seen the reviews and none of them painted a really great picture, but it was either that or open up my heart up to Apple, and I wasn't ready for that.
Like the O2 phone, life was great at first. I watched my TV programs on it, had access to my email etc and it certainly did everything right. It was quite a buggy phone, but it was manageable. Then came the bombshell, the fault that would stop me from looking at it through rose coloured glasses, I wasn't receiving any phone calls. I could receive the text to tell me I had a voicemail, but I couldn't actually get the calls first hand. And this was during a time where I wasn't in work and needed to receive calls from agencies, quite important stuff. This relationship went south very quickly after this and ended in an incident involving the phone, my throwing arm and the kitchen floor. It was good anger management. However this left me with a problem, no phone and still under contract. Luckily my girlfriend came through with a spare, one that she had used previously, the HTC Diamond.
While it was great that I was able to have a phone, the phone itself was nothing spectacular. Infact I wouldn't describe it as a smartphone, more so the phone that was dropped on its head as a baby and at school, it would be the one underneath the tree eating the worms. The functionality of this thing was awful. You could have the phone on silent, but then you wouldn't be able to hear your alarm in the mornings. I mean who designed this?! The whole point of having it on silent is so it doesn't disturb you with calls, whereas an alarm is MEANT to disturb you.
Anyway, I digress. I was overjoyed when my contract ended and I could finally get a new phone, and I feel that after my hit and misses of the past, I decided to turn to the dark side and give in to my hate, get an iPhone.
After a long 4 week wait for the phone to arrive, I was virtually skipping down to the mailroom to pick up my new toy. I ripped open the box to reveal a shiny new phone, one that everyone had raved on about and one that could hopefully fill the phone void that I had had for quite a while.
After cursing the set-up process in which I had to shut down my sim and transfer all the data to the micro-sim AND go to iTunes to boot it up, I was ready to take it out for a spin. Oh the joy I had in the first day, going to the app store, downloading useless apps and a few games to boot. I especially wanted to set up my gamertag in the gaming centre. Being addicted to trophies on the PS3, the chance to take this addiction on the road was too tempting to pass up.
The honeymoon phase didn't last for too long though, as only after day 3 I saw the first flaw, the phone didn't recognise daylight savings and woke me up an hour earlier. I jumped onto the net and discovered this was a bug and that I wasn't the only one to have it. Was I annoyed? Yes. Would I have laughed harder if I was a non-iPhone owner? Probably. But I knew the joy it had brought into my life in the short time I had it, so I was willing to overlook this imperfection.
The ugly thing that I mentioned at the start of this blog though is, I have noticed that I look at what phones other people have, and if its not an iPhone, I'm feeling sorry for them. Is this how it happens? Is this how you turn into an Apple groupie? You let them into your life for one measly gadget and they turn you into a person that feels sorry for others if they don't conform?
Having been on the other side for so long, I am determined to continue to see both sides. I know how Apple treat their customers. Sure they can deliver products that bring you joy, but they never quite give 100%, they hold back and their customers overlook this because they believe the pros outweigh the cons. Just like me regarding the alarm, they overlook this imperfection and continue to give their all to the relationship.
Having been burned in several other relationships, I am entering this with caution. It's like I've sat it down and said that I want to take it slow, I don't expect anything spectacular, but I just don't want to be hurt anymore. Will Apple hear my words? Who knows, its early days. But I do know that this relationship is looking promising.