> I've never used an iPhone, or felt the need to have a "1080P" screen
> in the palm of my hand. ISTM that Apple is trying to pack every
> digital device known to man into a palm-sized box that is (1) very
> easy to lose, and (2) way too expensive, and (3) has a tiny screen
> that Uberman's X-Ray vision would be strained to see.
>
> Frankly, the Apple PR agent's gushy superlatives put me off. That's
> partly my age, but also because I've seen miracle devices before, and
> they /never/ live up to their hype. I don't feel the need to be
> entertained while I'm accomplishing miraculous feats of bureaucracy as
> I draw admiring stares from all the women at the airport/train
> station/polo meet/lunar landing, and while Apple's PR department is
> doing a good job training Twenty-somethings to imagine themselves in
> that commercial, they're not impressing /me/, or (I suspect) any other
> potential buyer over the age of Forty.
It's not just Apple's PR that's appealing to people to put multi-use devices in their pockets. The Android camp is doing the same thing. As with anything even a regular plain ol' cellphone you have to watch it and keep an eye on it. People wouldn't be adopting smartphones unless they found them to be useful. Let's just say that you're from a different time and a different perspective on what's important to you. Maybe you don't need to be as in touch through email, instant messenger or be in the loop with your Facebook or Twitter buddies but a lot of people are these days. Another one of our readers says she doesn't use text messaging and had it turned off. She's in the minority. Just don't say that this is all a plot by Apple alone to weigh us down with digital gadgets. If you're going to complain you'd best throw that complaint around to other parties involved as well. Apple and other companies see a need to bring this stuff to the public and so they have.
I don't want to. I carry a prepaid cellphone for emergencies, and if I lose it, I'm out the ten bucks it cost me to take it off the rack at Wallmart. I just looked for iPhone prices online, and the lowest price I saw (on Amazon.com) for an iPhone 3G was $334.95. Which one would you rather lose to a pickpocket, drop, or loan to your boss?
I think "people" adopted cellular telephones because they were scared of not looking like their peers. I think the cellular industry positioned its product perfectly; creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that meant "everyone" "had to" have a cellphone because everyone else "had to" have one.
I, OTOH, refuse to pay (exorbitant) per-minute prices and high instrument costs for the privilege of having my spouse, my boss, or bill collectors yank on an electronic leash anytime *THEY* choose.
I /am/ from a different time, but it's a time when men were expected to think for themselves and to act without checking every "expert" in Christendom before doing so. What's important to me are the traditional values of my class: thrift, self-discipline, and critical thought. And, since you bring up the issue, I'll ask if you realize that denigrating the experience of older people might make them think you are not open to others' opinions and facts contrary to what "everybody" knows: in other words, although perhaps not yet jaded, still merely juvenile.
I don't feel any need to ride the wave of peer preasure and advertising that apparently drives other cellular consumers: I use a prepaid cellphone that costs 5¢ per minute, which is still too high for everyday use, but which I'm willing to invest in as an alternative to changing a flat tire myself in rush-hour traffic. Since the early-adopters financed the cellular infrastructure that dots our landscape, I'm willing to swim in the trough /behind/ the wave and enjoy the benefits others paid for.
I don't have a Facetube account, I don't use Twitter, and the only time I used Instant Messenger was when it was called IRC and I employed it to keep in touch with other Vietnam veterans. The only benefit Facetube delivers is that it proves teenagers are insecure, that young adults are often catty and vicious, and that neither should be trusted with the reins to the wagons of commerce at that point in their lives.
As for email, I'm in touch through it as often as /I/ choose, at times and in places that are convenient to /me/. I recommend the practice.
Leaders always are.
I'm writing about the /class/ of gadgets known as "smartphones", no matter which assembly line they fell off. It doesn't matter how many other companies get involved or how much hype and money is spread around: if you spend time defending Apple, you're missing my point. As I alluded to above, I think you're trying to justify Fords' business by pointing to Chevrolet, and I'm questioning whether /any/ kind of "smartphone" (they're not) is a wise investment.
More power to them: that's the American Way! I wish them all the success in the world!
I, for my part, see a need to point out the obvious: that having the capability to communicate snippets of text or photographs or emails with every one of my friends, cow-orkers, and/or superiors does /not/ make me a competent corporate manager. At best, it marks me as a follower who is anxious about not having the latest "common wisdom" to parrot to others, and at worst it marks me as a drone who is constantly waiting for someone else to tell him what to do.
When my brother-in-law was a newly employed Electronic Engineer, fresh out of college, he came home one day with a pager on his belt: back before they were common, and before cellular was deployed. I said to him "You must be an important person now!". He replied "No, Bill - the important people *DO* the beeping!"
My point is that expensive cellphones are like expensive watches: if you want to know who the important people are in any group, look for those without either. YMMV.
On Sat, 08 Oct 2011 10:14:14 -0400, Bill Horne wrote: ..........
.......... I have to admit that the only business value in my "Smartphone" is the e-mail linking to my Exchange server as I spend most of my time either at client sites or on the road to and from them. It also gives me a convenient alternative to send and receive test e-mails as an external system to the systems I administer.
Without that function I'd happily go back to a "normal" phone that only has to be charged 1/4 of the times the more bulky "Smartphone" requires.
The *only* other valuable function I have really used on my "Smartphone" is reading the news online while in the waiting room for medical appointments! The rest of the things it can do are basically time wasting toys, (which explains the appeal to a lot of people).
-- Regards, David.
David Clayton Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a measure of how many questions you have.
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