New Phone, or How much I like Apple

• 27th August 2010 at 08:25

A couple of months ago, in the depths of my diary-less house move, I purchased a new phone.

I have repeatedly refused to join the legions of Apple faithful. At first it was because their products were overpriced and incompatible with Windows, and if I was going to buy an overpriced computer that was incompatible with Windows, then it was damned-well going to be something made by Acorn, which were superior in every way.

But once it was clear that there was no future in Acorn, and that I'd have to back Apple if I wanted to continue to fight the Microsoft machine we all so hated, I still refused, and bought a Risc PC anyway, because it was still superior in every way. I did come close to reluctantly buying a Mac Mini as a development machine, but then they released Safari for Windows - thanks, Apple!

Then there was the iPod. I went for the Rio Carbon, which was superior in every way. And of course, we can't forget my only trip into an Apple store, when I humiliated the owner by showing him that his best Mac book laptop things were inferior to my Sony Vaio in every way.

Which brings us on to the original iPhone. I must admit, I was tempted by it when I saw that touch screen, but I soon snapped out of it and bought myself an N95 8GB - it had 3G that I could hook my laptop up to out of the box, a removable battery, a front-facing camera, full multitasking, blah blah blah - superior in almost every way. Not to mention that it was a lot more open - plug it in and it shows up as a drive, no iTunes nonsense required. Oh yes - and cheaper.

Roll the clock forward a couple of years, and the iPhone has become the best phone on the market, so I had no choice but - oh, wait, no, that would be the HTC Desire, which does everything the iPhone does, only better. And isn't made by Apple. So I bought an HTC Desire.

A few weeks after I bought my phone, Apple announced that they would be releasing the iPhone 4, which would be absolutely awesome and superior to every other phone on the market. It's testimony to Jobs' ability as a salesman (or the gullibility of his market) that he managed to spin multi-tasking and folders as major innovations, received to cheers and wild applause; my N95 did that, and my Desire does that too. As well as being able to hook it up to my laptop out of the box, having a removable battery, blah blah blah - superior in almost every way. Not to mention that it is a lot more open. Oh yes - and cheaper. As for video calls, my N95 did that too, and it's not something I will miss in the slightest - although I did once use the front-facing camera to check I had combed my hair, so I guess they're not entirely useless.

But still, it's hardly the world-beating phone Apple says it is. Given their actions recently over rejecting apps without good reason and banning anything related to flash outright, I still can't understand why people are getting so excited about a device that at best brings the iPhone up to recent Android offerings, and will no doubt be surpassed again in the near future - some would argue it has already. But people do buy, and in amazing numbers.

I think that's what gets me most - Apple keep doing things that only benefit Apple, then they tell their users that it's all to improve the experience, the users lap it up and cheer, and go buy more inferior overpriced products. It's the attitude that Apple could never possibly ever do anything wrong - the fanboys would find a positive way to spin the news if it came out that Apple source their silicon by grinding up the bones of baby unicorns.

But then I guess some people just prefer Apple, and that's fine - if you're happy with your inferior iPhone, paying the Apple tax, having to use iTunes for all your data transfer needs, and needing to have your fourth and fifth fingers surgically removed to get decent signal, then fair play to you.

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