Ben
29th August 2010, 01:53 PM
I was reading this article (http://www.kansascity.com/2010/08/28/2184068/android-iphone-blackberry-our.html) earlier on my iPad (via Flipboard, of course) and it got me thinking. How do we use the items we equip ourselves with to extend an image of ourselves to those around us? What do the items we choose to carry really say about us? I'd bet that, more often than not, what people actually perceive is different to what we intended, if we had a conscious intention at all.
The iPhone divides opinion as well as any Apple product. That's a risky proposition for those who carry them, as holding an iPhone is likely to result in some sort of snap judgement about the owner. So lets start with that.
For me, an iPhone screams an appreciation of quality. An understanding that, often times, we get what we pay for. It's about simplicity, efficiency, and desiring a high level of integration between computing environments. It also tells me that the owner is somewhat creative, and perhaps a little playful. There's something fun about the iOS UI and that's before I even consider the hundreds of thousands of apps. It does also say, however, that the owner is willing to sacrifice a certain amount of control to Apple, Inc, in exchange for an easy life.
Android is a little more tricky. There are tens of Android-powered handsets out there now, widely varying in quality and target market. There's definitely something utilitarian about Android, I just can't get away from that, but it does give out an aura of sophistication too. Competition in the Android space also provides value, with very high end specifications coming in significantly cheaper than one would expect to pay for an iPhone, suggesting that owners are rather frugal. The styling of the handset an Android user chooses is likely to make the biggest impression, but with manufacturers like HTC leading the charge it's easy to look at a lot of Android devices and think boring. The Desire, for example, is about as desirable as most newsreaders these days - no depth. Which is a bit of a contradiction, because Android users typically have a lot of freedom to customise their devices and make them into extensions of their personalities.
BlackBerry? That says two things to me. Enterprise, chained to corporate inbox. Woman, chained to BBM! Despite BlackBerry's popularity I also still see a certain amount of individualism in a BlackBerry owner. I definitely see it as a communication tool, a workhorse, rather than anything particularly flamboyant. Having never owned one they're slightly mystical to me, and somehow I don't see that many in the wild, either. I suppose that comes from operating a more informal business environment than many corporates would.
Then there's Symbian, and I'm referring predominantly to Nokias, here. High-end Nokia phones write zealot all over their owners in permanent black marker. Brand loyalty. Believing in a way of doing things to the extent that the owner will stick with that system through the bad, sometimes even giving vocal opposition but more irritatingly continuing to scream the virtues, and holding out for improvements. Sorry! Then there's the other kind of Symbian user, the one who doesn't even know they're using Symbian because they've got what would otherwise be a mid-range feature phone as a free upgrade and only call and text. Scratch that, they probably read texts and get their other half to reply.
One type of Nokia owner does escape my somewhat dowdy views, and that's a Maemo (I suppose I include MeeGo here) user. There's still something alluring about being on the cutting edge, having something new, experimenting with something that most of us aren't sure of, or possibly haven't even heard of yet. This is the sort of thing that would've caught my eye a few years back before the iPhone came along and made my life easier. Due to what I do it's not really practical for me to experiment anymore, so instead I look on with rose tinted contact lenses at those in the fray - forgetting how frustrating being an early adopter usually is and remembering the more exciting aspects of being thrown in at the deep end.
But that's all just what I think, and as I've come to appreciate we all build up very different views of such superficial things as this. Indeed, I'm amazed that the mobile somebody carries speaks as much to me as it apparently does!
So what do you think? Do phones and other devices, like the iPad, say much about their owners? If you see a middle aged suited businessman with shiny shoes and a briefcase prodding at an iPhone instead of a BlackBerry are you going to assume they're a bit of a trendy flake rather than somebody to be taken seriously?
I wonder what my Three MiFi says about me to onlookers especially when I'm using it with my iPad! Cheapskate? Would Vodafone Mobile WiFi make me a sucker? ;)
The iPhone divides opinion as well as any Apple product. That's a risky proposition for those who carry them, as holding an iPhone is likely to result in some sort of snap judgement about the owner. So lets start with that.
For me, an iPhone screams an appreciation of quality. An understanding that, often times, we get what we pay for. It's about simplicity, efficiency, and desiring a high level of integration between computing environments. It also tells me that the owner is somewhat creative, and perhaps a little playful. There's something fun about the iOS UI and that's before I even consider the hundreds of thousands of apps. It does also say, however, that the owner is willing to sacrifice a certain amount of control to Apple, Inc, in exchange for an easy life.
Android is a little more tricky. There are tens of Android-powered handsets out there now, widely varying in quality and target market. There's definitely something utilitarian about Android, I just can't get away from that, but it does give out an aura of sophistication too. Competition in the Android space also provides value, with very high end specifications coming in significantly cheaper than one would expect to pay for an iPhone, suggesting that owners are rather frugal. The styling of the handset an Android user chooses is likely to make the biggest impression, but with manufacturers like HTC leading the charge it's easy to look at a lot of Android devices and think boring. The Desire, for example, is about as desirable as most newsreaders these days - no depth. Which is a bit of a contradiction, because Android users typically have a lot of freedom to customise their devices and make them into extensions of their personalities.
BlackBerry? That says two things to me. Enterprise, chained to corporate inbox. Woman, chained to BBM! Despite BlackBerry's popularity I also still see a certain amount of individualism in a BlackBerry owner. I definitely see it as a communication tool, a workhorse, rather than anything particularly flamboyant. Having never owned one they're slightly mystical to me, and somehow I don't see that many in the wild, either. I suppose that comes from operating a more informal business environment than many corporates would.
Then there's Symbian, and I'm referring predominantly to Nokias, here. High-end Nokia phones write zealot all over their owners in permanent black marker. Brand loyalty. Believing in a way of doing things to the extent that the owner will stick with that system through the bad, sometimes even giving vocal opposition but more irritatingly continuing to scream the virtues, and holding out for improvements. Sorry! Then there's the other kind of Symbian user, the one who doesn't even know they're using Symbian because they've got what would otherwise be a mid-range feature phone as a free upgrade and only call and text. Scratch that, they probably read texts and get their other half to reply.
One type of Nokia owner does escape my somewhat dowdy views, and that's a Maemo (I suppose I include MeeGo here) user. There's still something alluring about being on the cutting edge, having something new, experimenting with something that most of us aren't sure of, or possibly haven't even heard of yet. This is the sort of thing that would've caught my eye a few years back before the iPhone came along and made my life easier. Due to what I do it's not really practical for me to experiment anymore, so instead I look on with rose tinted contact lenses at those in the fray - forgetting how frustrating being an early adopter usually is and remembering the more exciting aspects of being thrown in at the deep end.
But that's all just what I think, and as I've come to appreciate we all build up very different views of such superficial things as this. Indeed, I'm amazed that the mobile somebody carries speaks as much to me as it apparently does!
So what do you think? Do phones and other devices, like the iPad, say much about their owners? If you see a middle aged suited businessman with shiny shoes and a briefcase prodding at an iPhone instead of a BlackBerry are you going to assume they're a bit of a trendy flake rather than somebody to be taken seriously?
I wonder what my Three MiFi says about me to onlookers especially when I'm using it with my iPad! Cheapskate? Would Vodafone Mobile WiFi make me a sucker? ;)