I never had an IOS device before. Growing up, I was an android user. I remember my first mobile was an open & close Nokia followed by other subsequent Symbian models. Other honourable mentions are: Sony Ericsson, LG, Lumia, Infinix and Samsung.
They were all great in their own ways. Nokia had durability and long battery life. Lumia got the boxy exterior and minimalistic interface with less colours. Samsung has the amazing display (FYI, apple get their displays from Samsung). Different as they may be, they all have a vital feature that ties them together and make them unanimously special I.e. Share-ability (and user-customisability).
Recalling my senior year in boarding school, the popular series were: Flash, Arrow, and โinto the badlandsโ amongst others. Even though very few people had phones and even less had data subscriptions, we were still able to watch them every week. So what happened was that, once a new episode debuts, just one or two people have to download it and it immediately gets shared around like a ripple. This is one of the perks of android phones, share-ability. They are different brands but they are all intermingle seamlessly. Be it a file, a track, a picture, or a whole movie, it can all be shared easily through Xender or file-share. On the other hand, IOS products and the once famous Blackberry have very closed ecosystems.
Even though blackberry and iPhone where seen as cool, not a lot of people had them. They’re expensive and too secluded in their interface which was a turn off compared to the flexibility that android devices provide. You canโt share files (easily) across other operating systems. But this is probably why IOS products where seen as secure, unbreakable, & virus-free. They didnโt even have an antivirus software because of said reputation.
Besides being seen as the “staple of the mobile era”, iPhones had the best feel. They feel premium to the touch, which is a different experience from the plasticky feeling you get from android devices. Another great reputation is that iPhones have the best cameras. Pictures taking from an iPhone always come out crisp. In the visual world that we live in, this is a great distinction.
Nevertheless, I never thought of getting an iPhone. The phone I got excited about growing up was Samsung. Samsung Galaxy S4 to be exact. I remember seeing a commercial showcasing one of it cool features- the eye movement sensor. When watching a video, upon taking your eyes off the screen, the phone automatically pauses the video for you. And as soon as you look back, the video automatically resumes. My Dad did get me the phone, that day was pure ecstasy.
In 2018, iPhone has just released it latest flagship, the revolutionary iPhone X. Since it debut the buzz has been endless. iPhone has just levelled up the chassis, took out the home button/Touch ID and replaced it with Face ID (first of it kind on any phone!). The colours were exotic, the processing power on point and everything just screamed high-end. The phone definitely gave off a futuristic vibe (after all its apple). And everyone that can was trying to get their hands on it. I remember at the time there was an organised event by some bank on campus putting up a free iPhone X for the winners and people were going crazy about it. The buzz was real.
Fast forward to 2 years later. I decided to get an iPhone once and for all to see what all the hype was about. I got a white iPhone XS Max, easily the most Iโve ever spent on a phone. The base model was not an option for me because it came with a measly 64gb of in-expandable storage. Which is one of the short comings of IOS, once you buy a device you canโt increase the memory. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, you can’t even add an external SD Card.
So I was compelled to go for the 256gb model. I guess it’s a marketing genius on their end. They structured their products and services in such a fashion to get the most ๐ฐ they can off of you from the jump. i.e you are compelled to max out on the actual physical product when getting it. And then you are compelled to pay a premium for digital services that make the device special in the first place e.g. iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV etc. (and you keep paying this bill for as long as you use the already paid for device).
Iโm not gonna lie, the phone was fire though. The camera as expected, the display was picturesque and the audio was crisp. iPhone for the most part came through as it’s portrayed, it wasn’t just a buzz.
Not long after getting my iPhone XS Max, I decided to get the air pods. I wanted wireless headphones and it seemed logical to get the apple head phones, right?
Then a year later, I was thinking of getting a new laptop. Guess which one I ended up getting? Exactly. The Apple MacBook Pro. And again this time around I couldn’t go for the base model (as if I wasn’t paying a premium already). There’s no way anyone can live on a measly storage of 128GB for a laptop! So I had to go a step higher and burn more chips for the 256GB model (which is still not impressive for a laptop).
To spice it up a bit, I ordered a lush black camo skin from Dbrand (the same I got for my XS Max to match). I got on Amazon, ordered an Anker Dongle (the Mac-book only got type C-ports), I ordered a plush 13 inch pouch, some screen protectors and a 500gb sanDisk SSD. And the set was complete.
Now Iโm thinking of getting an extra screen for my graphic design work. Guess which screen I’m thinking of getting? You’re right again, An iMac monitor. So basically owning just one apple product is a trap. Once you let your curiosity get the best of you and open that Pandora’s box, the rest are going to follow. You get zapped into the Apple ecosystem. I do not infer this in a bad way necessarily. I mean apple has just made it so convenient and to some degree “worth while” to stick to their ecosystem. It just seems logical once you own a piece of IOS, upon looking for a different piece, to just get the IOS version of said piece. Because they work and synchronise so well together.
Moreover, apple has been able to develop and create such amazing products that keep pushing the boundaries of our imagination and work superbly. And once you get a taste of that class of creation, anything less afterwards will come across as appalling. Thus, they are able to charge what ever they want, and people will keep going back.
All in all, apple is not omnipitent, it those have it minuses when it comes to customisation, upgrading hardware components and having to pay literally a premium for every device and service provided. But if you enjoy quality build gadgets, a sleek design with a minimalistic interface and coherent ecosystem that makes sense, then apple can be your tribe.
