Smartphone OS Wars


Even if you don’t own (or care about) a smartphone, you should still read this blog. Substitute the smartphone platform references in the rest of this blog with the names of religions, sportsmen or club names and it would still be just as meaningful!

Mat Honan wrote an article titled “Please Stop Fighting About Your Smartphone” where he made these points:
“People love to fight and fight about phone platforms; to toss around the term fanboi and other insults and invective.
 …
Nobody cares what kind of smartphone you believe in. It’s not a religion. It’s not your local sports team even. Stop being a soldier. You are not a soldier. You are just wrong. Shut up.
…
“But, but, but,” I hear you stammering like some sort of horrible person who has mistaken a code base for a system of moral beliefs.” …No. You’re wrong.
…
And he (and it will almost certainly be a he) will be right to love that hunk of metal and glass. Completely and totally right. All the way up until he goes online to fight over phones, at which point he becomes completely wrong.”

Now such an article is sure to attract comments; and sure enough, it did. Here are some of the good ones.

There were these explanations of why we behave this way. The first reason was psychological:
“Cognitive dissonance. We justify our decisions by making arguments to ourselves and others about why our choice was the best choice. By doing that, we feel more secure in whatever decision we made...since it is so clear to me, I can't fathom why you don't see it.”
The second was the “humans are dumb” reason:
“You pick up your preferred OS and defend it, support it, pray for it, watch the news hoping for you company to succeed, to earn more mkt share etc. Stupid, but very human.”

And then there was the customary evolutionary reason thrown in:
“We're tribal by nature, we invest and become fans, and that results in fights with people who disagree.”

Me, I would say Mat Honan is being very mature; but hey, what’s the fun in that? As long as you are not going around killing people or blowing yourself up…And may Android win!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why we Deceive Ourselves

In their book, The Elephant in the Brain , the authors describe this weird aspect of deception that we practice: deceiving ourselves! That is so weird: “If our minds contain maps of our worlds, what good comes from having an inaccurate version of these maps?” The Sigmund Freud school of thought treats self-deception as a defense mechanism, “a way for the ego to protect itself”. The mind seeks to protect itself from anxiety and other negative emotions. Many object to this reasoning: since accurate information is so critical to our survival, surely distorting information would be dangerous. Wouldn’t the goal of protecting our self-esteem have been better achieved by making the brain’s self-esteem mechanism stronger instead? The new school of thought explains self-deception as “primarily outward-facing, manipulative, and ultimately self-serving”. This is based on Thomas Schelling’s work on game theory: “In a variety of scenarios, limiting or sabotaging yourself is the winn...
Read more

Europe #3 - Innsbruck

The last city we visited in Europe was Innsbruck in the Austrian Alps. After the cold and windy experience (at times) of Paris and Netherlands, Innsbruck was a wonderful change – it didn’t feel that cold, it was not windy all of which made it easy to walk around. Something absolutely necessary given how scenic the place is.   Since the hotel check-in time was much later in the day, we left the baggage and went to the Swarovski HQ-cum-museum about an hour by bus from Innsbruck. The crystal exhibits were brilliant – colorful, bright, shiny. Jewellery aside, it was a display of what one can do with crystals. While my wife and daughter loved the jewellery, I liked the superhero themed exhibits of Batman, Spiderman, the Hulk, and Star Wars. We didn’t buy anything there, though we did buy stuff in the Swarovski store in Innsbruck – jewellery, not the superhero stuff.   Innsbruck is a major tourist attraction during the skiing season but now in summer, we saw many groups of ...
Read more

The Thrill of the Chase

So many people complain about the difficulty in making decisions while shopping. Do you buy Brand X that gives 20% extra free? Or Brand Y that has 10% off? Or Brand Z that gives something else free with it? Do you buy that flat screen TV today or wait for the sale at Diwali? Now since the customer is king, shouldn’t companies be simplifying pricing choices? Like maybe offering consistently low prices all the time? Not so fast, as the US store, JC Penney discovered to its cost. Turns out that while people do complain about pricing choices, they are irrational. Also, they enjoy the thrill of the chase. Huh? The word “sale” acts like a siren call for many people: it lures them in to make that purchase. Consistently low prices don’t do the same. Besides, if a competitor lowers their prices just one time of the year, and Poof! Suddenly that low price claim becomes suspect in shoppers’ eyes. Then there are those sites that offer coupons: have lunch at Restaurant A on Wedne...
Read more