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!

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