The funny thing is, I saw using every other smartphone as a bit of an inconvenience and a compromise on the limited features available, but something I simply had to put up with if I wanted to carry mobile e-mail and limited web browsing functionality. The compromise, limitation and inconvenience ended when I got an iPhone.
I've used Palms, Blackberries and Windows Mobile devices of various generations over the years, and with each and every one of them, I suffered with:
- Total data loss, often random, with no or limited back and restore capability
- A lack of a decent web browser
- A lack of a decent media player
- A lack of a unified location to purchase apps, and the apps that were available were not nearly as plentiful and number, and often were more expensive for less functionality.
- A lack of an ability to keep the same phone model for 3+ years and get multiple OS updates that continue to improve functionality and add features.
- Having to worry about losing my stylus and buying a new one, because no one could seemingly get a touch screen to operate accurately enough without one.
All of that changed once the iPhone came out. And you know what? It was worth it to me to have these things even if it meant giving up copy and paste for a while. Sure, many smartphones are improved now, but none of the smartphone vendors felt motivated to actually care about the user experience and adding any of these features until the iPhone changed things. Now, smartphone vendors keep talking about how they're going to release an "iPhone killer," yet none manage to ever come close to "killing" anything. If the iPhone is so bad and such a "struggle," why does everyone now use it as the industry yardstick? Why does the next model of the iPhone sell a million units in a weekend, easy, in a bad economy, while others don't come close to selling the same amount in three months' time?
Say what you want, but for all the criticism and bickering and complaining, you're still here, talking about iPhones, and using iPhones. If it were really that bad, people wouldn't be buying them. They'd be using something else... because the alternatives are so much better, aren't they?
I ignore the label "fanboy." It's a term used by people who can't refute the arguments I put out there on their merits. If I'm a fanboy, so be it. But argue the facts I've presented, not whether I really like my phone or not.
