An iPhone Argument

I had an interesting discussion/argument today with a friend on Facebook about the iPhone’s usefulness, all because I posted a status update on how iPhone users are usually pretty annoying.  After that, it evolved into a discussion that’s worthy of some public attention, so here it is in anonymized format, posted with permission.

The misspellings and Internet-speak are all his.

Me:

iPhones are just a substitute for people who wish they had important things to do.

Him:

you mean the iphones are replacing the people temporarily? or the iphones are replacing something for the people?

Me:

A large majority of iPhone users simply play games or randomly surf the internet.

I’m suggesting that users of, say, Blackberries or an Android-based phone have more important things to do than play games, such as answer emails or, God forbid, make phone calls – ostensibly related to business.

Him:

hmm… maybe…

Me:

It’s obvious – look at the sales/download stats of applications on iPhones and the usage of bandwidth vs. similar data for Blackberries or Android-based phones.

Besides, Blackberries and Android phones don’t even have 90% of the stupid crap that iPhones do.

Game, set, match.

Him:

Game, set, match? Hardly.

When we talk ab iPhone users vs say blackberry users, we’re not always talking apples to apples. Because iPhones are pushed to pretty much everyone, u have a lot of users that are minors and non-professionals. So it’s not like they would do a lot of “important things” on their smartphone even if they had blackberries. And yea iPhones have a lot of extra “crap” available to them… But that extra “crap” is why it’s such better fit for the diverse iPhone target market. Hence the heavy usage of data.

Also let’s not overlook the fact that blackberries are one of the smartphones of choice for big companies, so the work and communications flow of blackberries is going to be much more focused, on average, and not as representative of the smartphone user population in total.

So I’ll agree that a majority of data usage on iPhones isn’t as “focused” as u might find on other smartphones. But look at the target market for iPhones. That isn’t surprising. Furthermore, that data usage generated through all the “crap” apps translates to a lot of revenues for developers and advertisers, as well as apple, which makes the stuff iPhone users do important to a lot of people, including all the blackberry-using, important-stuff-doing professionals in the big companies that are Apple stakeholders in some way.

Me:

You can get defensive and argue all you want, but at the end of the day the facts don’t lie.

Yes, perhaps the market’s a little different, but the result is a large group of self-righteous people who find playing (literally) with their phones more important than interacting with the person in front of them.

And, unlike Blackberry or Android users, they actually have no reason to feel important other than the pretentiousness inherent in purchasing an iPhone.

End of story.

Him:

i’m defensive? ha! i’d say the same about you, buddy.

i agree. the facts don’t lie. i’ll agree that there is a lot of “playing with the phone” that goes on with iphone users. but that “playing” has economic significance to a lot of people, so that “playing” is important. i think you’re just judging people who use their iphones as toys. somehow the idea that smart phones are being used as toys is disturbing to you. and what about people who get absorbed in playing with iphone apps? it’s the same as when texting became popular and people were sucked up into texting all the time. i feel like that time never ended. lol but who cares. it’s a trivial stance to take.

but that is why so many people buy the iphone. it’s kind of a toy. otherwise, why would a minor or a non-professional person buy a smartphone. so yea i’ll agree with you right up until you start saying that that “playing” isn’t important. it’s economically significant! mobile email and data plans have been around much longer than the iphone and yet the iphone has really made it clear that there is so much more revenue to be made from and around smart phone technology.

Also, how does playing with your phone make you self-righteous? an even better question is, how is purchasing an iphone pretentious? it’s not like buying a $120k porsche, where only a small fraction of the population is even able to afford it. there are tons of middle class families with an iphone per person out there. pretentious is not the word i would use. maybe… unoriginal? i’ll totally agree with that. lol

but in that case why not just argue something like that about android-based phone users… that the fact that less people have android-based phones is a reason to buy them? who cares. why be so concerned with perception associated with the smartphone. if the shoe fits, wear it. it’s just a phone/toy. lol

Me:

a) I have no vested interest in either side – I don’t own an iPhone, Blackberry, or an Android-based one. You, however, do.

b) The iPhone, despite what some believe, is too powerful to be just a toy, and to see it used as such is annoying at best.

c) Economic significance based on falsely inflated value over a controlled market (aka iPhone apps) is worthless. That’s exactly the same behavior that oil speculators participate in over OPEC prices, and use similar justifications for their absurd practices.

d) By buying an iPhone, you’re hoping to join the ranks of the “cool” and the “elite” – this is what Apple markets in all of its products. That’s pretentious.

e) When you place more importance on how great your iPhone is at Farmville over a conversation you’re having with someone three feet in front of you, that’s self-righteousness.

f) I’m not arguing that Android is better because it has a smaller market. I’m arguing that a phone with such power can, and should, be put to better uses than Bejeweled 7.8 3D Maximum Destruction, and the Blackberry/Android developers seem to inherently understand this.

The problem, as I just alluded to, is a combination of the iPhone’s userbase and the application developers – this is not likely to translate to smartphones that don’t have the stigma of “cool” attached to it.

Now, the question is:  who’s right?

Kyle can be found on his blog, on Facebook, via email, or on Twitter.