Do you want an iPhone?

Do you love your iPhone? Does it make you feel special to own such a nice, polished, over-priced piece of hardware?

Well, you're probably not alone. A ton of people buy the iPhone not because it's the best phone out there (it isn't), not because it's the best value (it isn't), not because it's the cheapest (it REALLY isn't), but simply because it's the iPhone. It has this aura around it, this intangible thing that makes people want it. Much like other status symbols (driving a very rare and expensive car, wearing designer clothes), many people think that owning an iPhone makes you cool, hip, unique, different...the list goes on.

But does it really? What is the definition of cool, unique? You would think that only by possessing an item that few other people have would you qualify as cool and unique, right? Yet if you own an iPhone, you own a piece of hardware that is EXACTLY THE SAME as, what, several hundred million other people? Not only the hardware, but even the software is EXACTLY THE SAME. You use the same mail client, the same messaging app, your icons look exactly the same.

So no, owning an iPhone doesn't make you cool, hip or unique. Not anymore. Not when everybody else around you owns the same phone, and uses the exact same apps with the exact same look. Heck, you're even all typing on the exact same keyboard.

Boring.

Now, buy an Android phone, install a custom ROM, swap out the stock messaging and email apps, download a new theme for it, change your keyboard, install custom icons...NOW you have a unique phone that nobody else has.

Don't get me wrong, the iPhone is a good piece of hardware/software. It functions well. And if you buy it for <insert valid reason here> then that's fine. Just don't go pretending to do it because it's the best phone, or the best value, or because it's cool and unique (owning something everybody else owns is the very antithesis of unique and cool). Because none of those are true.

Now, some may say "well the iPhone just works". This implies other phones don't, which is silly. In the early days of Android and Windows Phone, they had a few hiccups. But these days, top devices from all manufacturers all "just work". They're all polished and smooth.

Some food for thought:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaxU0ut5tUw&list=FLE73CfEmx_sy8OrSiqmT5Ug&index=33

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS5sal5wN1c&list=FLE73CfEmx_sy8OrSiqmT5Ug&index=31

This is what you folks are like. I'm not joking.