The "digital divide": iPhone vs. Android vs. BlackBerry (humor)

Our family seems a bit divided right now between iPhone and Android users. --Not so long ago (a couple of months), the 'Droidies were using BlackBerries.

I thought this cartoon expressed, in that inimitable manner that pictures have a way of doing, a little too accurately for comfort, exactly how the users of the three primary smartphone operating systems in the U.S. view themselves and the users of the competing systems. . . . Oh. And how they "really" look.

Enjoy!

ETA: Oh. And for a more serious view of the differences, check out this Fortune magazine article written 9 months ago (which is a lifetime in the smartphone industry, but interesting nevertheless).

King Camp Gillette, II

On Thursday, January 28th, I asked, "To what extent is the iPad a potential heir to King Camp Gillette's "disposable razor" approach to profits?"

I was pleased to see, today, that someone else had the same thought, blogged on the 29th. Also, because he is obviously more tuned-in to Apple than I am, he explained far better than I--and with much greater sensitivity to the sources of income than I had--where and how Apple is following King Camp Gillette's philosophy:

I think Apple wants to give the iPhone and the iPad to as many people as possible at cost or with a small profit. . . . Now why would they do that you might ask?

The key reason, I would argue, is that Apple wants the magic of recurring revenues. This is the dream of many companies - to have millions of folks paying a small amount of money every month for using a service. What makes Apple stand out is the fact that they have an army of developers who are writing code for some very cool apps. Yes, there is an app for that. In fact, there is an app for almost every idea ever thought of.

Not only has the app store been widely successful, but Apple also has iTunes, and iBooks along with iTV coming down the road. So this is what I believe Apple’s business model is going to be: with 125 million people who are giving Apple their contact and credit card information, Apple has a huge base of customers, much like the newspapers and magazines did in the ’60s and ’70s, but on a much smaller scale. Now Apple can upsell products to those customers at will. The genius part about all of this is the fact that other people are creating products to be sold through the Apple store. Apple just reinvented the King Gillette model in a thoroughly modern way. Hats off to you, Steve.

That’s my take on Apple’s stealth business model.

Amen!

Cell phone only?

Sarita fell in love with the iPhone--or is it the Blackberry?--a few months ago.

First, our son-in-law used some of the Christmas cash bonus he received from his employer last year to buy an iPhone.

Shortly afterward, we found ourselves down at the local Apple store admiring the iPhone's capabilities.

"But the price!"

And I use my cell phone more than Sarita does. I think I turn it on, on average, maybe twice a month. And make an average of fewer than five minutes' worth of phone calls in those brief periods of having the phone on.

I think Sarita may average a cell phone call twice a year.

But we own our phones. And they cost us "only" $17.95 a month each. For 150 minutes.

If only we used them!

And here the iPhone would cost us only $80 apiece.

But they are so cool!

. . . And then Sarita was at a board meeting. A question came up. Two minutes later, one of the men on the board who had his Blackberry along, came up with the answer by using the web browser built in.

"Wow! How handy!"

And it's probably $10 a month less expensive than the iPhone.

Not quite as cool, but. . . . You'd have the web at your fingertips almost 24/7.

Of course, web browsing on a Blackberry is nowhere near as convenient or graphically pleasing as it is on an iPhone, but . . .

"What if we went totally to cell phone? Save the money on a land line and switch 100% to cell?"

The economics begin to make a little more sense. . . .

********

So this morning I came across an article that brought me back down to earth a bit. The author has been engaged in some of the same debates with respect to her telephone use. And in conclusion she notes she would have to pay a major fee to get out of her current contract with her current cell phone company in order to switch to iPhone. "What annoys me more, though," she continues, "are the people I do business with who are already cell only."

I try to talk with them and oftentimes the connection is bad, it cuts out, or gets dropped. That is no way to run a business ongoing. For a quick chat on the run maybe, but for extended dealings? Not to mention when I visit my parents I don’t even get cell reception in their house. Many other houses and locations are like that. How convenient is that? I couldn’t imagine the conversations at home with my Mom if I was suddenly cutting in and out or dropping her. She’d go nuts.

Business and personal life is all about relationships. How can you build them successfully with unreliable or intermittent communication tools? Again, great for quick check-ins but extended calls can be hit or miss.

Perhaps we’ll continue to see a trend for mobile only. I totally get the desire to save money on monthly expenses. For me, though, I see the best course of action to be a hybrid solution. Reduce my cell phone plan to the bare minimum I need for typical usage and keep the landline. One becomes a business expense and one does not. It might not be the cheapest solution, but at least it gives me options.

I wonder where Sarita will come down.

I have to admit: the iPhone really is cool. And it may have saved Jonelle's life last week. (It certainly made it easier for us to get her quickly to the medical care she needed. --Jonelle's husband, Dave, looked up the hospital's telephone number online as we were on the way to the hospital . . . then called for help. [Though I just realized, there is always the 411 "Information" number. --But who pays for information that you can get for free online? . . . Oh! Everyone who buys an iPhone also pays for web access, don't they? . . . But that's a sunk cost, isn't it? . . . ])

Hmmmm.

The wheels keep turning. And the lust grows.