Mobile-ent.biz’s most recent editorial is about the amount of choice available in the mobile industry. The article uses Sociology professor Barry Schwartz’s book The Paradox of Choice, whose thesis is that too much choice makes consumers unhappy, as the basis for the article. Personally, I have to disagree and say that I will never be unsatisfied by more choice and I welcome more of it.
The author, Ben Parfitt, outlines his decision making process and his reasons for not using various phones. Let’s take a look at what he wanted:
Having a little girl at home means that a camera is one feature that I do genuinely tend to use when out and about – so an upgrade from the 2MP snapper in my existing W850i was a must.
I like the way he’s going about making his decision so far. Think about what features are most important to you and go from there. Personally, I would never use the camera as a starting point for what features are important to you. As it stands, unless you’re getting an N96, you should be buying a real camera, especially if it’s to take pics of your family.
The one obvious choice that kept leaping out at me was the iPhone. Apple machines are always hugely sexy, and a pleasure to use. But £269? I’m a journalist. I have a mortgage and a two year old.
True, the iPhone is expensive but won’t the government (UK I assume) let you write it off as tax deduction. If your job is to write about mobile phones, buying a mobile phone is clearly a business expense. I’m also surprised mobile-ent.biz won’t subsidize the cost seeing as though it would make for good content.
So the next obvious contender was the N95 8GB. Feature-packed, for sure, but boy – that’s one big phone.
Wait, you won’t get an iPhone because of the price but you’ll pick up an 8GB N95? Last I checked, the N95 is almost double the price of the iPhone. That’s if you’re comparing the BestBuy price for the N95 and the Apple Store price. I believe those are fairly accurate comparisons.
…the appearance of the shiny new Samsung Soul U900 swung it for me in the end. Wi-fi was the feature I sacrificed in the end, but in exchange I got 3.5G, a 5MP camera and a very tasty (though possibly highly impractical) touch panel.
I’m sorry I really think he made a mistake here. He should have bought the iPhone because the price could have been subsidized and I’m sure and it’s cheaper than the N95. Being an online journalist, the iPhone’s web browsing would have been ideal.
I believe the authors mistake was to focus on the camera feature which is a bad starting point in my opinion. The feature he should have been most concerned with is web browsing. In this respect, the iPhone wins. Otherwise, what about a BlackBerry? Journalists love their push-email. I know I do.
There’s always something better out there, always a forum poster to cast doubt on your decision, always something a little shinier just around the corner. I certainly can’t claim to be liberated.
Yes, there is always better than the Samsung Soul. In the end, had the author done a little more price research and chosen features that were important to him other than the camera, he would have come out with a pro device: the iPhone.
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