Love never lets you go

I have just decided that I'm going to replace my iphone 4S with a Samsung Galaxy 111S.

 I can hear that sucking in of air between the teeth out there in cyberspace, but believe me I have considered this carefully. so please hear me out.

I have owned the iphone since I acquired my first iphone, the original iphone. Then came the 3G, followed hot on its heels, by the 3GS and then the 4. I held back on the 4S because in all reason I could not see why I should dole out the dosh for features that really didn't make all that much difference to the pleasures I already enjoy with the phone. Recently I spent some time in Cape Town and with a few hours to spare, I investigated the mobile phone market there.

I must admit that I had an ulterior motive. We have an interest in the Social Media market and this form of digital presence has become more and more mobile, I felt that having a look at what was on offer and what people are buying would give me an idea which direction to take, when I finally strike camp and build my home in South Africa.

The first fact that became remarkably obvious is that apple, while enjoying the hype, does not enjoy the popularity at the checkout. Why? Its simple really and you don't need to look very far to understand this. South Africa is way down the list when compared to living in the 7th wealthiest nation in the world (The UK) as I do. The population simply cannot afford the bling. a few hundred bucks makes all the difference so I noticed that Samsung are cashing in on the alternatives and they really must be seeing the dollar bills.

I admit that because I have been able to own an ipad and an iphone, I haven't taken the time to take serious notice of what else is on offer, until fate pushed me to in Cape Town.

It was the Samsung Galaxy tablet that made me realise that the ipad had a serious contender for the first place at the checkout. I know, I know the OS is different, but that is what is eventually going to put apple on the back burner. Because there are several Android tablets, when they become "one in every home", The IBM syndrome is going to take hold and we're going to see apples incompatibility shoot it in the foot.

Then I decided to take a closer look at the Samsung S111. And I loved it. It does everything I want and the itunes/ipod argument for a phone is slowly becoming lost on me. Why? Because I use Spotify more than I use itunes and I can store my music on my PC and transfer to my phone using other software, so itunes is no longer irreplaceable.

The Android phone costs less to insure, less to update and now equals the apps available, also you don't have to pay purely for the privilege.

Now sinceI have an ipad, the Samsung makes sense. I can do anything on the ipad that I can do on the iphone except make a call (I can Skype by ipad). I can make phone calls on the Samsung and all the apps I need on hand on my phone are available for the Samsung. So Android here I come.

Time will tell and pretty quickly we'll see if I've made the right decision.