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We’re caught in an App.
As the expected release of the iPhone 5 (or the 4Gs) approaches the time is coming when I reassess my phone of choice. I am currently a happy iPhone 4 user so I shall invariably be paying close attention to the release details of Apple's latest creation. I am pretty sure the next release will have me frothing with anticipation that will ensure I slap down my hard earned cash as soon as it's available.
However it is not simply the fact that I currently have the iPhone 4 that will make me look with envious eyes towards the next iPhone iteration. The simple fact is if I ever do decide to jump ship to another platform such as Android, it will be costing me far more than just the cost of the phone itself.
This extended cost is of course all the apps I have purchased over the last few years. I would not like to hazard a guess at this amount but I know it is significant. So significant I don't ever see myself being able to simple dump Apple and walk away. Fortunately I am happy with my current Platform choice but I feel sorry for anyone who isn't, especially anyone who has invested as much in apps as I have.
Applications for our mobile devices were a fantastic idea. Third parties created apps at an exponential rate and increased the worth and usefulness of our phones almost daily. Today our most personal computer, in real terms, is the one many of us carry around it our pocket.
Our phones are no longer the stock shells they were when we first purchased them and I think you would be hard pressed to find two phones identical in functionality after just a short time in their owners possession.
However it is this same freedom and ability to personally customise these smart devices which also leads us to become trapped within them. Each day many people are hopping onto either the Android or iOS platforms and handing over money for silly apps, utility apps, gaming apps, geo-locational apps, camera apps and countless other types of apps. How many are truly considering just how much additional funding their new shiny devices are costing them and how hard it will be to ever just throw it all away and move to a different platform and start from scratch again?
As I admitted early I myself am pretty much trapped for the foreseeable future in the Apple universe. Unless Apple manage to screw up their iPhone to such an extent it is no longer a viable platform I am pretty much a willing captive. Luckily I am stuck in a well supported, pretty place with mostly considerate jailers. I wonder how many others out their are in a similar situation, unfortunately I am unable to find out at the moment as currently there is no app for that...yet.
-Karl
Please feel to follow me on Twitter: @claw0101
Author
Ewen Rankin