In The Garden of Apps.

Have you ever wondered just how much control you really have over your smartphone? If we take a step back and think about how technologically diverse our world has become, we start to see how little or how much control the dominating companies have over what we are able to access when operating our appliances. There is much debate over “closed” versus “open” structures within these appliances or platforms which has us questioning how much control we need over what we access on a daily basis.

A good example of this “rivalry” is the ongoing competition between Android phones, such as the latest Samsung Galaxy S series and the infamous Apple Iphone. Both offer a phone which is more than just a phone. Apple iPhone’s are closed devices, in which the apps you may choose to download have all been “okayed” by Apple before they reach the AppStore and they ultimately have complete control over what you can and cannot access on said phone. But if we compare this to the Android Samsung Galaxy S4, we see that it has a completely open and free platform to share and access data from anyway and this data is able to be modified by its user. Android’s have no control over what it’s user access, the platform itself or the content which it supplies.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my iPhone 4S, it’s like my child but it has become increasingly aware to me that I truly have zero control over anything within the phone itself. Sure I can personalise it some extent but the limitations within my phone are endless. Once you buy the iPhone it first must be registered with Apple, you then have to download iTunes (if you haven’t already) and download music, apps, movies, games etc from the iTunes Store. You aren’t allowed to “sync” your iPhone with more than one iTunes account or computer (which is always extremely annoying) and everything just seems so restricting that it almost becomes impossible to have any freedom.

If we give a detailed comparison to the Galaxy S4, we see how the Android system allows for independent app markets to emerge, of which the user of the S4 is able to access all of the apps within the “garden” which are available for FREE. Yeah, you heard right. This has created the ideology that the users of these apps on their Android phones have complete responsibility of what they choose to access, which in a sense can feel quite empowering for them.  In a recent online review of the Galaxy S4, the author quoted Samsung mobile’s President J K Shin, in which he explained how the new S4 was developed to acknowledge the fact that we should “experience life without boundaries, without limitations…to help us live a richer, simpler and more full life” and who doesn’t love the sound of that? That’s exactly what smartphone users in modern society essentially want to have: no limitations. This review also points out the incredible new apps such as “Samsung Knox” which is an office allowing you to connect with your office, “Samsung HomeSync” which allows you to connect to your Tv at home and the “Samsung Hub” which allows you to access and use your books, movies and music in a quick and simple. In other words, you now have TOTAL CONTROL.

Too soon?

So it seems quite obvious to me that and Android phone such as the Galaxy S4 might have been a better choice and yeah, I was a little naïve when choosing a “smartphone”: I should have researched before jumping in the Apple cult and buying an iPhone. To me it just seemed so suave and exclusive! Damn those ad campaigns, fooling suckers like me worldwide.

Advertisement