Why Over Pay for a Smartphone?

I'd be amiss in my responsibilities if I don't sneak it in that in the midst of all the fanfare and glamour and glitz about flagship devices from top brands that go from anywhere in the region of 150k to 250k+ and which whet the appetite with gizmos and features from here to Timbuktu and which some "big bois and gehs" flaunt about to further increase their desirability, there are considerably comparable devices from extremely competitive Asian manufacturers that have given these top dogs a run for their money in the West and back home in Asia (even giving Apple an iPhone headache with a second consecutive quarter of drop in earnings).

(Wow, that was a mouthful to get in one sentence *dusts shoulder*)

Ehen, where was I? Right, considerably competitive devices, yes.

But, playing on widespread ignorance and just outright nonchalance, these top phone brands and their colluding sales outlets will continue to make a killing of a profit here because of status symbol of this brand or that. While for a fraction of the amounts expended on a Note 7 with an S-pen that'll be redundant for 95% of the time, you can buy 8 other considerably competitive smartphones. For the exact same price of an iPhone 6S plus in Ikeja Village, there are 10 smartphones to be bought that'll give the buyer a competitive advantage.

And just before you say "Chinco" *cough cough*, where do you think these other more expensive brands are mainly made? Probably a little history course will fit into this space. Indulge me.

There was a time when assembled parts in smartphones were quite expensive. Time was when a phone manufacturer couldn't get the right camera components, when the battery units were beyond reach and the glass parts of smaller phone manufacturers were too brittle or the charging ports were too prone to despoliation. It was impossible at some point to Dolby sound and stereo speakers into these devices at a bargain price that'll keep the device cheap, so we got those "Chinco" speakers that could resurrect the dead. And there is a history of absence of innovative in-house Research and Development teams to add features that people will need in their devices even before they knew they needed these features.

Of course. But, the history didn't stop there.

With advanced development of the Android platform and other congruent mobile progresses so much has changed so fast on the smartphone landscape. Manufacturing has innovated so much that assembled parts of phones have not only become more durable but mostly availably affordable. Whether it's a unibody metal casing or glass front-and-back device. Whether it's solid and unshakeable type-B or type-C USB ports. Sony's camera parts are available inexpensively for all manufacturers today who wish to use them. Miniature speakers for devices with advanced performance are commonplace today that some phones are dedicated music smartphones. Different battery components litter the landscape with more and more lesser known brands able to put a lot more mAh per unit than the big dogs and optimise it for longer durations with Android's most recent iterations. Gorilla glass is now the go-to solution for screens and their toughness isn't up for debates. It's there for all comers. And with exceptional use of processor, optimised RAM management, efficient battery performance, advancement in leaps and bounds in speed and compatibility and ever growing play store for apps, Android has removed the need for smaller manufacturers to need in-house R&D departments.

What you get is device manufacturers who are Asian neighbours of the Samsungs, HTCs, LGs, Sonys and Apple assembly-plants unveiling devices that considerably match those brands in features and performance. And since these smaller brands now have to sell in countries that measure standards, they have had to up their game be allowed into the smartphone markets in the West. The little points of differentiation that these top dogs advertise as why their devices are so good and different are minutiae and in some areas not even noticeable to the unaided human eyes nor by normal average daily utility (sometimes needing special equipment to measure them). And for that, they overprice their offerings.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum are devices that serve the daily purpose of smartphone use admirably and some more. And remain affordable doing that.

(I didn't intend writing this much oo. Choi!!!)

Please, don't mind me. Just give the most recent devices (2016 mostly) from these manufacturers a look. And see for yourself.

1. Xiaomi
2. OnePlus
3. Oppo
4. Honor
5. ZTE
6. Elephone
7. Ulefone
8. Meizu

Enjoy.

img source: Android Headlines

Tomorrow

The seat belt held his torso suspended. He couldn’t feel anything from the waist downwards. Or was it upwards? He couldn’t tell. He winced as another strain of pain shot from his back to his skull. He must’ve fractured something behind as well. His entire frame was a receptacle of hurt. Something warm wormed its was down from his chest to the left side of his chin and divided into two rivulets. As both sleeked their slow journey further down, one streamlet made it over his lower lip and into his mouth. He tasted his blood.

But his attention was riveted elsewhere.

From what was left of the broken side mirror of the car, he craned his neck, forcing his body to adjust as little as was possible to see the path down the road from which he’d just passed. The effort only served to dish out more pain. He screamed involuntarily. The hurting came from a jammed foot underneath the crumpled dashboard. Or what was a dashboard.

Yet, he still obdurately continued his effort to look behind at the road. Was it worth it?

Exactly two minutes ago, Adi was driving back home. It was one of those weekends where his attention was needed in the office. He never got used to working weekends and always thought it was a violation of his hours of rejuvenation wherever it was required of him to be in the office when the rest of the natural world was resting. The only difference this weekend was that it was on a project that he had initiated and that had become the model for new market innovation by the company and for which he had received a personal note of appreciation from the oga patapata. In fact, his exhilaration today was that his line manager, Isa had confided in him that the boss was putting Adi’s name up as subsequent line manager when Isa leaves in two months.

Adi knew what that meant. He was on the move up. It had been hectic getting to where he was. The sleepless nights spent in school trying to make the grades. His penniless parents who sacrificed life and limbs putting him through school. His 4-year sojourn as a “will-work-for-peanuts” job applicant whose shoes were angry at him for inhumane treatment. His loss of friends who went on to big jobs, happy marriages and the lifestyles of the “employed and married”. His perpetual “friendzoned” status among those who only date those with white collar jobs. He had quietly exited all that inglorious past without fanfare and now, he was going to even levels not imagined by his ever supportive and now contented parents.

Adi was going up. And he was going to celebrate this news as he always did. With his parents.

Tomorrow.

He would surprise them with a visit. He’d be waiting for them when they return from church. Their new apartment which he’d paid for in full on their behalf was only an hour’s drive from where the company accommodated key members of staff like Adi. So, it will be a thoroughly enjoyable Sunday. He had earlier made plans to see a movie that Sunday. It was about an accident survivor who was thought to have flat-lined and pronounced medically dead for all of 5 minutes. Only to live to tell his story of the out-of-body experience he had for those minutes. That was right up Adi’s alley. The kinds of things that excited him. But that will have to wait. This news of his elevation trumped that and his parents were going to see their child…

That was when the image of someone’s child crossing the road while Adi was speeding through came into his field of vision.

And everything slowed like in the movies…

Adi glanced at the rear view mirror. There was a Carina 4 seconds behind him at quite the same speed as he was going. Just behind the Carina was an Accord. He didn’t have the time to know how fast that was travelling as he engaged his brakes. The screeching was loud. He spun the wheel, drifting to place the car horizontally across the vertical travel of the road. This gave him enough time to look left (see the wide-eyed shock of the child who stood transfixed in the middle of the road not more than ten normal paces from where Adi’s Camry stood like a bulwark of protection) and look left to see the panic on the face of the woman driving the Carina.

And then impact.

As the woman attempted to brake and minimise the impact with Adi, she was rammed into from behind by the Accord whose driver was in a haste to go see the premier league opener between his team and another. The force of the collision drove the Carina violently into the midriff of Adi’s Camry, mangling the part where the driver’s door meets the frame. It sent a jolt through the entire form of Adi’s body but he’d never have imagined what it’ll do to his car.

It was too fast for the mind to register. He could only remember being spun over and over and the violent contractions his seat-belt bound body endured. He couldn’t number the knocks his head got nor describe the searing pain that he felt when the dashboard caved in on his torso. In less than a minute he’d gone from thoughts of Sunday to a wreck of epic proportions.

When the car finally stopped wheels-up, he’d no idea he was upside down. All he cared about at that moment was trying to see if he’d been successful. Was the sacrifice worth it? Did the child escape unhurt? Was he now safe? A scream had escaped Adi just a few seconds ago but he still laboured to find out. If he could just spin he body a little, it’ll allow him stretch his neck enough to see the rest of the road from where he was suspended on the upturned crumpled remains of his Camry.

As he forcibly stretched, a scrappy metal edge of the door frame sliced through the vein in his left arm, letting out a stream of warm, gushing blood. Adi felt the warmth not the pain. He still stretched some more. But the blood loss was too much. He willed his body to move more trying to see the road and see the child safe. It was not to be.

As his body became limp, his eyes closed of their own accord.

image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Auto_katollaan.jpg

Podium Calls

I was concluding one of those pieces that one re-reads with ecstasy (y'know, acknowledging one's own expertise with words *dusts shoulder*) about how excruciatingly embarrassing our Olympics participation was becoming Olympic-year by Olympic-year when I stopped mid-sentence. Reality had set in. I was abruptly shoved back to earth, literally.

It was accomplished rather easily, this clarity. It came as one word.

REALLY?

Yea, that was it. Really? So simple. So short. So clear.

REALLY?

Pardon the cliche, LIKE SERIOUSLY? I mean, it's not like (another cliched expression, sorry) it really matters. I mean (sorry, again), we have a myriad of problems and all you can think about is the Olympics? Are you alright? Common Kerosene is not there and you're looking at Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh? Oops, sorry, what are those other medals again?

*vigorous shake of the head*

That's all.

Oh, I deleted that earlier piece. Painfully, though. It took me time to research all the details I had included in it.

*sigh*

50 or More Dark Shades of Grey Tissue

It is discombobulating to come to this disconcertingly dire conclusion that it appears that some people are unhappy that they have a brain. This unhappiness manifests itself in a protestation not to make use of this unwanted, unwished-for and abdicable collection of tissue.

Thus, it is allowed to lie unused, fallow. Unplowed, hollow. Akin to the Dead Sea where nothing enters hither and nothing comes wither, it an unrecognisable morassy desolate patch of grey matter.

Hmmm...

If that was all, it probably could've been worse enough. But there's more because the worst part is that this condition appears to be infectious.

God alone knows by what medium it spreads but it has become viral. And there seems to be no end to the consequences for the world teeming with unused brain cells.

(image via preventdisease.com)

Behemoth Facebook

Behemoth Facebook

Snapchat users aren't happy Facebook is stealing Snapchat's thunder through new features introduced to Instagram. And I'm here laughing.

True, I'm no Snapchat-ter nor am I invested in Instagram. But it's no news what's happening.

Sadly, or maybe fortunately, people are waking up to Facebook's general master plan. Not content with cornering the lion-share of the social media experience (in Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), the internet behemoth's imperialistic and expansionist tendencies ensure that if you, as a strong competitor, refuse Facebook's mouthwatering advances, the Zuckerville smart-alecs go to work and incorporate your best and most attractive services into their existing and well-used platforms, baking it smoothly into the user experience.

The advantage of already having a faithful userbase means their services (Facebook's that is) will, sooner than later, overshadow those of the unwilling competitor, making their business difficult. That's how 360° videos, live videos, a standalone Facebook Messenger app, Facebook Memories, and now Instagram Stories came to being forcing competitors to look futilely as their userbase shrinks.

If they can, Facebook will make sure as soon as you unlock your phone, you stay connected to Facebook's apps and services until you put your phone back in your pocket. Whether competitors like it or not.

So, even as they "altruistically" (I'm hysterically laughing at my use of that word) attempt to beam "free" (ooh, there's no such thing in real life) internet access to Internet-cold areas of the world using satellites and solar-powered "Impulse"-like planes, there's one goal in mind: worldwide domination.

The pieces are falling in place, calculated piece by calculated piece. Users of competitor-services can bemoan it all they want. I'd just be laughing. Except of course there's another revolution in the offing that makes nonsense of these expansionist objectives. History is filled with the Yahoos, MySpaces and AOLs.

We'd see. Until then...

NB
I stayed out of the insidious accusations of "Facebook's listening in on users' conversations and surreptitiously capturing images via users' smartphone cameras" on purpose. That's a gist for a future date.