Yesterday evening, the Samsung Galaxy S5 was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, Spain. While I occasionally followed the device itself - and some others - due to my minor interest in certain tech products, what really captured my attention was the Internet commenter behaviour over the phone.
Among the negative responses that I've read is that its design is "boring" and "ugly". Okay...why do people care about how a phone looks? It's a tool and as long as that tool does what you want it to do, its looks don't matter! So what if it looks boring; you're not getting married to it, after all. My computer desk isn't sexy; in fact, it's fairly boring in appearances but it serves its purpose perfectly.
Next complaint? "Not innovative enough". Tell me, just how many times can anyone innovate and re-innovate a flat rounded-rectangle before it becomes a dodecahedron? Until phones are completely bendable or made to be extremely energy efficient or become key tools like in ReBoot, the room for innovation is fairly limited for now.
The third complaint and my favourite complaint of all: "Doesn't meet my expectations". Right. Again, it is a phone, a tool. What "expectations" did you have for it? For to it have an infinite battery life? A 500-megapixel camera? The ability to fly? To prepare your food for you? I wonder if the people who have high expectations for gadgets are the same people who have high expectations when it comes to relationships, and then whine about being single because no one meets their ridiculous standards.
As for positive reception, it consisted of the usual fanboyish and outlandish "IT'S AWESOME/BEAUTIFUL/EVERYTHING I EVER DREAMED OF!" to some people providing a furious defence of the phone against its critics, as though criticism of the phone were somehow a poisonous personal attack against all of them and their collective reputations. Unsurprisingly, the latter almost always descended into name-calling from the critics and defenders alike. Somewhere in the mix were some reasonable human beings adding helpful positive commentary about the device.
Like all other phones and tools, the Galaxy S5 is not something worth getting angry or defensive about, and Internet flame wars over a phone are amongst the most pointless activities one can imagine, let alone engage in. I do not subscribe to the nonsensical notion that phones are a fashion statement or a status symbol; they are a means of communication and entertainment, nothing more, nothing less. Productive discussion and idle chit-chat about them is fine, but fights and rampant fanboyism over a tool is just stupid.
Finally, it could be argued that I am defending the Galaxy S5, thereby contradicting the message of my post by being a crypto-fanboy. In reality, I've observed the above criticisms of the Galaxy S5 be applied to other phones, too (every iPhone, for example, receives all of the above complaints); I merely singled out this particular model for my post and point here because this behaviour was something I wanted to write about and because it's a recent product unveiling. I am not some self-appointed valiant defender of everything Samsung...just a person who wants to write about some people's bizarre behaviour over everyday gadgets!
I should also note that it doesn't matter how good or bad the phone is, anyway...I'm not getting one! It
would be an understatement to say that I am extremely satisfied with the
phone I recently received from my Hong Kong uncle; I am not greedy or stupid to want more when I already have what I need and want.
Agreed! I guess it's because I'm a plain Jane, but if it serves my purpose... I'm happy.
ReplyDeleteI think you'll find the vast majority of people don't care about a phone's looks, either, but the behavior of fanboy Internet commenters is still fun to write about. :)
DeleteWay back when, we used the phrase "love dodecahedron" instead of love triangle. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't care what my phone looks like. I rather like it when I forget it and no one can find me.
Neat phrase! :)
DeleteThe phone's looks really aren't important; there are only so many times one can redesign their shapes.
To the innovation point you made, companies are paying teams of people so much money it's ridiculous to create new technology for devices such as phones. You expect innovation from these companies, otherwise what's the point of coming out with a new phone? Otherwise wouldn't everyone just keep their old phones if they all have the same technology and look the same? Phones should continue to evolve with the market. It would be silly for them not to. That's how companies make money. In this day and age we are accustomed to quickly evolving technology and I'm personally excited to see what devices such as phones can do in the span of my life. That being said I do work at Microsoft which is trying to transition into more of a devices company vs. software so I might be a tad biased :)
ReplyDeleteAnd to the part about design, I definitely care what my phone looks like to an extent. I don't want it to be too big or too small, etc. I want it to look slick but also be functional, etc. But I don't feel there is a ton of need to improve on the basic touch screen design most phones have these days. It works, it doesn't look awful, whatever. That being said, I care very much what certain things such as my desk and my other home furnishing look like. Those things you buy both for a function and to reflect a personal style/create a space that makes you happy, that you can call home. Then again, I also don't buy phones so that I or the phone looks a certain way or reflects on me a certain way, so maybe that's why I don't care too much about look of the phone and that's why I do care about the way furniture looks.
My main point about innovation is that, at present, I really don't see how phones can be really innovated any more that they already are. For the past year - maybe two - phones have just been getting bigger and faster, and any new hardware features are just gimmicks that most people don't use (the eye scrolling on the Galaxy S4, for example, is rarely used by anyone as far as I know, and this idea of having a screen stretch over onto a phone's sides doesn't seem like a good idea to me). I just don't see what room companies have to innovate phones, at least not until technologies such as fully bendable/flexible electronics and "self-healing" materials are perfected, and even once those become commonplace it'll be hard to innovate again.
DeleteI actually just used my computer desk as an example of an everyday object that's functional but provides little aestheic pleasure. :) Still, I'm not so bothered about the look of furniture either and don't judge other on theirs. Like you, as long as those objects serve their purposes and make their owners happy in their living spaces, that's great! :)
Still, your opinion is welcome here! Unlike the people I wrote about in my post, I'm not into Internet arguments and flame wars! :D