It all began with the Great Buttermilk
spillage, an inadvertent spillage that completely drenched a naive and an
almost-outdated piece of mobile phone. The resultant mad-cap dash to select the
best breed – yes, that’s the word –
amongst the available plethora of cell phones in the market, ultimately gave
rise to a (seemingly) important point of contention: Windows, Android or Apple.
While a layperson would take all of the
above-mentioned three references in the most literal manner possible, terms of
technicality dictate that literalness doesn’t have any place when it comes to contemporary
gadgets. Having inferred thus, it soon struck that the first had comparatively
limited mobile phone editions – suitable within the budget, while the remaining
two were the only best options serviceable. Which is where the whole problem of
choice started.
At the first glance, both android and apple
phones looked similar. But such an observation, is never supposed to be
revealed to technical experts. For the simple reason that, they scoff and scoff
hard. The scoffing is then followed by a heady discussion about the technical
and features’ specs of each of the two technical variants, which doesn’t
clarify matters but instead perplexes the potential lay-buyer further.
Armed with the only clarity that
Android-based phones are a product of a South Korean giant while the Apple is a
trademark of an American technological visionary; the relatively old-gen buyer doesn’t really realise
where the world has come to. Isn’t it all about the calling and the messaging
and considering the camera paradigm, about taking photos? There again the
experts scoff. If a phone has to have so many features, then the display and
the screen resolution matters the most, as does the ease of navigability within
the phone by the user. Looking at the jargon thrown about, one wonders whether
they are still discussing phones or discussing best residential locations to
buy a house.
And these queries and myriad availability
of opinions only form the first half of the story, arising even before one actually
ventures into a shop and chooses a phone model. And eventually as one enters the
shop with the head buzzing with details, thanks to the guiding ministrations of
the experts, the threat of forgetting to enquire about a few normatively required
specification components looms large.
Once the purchase is done, it’s about
gratification and commendation. Not to oneself, but to others involved in the
cell phone recommendation process as though, one were not satisfying oneself
with the purchase but others, just like a medieval knight displaying
tangibility after his marriage night.
Not much separates expediency and
redundancy. Both are relative to each other and whilst necessary, require
individuals to draw the proverbial line between the two. Maybe it’s symbolic to
have a hi-tech gizmo-infused cell phone in the contemporary lifestyle, but the
point is if a potential user doesn’t understand most of the technical
specifications, of what use is such a cell phone to him in the daily state of
affairs?
