Is there really a competitor to Apple?

Whether you’ve been part of the modern world or even emerged from a 20-year slumber, the one brand that everyone seems to recognize is Apple. The silver logo is synonymous with businesses and consumers around the world and its’ variety of products seems to make it almost impossible not to find a use for one.

While I tend to spend most of my time frustrated that my Apple watch won’t sync up with my iPhone and the remainder cursing the invention of the iPad since my kids won’t seem to leave it alone for more than 5 minutes, I find myself stuck in the reality that my life revolves around technology. While the company itself is probably not concerned with my techno-struggles, since a simply glance at the market news shows their share prices have doubled themselves in the last 5 years, their stock successes do little to help me wean my children off the dreaded tablet or remind them what a sunny day looks like.

So rather than continue to bemoan all my technological items, I decided to focus solely on my mobile and venture into the dreaded unknown and see if there was in fact another brand that might be easier for me to get to grips with, one that seemed to have a future rather than another Nokia with a bleak future. While there seemed to be a ton of different brands and devices waiting to coerce me into a long-term agreement on an unknown device, there were a few that seemed like they had some potential. No doubt everyone is aware of the Samsung S series and the Sony Xperia but there was also a nice Microsoft Lumia that caught my eye as well. So I popped down to the local shop and asked the persistent assistant to walk me through my different options and do his best to spare me the inevitable sales pitch.

While all of the devices had better cameras than my iPhone, better graphics and even a longer battery life; there was one major gulf between them and my current mobile: None of their application stores came close to the one I already had. It seemed that unless I wanted to compromise on the ability to have a huge selection of ever-increasing applications at my disposal, that I would be yet another cog in the Apple consumer line. The truth of the matter is, that the reason there is only one brand on people’s minds when you talk about phones and tablets, is that they have done such a great marketing job that every child and adult across the world alike struggles to think of anything else. So I tip my hat to the power of the brand and secretly hope, like most, that someday soon my children will put down their electronic devices and embrace the outside world … and someday hopefully I’ll do the same.