When you buy a new car it can be a frustrating experience getting used to the way the indicators, buttons, keys and even the gears work. The same applies to almost every household appliance and most objects that we purchase to replace a tool that already does what the new one will. We accept the differences and learn to live with the parts that are less efficient than they were on the previous model, and in time we get used to what we have bought.
We then buy a smartphone that does things differently than the one before and all hell breaks loose. We often hate such small details as a punctuation symbol being on a different key, it may be a millisecond slower than the previous model and the countless other differences soon become ‘problems’ in the users mind. I suffer from this greatly and often believe that a new smartphone is not as good as the previous one, but have learnt that by putting the older one in a drawer and not using it things tend to improve and I start to see the benefits of the newer model.
It seems that change for the smartphone owner is much more difficult when moving devices than it is for any other product. I am presuming that it is because we use our devices so much that the small window on the phone becomes our window to the world. Everything has to be right and every single part of the phone needs to work as one or we feel that something is missing, and then we move on to yet another smartphone. Is it just me? I know it is not judging by the emails you lot send me…
My Centro did EVERYTHING better than my Treo 650. One interesting thing is that the battery in my Palm Tungsten T still works…7 years later whereas my Treo’s battery died in 18 months. I think phones kill batteries more than the PDAs did.-Jason
My wife dreads me getting something new, and even worse moving to a new platform… She even hates me upgrading software! It doesn’t always go too smooth for some reason.
But like you said, aside from the excitement of trying something new, it takes some time to get it to do what your previous(and often or not – perfectly functional) device did. Then when it comes to practical everyday use, like entering an appointment, it can be really frustrating when all of a sudden you find yourself fiddling around at a time when you just want to get the job done. (Not to mention being embarrassed at times!) The most frustrating thing is though when you realize that your previous device was actually the bees knees, but it just needed to be a bit faster, have a slightly bigger higher resolution screen or something. But can one justify forking out god knows how much within a short period of time, to get something like what you have, but with that one extra feature that you just end up craving?! (If I had the money I would by the way!)
Having said that, I’ve done Symbian Psion style, various versions of Palm OS, Symbian s60, Windows Mobile and what ever it used to be called… maybe it’s time to try an iphone or the Pre if it ever actually comes to exist… I look forward to being frustrated all over again!
PS. Sorry about the rant. Can’t help it!