For the Average Joe, does it even matter what mobile OS they have?

Serious question.

I made the mistake the other night of asking my cousin what OS her phone uses. All I got was a blank stare and a feeling of beeing a huge dork.

And it's not just her. I have asked many other people and the usual answer is "I don't know, but it works".

So, my question is, does it really matter? Do all these bitch fights of ours of Android vs. iOS vs. Symbian vs. BlackBerry OS realllly matter?

I guess you can make a case for iOS and BlackBerry OS, since the OS is synonymous with the phone it is on. But even then, most people have no clue what version of the OS they are on. Try asking someone what version their Berry is on.

Am I wrong? Do people really care?

Only geeks do.

It is pretty much a geek thin g until such time as actual capabilities are needed and are either not available or frankly not viable for use (WinMo - I'm looking at you with your arm length spec sheets and bugger all usability...)

It does, they just don't realise it. When they actually compare two phones they will see the differences even if they don't know what an OS is.

EtienneK said:

Serious question.

I made the mistake the other night of asking my cousin what OS her phone uses. All I got was a blank stare and a feeling of beeing a huge dork.

And it's not just her. I have asked many other people and the usual answer is "I don't know, but it works".

So, my question is, does it really matter? Do all these bitch fights of ours of Android vs. iOS vs. Symbian vs. BlackBerry OS realllly matter?

I guess you can make a case for iOS and BlackBerry OS, since the OS is synonymous with the phone it is on. But even then, most people have no clue what version of the OS they are on. Try asking someone what version their Berry is on.

Am I wrong? Do people really care?

Click to expand...

Nope, you're right.
The average person on the street doesn't care about the OS or about this app or that app. (You saw for yourself.)
Most of the time when they see something "cool" on someone else's phone they just write it off to it being "phone specific," and their life continues, none the wiser.

"We," of course know better and it seems that everyone is ALWAYS trying to one-up the other.
In the end it's about what works for YOU.

"Dude...if MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 works for you and you don't NEED nor WANT anything else then so be it. No need for me to push my ideas on to you," -type situation.

And then people start arguing about whose is bigger and better. Though it was kind of entertaining in the beginning -and granted you do sometimes get some good info out of it - it DOES get LAME.
And THEN people start getting personal, etc, etc, etc. :wtf: It's just pointless, really.

Bottom line : It's all about choice. It's all about YOUR choice.

EtienneK said:

Serious question.

I made the mistake the other night of asking my cousin what OS her phone uses. All I got was a blank stare and a feeling of beeing a huge dork.

And it's not just her. I have asked many other people and the usual answer is "I don't know, but it works".

So, my question is, does it really matter? Do all these bitch fights of ours of Android vs. iOS vs. Symbian vs. BlackBerry OS realllly matter?

I guess you can make a case for iOS and BlackBerry OS, since the OS is synonymous with the phone it is on. But even then, most people have no clue what version of the OS they are on. Try asking someone what version their Berry is on.

Am I wrong? Do people really care?

Click to expand...

The reality is, most people still use their phones just for...phoning. And maybe sms. That's about it. So no, I don't think it really matters too much. It's quickly changing though with the new generation of kids growing up - they're by and large very tech savvy. So it will become more and more important.

For most there is a set of apps/functions they must have and if the phone can handle these apps/functions - and as long as the phone is small, thin and these days have a touch screen - it is a cool phone. What may change this is when one OS comes out with an affordable OS-specific must-have killer feature/app that another OS can't match ... but this is unlikely to ever happen (when it comes to apps the developers will want to spread their good stuff as wide as possible).

What I have found is that users don't think Apps are a big deal.

And then when you start questioning them on things like Mxit, Email, IM, etc., they say that that is basic phone functionality.

EtienneK, jip, it's those "killer apps" I was refering to. If it can do MXiT and bluetooth it's cool enough phone ...

I think the apps thing is going to become a big thing. Most couldn't afford the app rich phones to date but as these devices become more afforable the apps available for them are going to become important deciding factors imo. As I mentioned in another thread the Kindle app is now as mission critical for me as MXiT is for others. I cannot consider a device without Kindle. More people are going to discover life byond IM and Bluetooth file sharing.

BeVonk! said:

I think the apps thing is going to become a big thing. Most couldn't afford the app rich phones to date but as these devices become more afforable the apps available for them are going to become important deciding factors imo. As I mentioned in another thread the Kindle app is now as mission critical for me as MXiT is for others. I cannot consider a device without Kindle. More people are going to discover life byond IM and Bluetooth file sharing.

Click to expand...

I agree with Bevonk! here... The first thing I did when I changed from my iPhone to my Galaxy S was to see whether I could get my favorite apps on Android and whether the apps I already used was speedy enough (and to compare them with the iOS apps to see if I needed to look for replacements).
Luckily most of the apps were there, and some cooler ones. But there's also a dark side to this. The problem I had with the iPhone was that there are sometimes too many applications that do more or less the same thing, some paid for, some not... eventually it became too much effort to try out all of the options for a specific functionality you need, that you end up choosing the best rated ones and sticking with them, which brings me back to BeVonk's point. In future we'll probably become more attached to the applications than the platform they're running on.

So far I think there's actually a very good place for the new MS phone 7. It seems that there's a thin line between the Android and iOS phones when it comes to UI functionality (the default Samsung interface shipped with the Galaxy is such a blatant iPhone ripoff, which was probably a good move from Samsung to be honest). Whereas BB provides an almost completely different phone experience, the typical "hate it or love it", which is awesome.
From what I've seen of the new Windows phone OS it looks a lot different than what we're used to. I actually hope they're successful, if there's one thing MS is good at it's integration and providing good quality tools to create applications for their platforms.

RaptorSA said:

In future we'll probably become more attached to the applications than the platform they're running on.

Click to expand...

Well said. This apps first, OS second, and hardware third approach you propose will become more prevalent as people realise they can do (and demand) so much more.

BeVonk! said:

Well said. This apps first, OS second, and hardware third approach you propose will become more prevalent as people realise they can do (and demand) so much more.

Click to expand...

For me though, it was OS first, hardware second and apps third... or perhaps a consequences of the OS choice? Reason I'm saying this, is because I was dead-set on getting an Android device. I THEN started investigating which devices were up amongst the highest ranks of Android devices and chose the Galaxy S. Granted, I had to wait a month or two for it to be release in ZA, but this drives my point that my choice was:

Operating System > Device Specifications > Applications

The brand of the device was a total non-issue for me. As long as it ran Android and had the highest available specifications (for the time being), that was my choice. For the future though, I'm pretty sure my choice is gonna be something along the lines of:

Applications > Operating System > Device Specifications

...purely because I've bought quite a few decent apps and would hate to lose them when I migrate to another mobile OS. So I guess when you find your comfort-zone in a mobile OS and start using the wealth of applications that are available, your future decisions would be based on the applications more-so than the mobile OS.