The rebel of your own ecosystem is to crossover as you please
How did it all start?
How did it come to this. We as tech consumers are forced to pick one side and once we have chosen that side we are stuck. Stuck in an ocean of products to complement our chosen side. For me, more often than not when opening a new message the icon turns blue. Blue as in “aha, another iPhone user”.Granted this is the ecosystem I chose back in 2007 and since then I have been fruit faithful. So faithful that at one point I had fruit products I never used nor had a reason to use, but I had them because they were part of my perfectly tight ecosystem of gadgets.
Am I the only one?
Of course not, but how did something so wonderful as technology dictate our daily life. When did we, the end user, stop having free will. Could it be that one day when you walked in to your desired fruit store or alternative and picked out a shiny piece of technology that in your mind would alter your life and make all dreams come true. If that was the one moment that decided our future and we did not know, would you have wanted to know? Should tech pieces come with warning lables?
By choosing this piece of technology you are locked into our ecosystem and from here on out you belong to us and all of our future products.
If you knew then what you know today would you have made the same decision? For me, possibly as I am truly happy and have been very happy with my choice of fruit. If I ask my peers they tell me the same words I can agree with; it works. It truly does work. I can write an iMessage from my phone and then continue my conversation on my work computer. If I need to pick up my iPad I will be able to write in the same conversation and it continues. It syncs my music, photos and life into a cloud. Somewhere up there is my life. Where and how,who knows and we do not care. We just know that it does work.
iMessage vs…
As previously mentioned, I can simply start a new message from X device and instantly be surfing on the iMessage wave of communication. It does not matter if you sit next to me or live in a foreign land, Sweden in my case. It is free (minus data plan) and it just works. Right now that is one of the main features I use along with FaceTime to make me feel closer to my family and friends, or perhaps it is the night out FaceTime with friends. These services do what they promise us they will do. They work.
The alternative does not exist at least not to my knowledge. Granted you will now think, what about skype, hangouts, whatsapp and the countless apps that are trying to emulate and bridge the gap between a fruit company with the rest of the world. For me, it is outside my knowledge and they may all be native on different brands and makes, but I doubt it. One would need the knowledge of downloading, installing and setting up these apps. They also work, just not as easy and integrated as the native services described above.
Mothers are a good example, unless you are a teenager with a mom who grew up in the tech era, the chance is slightly larger that she is not as tech inclined as you or your friends. Explaining how to install an app is not always the easiest, nor how to differ between them when it comes time to send a message for free across the globe vs a message to a friend locally. A question I can imagine being raised is simply: Why use two apps that does the same thing. To her they do. To us they do not. So we have now created a slight issue in our ecosystem. If you did pick a fruit company for yourself you better make sure your family did as well, possibly your closest friends. You all now are living in this eco system. Why? Because it works.
Is there room for change?
I hope so. I see all these amazing phones that is coming out and they fit me perfectly for how I imagine a perfect phone to be.The dilema I now face is outlined above, since I will break out of my ecosystem, and throughout the years it has grown rather large. My ecosystem is a fruit company and that is it. I play with the thought of picking that new Samsung, or possibly even the oversized Sony which is lurking around the corner and teasing me with its feautres. If, and only if, I decide to be a rebel and leave my ecosystem I will need to make sure to push apps on the people in my circle. Will that make me the annoying one who is trying to make people change their own ecosystem, probably. I will be met with my own words, why change when this just works.
Bring back free will
I just want my free will back. Yes, I can walk into any store and decide for myself, but back in my mind I have a tiny little man, or woman, who question me. Why change what works, why go over to the dark side. Frankly, I have been on both sides and I love them both just as much. Being here right now is fantastic and it will only get better. We have access to tech that our great grandfathers never in their wildest dream could imagine. I just wish I had the freedom to travel back and forth more often, that is all.