Monday Morning Mobile: There is no “i” in FRUSTRATED

As we all know, technology giant Apple recently released the new iPhone 5 which hit stores a little over a week ago. Now, I don't necessarily consider myself an "Apple guy"--although I do love both my iPhone and my iPad and have learned to look past their limitations--but have to admit I was disappointed by the release of the iPhone 5. I feel it lacked the "wow factor" I have come to expect from Apple product releases.

That being the case, the following is a personal account of a five day period starting Monday, September 24th and ending Friday, September 28th.

Feeling unexcited about the release of the iPhone 5 and its lack of new features, most notably NFC (near field communication) technology, I began researching other devices on the market. I had seen a number of commercials over the weekend for the Samsung Galaxy S-III. The ads highlighted many of the features missing on the iPhone, which were--conveniently--present in the Samsung device. I was impressed. The more I read about the S-III, the more intriguing it became to me not only for the mobile features, but for its presentation capabilities.

I finally convinced myself that I owed no loyalty to Apple or its iPhone. I deserve to have the best technology on the market today and shouldn't limit myself to just Apple products if the S-III can give me all the iPhone can and more. Monday night, I waltzed into the Verizon store and used my upgrade to purchase the Samsung Galaxy S-III. I took it home and began to experience firsthand all the features it had to offer.

Tuesday morning, I was anxious to set up AllShare Play, a feature of the S-III which allows you to stream content directly from your S-III to your computer or any DLNA devices (i.e. smart TV, PC, camera). I read the instructions and began to get it set up; it didn't work. I read the instructions again, and this time the S-III was able to locate my colleague's PC, but not mine. After about an hour or so of looking at the settings on the S-III, my PC and my colleague's PC, I was frustrated. I tried again later that night and was still unable to successfully register my PC to this app. The software I installed on my computer to do it never allowed me to get to step two (there were only two steps).

Adding to my frustration was the inability to easily communicate with all my friends and colleagues who have iPhones. Apparently, group messages between iPhone users and me (an Android user) just don't jive. Responses came in separately and sporadically, making communication inefficient. The frustration only continued with setting options, turning data on/off and all the other options they give you to be creative with the S-III device.

By Wednesday, my mind was made up--the experiment was over and I have set in motion the plan to return my S-III and get the iPhone 5. Why you ask? The iPhone--and all Apple products, for that matter--just work. No programming, no settings; just turn it on, tap, and go. Either you can do something and it just works, or you can't do it at all; they won't give you the option, and I respect that. Certainly better than spending hours trying to use a cool feature that never quite works as promised.

By Friday night, I had my iPhone back and had never appreciated the sophisticated simplicity more. Glad I tried the S-III, because as the saying goes, "You don't know what you've got till it's gone."