But I don’t have an iPhone

Nor do I plan to get one. I need to understand is this weird need for companies to isolate active users of their products by not offering an option for those of us without iPhones, Black Berry’s or Nokia’s. Some of us have phones with similar features. Some of us (namely me) have been asking for over a year now when our phones will be supported. You can only get a blowoff for so long until you become sick of it.

I used to be the biggest champion of sites like Qik, 12seconds and Shozu. (Note: normally, I would link to these sites. Now, it’s not worth my time.) When I had my PPC-6700, I used these sites with no problems. I told all my friends about them. I blogged about them. Then I got the Sprint Instinct. It’s web-enabled, has video, can send MMS and has many other features that users of the above phones wanted but lacked. What it doesn’t have is good marketing and sales. Somehow, that means it’s not worth supporting for whatever reason.

In July 2008, I contacted each of the companies asking when my phone would be supported. Every single one of them told me soon, to wait until October. Meanwhile, I watched as apps for phones and iterations of phones that were released after mine were created and touted. I watched as companies sent out press release after press release about their newest iPhone app. Screw the users of the other phones though. I’m not saying that they should solely cater to me, but I know that I am not alone with this frustration.

The lesson I’ve learned in not being part of the lowest common denominator is that I have to find workarounds and sometimes it’s a little harder and more time consuming that it should be.  I don’t use those sites mentioned above any more. My accounts at both Qik and Shozu have been canceled for awhile now. The 12seconds one will be shuttered as soon as I find a way to back up some of the videos shot on the site. Instead, I will continue to use YouTube and Blip.tv because both of those sites support mobile uploads of video, even just 12 seconds of it.

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The But I don’t have an iPhone by Anika Malone, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Internet, Video. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

  • As an iPhone user, I can see how annoying it would be to everyone else, seeing all these companies offering customized apps that are useless to everyone other than iPhone users.

    At first I was perplexed as to why iPhone users are so lucky but just today I saw an article that said very soon iPhone cameras would be the #1 camera on flickr. That really surprised me.

    I can only imagine that that companies are looking for the easiest win when doing a mobile app. The resources to develop apps are limited so if you had to pick one platform I can see why iPhone would be it.

    I guess that's a long winded way of saying sorry!
  • debohobo
    Now I'm with you. When I run I am hooked up to my Ipod w/ Nike+ sneakers (see widget on my blog) while my phone sits in the pocket on my runners belt. I didn't realize we had the apps that the Iphone folks pay for individually. Thanks for clearing that up for me, high tech I a not.

    Now I am starting to appreciate and like my phone more
  • debohobo
    It's all Greek to me, but I have the Instinct that I am not overly impressed with because it does not have all the fancy apps nor do the pictures rotate like on the iPhone. But, it is through my brother-in-laws plan who works for Sprint, so I have no room to complain.
  • The thing with the iPhone apps, is that most of the useful ones people pay for are already built into the Instinct. The only app I've seen that would be useful for me is the Nike+ system or something comparable. Take turn-by-turn navigation & GPS. That's already in the Instinct. It would be great if I could plug my phone into MapMyFitness or Runner's World and have it read my mileage and route taken.
  • What's the app platform for your phone? Java or LoseMo'? Seems like an app developer could knock something together or easily adapt something already on one of those platforms. Then again, when I had a Samsung Sync, the Google app wouldn't load due to a rotten cert on the Sync. grrrr

    Gotta say I love my iPhone, it was indispensable on vacation.
  • DiscoDapper
    *hugs*
  • Hey Faboomama - unfortunately Sprint doesn't make it possible for us to support those mobile uploads. The way they do MMS doesn't attach a file and we find it impossible to unparse the data and figure out what your video is. We really wish this was an easier fix but we've looked at it extensively. Regardless of your canceling your account, I wanted you to know why and that we really did look at it and try to find a work around. Hope you're well.
  • Thank you, Sol.
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