FABOO MAMAInside the mind of an opinionated mama…

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.