The Disgustingly Wonderful iPhone 5

This is a blog post about my new found love, my iPhone5.
I hate myself for being so materialistic and giving in to the ridiculous price, but can also stand proud at the fact that it took me so long to give into its temptation.
Here's a bit of back-story and a little about me; I hate material objects, I am a nature and animal lover and believe the money spent buying nice cars and designer clothes can be much better spent feeding the hungry. I never, ever, go shopping unless it's for food or if I am being made to find an outfit for a wedding, and even then I refuse to buy the expensive stuff. Take for example my own mothers wedding, I was a bridesmaid AND allowed to pick my own bridesmaid dress, most 21 year old girls from north London would have had a ball and taken the opportunity to find the most expensive designer dress they could find, I was happy with a high-street £25 simple dress, I say happy, I would have been happier in old jeans and a t-shirt but society rules like that. So this is me, call me tight, cheap (I get called it all the time), but materialistic I am not!

Blackberry seemed so advanced
in 2007 - this phone now sells for £30

Unfortunately, there is just something about mobile phones that gets me!... Going back to circa 2007, smartphones were just starting to make their way out into the general market, the biggest providers at that time were Blackberry, with Apple on the warpath and Google trailing pathetically behind. If you wanted a smartphone it had to be a Blackberry, and so I got one for my birthday that year.
It was incredible! Being able to access emails from a phone instead of a computer, being able to stalk people on Facebook the moment you wake up in the morning without leaving the bed to plug anything in on switch anything on! This Blackberry was genius and I loved it!... For a while.
3 months down the line, its 2008 and Apple have finally made an appearance, and what an entrance! After a few rubbish attempts, here was the iPhone 3. It was so pretty and sleek, and had a touch screen, wooooow, this phone made the Blackberry look like a frumpy old mess. My brother got the new iPhone 3 as his birthday present that year.

Time passed, upgrades came and went, I was loyal to Blackberry, they had served me well, giving me my emails and being so big and stable that I could never lose or break it. But on the sidelines, Apple were making waves, with Steve Jobs at the helm they were marching with purpose, they were going to win this smartphone war! It's something you couldn't ignore, the iPhone upgrades were coming quick and often, with each upgrade bringing more ground breaking technology, like 3G, video cameras for Skype calls, and an app store full of possibilities and hope. I wanted one. badly. But I resisted, I was not going to give into this marketing scam, not  lastly because with all these bell and whistles came a very hefty price tag (bring on the cheap/tight remarks again).
I would have carried on resisting had my brother not given me his hand-me-down iPhone 3 that he had spare after he upgraded. By that time at the end of 2009, my old (only about a year old but nevertheless old in phone terms) Blackberry was on it's last legs and just couldn't keep up with the 3G technology, in fact any technology that was coming along, this was the beginning of the end for Blackberry. So I needed a phone, and an iPhone 3 I got.

I had no idea at the time what a huge upgrade I was about to get with this iPhone 3. I could surf the internet more easily and quickly, get wifi in places I didn't even know had wifi, suddenly I was connected to the world of 'right now', the whole world was literally at my fingertips. I realised how much I'd been missing on as I'd been plodding along with my Blackberry, and promised myself this wouldn't happen again! Except that, well, history has a funny way of repeating itself.

The iPhone 4 felt like a dinosaur
compared to the new iPhone 5. 

It took another 3 years until I upgraded my phone again. Doesn't sound like long but in phone terms it is more than a lifetime. By now, Google had entered the smartphone market with Android and were dominating, Blackberry was nowhere to be seen, and even Windows were bringing out their own smartphone. Apple were still innovating, just about, and made enough hype and noise around their new iPhone 5 for it to be completely appealing. Also by this point, my iPhone 3 was on it's last legs, unable to use most apps I tried downloading, and struggling to make phone calls, sending and receiving texts was a matter of pot luck. It was time for a change, I couldn't wait any longer for my brothers hand-me-down (his iPhone 4 was also now a dinosaur anyway) and so I took the plunge, and bought an iPhone 5.

It made me feel very sick. I was so happy yet so disgusted in myself at the same time, such a mix of emotions, I was so ashamed in myself, thinking of all the ways the money spent on just a phone could have been better spent, but that's the thing, the iPhone 5 is not 'just a phone'.

An iPhone is an iPhone they're all the same they say. No, they are not, again, I had no idea what I had been missing. Yes I'd had an iPhone but it was not the same. Its the little details, the panoramic camera option, the built in facebook app, the amazing speedyness of it. The iPhone 5 has again upgraded me and plonked me back in the world of 'now'. The now, where social networking is king, News becomes old news as soon as you click the seen button on your Sky news app, you can dictate a text message while driving and have Siri send it for you. The world has changed and finally I have caught up with the help of a phone.

 Of course whether Apple will be able to keep it's lead is looking unlikely, Android are becoming the new Apple, innovating, and doing it for a lower price too. But for now, Apple and their iPhone 5 are still reigning supreme, will sales through the roof and their loyal followers still raving about them. Lets hope they are not the next Blackberry, otherwise I have another very long wait ahead of me.

For now, I am enjoying finally being able to play my favourite apps that I couldn't download updates for on my old iPhone 3. Apps such as Jumbled, Logos Quiz and Snake (yes that last one is truthfully ironic). Oh and the fate of my Blakcberry, I managed to finally sell it for £27 back to O2 my mobile provider a few months ago. No-one wanted it, I almost had to pay them to take it off my hands!