Smartphones and Philippine Elections

Some people like Android, some people like iOS, and heck, some people like Windows & BlackBerry or their feature phone over a newer flagship smartphone. Sure, hardware specs and software design can make one phone better than the other, but at the end of the day, no single smartphone is perfect. It will always have its flaws and room for improvement, while the others may have it well and lack in some other parts.

I stick to Android, and I have never stuck with an iOS device for more than a month as I cannot do away with the Apple system in general. I like how I am able to manage my files in Android; I like its Google-centric experience – but this doesn’t mean that iOS users are doing it the wrong way. In fact, it’s fine to like iOS over Android.

Android isn’t perfect either. Software updates significantly arrive slower than iOS, and there’s a lot more to count if we’re doing a heavy comparison here, but that’s not the point – iOS has a lot of flaws too, and other OSes have more flaws or less flaws depending on which you check out.

But the market is full of people with varying needs, and someone has to pick something. At the end of the day, it’s the bigger picture that moves the industry forward:

“What will people buy? Let’s do that.”

I think it’s very similar to real world politics if you look at it that way. We don’t have a perfect candidate for president; they all have strengths, they all have flaws – and each and every one of us have something that we look for in a leader, and we have specific compromises that we are willing to take. Sure, like hardware and software, there will be factual advantages and wrongs with choosing a specific candidate to vote for, but if you see all of them very close, then I think it’s just fitting for us to respect the decision of someone else. After all, it’s the bigger picture that moves the country forward. It’s how democracy works.

“Who will people vote for? Let’s do that.”

Politics is dirty and it involves a lot of people fighting over power, so it’s safe to say politicians will do everything to make you buy into them. Companies will also do the same with marketing – but I think this is where the good news come in: In these circumstances, we’re all pushed to do our research – to look into society on what’s wrong and what’s right, and to look into ourselves on what do we really want and what do we really need. If nothing fits your taste, you can always just wait for the next big innovation to buy – or you can just abstain. After all, if nothing’s good in the market, why buy anyway? Without any demand, they’ll have to push something better out, right? It becomes our job to tell other people of factual rights and wrongs so that the industry would improve. So that our country would improve.

We don’t have to fight others just because they have different priorities and they didn’t choose the same compromises that you did. I didn’t lose friends because they picked iOS, and I won’t lose friends just because they’re voting or not voting for a specific leader. I just hope everyone keeps an open mind on facts and make the right decisions. Don’t let cognitive bias get to you.