A Smartphone Buyer's Guide to Political Parties
IT journalist Henrik Roonemaa was shopping for a new phone and spotted some similarities to political parties.
The following is a translation of the observations he shared with ERR's news website, uudised.err.ee.
Apple: Reform Party. Once they were the favorite of the rich and beautiful; now they have grown very large. To keep their market share, they have to be to everyone's liking, including those who dream about being rich and beautiful someday if they pick an iPhone. The product was once revolutionary, but now a little mired in the past and it seems they are short of ideas. A number of known players have left the company or received the boot. But this company is the one the public always expects to come up with a big and new idea to rally around and show the others the way forward.
Samsung: Center Party. Just as big as Apple but very strange. Extremely closed culture with a very hierarchical leadership. The products even do the right thing, but are very ugly. The anti-Apple, but actually the two of them rule the market. Although they fight in public, they actually work closely together. Aggressive and costly marketing and ads have won a place in the hearts of those who don't like Apple's style on principle. They have been misleading in their benchmarking figures and they decorate their products with all manner of unnecessary enhancements that nevertheless seem impressive.
LG: Social Dems. A very tempting option when viewed superficially but problems arise when you get serious about buying. Conventional wisdom is that they are a big player and they are expected to perform but when they introduce a product, they have managed to spoil it with their own bizarre decisions, and thus they have no business being at the top. The latest innovation, aside from the hype, was moving a button around on the phone.
Sony: IRL. An old, major player, whose fortunes have soured recently due to internal squabbling between factions. Now the company has achieved an apparent unity, various departments are working in lockstep and very good telephones have been introduced, as a result of which the market share has seen strong growth. Their resurgence was possible largely thanks to their acquisition of one competitor. Many consumers do not associate them with the creme de la creme of the telephone world and thus they are cautious buying Sony phones. You never know when the company might return to infighting. Their area is also distinct in that their top of the line model is waterproof.
What's wrong with this picture? Estonia still doesn't have its own Nokia.