A friend on Facebook (who works for Motorola) is doing his level best to help people understand what people sacrifice when they choose an iPhone 6 over one of Motorola’s latest offerings.
I can only shake my head in pity, for clearly it is he who needs to understand, to understand people, and sacrifice, and devotion. For iPhone users are a devoted people, and there is no devotion without sacrifice. So, iPhone users sacrifice. They sacrifice by paying more, but on its own, such a sacrifice is a hollow indulgence.
True devotion requires daily sacrifice, and so iPhone users suffer fewer pixels on their displays and in their selfies. Perhaps, most of all, they suffer shorter battery life.
To the unenlightened, this sacrifice seems ridiculous, foolish, pathetic. Why would someone sacrifice their hard earned money for a phone that is so clearly inferior? The answer is simple, their devotion, their sacrifice, is repaid daily, a thousand fold. As the battery gauge dwindles, they are reminded that, so to, the daylight dwindles. As the gauge turns red, they are reminded of the the autumn of their years. As the screen blinks and goes black, they are reminded that life is precious, that the breadth and depth of life needs to be explored, and embraced, that life can not be captured in pixels no matter what the quantity.
As for me, I only rarely run short of battery life on my old iPhone, so, to show my devotion as I anticipate the arrival my new iPhone, I am collecting all the 30-pin cables I’ve accumulated over the years, cables that will no work with my new iPhone. Once collected, I’ll straighten them carefully, gather them together, and then slowly, methodically, braid them into a scourge, so I might flagellate my skin and demonstrate my devotion.