Do Mobile Phones & Operating Systems Have To Cause 'The Marmite Effect' ?

For those who are unfamiliar with the product, Marmite is a yeast extract based spread which has the effect on people that they absolutely love it or hate it, people in the UK will understand this straight off, but as the www. is slightly larger than the UK, I thought I'd explain, just in case anyone outside the UK stumbled across my ramblings !!

The reason for the post is basically, because given my interest in mobile phones, and excessive use of Twitter, this seams to be the case, and I don't think it should be ? Also, before anyone takes offence, I don't follow anyone on Twitter I don't like, and I take being called a Nokia/Symbian 'Fanboi' as a compliment and not an insult !!

I have been using Mobile phones for a long time, they are as much a hobby to me as they are a tool, I like gadgets, especially phones, and my weapon of choice for over ten of my mobile phone years has been a Nokia Mobile phone, my last 6 being the N91, N95-8gig, N97, E7, N9 and most recently the Nokia Lumia 800. I've enjoyed them all (even the N97) and used them all heavily, people who have read any of my other pieces will know how and why I got the last three phones on the list, and if I hadn't been heavily involved with Nokia Support Discussions, hadn't been invited to Nokia World and hadn't been invited to join The Amazing Collective, I may not have been using a Nokia Windows Phone now, but I was, and I am !!!

http://carman58.hubpages.com/hub/Nokia-Windows-Phone-Lumia-The-Good-The-Bad-The-Ugly

http://carman58.hubpages.com/hub/Collecting-The-Nokia-Lumia-800

http://carman58.hubpages.com/hub/Nokia-Lumia-800-Thoughts

http://carman58.hubpages.com/hub/A-Triad-Of-Nokia-Phones

Having used and enjoyed the Lumia 800 for over three months now, the phone and OS have both grown on me, neither are perfect, what is ? But the overall experience is very very good, however the reaction on the web on tech sites, on the forums I visit and on Twitter, seem a little extreme to say the least, hence the title of the piece.

Despite my Fanboism , I have used, helped set up and owned other handsets, some I like and some I dislike , but I don't 'hate' any of them, each actually have something going for them, and as people are all different, the fact there is choice, is great in my opinion. I've never really wanted to change my OS or Manufacturer, but the decision by Nokia to adopt Windows Phone a year ago, meant I would have to do one , the other or both, I even bought an Android phone as an experiment to see if I could find something to use once Nokia killed off my favourite OS, as the closed system they were adopting was so similar to iOS, another thing that never appealed to me.Many mourn the end of Meego support also, but unfortunately it was neither practicable or possible for Nokia to develop this into a mainstream OS given the situation at the time which I find very sad,but people need to get over it !!

So to move on, and get up to date, I love all three of the phones I actually have sim cards in at the moment, but two are under sentence of death the E7 on Symbian and N9 on Meego, and so have a limited life span, so my main sim is in the Lumia 800. I did share the views of some others, that I wanted to customise my phone with themes and widgets, I must be able to side load media and applications and I wanted to transfer things via bluetooth etc. But the more I use the Lumia , the more I like it and when I actually analyze my mobile phone useage, as apposed to the 'honeymoon period' when you are setting the phone up just as you want it, and trying it out, what do I really want from it ?

Well,

1. It must make clear and reliable phone calls, every Nokia ,the Lumia 800 included has always done this.

2. Text messages should be easy to access and send, they are on the Lumia and the conversation view is really nice.

3. Email, the email client on Windows Phone is possibly the best I've come across, and even better than using my laptop, would truly stand up against any existing mail app on any platform.

4. Social Media, mainly Twitter, but also Facebook, the integration is superb on several levels, and there are an abundance of Twitter apps of a very good quality available for Windows Phone, and the recent update to the official Microsoft Facebook app is absolutely excellent.

5. Web browsing, the IE used in Windows Phone is extremely quick, I've never had a crash with it, and it can keep up with the main competitors, it simply destroys the web client on Symbian Phones !!

Now that is not ALL I want from a phone, but it covers over 90% of my phone useage, I don't spend all day looking at my widgets, or wallpapers, most of the time when I open the lockscreen on any of my phones my Twitter timeline will be sat there for me to check up on, other times I will be answering a call or checking an incoming message of some sort, or I may be opening the web browser to check something out. The rest of the functionality of the phone is easy to access and to me very attractive. I hated the tiles on Metro UI until I used them properly and long term, that's where your customisation comes, you place the live tiles you have where you want them and info and access is just sat there a tap away.

People don't like change, they don't react to it well, I spend a lot of time on the Nokia forum and it's been full of people complaining they couldn't get the Belle update soon enough, once it arrived, the same people are complaining they want Anna back !! Sorry but people react too soon , without giving new things a chance, you can't fully appreciate something straight away (or find all it's faults or shortfalls either) but to dismiss something out of hand without giving it a good try is wrong, and to expect every OS to work the same is wrong, it's a case of different strokes for different folks and if people don't like Windows Phone, fine , find an OS that suits you, but if all you do is concentrate on negatives in a situation, all you'll find are negatives, approach the Nokia Lumia 800 with an open mind, and you'll find a very pleasant , fast, efficient and enjoyable experience, at least that's the case with me, and the vast majority of people I know using the phone. I've said it once and I'll say it again, the Windows Phone OS has mass appeal, it will take off, average users will love it, Nokia will succeed and I'll carry on using there products !!

Thanks for reading.

Stephen Quin