I stare lovingly at it. I caress it. I admire its sleek, clean lines and subtle curves. It feels good in my hands. I am so enchanted with my new love that I miss my stop. I start with a jolt and even I feel a tad foolish at the raptures that my new Google Nexus One has awoken in me.
There’s no doubt that it is a great phone. Its ARM ‘Snapdragon’ processor makes everything really fast. The 5 megapixel camera takes great pictures. The screen background has ‘live’ 3D wallpaper - in my case it looks like a shimmering lake which ripples every time I touch the screen. Everything is intuitive and I have not need to refer to the manual once.
But the fact that it is a good phone does not explain my unconditional love for it. I knew I was going to love this phone, not just because it’s made by Google, but because it was not made by Apple. I wanted to make a statement about ‘my tribe’. I wanted to make clear where my loyalties lie. I want it to be clear that I do not belong to the church of Apple - by carrying this phone it’s clear that I’m not one of those iBores, or Appletards.
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Clearly, given the buzz surrounding the Nexus One, I am not alone in having fallen under its spell. This phone should not be positioned as an ‘iPhone killer’, but more as the birth of a new emergent tribe. A tribe that, still largely the developer community, ascribes to different values.
We all know what the Apple tribe stands for: They value creativity.
Owning Apple products is a rite of passage for the white urban middle class media-type. Carrying an iPhone affirms your membership of this tribe. Far from “thinking different”, Apple’s platforms are becoming an increasingly controlled, closed and proprietary. This top-down control is strictly enforced by Apple’s benevolent patriarchy. Any app developer who violates Apple’s reams of rules will find themselves banished from the tribe. Cast out into the wilderness. Excluded from Apple’s own Garden of Eden.
At first glance the Google tribe looks like a chaotic muddle compared to Apple’s strict command-control. Members can contribute almost anything they like to the App-store (currently much smaller than the Apple one). This tribe puts openness and collaboration at its heart.
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It’s very much a matriarchical tribe where control is devolved. The individual users and developers seem more empowered and excited about this new platform called Android, with Gartner predicting that its market share will exceed Apple’s by 2012.
So why do I not own an iPhone? I have to admit, begrudgingly, that it is a beautiful product that delivers a lot of value to those who use and eulogise it. But it has become a statement of conformity. The ‘default’ among the middle class. Google for me is a small act of rebellion. A tribe that feels like it has a people movement behind it. A tribe I am excited to belong to.
Or could it be that I am just as bad as the ‘i-Bores’ by becoming a ‘Goo-Bore’?!
Belinda Parmar is the founder of Lady Geek, helping technology companies understand and sell to women.
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You can follow Belinda Parmar on Twitter, and keep track of her opinions here at Times Online.