The Waiting Game

3:58 AM article , mobile , opinion , personal , tech 0 Comments

     Have you ever been in a waiting game with that crush of yours? Fright not! I'm here to..... Hold on a second, this is a tech blog, ain't nobody wanna read about relationship advice on here (Ken is not qualified for such advice). So, what waiting game am I talking about? Of course, with MWC 2014 right around the corner, it has got to be something that is related to mobile technology!



      I'm sure at some point in time, when you were looking forward to buying a new phone, that you thought to yourself, "Maybe I should wait for X phone to drop in terms of price" or "Maybe I should wait for Y phone to launch". And this is what people mean by the term 'The Waiting Game'.

      So for those who might are yet to be exposed to the dangers of being a tad too knowledgeable about mobile phones and technology in general, the reason why this phenomena happens is because the tech industry and specifically the mobile technology side of things likes something called "The Numbers War". To further elaborate, you should first open any random phone's specifications sheet and take a look at it. Within a glance, what do you see? A bunch of numbers, yes?
   
      Essentially, phone manufacturers compete with each other just with the sheer increase of numbers. Are the increase of numbers in a phone good for the consumer? The general idea is yes but at crucial changing points, but there are times where an increase is not good. More processing power, more pixels on your screen, more pixels you can capture and of course more in terms of the phone's size. The only thing manufacturers have yet to increase is the battery capacity, that has become paler and paler in comparison to the other specifications in a phone.

     So what does the numbers have to do with the waiting game, you might be asking. Well, most people who are stuck in the "Waiting Game" are stuck there for the numbers. You see, if you wait for a few months or even just a few weeks, there would be a new phone with better specs, you would then reevaluate your previous choice, comparing anything possible, including the numbers. When the numbers overpower the entire decision making process, one would reach the phase where he thinks "I better wait a bit for Z phone to be released" and the vicious cycle continues.

     Is the 'Waiting Game' bad? Well in my honest opinion, it is. If you are looking for a device that you might be interested in, you should head over to the Lowyat.NET forums and go to the respective phone threads, there's a lot of useful information and user feedback, giving your decision a bit more punch. A word of warning though, this post is about the 'Waiting Game' and not about 'Regret' so I plead you guys to still think through your decisions; and not go bonkers, buy a phone without further inquiry then proceed to blame me just because I said the 'Waiting Game' is bad.

     Until next time then, Ken signing off.