The man who never had an iPhone!

“If you don’t have an iPhone, then you don’t have an iPhone!” – says Apple.

And unfortunately, that’s the story of my life, so far.

Not that my life has ended. By no means. So, as a matter of fact, I may still get a shot at this spectacular piece of technological marvel of our age.

But then, it’s entirely up to Apple.

As has been the case with most men of my generation, I started out with dumb phones (no offence to those big brickish Nokia phones - that’s all we had got those days), gradually progressed to semi-smart ones (mostly walkman and camera phones from Sony Ericsson and Nokia) and finally graduated to the top of the league smart phones.

Right through this journey though, I had always secretly nurtured this desire of owning an iPhone.

Fast forward to 2013, by now I have already experienced the best of the offerings from almost every maker who has ventured into our country (there are not too many who haven’t – who on earth can afford to ignore an alluring market like India?), but somehow, the iPhone has still remained elusive for me.

Meanwhile, Apple did manage to find its way into my private space through its offerings like the iPod and the iPad and I must admit that I absolutely adore them.

Then what could be the reason that has kept the iPhone out of my reach? Following are a few of them for starters:

Size, this is the age of Phablets. The merger of phones and tablets has not entirely materialized out of whims and fancies of a few modern age manufacturers, it has also come into existence out of necessities of today's generation. It’s all about the convenience of carrying a single gadget instead of two at a time. When Samsung released the first iteration of its Galaxy Note, people raised their eyebrows. But its roaring success not only silenced its critics but also paved way for the entry of what we see today in abundance, a distinct category called the "Phablets". And Apple falls woefully short here. Apple's age-old philosophy of one-handed use of phone has managed to keep many a prospective buyers like me at bay. It has adamantly stuck to that tiny 4-inch screen at a time when most of the successful phones of the present day are pushing 5 or 6 inches.

Android vs IOS: Well, in my case I already use IOS in my iPad. But I personally prefer android not due to any technical reason, but due to the simple fact that it gives me more options. I click pictures, shoot high definition videos and load a lot of stuffs in my android phone, which allows me to stream all these contents directly to my smart TV via my WiFi network. Also, from the comfort of my couch, it helps me watch a movie or a video stored in my media player, hard drive or my laptop. Android helps me do all these and much more, IOS doesn't. Well, you can still tweak your settings a bit and get some stuffs done, but the fact remains that IOS simply wouldn't allow you that freedom.

Free contents and Apps: This is self explanatory. IOS forces you to buy everything from iTunes stores, which despite of having a larger amount of contents, pales in comparison to Google play when it comes to free contents. Not everybody’s cup of tea this, but I love android for its flexibility.

Last week, Apple launched iPhone 5S with the same design as its predecessor. And in doing so, it has shown no signs of any changes in its stand point. It is certainly not considering to increase its screen real estate anytime soon. Understandably so.Why pose any sort of competition at all (however small) to its own iPad and iPad mini which are vastly successful? Rather, to boost up its declining sales, it has come out with a cheaper iPhone (iPhone 5C) with a plastic body. I don’t necessarily agree with this strategy, for, many people I know have waited for a bigger iPhone with baited breath, not a cheaper one. And they will have to keep waiting.

I'm just one of them. Is Apple listening?