Why do people buy brand phones?

I like gadgets. A lot.

I consider phones to be gadgets, not just phones, because they are. I don’t like any one company over the other and I like to try new things.

I don’t like to spend money on gadgets. They lose value fast and I always find something more useful to spend my money on.

I never went over the 250 euro/phone limit and this post is about phones in that price range.

Last year I bought the Huawei P9 Lite 2017 and it was around 150 euros. Something similar from Samsung was around 250 euros. But people still buy more Samsung phones.

Why?

Why would I pay 66% more on something that has the same specs or worse, but has a more renowned brand name?

Let me tell you what happened to me.

I bought a second hand LG Nexus 5X. Spec wise, the Huawei has the winning spot for the RAM and CPU and it means that it should go more smoothly through apps … right?

Wrong.

Huawei doesn’t do two things right:

  1. It doesn’t clean the extra data remaining from updating or uninstalling an app. I tried this with a clean reset install/login in apps  and saw some serious space differences.
  2. It doesn’t manage the RAM properly. After a week of using it, my phone would become sluggish and would behave like a Windows ME on a Pentium 1.

I didn’t saw these two issue reproducing on the Nexus or Samsung devices.

My next phone will be a Xiaomi. Let’s see if, in the same price range, it will do a better job.

Is there any business book that is worth the while?

For some years, I’ve been reading or trying to read books about business and investment, but they all seem to have diluted ideas and you don’t get any much from them than you would have by reading a summary.

I’m not saying they don’t open your mind, but they seem to have little practical advice.

Let me save you the time…

Main idea – (not finished because it’s big and quite boring) – invest in stocks and bonds and over time (25+ years) you will get financial freedom.

Main idea – a fun and easy read – create a business that can thrive without you with a repeatable process. Find a niche.

Main idea – has some insights on the buyers brain and the marketing tricks used by companies. You can learn some things about marketing, but nothing spectacular.

Main idea – as “Built to sell”, it tells  you some ideas on how to make your business work without you, but this time with the franchise idea at the base, without necessarily starting one.

Main idea – nice autobiographic story – create something new, think outside the box.

Main idea – easy to read – pivot in your business, don’t get stuck.

Main idea – inspiring story and easy read – it’s important not to get stuck in a job, but to invest in your financial education and wealth (stocks, bonds, real estate).

Main idea – more impacting than I thought – you see a lot of the problems that Musk has gone through. His life.

Main idea – work hard on something you’re good that, even if you don’t like it and, step by step, invest your time to build skill in something you enjoy and then, do the switch.

Main idea – use the internet to make your business exponential in growth, become an influencer. Create multiple streams of money in different fields.

Main idea – I had to abandon it because it was mumbling away about money in general.

Conclusion

Although at the time of each book I got thrilled and gave them 4-5 stars, thinking back, I think I was only rating them based on the temporary hype.

Do you recommend a business book that’s more practical?

Useful link – part 2

For everybody:

For developers (most of them are from Addy Osmani):

Funny of the week:

Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy.