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CONFESSION OF A NON-APPLE-FANBOY: Even If The Samsung Galaxy Nexus Is Better, I'm Still Buying An iPhone

Our gadget gurus finally got their hands on a Galaxy Nexus, the new iPhone-killer from Samsung.

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It has a much bigger screen than the iPhone 4S, and that and other features blew our editor Steve Kovach away.

So breathless was Steve's first post about the Galaxy Nexus, in fact, that I thought he actually might like it better than the iPhone 4S.

Which got me to wondering... Should I just ditch my plan to buy a iPhone 4S, which already seems obsolete, and instead switch to the bigger-screened Samsung?

henry blodget, social media analytics conference 2011, november 2011, bi, dng
Like it or not, I'm stuck with Apple. Daniel Goodman / Business Insider

And the internal debate that followed led me to a conclusion that is good news for Apple, at least in the short term.

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I realized that, even if the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is unequivocally better than the iPhone 4S, I'm still going to stick with the iPhone.

Why?

Certainly not because I'm a fanboy.  I love Apple's products, and I own a boatload of them, but I find the quasi-religious devotion of many Apple followers deeply annoying, especially now that Apple is now the industry standard (read: These days, if you want to "think different," you should buy something else.)

So I'd like nothing better than to buy a non-Apple product and get an even bigger kick out of the absurd devotion of fanboys to a company that in the past decade has gone from beloved underdog to a huge extortionist global bully, with its foot on the throat of the many industries that are now dependent upon it. (Music, publishing, etc.) This mindless devotion was just brilliantly lampooned by Samsung in a new ad, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

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But I'm not going to do that, even if the iPhone 4S is worse than the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Why not?

Because I'm now locked into the Apple ecosystem.

I have a MacBook Air (or did, until I dumped a cup of tea into it last Friday). I have a MacBook Pro (which has now been rushed back into service.) I have an iTunes account. My family has iPads, itouches, and MacBooks. My Apple products sync relatively easily with all those products, and I don't want to sacrifice that.

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Also, four years after switching to the Mac from Windows, and two years after switching to the iPhone from a BlackBerry, I know how to use Apple's software. Contrary to the hosannahs and gawps of the Apple cult, this software doesn't strike me as being obviously "better" than Windows and BlackBerry software, but I now know how to use it. And I'm not about to toss that knowledge in the trash just because someone came out with a slightly better phone.

So, the truth is that, having invested several years and a lot of money in Apple's closed ecosystem, I'm loathe to switch out of it.

Maybe that's irrational. Maybe switching to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus would be completely seamless. Maybe the integration of the Samsung with Gmail and Google Calendar, et al, would make the hassle of switching worth it (the integration of these services with the iPhone has always been lame).

But I doubt it.

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So I'm still on track to get an iPhone 4S, whenever the wait-times finally subside. (I tried to order one online a month or so ago, but for some reason the Apple Store can't sync to my AT&T account. And last time I went into a store and tried to buy one, weeks after the launch, they laughed and pointed to the huge line of Asian folks buying them for shipping back to Asia. So I haven't bothered to check again).

But, eventually, I will.

And I'll settle for a 4S. Even if it's no longer the best phone on the market.

SEE ALSO: The Samsung Galaxy Nexus Will Blow Your Mind

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Read more opinions on 'THE GREAT DEBATE: Android vs. iPhone' →

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