iPhone 4 VS Blackberry. The result.

After all my talk about wanting to be an Apple fan girl , I went out and bought a Blackberry.

 

Mission:  Buy the iPhone 4

Technique: Cash in Hand

Special instructions: Keep old prepaid number, or cheapest postpaid contract.

Result: Mission Failed

Don't get me wrong! I desperately wanted the iPhone 4, it was going to be one of those purchases that was going to change my life forever and make everything seem perfectly fine, like a new pair of shoes.

I had been tormenting myself for months thinking about which phone would be the best purchasing decision to make.

To me:

Apple = Creative ,Cool, geeky (which we now know means cool to me) , tech savvy, original,  reliable, MONEY.

Blackberry = Professional, dull, smart (British meaning) , connectivity, BBM, Dull, dull ,dull, reliable, does the job.

What happened was this, I went in there with one goal in hand, to buy the iPhone 4.

I went to the Du stand first, all happy and perky with 3000AED  that I had saved tucked carefully away in my hand bag. (I had  a friend working there and was hoping she could give me a really good deal) turns out I needed my passport photocopy AND a salary certificate to prove that I earn more than AED 3000 a month. Obviously I don't go running around with spare copies of my passport lying around, let alone salary certificates, so, disappointed, i trudged along to the next stand.

Then I went to Jackey's (They had a deal with Etisalat so I could save around 300AED) , at Jackey's I needed my Passport photocopy PPC (again) AND i needed to pay by credit card (which I dont have and don't plan on having), I could've cried I was so excited to get it and start playing around with it.

Eventually, feeling really downtrodden, I glanced at the Blackberries. The sales lady instantly pounced and told me that the bold 9700 only cost 1599 AED. Grudgingly, I asked what documents I needed to buy it, the lady said that If  I had my PPC then i could get a another phone with it as a freebie. I said no, I JUST want the phone. No contract, I want my prepaid number and I want etisalat to credit my account with 185 AED a month.

Sure! The lady says... well I can be really indecisive and I wasn't going to go back to GITEX and I couldn't make a purchasing decision like that on the spot, especially after all my months of decision making.

So I went home.

And I thought, you know what, I need a smartphone now and it's so much easier to buy a Blackberry. (I am An Advertising Sales Executive and I am constantly on the road and often need to check my emails or a location map).

I headed down to Virgin Megastores, and buying it was so easy, I could afford to buy a car charger and a bb case, as well as go get my hair done. At the end of the day, because the buying process was so easy, I bought the Blackberry.

I'll be buying the iPhone 4 once they sell it without an obligatory contact !!! (and no I dont want to buy an unlocked phone)

I want to be an Apple Fan Girl

I work at one of the coolest companies ever. A media company that focuses on tech and gaming, as well as movies. So I get to tinker with/play on/watch stuff before (or as soon as) it's publicly released. Which is totally AWESOME.

One of the coolest things about this place is that all my co-workers are what I called "The new cool", or computer and gaming enthusiasts.  Yes , I know. Geeks and now the new cool. That's just how the world works now,  and I want to be one of them.

Without them, we'd literally be living in the dark, washing with cold water...outdoors, living in the cold (or heat as is the case here), still writing letters and riding horses (which isn't too bad) , waiting days to hear from someone.. you get my drift.

Anyways, we were running around Dubai going to several meetings, and when we were done I automatically assumed we were going back to the office, when my boss starts driving us to Sahara Mall, Sharjah. Why? Because he heard that they were still selling the iPhone4 there. Alas, the iPhone4 was no more and all sold out and he would have to wait till stocks were replenished.

We had lunch, and he went off to hunt for the iPhone4... i think he went to all the malls in Dubai. Poor guy... it was sold out everywhere. (Two guys at work already have the iPhone4)

Now, looking at my pathetic un-smartphone, with its VGA camera and lack of multitasking abilities, I hate Steve Jobs for creating these awesome pieces of technology that have created a sort of class-tech distinction... Apple users VS OTHERs. There's a whole following, a cult if you will, of Apple owners, running around flaunting their gadgets.

Now, I want not ONLY the Macbook pro, but the iPad AND the iPhone4. I want EVERYTHING to do with apple.

There's a thin line between love and hate.

Twitter and Barasti

Twitter: I've just started my very first twitter account! So i'm very excited and TRYING to learn more about it (apparently its more popular than I thought it was) but no worries! In due time i'll be an expert tweeter. hehe



Barasti:Is an outdoor beach pub/dance venue in DXB UAE. Very popular among expats and in the past few months, Barasti has been trying very hard to repromote themselves as a fun outdoorsie beach place that bring in entertainers like HedKandi.





The Link: A link to Arabian Business that talks about a huge online social media mishap on behalf of Barasti (or their reps)

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/584992-barasti-bar-scraps-concert-after-twitter-outrage





What was happening in the UAE: Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had passed away recently from a very tragic accident, the UAE was in mourning from the Tuesday all the way to Saturday. That's about 4 days.



What Barasti had been planning: They had planned to bring Vanilla Ice to do a little show for everyone (you can't exactly call it a concert in my opinion)



The Issue: Barasti Bar sent an early-afternoon text message saying: “NORMAL OPERATION. WE ARE NOT DRY! NICE, NICE BABY! 5PM-3AM C U ON THE SAND”.



Why this is an Issue:



1: UAE was mourning the Sheikh's Passing (Allah Yerhamoh)

This means that alcohol shouldn't be served as a sign of respect



2: The message shows a certain lack of respect. It also implies that expats also don't seem to care.



3: Prominent Emirati social commentator Mishaal Gergawi said on his twitter account that he was "disgusted by Barasti's SMS that they r not dry tonight!! RT [retweet] & don't stop until someone shuts it down tonight!!”



Dubai-born musician DJ Bliss said: “the question is: what do we want Barasti to do now? Apologise or cancel the show?”



Another user described the text message as “tasteless and disgusting”.





Also look at: http://fakeplasticsouks.blogspot.com/2010/04/inevitable-blog-post.html

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/585079-barasti-apologises-for-insensitive-concert-texts

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/expat/annabelkantaria/10138457/how-twitter-blocked-vanilla-ice/

Marketing research about living in the UAE

"A ... study ... shows more than 70 per cent of the people in the UAE are unhappy with work."

I think this is very disappointing, because so many people come to the UAE the build their dreams and their careers.

i myself wish to live and work here for the rest of my life but the problem is that employers generally do not care about employee happiness or welbeing, contracts are not consistent and pay is never enough thanks to the rising costs of living in the U.A.E.

Also, if anyone wishes to start up a company or business here the starting capital needed is so high that not everyone can pursue their dreams, which sucks because the UAE, esp. Dubai, is a land of innovation and the best place to implement creative ideas and innovations.

Why are you doing this to us Dubai WHY? =(

A "fake" website

The otherday i was ckecing my Facebook account and found that i had three similar messages in my inbox that went something like this:

hey pplz...A web site that is willing to pay 50$ for just registering, and also 1$ for each person you invite and join....its really amazing :D.... please register before 31/3 by clicking the following linkwww.diabian1.dubaimlm.complz ppl do it for me ill appreciate it a lot..LOVE U ALL....its only gna take 2 mnts..n we both profit from it..when u register i get 50$ n u do too..THX...

http://www.facebook.com/share_redirect.php?h=c6db31eb7239e64798603f6a3e3dac50&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diabian1.dubaimlm.com&sid=10913122962
http://www.diabian1.dubaimlm.com/

Of course it seemed too good to be true, HONESTLY... DUBAI? giving away money?! No way!

So i went to check out this website here's what it looked like:

A few things to note:

Poor design, ugly banner ads, bad layout.... among others.

I would rather be caught dead than send an email begging people to log on to this website so that i can make money.

But let me tell you one thing, im sure they ended up with a huge traffic count! Dubai has bad traffic even online =P

Well anyways, you can check it out for yourselves if you have nothing else better to do.

interesting articles

Helo! feeling too lazy to summarize these!
ifu like u can check these links out for urself
love u all!

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/08/02/24/10192239.html


http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/08/02/18/10190527.html



http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/08/02/25/10192571.html



http://uaeinteract.com/news/default.asp?ID=359



http://www.ameinfo.com/news/Media_and_Advertising/

http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Media/10194867.html

http://www.medianewsline.com/news/120/ARTICLE/2159/2008-03-04.html

http://www.business24-7.ae/cs/article_show_mainh1_story.aspx?HeadlineID=2906

My Classmates Blogs

1. http://adexude.blogspot.com/


2. http://sylvia-advmania.blogspot.com/


3. http://promoad.blogspot.com/


4. http://internetcubelounge.blogspot.com/


5. http://admarketing01.blogspot.com/
   
6. http://advertisingintelligence.blogspot.com/
7. http://Uaemediamadness.blogspot.com/