Switch from Apple to Samsung? AT & T said do not do it

Things had become tense.

I had already spent some time in various retail establishments to find out how they would recommend Apple's dumping.

A Microsoft store said that I did not even need to buy the business equipment.

It did not even recommend doing so, which was strange since the store was filled with laptops and tablets from Redmond. All I needed to do, said the Microsoft saleswoman, was to open a Microsoft account and goodbye, Cupertino.

Then I went to Best Buy, where I was offered a range of non-Apple products that would, supposedly, be as simple to combine as my current Apple configuration. It did not seem so simple.

So there was still a phone shop just to learn another perspective.

I chose AT & T because I have been a customer for many years. I went to an AT & T store that I had never visited to see exactly what they would say. I was (almost) excited.

I should add that I did it the day after the abject abdication of the team spirit by the Golden State Warriors during the Los Angeles Clippers' loss to Steve Ballmer's of match 5 of the NBA.

My wife had previously said that I should abandon my Apple ecosystem if the Warriors did not win everything. She has a very keen sense of humor. She also always applies her bets.

I explained my dilemma to the AT & T salesman. Could he recommend switching to, for example, a Samsung phone, and then pairing it with other non-Apple devices, such as? a laptop and a tablet?

His first words were not optimistic.

"Do not do it," he said.

"Wait, but you sell Samsung phones here, you would not recommend any of them?"

"No. I tried Samsung myself once and I hated it," he insisted.

"Why?"

"It was too complicated, with my MacBook and iPad I can save everything, and when I got Samsung, it was a mess."

I was surprised. I was waiting at least for an attempt to sell me something from Samsung. After all, the phones of the Korean company were all on a big screen.

"Would not you even recommend the Galaxy Fold?" I was wondering, hoping to convince him to imagine a bright future.

"What's the big-two phone?" he said with a sneer.

"You do not have it here in the store?"

"We were supposed to have them tomorrow [April 26]but let me see when we get them. "

He jumped on his iPad and began to search, presumably, the internal communications.

"No, they have not told us yet when we get them, but it's not going to be worth the money."

During my many trips to phone shops, I often found that sellers were generally geared towards Samsung. They love the possibilities of customizing Samsung phones.

There was nothing of that here.

"You have a problem," he says. "Even if the Warriors beat the Clippers, Houston will pick them up and they'll crush the Warriors, and then you'll have to do the impossible."

I looked with supplication at another salesman who listened to our conversation.

"He's right," he says. "I had a Samsung tablet – I do not remember his name – but now I'm at Apple and I'll never go back."

He stopped to give the coup de grace: "And the warriors are really in trouble."

The first seller has started giggling and told me that switching from Apple to Samsung – or the reverse – no longer occurs.

My colleague Jason Cipriani thinks that the best, and perhaps the only, alternative to the Apple ecosystem is to use Google.

A Pixel 3 phone, a Pixelbook, a Fossil Sport watch and a Google Home loudspeaker, he says, are a good start.

He admits, however, that it is still not perfect in many areas.

I left the AT & T store enjoying the franchise of the vendors, hoping the Warriors are getting ready.

The fact that Apple has managed to create such a vast and simple ecosystem is a tribute to one thing: someone has long thought of the customer.

They thought not only about the creation of a product, but also about how real people would use it and in what way.

While so many, if not all, of Apple's competitors were making gadgets adorned with a plethora of (often unnecessary) features, Steve Jobs, Jony Ive and others s & # 39; They were arrested to examine their conceptions in the real world.

Of course, as the technology becomes more complex, it becomes more and more difficult to make all Apple devices work together. Without dongles, that's it.

But the fact that no other company has imitated Apple's hardware and software marriage is quite remarkable.

A bit like the offensive and defense warriors on one of those good days.