I have witnessed several Android vs. iPhone debates over many years.

Some android phones are expensive. And somehow our minds are wired to think, if it is as expensive as an Apple product, it must be secure too.

In the business world, free is always a lie.

And with Facebook, we now know it is not much different in the consumer world too.

But to a product be it hardware or software, free is a weapon.

According to George Guilder, you are exchanging incommensurable items in exchange for free. For glimpses of a short video that you may or may not want to see through the end, you agree to watch an ad long enough to click it closed. Instead of paying with money, you spend in the slippery coin of your data and your time ( distraction).

The free world is looking past your money; it is going for your time, your data and your life.

Free not only helps the suppliers of “free” goods to avoid liabilities, but it also offers an escape from the challenges of security.

A friend of mine, an ardent believer in opensource and defender of Android phones switched instantly to iPhone when he witnessed how much information can be gleaned without every getting in physical contact with his phone by just using his phone number.

So what does it have to do with the expensive android phones? The problem is that the high price is a mask and at least some of us forget that it runs on something that is free. And Free is always a lie.

 

The image is from Marti’s website here