I’ve just upgraded to the Sony Ericsson W950i – I like SE phones, because they’re Mac-friendly (with iSync, at least) and the music sound quality’s excellent. So here’s a good example of what the iPhone’s up against – the process of transferring contacts and tunes from your Mac to a w950i.

• Connect phone to Mac via USB. Nothing happens.
• Connect via Bluetooth. The phone isn’t iSync-compatible.
• Manually select entries in Address Book and send via Bluetooth file exchange.
• Open resulting vCard in phone and save to contacts.

That was the easy bit. Now, transferring music to the phone.

• Set up a network between your PC and Mac. You do have a PC as well as a Mac, don’t you? And a network card and ethernet cable?
• Transfer your music to the PC manually via the Finder.
• Install SE software on Vista.
• Discover – at the very end of the installation – that the software isn’t compatible with Vista.
• Restart the PC and boot into XP. You do have a dual-boot PC, don’t you?
• Install the SE software again.
• Discover that a mysterious install error means the install can’t be completed.
• Download a new version from the SE support site. Better hope you have broadband, ’cause it’s 34MB.
• Install the new version of the SE software.
• Watch as a mysterious error stops the install from proceeding.
• Update ActiveSync and reboot the PC, remembering to choose XP instead of Vista.
• Install the SE software yet again.
• Drag and drop the files using the Sony Ericsson file manager.

As you can see, IT JUST WORKS!!!!!

*weeps salty tears of rage*