Very Shrewd

You know how when something Jerry Seinfeld didn't like would happen and he suspected that his arch-enemy mailman was behind that very thing? He'd crinkle his face, kind of clinch his fists in anger by his belt buckle and say under his breath, "Newman!"

I did that very same thing yesterday at the mobile phone store.

See, my wife has a mobile phone that you can load about 100 songs from your iTunes library right onto it. She got it about 5 months ago, I guess. It's called a Sliver.

Well, my two-year old phone (that I don't like and don't really want anyway) that has no modern capability except to store phone numbers, text message people and actually talk to them if need be is on the fritz. I've gone as long as I can with it. So, off to the very same store to pick up the same phone my wife has. It's free when you renew your contract, and mine is up for renewal.

So, we go in and ask the sales guy (who is 17 or so and wearing party beads. When I ask a friend of mine who works there and came to see us what he was wearing the party beads for, he'd apparently sold a high-end product and was rewarded with the beads. My friend mentioned that it was for a behind-the-scenes sales motivation called Hawaiian Party Weekend...that originally used the term for the flowers you get when you go to Hawaii, but corporate put the kibosh on that in a memo. Stories like that crack me up) and he says that they have several free phones that have Mp3 players built right in, but those Mp3 players aren't iTunes compatible.

I replied that I just wanted my wife's phone which IS iTunes compatible and she got it at that very store, the guy replied, "Yeah. We don't stock that any more. But you can get an iPhone." I felt like he was workin' me for more beads.

We head across the street to the mobile service DEALER. We tell him our story (after he mocked my phone's age & abilities--good naturedly, though. I think he sold me the phone two years ago) and he says we might can get my wife's phone on-line through their company or maybe through the retailer across the street's web site...but we better hurry. He didn't come right out and say it, but he more or less insinuated that my wife's phone was being phased out because the folks at Apple have their very own phone that is compatible with iTunes...

And I did kinda say, "Apple" in a Seinfeld-esque manner.

We're for sure still friends, but I think Apple is workin' me for their iPhone. But we're gonna beat that system. See, we're gonna get a phone for free with bells and whistles and such, but we're going to let my wife have that one and I'll use hers. Hehehehe.

(Secretly, I think Apple knows it's really just a matter of a year or so before they get a bunch more of my money, so I don't think they're worried.)