Apple and iPhone followup
I thought I posted this last night, but I either dreamt it or Wordpress ate it somehow. I might even have forgotten to hot the publish button for all I know, but for some reason some updates and edits to my response to the iPhone hysteria were never published. This does give me the chance to do it properly now though. Some people seem to think that I'm attacking the iPhone itself, but thats not the case. I have no reason what so ever to talk it down, as I've never tried or even seen one myself. I'm pretty certain it's a sweet little gizmo that a lot of people will be very satisfied with. My problem is the hype and borderline hysteria surrounding just about every Apple product release, be it hardware or software. I can understand that people get excited over these things, I do it too. What gets me is that both people and the media walk right into the the same trap each time. The iPhone is just the latest example of how Apples media handling leads to mass hype and publicity that no money can buy and people seem to follow it blindly. Apple, like other commercial companies, use this to create a sense of exclusiveness and even trying to pre-plan shortages to further maximize the media coverage of the well planned release event. From a business point of view, that makes a lot of sense. I don't blame them, they only try to do what they are here to do: Maximize profits. As I've said before, I'm sure the product is great too. Apple is great at doing whatever they need to do to make sure they sell their merchandise. All fine by me. What I can not understand is that people get so blinded that they don't see that they are being played and used in a huge marketing scheme orchestrated by people like Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs is just doing his job, and he's doing a damn fine one at that. After all, if he didn't Apple probably wouldn't even be around anymore. As far as I can see, which incidentally probably isn't that much farther ahead than my own nose tip, Apple is turning into some sort of Religion. It's gone beyond Cult, and entered a Religious state where Steve Jobs is the Saviour of all things computerized and electrical. Sorry, I just don't buy it. I've had problems with understanding the need for religion since I was a kid, this stuff is even harder to digest. I once wanted a Mac, right about when OSX came out. Who didn't? But given how things have progressed since, I've decided to never buy an Apple product. Again, I have nothing against Apple nor their products, it's just how the world behaves that gets to me. Mundus vult decipi Of course, this explains a lot.Post metadata
Published July 2, 2007 23:33
9 comments
Tagged with apple, blogging, hysteria, iphone and media
9 Responses to Apple and iPhone followup:
2 Pingbacks to Apple and iPhone followup:
-
July 2, 2007 11:57pm[…] Visit Source No Comments, Comment or Ping […]
-
July 3, 2007 12:58am[…] Link to Article steve jobs Apple and iPhone followup » Posted at h0bbel on Monday, July 02, […]
July 2, 2007 11:57pm
[…] Visit Source No Comments, Comment or Ping […]
July 3, 2007 12:58am
[…] Link to Article steve jobs Apple and iPhone followup » Posted at h0bbel on Monday, July 02, […]
July 3, 2007 1:11am
You’ve got a very good point, I think.
It is very religion like… and I guess that’s the one thing that’s always bothered me about Apple loyalists…
Yeah, I do own a MacBook, but buying it was after careful deliberation over whether it would be better to buy a PC laptop and install Linux or whether it would be better to buy a Mac… I didn’t want Windows anymore. I chose the Mac because the programs I missed from the Windows world were available for the Mac and there are a few nifty Mac only programs I wanted….
It’s funny… My MacBook drives me crazy. I swear, I find something every day which I find counterproductive (I spent about an hour trying to figure out how to show hidden files one day) with the OS…. I have just as many locking up problems with my MacBook as I did in Windows… so, it surely ain’t perfection…. but it beats using Windows.
July 3, 2007 1:16am
I can see why people would want Apple products. The religious-like aspects of a vast amount of Mac users does definitely not appeal to me though.
As for the technical side of it, I can’t really comment. I’ve never owned an iPod (I have borrowed/used some though), or any other Apple product for that matter.
July 3, 2007 4:47am
Understandably, and to be honest, the religious-like approach ends up making Mac users a somewhat unfriendly bunch because if there happens to be one teeny-tiny little thing you don’t like about one of Apple’s products, apparently something MUST be wrong with you. I think that’s a load of bull.
July 3, 2007 1:39pm
I’ve been thinking on this: Assume a company - say, Nokia, a company well-known in the industry - decided to release a PDA phone tomorrow that had the exact same feature set as the iPhone. Would it sell as well and become as accepted?
My answer is no. Why? Because they do not have the same marketing gravitas as Apple. The Apple fan base would not be compelled to buy it because it doesn’t have the Apple logo on it.
What is interesting to me about this assumption is that it does not, as I would love to decree, represent a mandate for PDAs in the consumer market. Rather, it entrenches this specific PDA in the public mind, and retards the proliferation of other ideas/designs for public consumption.
In other words, because the proponents and their media coverage are so loud, consumers will likely assume that no other option exists, and expect that anything not-iPhone is substandard, when it may actually be a better product.
July 4, 2007 10:10am
Check it out some pics taken in NYC. I was there too but not for an iphone..just shopping with my wife.
http://www.apple.com/iphone/gallery/dayone/fifthavenue.html
btw, what is OpenID?
July 4, 2007 1:42pm
@Owen: My thoughts exactly, just better phrased. The mere fact that it’s produced by Apple does not mean it’s superior to other products. The marketing/media spin on anything Apple related can, and does, skew the market.
Apple is free to do so in trying to manipulate the market to their advantage, after all thats what advertising is designed to do. What troubles me is the seemingly complete lack of critical eyes as soon as the mighty fruit opens its massive jaws.
July 6, 2007 5:46am
What makes all of you iphone fans think that this phone is easily repairable. Once it has gone down you would have to buy a new one or pay a huge amount for servicing (becoz it doesn’t have a keypad).