What follows was originally intended as a comment to an AP (Associated Press) story concerning why the iPhone is a success, despite it not being all that great, technologically. I felt it was important to re-post it here, because it is something that someone, somewhere, may one day find useful. If I can help, entertain, amuse, or ‘cure’ just one person of something, I believe that person’s life will become truly enriched, so it is a task worthy of effort, even a small one.
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The iPhone, like any other Apple product, is built upon successful use of hype. Step #1 – Flood the airwaves, television, radio, magazines, catalogs with a saturation of press talking about your product. Step #2 – Rinse, repeat. No one can touch this marketing technique, because it is impossibly perfect. Most of the time when I see an Apple product commercial, over 50% of any statements they say in that commercial are complete lies. They rely on saturation marketing to browbeat you into buying one, even if you know what they say is a lie. You can’t realistically avoid hearing about an iPhone, iPod, iPad, Mac, or anything else Apple makes and sells. It just won’t work. They’re in the news. Don’t watch the news, your friend’s got one. Don’t have any friends? No problem, they’ll slap a poster on the side of a bus, billboard, bumpersticker, whatever it takes to get their stuff on your mind a greater percentage of your daily life more than any competitor. Their strategy works, largely, because people are stupid. No offense, people, but you are. I see it constantly. Some reporter did a story on the latest Droid phone, and even though it did almost everything BETTER than her iPhone, which has essentially NO SIGNAL in her apartment, she still bashed the Droid phone for issues that either were not the phone’s fault, or poor battery life that was by her own admission consistent with her iPhone’s. People are stupid, and do not like to think for themselves. Abandoning the iProduct means having to do research, and people do not like research. It means thinking, and stupid people do not like to use their brains. Being smart means I realize no one who is an iFan will care what I’m saying here. I could point out 15 ways that an iProduct is substandard, old tech, crippled, under-powered, overly expensive junk, but you would never listen, because to you it is easier to buy what Steve Jobs tells you to buy. There is a very good reason you are called zombies. But, much like true zombies, you can’t or won’t hear it, and refuse to change. You are perfectly happy to shamble about, eating up anything Master Jobs points his skeletonized finger at, and moan in collective approval. So, the bottom line, the iPhone does well because society is full of stupid people, who make stupid decisions, and make greedy people rich. Even in a horrible economic situation, people flocked to stores when the iPad was released. Why? It does nothing that a tablet PC from over 5 years ago already did, except have an Apple logo on it. But, go on. Keep making Steve Jobs richer. Keep showing mega-corporations that they do not have to put out good products. Keep showing companies that they can lie through their teeth promoting a product, and you’ll still buy it, because you don’t need honesty, stuff that works well, or peace of mind. Keep making it harder for those of us who do like quality to find it, because so many companies are content to shaft us, just like Apple.
Even though I know a few people who are ‘iFans’, and they seem generally likeable people, I still stand behind what I said above. I know electronics, inside and out, and I can professionally and honestly say that there is NOTHING an Apple product does that a rival product can’t do at least as well, and usually for less money, except interface with Apple’s proprietary services (iTunes for example). People may argue that Macs don’t crash like a PC does. That’s true. The BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death [Fatal Error]) is black instead of blue, and other terms may be different, but EVERYTHING can crash. I’ve seen Apple products crash quite often, in fact. Steve Jobs has even admitted publicly that Flash can crash a Mac. I’ve seen iProducts fail, crash, break, crack, and not perform basic functions. I’ve seen PC’s do the same thing, but the laptop I am on right now writing this blog post uses Windows XP, and it has not crashed a single time so far. I’ve owned it since December. I have owned other PC’s that either haven’t crashed at all while I owned them, or had it happen rarely (as in once in all of 3 years of use). The point here, again, is that there is no electronic device, from microwave oven, to alarm clock, to advanced computer system, that can’t fail in some way, part of the time. Anyone who says otherwise, is lying to you.
If you must have an Apple product, go ahead, but do not tell me it ‘kills PC’ in terms of function, performance, or reliability. I may slap you with one of the MANY Apple products I’ve had to service over the years. You may like Apple, but it is not the most advanced device on the planet. Steve Jobs can make claims all he likes, but his claims are not currently true.
My point in all of this is choice. Apple doesn’t want you to know there are other devices out there. They don’t want you to know that Sandisk makes a Sansa media player that is just fine for a lot of people. They don’t want you knowing some of their competitors have a longer battery life, bigger screen, or don’t need you to use iTunes. They don’t want you looking at other computers, desktop or laptop, which might run software that a Mac doesn’t have access to. They certainly don’t want you knowing many computers are hundreds of dollars CHEAPER than a Mac, now that the economy has made our wallets and purses much tighter than they might otherwise be.
As an informed consumer, and a technophile, as well as someone who repairs these devices on a regular basis, I advocate people knowing what they buy before they pull out their hard-earned money and put it on the counter. Know what you are getting into, and do your own research. The people at the store will rarely tell you the products you’re looking at have negatives or problems. They want to move merchandise, and get paid. If you know what you need, and what to expect from use, you’ll understand what to buy, and how to take care of it. I know the limits of every device I own. My pocketpc doesn’t crash, because I know what it will not do. The same for my laptop, desktops, and anything else. Knowing what you own, and how to use these things, prevents 90% of the problems most people have.
Do what you like, and like what you do, but please do not let anyone tell you what to buy. You certainly wouldn’t stand there if you pull out your wallet and the sales clerk tells you there’s an undisplayed markup on the price and it now costs twice what it says it does. Shop around, and make sure you are getting the best for what you want/need. You’ll thank yourself later.