iPhones, iPads, and Macs! Oh, my!

[Tamara-B]

UNF was having an internship fair and I'd been looking forward to it for sometime. So I dressed professionally and walked in their with a shy, yet confident demeanor. I smiled, said hello, shook hands, and gave out my resume to various companies. When I came upon a certain company, the representative asked me what I liked doing. I told him I liked to write. He said if I were to blog about something right now what would it be. I shrugged and the first thing I thought of was the current obsession with Apple products. He asked, "what about it?"

I shrugged and said I didn't know, however I did know.  I had a million ideas in my head, but I just couldn't regurgitate them all at that moment. A while later, the topic arose again and I had a few responses, but clearly I needed to do better. So I set out to find the root of the obsession with Apple.

I browsed various websites - iphoneforums.net, answers.yahoo.com, and ask.com. It was the same story. People were expressing their desire for an iPhone.

iPhonehopeful wrote"I'd give anything to get my hands on the iPhone."

Why, though?


"One purchases an electronic, but also a symbol of status, " said UNF student, Miguel Mendoza. 

"What makes it a 'symbol of status?'" I asked

"Maybe the fact that all their commercials portray apple users as hipster twenty-somethings," he replied.

So I looked up commercials for the iPhone and all I saw was a hand shown operating the device. The device was the star of the show. I guess the "sex sells" notion doesn't apply to Apple? I tried really hard to find these "hipster twenty-something's" but had no such luck. However, I thought back to the iPod commercials where black animations of youth are displayed listening to the iPod, which stands out as white. I figure these were the hipsters.

So I looked up the term. According to urban dictionary, a hipster is described as "a subculture of men and women typically in their twenties and thirties that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of rock, creativity, and witty banter."

Google simply defined the term as "a person who follows the latest trends and fashions"

So that could be one root to the apple obsession:

Wait for me: the need to feel like you're caught up with the rest of the world and you're not left behind. She has an iPhone, he has an iPod, or they have Mac books so you want one, too.

Talking 'bout my generation: for the 80s and 90s babies, perhaps we want to make sure we fit in with our generation. At times when I reminisce on my childhood, I'd ask my friends if they remember Pokemon cards, boy bands, and VHS. They'll all nod enthusiastically.

These apple products are a part of our generation. Imagine, twenty years from now, cleaning out your attic and coming across your old iPod or MacBook.

"I remember when this cost an arm and a leg," you chuckle. 

For the baby boomers it's most likely the same reason middle aged women get Botox. The need to feel young and cool. They want to be in on what's considered hip

I asked another friend about Apple and he simply said, "because they're shiny and cool"

So, that's it?

The root of this obsession is the popularity, the aesthetics, and the status?

What do you think?

[peestandingup]

My advice would be to stop asking random people, esp the so called "hipsters" (who are a very small userbase), and try the products themselves. Then try other similar products from other companies, so you can form some kind of real opinion. And by "try", I mean actually use them all exclusively for an extended period of time. I personally do this, and I always end up coming back to Apple.

Its not rocket science. People like them because they make good products with an understanding of where technology in general is headed. Incredible attention to detail, quality control & customer service are just a few examples of this. There is no obsession or fad. If that were the case, consumers would gobble up every Apple-branded device or service there was. And trust me, I worked for the company, and there are a hell of a lot of flops in their history.

They were the first who made the personal computer actually usable, the first to make a music player/music ecosystem that wasn't garbage, and a mobile device/OS that completely changed the game, made the long time players in this area of tech shit their collective pants, & spawned the great mobile/app revolution that you see going on today. That's a hell of a big "fad".

[Tamara-B]

Lol, sir, I own a few of the products myself! Have for years, so I definitely understand the quality of the product. However, for some people, they are fascinated with the devices without really knowing anything about them. That's the part I was trying to find out.

[thekillingwax]

I think at one point iStuff was considered fashionable and hip. Now, people who don't even understand the technical merits go gaga over it simply for the fact that their products are the "best". People always want the "best". "Best" cars cost hundreds of thousands. "Best" houses cost millions. The price for an ipad or iphone is pretty small and no celebrity, no billionaire is going to have something better than you. I think that may be more of a mental matter though because absolutely no one cares that you have an iproduct now because they're so common.

At the same time, especially with the iphone and certainly with the ipad, people with some technical sense want them because functionally, they are the best. Android's app scene is still pretty awful- for every good app, there are 10000 that are beyond garbage- people may whine about itune's censorship and unfairness but it keeps the quality pretty high. I don't really use cell phones so I can't comment on how good the iphone is but I do know that it has a really great camera. I originally poo-poo'd the ipad but after winning one, I can see what the fuss is about- I still use my PC more but my wife is practically grafted to it and my gen 1 was so well made that I honestly haven't found a reason to upgrade yet.

[Ocklawaha]

Okay Tamara, I'm the resident baby-boomer and one of the owner-publishers of MetroJacksonville and my household is back on Mac. My first computer back about 1982 was from Apple. The choices then were pretty sad, Atari, Apple, and an offering from IBM and a few others. As the internet came along, I went with the I-Mac, then upgraded that. Finally living in South America, where Apple fetches astronomical prices, I went with a locally imported windows system. When I returned to Miami a few years ago, I swapped out the desktop for a couple of windows notebooks. We installed a high speed modem at the house and the instruction book (Bell South) had over 50 pages of 'stuff' to do to get the things working. On the very last page 11 simple steps got it working with a Mac. NO KIDDING! The laptops rest in a closet, and the Mac's, Mac Book Pro, Air, and Book's are back in the house. I've yet to have a Mac pop up with a stupid unwanted virus hidden as an 'anti-virus scan,' or another number of other weird things I saw on the laptops.

You need to know that my generation was/is completely ANTI-STYLE. That extends to clothing, hair and computers.

OCKLAWAHA

[Tamara-B]

I appreciate the comments and am learning quite a bit, however do understand that I am not trying to be insulting. I used phrases such as "perhaps" and "could be" because I'm no psychology or techno expert. I'm not making accusations and I hope everyone can see that I used a bit of humor in my post. Many Apple users like their products "just because" without knowing much about them.  I've been guilty of that in the past, so Im not pointing fingers

[deathstar]

I myself own quite a number of Apple related products, and I'll explain why.

In the early 2000's, my Grandmother purchased for me a Sony Walkman mp3 player that came with disks you had to load inside the player, hook up to your computer, and would only hold a very limited number of songs. It was to the point where I had to carry 4-5 disks on my person to enjoy just the tip of the iceberg of my music collection. I was apart of the Napster, Scour Exchange, etc.. phase, however 99% of all my music came from CD's. CD Players were going out of style, as it wasn't very functional for every day use.

Then along came the iPod, and everything changed.

I didn't want to purchase one because I thought, "gee, I'll look good listening to music," I bought an iPod Nano 2gb because of how much music it could hold and how little it was. When I decided that I wanted to listen to more music on the go, I purchased a 30gb Black iPod (5th generation) and have yet to this day to even fill it up. I still use it, however the battery life of a 7 year old iPod isn't very great.

Then along came the iPod Touch, and this is when I will admit that I was ooo'ed by a product. It was with this device that I became familiar with the iOS and felt comfortable with it. My phone of choice for a short period of time was a Blackberry, but the headaches those phones caused me are too many to ever list. The trackball is the most annoying "thing" a company has ever put on a phone. With my iPhone, I text, I listen to music, I browse the web, I use Instagram, Hipster (a photo postcard app), I take photos almost daily, I use twitter, I use MLB At Bat 2012 for all the latest baseball scores, stats, news, etc.. I use it for literally everything.

I took THIS photo with my iPhone 4: http://themichaelmurray.deviantart.com/art/River-of-Fire-282035761. On a bike ride, carrying my Nikon D40 would've been damn near impossible for 3 hours.

I hope this explains a little more why there is such an obession with Apple products. It's not because it's the "hip" thing to do, you're absolutely asking the wrong people. And in no way am I taking this as a "oh you better not talk bad about apple" sort of statement, I'm only providing another insight as to why I as an individual who is not a hipster dig Apple.

[urbanlibertarian]

I think different people buy a product for different reasons and Apple products are both very useful and very stylish.  I personally don't own any Apple products because I tend to do technology on the cheap and be extravagant in other areas.  But they do make very cool stuff.

[Nightman_Cometh]

You think maybe Apple just makes good products?  My macbook is 4 years old now and Ive never once had any instance of a virus, spyware, malware, etc. I have no significant slow down in performance and I store everything on an external hard drive, so I still have 150 gbs of hard drive space.    4 years of heavy usage (downloads of music and movies, heavy video and photo editing, even a little music recording).  And it still runs like its brand new.  With a 4 year old windows computer I would have had to dump everything at least once, if not twice by now just due to lack of performance.  I also still have a 10 year old emac, that I dont ever use but works no problem and just recently sold a 11 year old ibook I had for $400 dollars.  Try and sell a 11 year old dell laptop for $400.

[Tamara-B]

My advice would be to stop asking random people, esp the so called "hipsters" (who are a very small userbase), and try the products themselves. Then try other similar products from other companies, so you can form some kind of real opinion. And by "try", I mean actually use them all exclusively for an extended period of time. I personally do this, and I always end up coming back to Apple.

Its not rocket science. People like them because they make good products with an understanding of where technology in general is headed. Incredible attention to detail, quality control & customer service are just a few examples of this. There is no obsession or fad. If that were the case, consumers would gobble up every Apple-branded device or service there was. And trust me, I worked for the company, and there are a hell of a lot of flops in their history.

They were the first who made the personal computer actually usable, the first to make a music player/music ecosystem that wasn't garbage, and a mobile device/OS that completely changed the game, made the long time players in this area of tech shit their collective pants, & spawned the great mobile/app revolution that you see going on today. That's a hell of a big "fad".

Stop asking random people? Um..isn't asking random people a large part of the point of forums? You're a random person who responded to my post, so I guess I'm getting the job done.

Simmer down, clown.

[spuwho]

The last Apple I actually drove for any length of time was named after one of Steve Jobs ex-girlfriends.

It lasted on the market about as long as Steve dated that girl is what I am thinking.

Apple has their place like all the others in consumer electronics. Some things are done well, some things, not so well.  Some see it as some sort of religion, others see it as an effective tool, many more see it as a icon or status symbol.

The "i" ecosystem they have developed is well thought out and superbly marketed. They have used their presence in media to their advantage and reached out to meet many of peoples' needs.

But like all items in this field, they establish new markets and extend boundaries, then finally run their course. At the moment, they are simply extending the ecosystem further out.

There is some belief that iPhone5 and iOS 6 will be the peak of the trend and then new markets will need to be broken or exposed to keep the ball rolling into the next trend. Speculation is rampant on the iTunes driven television (or "Apple TV", not the internet tuner box).

Only time will tell.

[coredumped]

My problem with apple is they are no longer innovating but rather suing everyone and everything. They need to get back to their prior days when they would do something new. Even the upcoming iOS6 offers nothing groundbreaking. They've really stagnated in the past few years, and it shows. Android is now the dominant smart phone in the market.
But that's just me. The fact is the apple "hipsters" will stand in line for anything apple makes. I don't have a problem with it. Apple just needs to focus back on innovation.

[peestandingup]

My advice would be to stop asking random people, esp the so called "hipsters" (who are a very small userbase), and try the products themselves. Then try other similar products from other companies, so you can form some kind of real opinion. And by "try", I mean actually use them all exclusively for an extended period of time. I personally do this, and I always end up coming back to Apple.

Its not rocket science. People like them because they make good products with an understanding of where technology in general is headed. Incredible attention to detail, quality control & customer service are just a few examples of this. There is no obsession or fad. If that were the case, consumers would gobble up every Apple-branded device or service there was. And trust me, I worked for the company, and there are a hell of a lot of flops in their history.

They were the first who made the personal computer actually usable, the first to make a music player/music ecosystem that wasn't garbage, and a mobile device/OS that completely changed the game, made the long time players in this area of tech shit their collective pants, & spawned the great mobile/app revolution that you see going on today. That's a hell of a big "fad".

Stop asking random people? Um..isn't asking random people a large part of the point of forums? You're a random person who responded to my post, so I guess I'm getting the job done.

Simmer down, clown.

Thank you for that. No, seriously! You're doing me a favor by letting me know (and probably others) not to waste anymore time. So as much as I'd hate to miss out on the threads talking about whether or not pregnant women belong in the club, if older dudes should be dating younger women, and the other gripping topics that rock your world enough that you feel only a city-based forum can hold the answers, I'll be leaving it up to others to fill that void.

[KenFSU]

Loving the Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.1 right now. I switched back over to Android after using the 4S since it launched. Overall, I'm a huge fan of how infinitely customizable Android is, the notification system (the lifeblood of my phone's utility) blows Apple out of the water (especially on 4.1), 4G speeds are insane (I downloaded a 70 meg PDF if four seconds today), and I don't think I could go back to such a small screen. The camera, battery life, keyboard, and music playback still can't compare to the iPhone though.

On the article, saying the iPhone is for hipsters is like saying Facebook is for hipsters.

My Grandma has an iPhone.

Soccer Moms have iPhones.

Businessmen use iPhones.

Just because some neckbearded geek is prancing around town Instagraming his breakfast, that doesn't mean he's the target audience or the part of a small cool club driving sales of the most ubiquitous consumer electronics device since the PC.

And if you dig a little deeper, you'll discover that nearly every iphone commercial for the last year has featured actual people, from Samuel L Jackson, to Zooey Deschanel, to John Malkovich, to Santa Claus, to Jogging Siri Businessman , to little kids, to Rock God teen.

[Tamara-B]

My advice would be to stop asking random people, esp the so called "hipsters" (who are a very small userbase), and try the products themselves. Then try other similar products from other companies, so you can form some kind of real opinion. And by "try", I mean actually use them all exclusively for an extended period of time. I personally do this, and I always end up coming back to Apple.

Its not rocket science. People like them because they make good products with an understanding of where technology in general is headed. Incredible attention to detail, quality control & customer service are just a few examples of this. There is no obsession or fad. If that were the case, consumers would gobble up every Apple-branded device or service there was. And trust me, I worked for the company, and there are a hell of a lot of flops in their history.

They were the first who made the personal computer actually usable, the first to make a music player/music ecosystem that wasn't garbage, and a mobile device/OS that completely changed the game, made the long time players in this area of tech shit their collective pants, & spawned the great mobile/app revolution that you see going on today. That's a hell of a big "fad".

Stop asking random people? Um..isn't asking random people a large part of the point of forums? You're a random person who responded to my post, so I guess I'm getting the job done.

Simmer down, clown.

Thank you for that. No, seriously! You're doing me a favor by letting me know (and probably others) not to waste anymore time. So as much as I'd hate to miss out on the threads talking about whether or not pregnant women belong in the club, if older dudes should be dating younger women, and the other gripping topics that rock your world enough that you feel only a city-based forum can hold the answers, I'll be leaving it up to others to fill that void.

You, sir, take yourself way more seriously than you need to. You seem like someone who is easily angered and doesn't take too well to different points of views. I'm sure if a small child said the sky was purple, you'd throw a fit about that as well. Is this how you make yourself  feel like a man? I mean, really? "PeeStandingup?"

Jacksonville is not mars and I post topics that have to do with things that happen in this city just as any other place. If I feel disgusted about a 68-year-old woman being bullied by teenage boys and feel like  posting about it to learn others' points of views, I can do that. Oh,  but I'm sure you chose to ignore that post in your quest to say I'm choosing "gripping topics that rock my world" when you went through what I'm posting. If I post about whether children should be vaccinated because the health of every precious child on earth matters to me, sorry it's not up to your standards. (Though you are a parent yourself, right?) If I want to post about the tuition increase at UNF, the university I attend, so I could get others' input on that, I will. If I want to post about bullying in schools by not only kids, but teachers too, sorry you don't approve. What's a little thing called bullying anyway that has driven many young people to suicide?

Topics that "rock my world?" No, sir! Don't waste your time at all, because I won't loose a wink of sleep over what you decide to do with your time.

God bless!