Thursday, January 21, 2010

Apple Anticipation

Ever since a fateful decision in the Fall of 1993, I have been a Mac guy. My first mac was an LCIII, affectionately known as "The pizzabox" it was ugly by today's standards but light years ahead of the 486 PC's that were it's competition. That was during the dark years for Apple but once I took the risk and made the jump I have never thought about going back. Mac people are zealots. And yes, it is a cult. During the dark years I was persecuted for my faith in Apple but I held strong. Now Apple, Inc. is successful, popular, and the most influential of electronics companies. Many of friends who mocked me are now happy mac owners themselves. I don't want to say "I told you so" but . . .

Anyway, Apple does things differently. For the past few years rumors have been swirling about a new portable computer, similar to the iPhone/iPod Touch but bigger. Dubbed the "iTablet" these rumors are so seriously discussed that even magazines like The Wall Street Journal write about them often and one magazine offered a $100,000 award for someone to leak the rumored device's specs. Apple products rumors are so sought after that there is virtual micro-industry dedicated at trying to ferret out Apple's secrets before they are announced officially. A few days ago, Apple sent out the following invitation to select media:





The event will be on Jan 27th at 10am Pacific Time. Certainly they will be introducing something new but what will it be? New iPhones? Touchscreen iMacs? New software? Or the mysterious tablet computer? This kind of coyness from Apple drives us Apple fans crazy with anticipation. These events happen once or twice a year. The actual events are usually cut off to the public but some websites such as Engadget liveblog from the events. I often schedule my day around these liveblogs and one time a year ago I almost didn't make it to my classes!


How can a company get such loyal (and some would say cult-like) devotion? I think it is their attention to detail, their focus on making great products, and a superstar CEO in Steve Jobs. All I know is that I am emotionally attached to the products I have from them and consider them to be works of art. Anyway, the countdown to Jan 27 is on!

8 comments:

Moxymama said...

I myself am a PC user and Blackberry user, who is mocked to no end by my "zealot" brother who all but worships Apple and its products. Just from what I hear form others I think they do all the little things right. They put out superior product after superior product, they have better customer service than any other company and it's things like that that make customers loyal. I would love an iphone, but I'm just too cheap to splurge on it....now my next computer will definitley be a mac :)

Jay Boaz said...

I love my Mac, but Apples really does like to gouge their customers by making them pay for every little thing. When the one I have now dies I don't know if I'll be able to afford to replace it. I also wish I had high speed internet, as a lot of the Mac's features require a highspeed internet connection to work.

Macs are great machines though, don't get me wrong.

Anonymous said...

Yeah we wanted an iPhone, but we can't get coverage out here for them. Kinda sucks...
Eric

Terry L said...

Alot of Apple issues are ignored by their cult followers. I've never been converted, but did consider an iphone for my last cell phone. Didn't get it because of lack of 3g coverage at my house, and the fact that the plan (not unlimited data like my BB) was $30 a month more.

Something that didn't get alot of coverage was the fact that AT&T had to stop selling iPhones before Christmas because they could not keep up with the bandwidth requirements of the data hungry phones. More of a network issue I suppose than a phone issue. However, it is a problem that will be unique to iPhones and Androids, as they make no attempts to compress data, whereas that is a primary focus of RIM devices (and their advantage).

In any case, I was quite surprised to see their performance on the market dip as much as it did yesterday (down $10.48 or 5%!) especially in the anticipation of the event on Jan 27...

Terry L said...

BTW the sales stoppage at AT&T was in New York State, not nationwide.

RLE said...

FYI - the Mac I am currently typing on is now referred to as "Mommy's computer" not Daddy's, so I guess the one mocker of your cult-like Apple following is still not a Mac owner himself. :)
Oh, and I am very curious about the announcement myself, looking forward to the next evolution.

Mark said...

RLE: Mike will eventually come around, it is only a matter of time!

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