Source: CNN News
For many, Apple can do no wrong when it comes to putting gout new products and Xavier Yaffar says he will buy whatever the company comes out with, sight unseen.
“I don’t even have to look at it,” the 48-year-old said.
Apple Inc., the Cupertino, California, company that’s the darling of the gadget world right now, is widely expected to release a touch-screen “slate” computer on Wednesday at an invite-only event in San Francisco, California, according to blogs and news reports. Rumors say the device will have about a 10-inch screen and will look kind of like an enormous iPhone, but Apple hasn’t commented on the subject.
While cautious consumers might want details about the new device — like whether it exists — before stashing away money and planning to buy one, Yaffar and some other Apple fanatics say they trust the fashionable and notoriously forward-thinking maker of the iPhone and iPod so much that they’ll buy whatever the company puts out, even if they’re not sure why they need it.
“I bought the iPod when it was announced. I didn’t know what it was going to do when I bought it,” he said, adding that Apple knows before he does what he needs in technology. He ended up loving that portable music player. Now he has more than one.
Rumors of the Apple slate — also called a tablet — started years ago and have advanced to full-drool mode in the tech blogosphere in recent months.
For people like Yaffar, the rumor mill has been a blast. He said he spends about 4 to 6 hours per day reading online news about Apple. He hangs on all the details.
But the buzz generated by the notoriously tight-lipped company’s events inspires an equal amount of gusto in people who dislike Apple — or who say the company is downright evil.
A Facebook group called “I hate Apple,” for example, has more than 4,300 members.
“I HATE THE PRETENTIOUS WAY ALL APPLE-FREAKS WORSHIP THEIR PRODUCTS, and that you in no way, what … so… ever.. can have a reasonal (sic) discussion about their products without them talking about how pretty their iPhone is,” one member of the Facebook group wrote on the page.
Others offer criticism about the company’s finances.
“I think that Apple the company is massively over-hyped,” said Per Lindberg, a tech analyst at MF Global. Apple deserves its status as a cool, hip company, Lindberg said, but that doesn’t mean it will be financially successful, especially because its products are too expensive. “I don’t think the tablet will make a big difference in Apple’s financial numbers,” he said.
Tech Happy?
If Apple is viewed as overly hype, what about so-called happy tech products that are supposed to make our lives more “convenient, like having the ability to do a movie download legally on our laptops? Are you as likely to pay for an Apple “whatever” sight unseen as you would any type of fee for being able to download science fiction movies online whenever the mood strikes you?
Some say Apple’s cache as a brand has gone too far and there are many versions of graphicc tee designs out there making fun of the Apple logo to prove it. And of course, depending on your opinion of the brand, whether you’re a Mac or a PC, a traveler or an arm-chair quarter back, these are considered either the hippest cool T shirts to get your hands on, or high-tech blasphemy.
Apple did not respond to a CNN request for comment on this story.
The history of hyper-allegiant Apple fanboydom started long before the current slate computer fray.
Dave Greenbaum, a computer repairman in Lawrence, Kansas, said he started falling in love with Apple because of a 1984 television ad that compared rival PC users to drones, reminiscent of characters from George Orwell’s novel “1984.”
Before Apple, “there was this corporate mindset of ‘We’re all going to have boring computers with the black background and the green lettering,’ ” he said. “And Apple said, ‘We’re going to do things different … and make computers accessible to everyone.’ ”
There is a social aspect to being an Apple fan that also appeals to Greenbaum, who writes for a site called TheAppleBlog in addition to his day job. He sees Apple as an underdog and a purveyor of counterculture.
The company had about 8 percent of the U.S. personal-computer market share in 2009, according to a report from IDC, a subsidiary of the International Data Group, or IDG.
Greenbaum met his husband at an Apple fan group in the mid-90s. When they started dating, the couple hung out in Mac computer labs together as a form of courtship.
“Most other couples would go to movies. We mark a key point of our relationship when we both decided to go to Macworld [a conference in California] together in 1995,” he said.
The couple now travels to Apple stores across the country, taking photos in front of each one as if the computer stores were national monuments. They always check out new Apple products, although sometimes they wait for a second model to come out before they buy. When the iPhone 3GS debuted, they waited in line at a nearby Apple store from 1 a.m. to 10 a.m. to buy the phone.
“It’s a part of your identity,” he said. “People are going to recognize you more by the computer you use and the phone you carry than by the car you drive.:
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My take: Personally, I’m a PC. I find Apple’s products too flashy and too busy for my simple techie brain to take on. I know they are convenient and, if you travel, the IPod has to be a lifesaver. But frankly, I don’t like taking any technology with me on the road unless it’s absolutely vital. I don’t like being weighted down. I don’t want to have to worry about overhead bin storage shortages, and I also don’t like the prospect of having to get caught up in one of the airports metal detection devices.
The new TSA rules make it tough enough to pass through a metal detector without having to be beeped to the search room. These days, a laptop, whether it’s an Apple or a PC, can cost you precious minutes off your life if you have to wait for them to be opened and inspected by airport security. I say leave them at home and use your phone for all your online needs.
Did you know that just like used laptops or PCs, you can buy used pre-owned copiers and save a bundle? That’s right. All kinds of name-brand used copiers are available for sale at steep discounts, which makes it possible to set aside extra funds for the latest Apple gadget, whatever that is.
Other Resources:
Data Delivery:
If you travel and don’t want to carry your laptop with you, you can download all your data via cd copy. Lots of companies out there will also handle it for you, putting your data and images in high-tech, Amaray blu ray cases for easy storage.
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