Arisa gets special thanks from me for having a post about the iPhone, which in turn allows me to give my two cents about this product in the formal post for the week. Being an advocate of technology, it may be surprising to know that I would like to give the iPhone an extensive salute with my middle finger. Putting my hate for Macs aside, I have perfectly valid reasons to hate this monstrosity of a phone. After all, I sell myself as a reasonable consumer rather than a spiteful one in my previous posts.
In Arisa's post, she discusses than an iPhone is a necessity to her access to communication, making it a “need” rather than a “want”. The iPhone features a QWERTY touch screen keyboard, making quick and easy communication possible for her. For those who do not share the same needs as Arisa, the iPhone becomes something that they “want”. There is nothing wrong with buying things that you want and not need, but why anyone would want an iPhone is beyond me. One of the main selling points of the iPhone is its many features, so let's take a look at them. The iPhone offers Internet browsing and access to youtube on the go. The iPhone being a phone, which suggests outdoor use, expects people to be surfing the web or watching youtube clips while walking down the street? People usually have a destination or reason to go outside such as hanging out with friends or going to work. Checking E-mail or watching the streamed videos doesn't seem like one of those reasons.
The iPhone also plays video files, audio files, and can be used as a camera, which are features that I welcome with open yawns. Mp3 playing camera phones have been in the market for a long time. I also don't like the idea of squinting my eyes while holding the iPhone six inches away from my face just so I can watch episodes of Death Note on the bus. There are many arguments against what I've just written, but those probably all come from people who've already bought the iPhone and have convinced themselves that they haven't wasted hundreds of dollars on a smudge board.
The biggest qualm I have with the iPhone franchise is that it doesn't even give the consumer the pleasure of owning the latest piece of technology. If I had bought the iPhone one year ago for the sake of being technologically trendy, I would've just been slapped in the face last week with the new iPhone3G. Imagine that you've just spent $600 on the coolest toy that all the other kids have only to be told one year later that what you hold in your hands is now only worth its weight in plastic. I can't help but feel a twitch in my middle finger every time I see another iPhone3G advertisement. No. I refuse to even consider buying this over-sized paperweight. The iPhone has done nothing to perk my interests and has done everything it can to make me not want one, much less need one.
Finals week...
14 years ago
4 comments:
I like the verisimilitude of the iPhone G3 commercial you linked to: as if this little device dooms on to living a life of interior tunnels, headless humanoids, double key requirements, and secret chambers—it's like Mission Impossible without any action! I mean seriously, this phone stakes all of its cultural currency on the overcoming of its past model, which is as ridiculous as saying that your new bar of soap will be, well, newer than your old bar of soap. I have to say that I entirely agree with your facetious and yet absolutely serious post. Your writing is lively and engaging, Truman, and I look forward to reading your posts. (By the way, I responded to your comment to me in Bernie's post about 'happiness'—check it out!)
(On a related note, look at Danielle's post about the MacBook Air commercial; in my comment to her post, I talk in greater length about the superlative impulse.)
I would not give the iPhone G3 a finger since I am thinking about getting one. Well, just thinking... probably not going to get it. Even though you don't like those super-cool built-in technologies, I, along with my close friends love it. When I was driving to SF with 3 other friends to watch The Dark Knight, my friend was surfing on the web the entire time when I was driving. What's more interesting is that he charged his phone while in the Apple store.
Even though the iPhone has all these "extra/ useless" features, it actually comes in handy sometimes.
The one thing I don't like about the iPhone is that the unlimited data plan (or whatever plan AT&T calls it) is way overpriced. As a college student, I don't think I can afford an extra $30 bucks a month. Other than that, I have to admit that I am quite in love with it.
I recall going to the mall after my 8:00 pm class to buy a gift and seeing a huge line at the Apple store a week or so ago -- i did not realize that iPhones were so popular. I too don't understand the commotion about iPhones but hey, if people have the resource to attain it, and they are perfectly content with spending their money on something that will hopefully be satisfying or useful to them somehow, then it is their choice. Yes, they can totally get better deals but if to them, the iPhone IS the BEST thing, than, would it not be the BEST thing in their reality? This is a matter of perceptions.
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