It’s going to be an interesting day - a day to avoid the internet perhaps. Even sat here in the UK, several hours ahead of the US east coast waking up the web is already awash with anticipation of the Apple iPad 2 launch. Fevered speculation abounds among both the Apple faithful, and the massed ranks of journalists.
It feels odd - looking in from the outside after having been on the inside - seeing the optimism and excitement surrounding the community of users who (if they already own an iPad) are about to own a hugely expensive, outdated, unfashionable gadget. See, that’s the thing with Apple products - most of their allure is based around the idea that all the hipsters have them, and as soon as a new version is released, that thingyou spent far too much money on, and that you’ve been coveting and admiring previously is suddenly yesterday’s news. Old. Obsolete… and commonly with Apple - soon to be unsupported.
It’s a dangerous game, buying into the Apple “ecosystem” of products. The reality distortion fieldemanatingfrom Cupertino is strong. Millions of people who found their iPhone 4 dropped calls discovered they were “holding it wrong”. Everybody saddled with a music collection in iTunes that won’t play on any other device are told “but it’s a standard format” (my arse).
I think The Oatmeal got it right in a recent cartoon.
I’ve owned two iPods, two Macbooks, an Apple TV, and two iPhones over the last few years. I used iTunes to manage our various music and movie files across multiple computers, and listened to podcasts such as MacBreak weekly on a regular basis. I was fairly well entrenched in the Apple brand. And then it all ended.
Both iPhones broke, and I realised I wasn’t using the Macbook any more, so sold it - along with the Apple TV. I gave the iPod to W and removed iTunes from the desktop PC, the laptop, and the netbooks. It’s probably worth noting that I am famously ambivalent about the computer hardware I use; as long as something “works”, I will use it without too much complaint. The advent of Windows 7, Ubuntu 10, and Android 2.2 have pretty much usurped Apple in my life - there are other things out there now that are good enough. You don’t always need a Mercedes to drive to the supermarket.
I’m getting sidetracked.
Perhaps the most interesting part of today will not be the iPad 2 - it will be Steve Jobs. In order to push a somewhat minor update to the iPad hardware and software into the limelight, Jobs will probably make an appearance. Therefore the world will see just how ill he really is, and tomorrows headlines will not be about the iPad at all. Clever or stupid? Only time will tell.