Originally posted on 21Apr10 to IBM Developerworks and got 8,859 Views
I am sitting here in Singapore and reading today’s Straits Times, keeping up with the affairs in the region and around the world where on page 3 (the most important page in a newspaper after the front page) is an article about the leaked/lost next generation iPhone that Gizmodo reportedly paid US$5000 dollars for (other online reports that I’ve read have suggested other amounts such as US$350. I’m not sure who is right). The article occupied almost half of page 3.. for the next gen iPhone… that seems excessive to me for a non-specialist publication, but I guess it is reflective of the general hype that exists around Apple products. The previous hype was around the next gen MacBooks with faster processors and prior to that the iPad. I’ve read articles suggesting that the iPad will revolutionise newspapers and home computing and telcos. I’m not so sure. While I think a lot of iPad will be sold worldwide (once it is released outside of the USA), but I also think a lot of those devices will get a lot of use through a honeymoon period and then sit idle until they are eventually disposed of. I am so sick of the hype around all these Apple products. There are some things that Apple do really well (UI and Design) and some they do really poorly (Business use support, locking in users). I respect them, but I do not like them. It reminds me of a great parody that The Onion did a while ago:
Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard
