iPhone Massteria

Do want 4GB or 8GB? -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
I'm a fan of Apple products, so many of my friends wondered why I wasn't in line at the Apple Store on Friday to buy the first iPhone. Well, there are a couple of reasons. I have a fairly new RAZR phone and I have a very reasonable pay-as-you-go T-Mobile plan that probably averages all of $120/year. Am not Mr. McGab on the telephone, so don't need generous hours. I mostly use the phone for things like making appointments or maybe calling metro Action Line if trash needs to be picked up. The least expensive AT&T plan is $60/month for 2 years -- seems like indentured servitude for the privilege of owning a new toy. Don't get me wrong -- the iPhone is an intriguing bauble. When the price drops or I can get an 'unlocked' version, I'll be more intrigued.

That being said, many Americans were not so stand-offish. In fact a reported 595,000 iPhones were sold over the weekend -- most Apple stores in California were sold out. In scenes reminiscent of the Windows '95 release, lines wrapped around city blocks as people waited to get their phones. One woman here in Dallas paid a young man $800 for his first place in line; she intended to by 100 iPhones for resale on eBay. Much to her dismay, the AT&T store informed her there was a one unit/customer limit. The young man she paid $800 was able to buy the iPhone and all its accessories with money to spare. Such exuberance -- one has to figure that the factory in Singapore can crank out as many of these as needed in a reasonable period of time.

I call these kinds of product intros "Second Coming" intros, because of the incredible hype that gets generated. The one that still reverberates is the Windows NT hype of 1993. I truly expected NT to awaken Lazarus from the dead and turn water into wine. Windows 95 gave us a spiffy 'Start' button along with replays of a Rolling Stone tune, but hardly seems worth all the pomp in retrospect. We've actually had some real revolutions that tip-toed into the room. iPod slipped in under the radar in October 2001, greatly overshadowed by the 9/11 news. The USB interface which revolutionized all our plug-ins never even had a proper welcoming party. Mac OS X was hyped thru the roof by Mac Heads but ignored by the great unwashed Windows masses. In retrospect, that one has almost lived up to its highly hyped 'aqua' interface and 'cocoa' underpinnings. There's no greater compliment than the fact the Microsoft lifted OS X's best ideas for Windows Vista.

I guess we humans would be bored without 'the next Great Thing' on the horizon. Sometimes it really is great, and we need not be ironic about it. I did go to the Apple Store on Saturday, and let a pubescent 22 year old wunderkind employee explain all its functions. I was duly impressed. Just have to hope that maybe the next non-phone iPod will incorporate these awesome features, or some Taiwanese reseller will give me an unlocked iPhone for an extra $100. Guess I still have that Apple flavored Kool Aid in my mouth. :-)

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