1 post tagged “iphone”
Dylan beat me to it, but such are my thoughts.
The Mark III iPhod was released a couple days ago with an overwhelmingly negative initial reception, primarily because of it's lack of the one new feature everyone assumed, for good reason, was a for-sure thing - the iPhone 3GS camera.
It's a pity, too, because having been teetering on the verge of iPhone envy, after reading up on how good the camera quality was, I had actually become convinced to go and pick up an Apple product at launch. That gives me shudders! So I'm grateful, in a sense, for this small but potent reminder of why I'm just not a fan of the FailFruit's MO.
There have been a few theories posited about why the new iPhod doesn't include the one upgrade everyone expected and wanted (O.K., well, one of two - they at least put in the 3GS's chipset):
- The most aggravating one is that they didn't want it to hurt iPhone sales. This would be annoying (but very Apple) for a couple reasons. As nice as the camera would be, who would they really expect to buy the outlandishly priced and shoddy service contract just for it? Why force the consumer to buy something they don't want to get something they do? There's a term for that economic faux pas - help me out, Matt. It's an unfriendly business practice, and I'm tired of people accepting it as a justification. I don't really put much stock into this one, though.
- The stupidest one is the reason Steve Jobs himself gave - that they didn't feel the need to add new features like a camera, because it was more important to focus on gaming. Now, to his credit, I can't really believe he's that much of an idiot, as successful as he's been, so I find it much more likely that he's just full of shit for PR reasons (to cover up for the below reason). In addition, the notion that Apple didn't feel it was what the consumer wanted would imply that they have one of the worst market research departments in the world. And while Apple doesn't have a track record of catering to their consumers, come on - it's been plastered all over the internet.
- The reason that seems to make the most sense is that they weren't able to work it out, technologically speaking. There was far too much 'leaked' information and camera-hole cases pouring out for Apple to have not been planning it, not to mention an empty space in the device itself where the imager was supposed to have gone. I'm not sure how many people would have minded a couple extra milimeters on a device as thin as it is to give room for the 3GS's camera, but I'm sure Apple would be loathe to make something bigger. Still, I think this would be a case of better to delay an optimal product than ship out a lackluster attempt on time.
I'd still have even possibly considered the $200 Mark III if it were 16GB as was expected, and, you know...actually the new model instead of just leftover Mark IIs with the 3.1 firmware.
Aside from this whole debacle, though, Apple's demeanor in general just rubs me the wrong way. I remember 20 years ago, Apple products were made fun of for the crippled paperweights they were, but now they're what's cool, and I'm not sure where the paradigm shift happened. They're still very anti-consumer-freedom. They want you to use their products their way, and their way only. They don't have any interest in giving you what you want; they give you what they want you to want, which just happens to usually also be pretty cool. Such basic things that every other less-impressive device has - like any kind of flash expansion slot, a replaceable battery, common media format compatibilities, or basic file system access - they continue to neglect. They've gotten so popular, though, that they can afford to be assholes about it. People are going to keep buying their stuff, regardless, so they really don't have to put in a lot more effort. It's a terrible shame, because they do some things very well, and if they could just get the hell over themselves and make their products play nice with the rest of the world, they could create some really impressive gadgets, truly worthy of the hype they receive.
Tsk, tsk, Apple - you almost wooed the Fish.
