Buying an iPhone is Probably Inevitable
When I was kid, owning an Apple product was cool. The Apple IIe was the computer to own because it was not a Windows based system. Microsoft was the big, bad establishment and Apple was the cool, anti-establishment product.
Then Apple started to become a big hit with their iPods and I still have two of the iPod Classics that I use daily, but they really hit their stride with iPhones. They were like nothing anyone had ever seen and iSheeple from all over the world stood in ridiculous lines to purchase one.
It was at this point that I started to dislike them. It seemed to me Apple was becoming almost a religion, with Steve Jobs leading the flock. No matter how tough Apple made it to customize, the fact that they monetize everything, and they charge so much for their products, people still just lined up to give them money. It was so reminiscent of religious tent revivals that I just could not stand it. Here the iSheeple were born. These people flock to everything Apple. They have Macbooks, iPods, iPhones, Apple TVs, and iPads. Even at work, the iSheeple effect took off and suddenly, the iPhone became the approved company phone and people were showing up to meetings with iPads. My boss even converted to all Apple products despite the fact he still needed his Lenovo laptop to be able to drive the big spreadsheets he used to do his daily work.
Everyone has bought in. App developers create apps for Apple before Android or Windows even though there are WAY more people who have Android phones than iPhones. As of this writing, iPhones only represent 13% of the mobile phone market and Android is almost 85%, and yet Apple still gets all of the attention. The news cycle takes off whenever there is a whisper from Apple. It is totally insane.
Now Apple has released the watch and despite the fact the watch really does not offer anything really different from some of the other smartwatches (ie Pebble or Samsung), or despite the fact there are less people wearing watches than ever before, I imagine this too will take off because the iSheeple will not want to be the only one out there without one.
Which brings me to my theory that eventually I will have to cave and purchase one. Everything is going to become so integrated and since the iSheeple seem to run the world and since Apple does not play nice with any other brands, we are not going to be able to purchase a phone or any other smart device that will be able to work in an Apple environment.
Don’t get me wrong, I admire Apple from a business perspective and my family even has some of their products. Years ago they targeted students and gave them great deals on laptops and it got to the point almost every student was using Apple instead of Windows. As they have grown up, it is what they are familiar with and have grown to embrace. It was a brilliant, long term strategy that has paid off in spades.
I just hope I don’t have to become an iSheeple any time too soon.