It is time for the hammer of prudence to shatter the rumoured 2048x1536 iPad 3 retina display and untangle the world from Apple's illusionary web of desire.
Apple is no longer the rebellious athlete and resembles more of the looming Big Brother in the iconic 1984 Macintosh Super Bowl ad. Apple, quite like many other companies, wants to control our lives and has been successful because we willingly exchanged our dreams for those cold aluminium-clad devices.
True to the philosophy espoused by its co-founder, the company conjures a desire not based on what we want but on what it wants us to want. The scary part is that we end up dreaming the dreams that Apple has woven for us never realising that those are implanted aspirations.
Advancing in measured steps from the periphery of desktop computing, Apple has become the closest to what we have in the centre of the mobile communication and computing universe. This is not an illusion but a market position that needs retention through the force of manufactured fantasies.
The trick to retain this pivotal position is the old carrot-and-carrot policy. Much of the existing desires meet fruition, while new ones are injected so that the cycle of desire can continue unendingly and the cash pile at One Infinite Loop, Palo Alto grows, infinitely.
With a shroud of apparent secrecy around its future plans, Apple does not give the appearance at its well rehearsed events of promising something new the next time. It tactfully leaves some of the existing desires unfulfilled with some of the unsaid promise being met in the next version, which in all likelihood will appear on the giant screen behind the incumbent CEO at a company event the next year.
This machination involves a heady mix of stealth and anticipation and the effects are addictive.
Apple usually isn't the first to make a product, but is often the first to make the product successful. It's not that everything that the engineers at Apple drew inspiration from was "shit", as Steve Jobs described much of what he saw around him. The reason the company was able to strike gold where others rummaged around in the dirt is its ability to capture what matters the most, our imagination. There is now an avaritia for Apple.
This reality distortion field needs to be dashed. Neither technology, nor the consumer has ever gained much from too much obsession over one single company and the products it builds. Nor should we, as consumers, let others do the thinking for us, especially when the other is a company trying to sell us expensive stuff and the sales pitch recurs every year. And the very company in the very next year will make us feel like we own a brick and therefore need the upgrade.
We Indians will queue up for everything, from prasad at the neighbourhood temple to a visa to the US, what we don't line for is the iPhone or the iPad. These are little moments when I feel proud of my countrymen. Whatever may be the reason, the obscene prices or delayed launches, for Apple India is a reluctant market and I hope it stays this way till the time they allow us to change and choose our own batteries.
With Apple products, particularly the iPhone and now the iPad, Apple enthusiasts behave like parents to be, anxiously waiting and celebrating at every indication oblivious that the baby doesn't carry their genes. It is time that our baby is actually our own or at least that we are aware of our foster status. Jesus phone it might be, but iPhone owners couldn't even record something as simple as a video with the first two models.
Also there are other co-opted minds who will try to prevent you from steering away from anything but total dedication. Something like the Orwellian Thought Police (also present in the 1984 Apple ad). You may also find them in action in the comments area on this page.
Apple may make good products but the mind space it occupies is grossly disproportionate. There is a dire need of a correction here. Step one is to stop leasing our minds. The rest will follow course.
Everyone said Siri is so cool, I too thought so. The videos make it look like great fun. But when it couldn't comprehend 90 per cent of what I said, I gave up frustrated. I will not buy an iPhone 4S just because of Siri but there are those who will, perhaps even aware of the fact that Siri doesn't quite prefer Indian accents (and that in India Siri is only a he without any she option).
This zombie like existence needs awakening from. So when the iPhone 5 or the iPad 3 comes along, we should see if it is what we want and (as I pointed out previously) not what Apple wants us to want. A little change in perspective and the perception will change, a lot. We will feel liberated.
Enough of worshipping false gods. There's no divinity in technology anyway. Don't let the pristine whiteness numb our senses, the unshackling is going to take a little effort.
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