I’ve never really understood the mentality of people who camp outside shops for the sales or for concert tickets – although the limited supply is an understandable justification. Frankly, I’d prefer to go without, but that’s just me. But camping out just to be the first to own the latest gadget? That’s taking sad to a whole new level.
Dozens of people have been queuing outside Apple‘s flagship store on Regent Street since Thursday afternoon, ahead of the official launch of the iPad at 8am today.
The iPad will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis, and Currys and PC World are also stocking the touch-screen, tablet-style computer.
Next week they will be on the shelves and you can walk in without queuing, so these people are merely queuing to be the first – why? Who are they hoping to impress? It may well be a nice shiny gadget, but camping out to be the first to own one?
I won’t be queueing, nor will I be buying one at a later date. Quite apart from having no need for this device, I will never buy a computer product where the developer exercises such tight control over third party applications. Love ’em or hate ’em at least Microsoft’s operating system will run applications developed by independent developers without MS being involved or “approving” them. And I can, should I wish, view a Flash website on my MS based PC. Okay, Flash is a pain in the arse and I have a plug-in that disables it by default, but that’s not the point – I have made this choice, not the PC’s maunfacturer or the operating system’s developer.
Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, unveiled the iPad at a press conference in San Francisco in January. He said the device was “magical”, and bridged the gap between mobile phones and laptop computers.
Presumably said without a hint of irony… Magic is what you find on Discworld.
Steve Jobs said the device was magical?
He’s a bit mad, isn’t he; it is just basically a large iPod touch.
Queueing to get one? His customers are even madder: led by the nose basically.
Good luck to them. Idiots.
LR,
I am, as you know, slightly biased since I love Apple products. Am I a brain-washed idiot?—I like to think not. And, as such, I have rational reasons for liking Apple products, including the fact that they “just work”. One of the reasons that they “just work” is because of the control that Apple keeps over the platform.
Of course, objecting to that control is your choice but it still smacks slightly of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
It has to be pointed out that Apple keeps tight control only of Apps sold with the App Store (just as any shop you visit keeps tight control over the stock on its shelves). Apple maintains no control over web-based apps (which can have icons on the phone, the same as native apps): yes, you need to be connected to the ‘net to use those*, but with 3G you almost always are anyway.
As for Flash, well, if you don’t want to install a piece of software that is the single most common causes of Mac system crashes, then you don’t have to. Unless, of course, you want to use a website in which the website’s creator, not you, has made the choice by using Flash.
There really is very little that Flash can do that HTML5/CSS3 cannot. And, unlike Flash, these technologies are open and Accessible, i.e. they do not deny services to disabled people.
I hope that Flash dies, and very soon: it is, and always has been, a blight on the face of the internet. I’d support Apple’s decision just on that basis alone.
I haven’t used an iPad, but the reviews from people who have used it (many of whom wanted to hate it) imply that there might, in fact, be something “magical” about it. I’m not saying that Jobs doesn’t indulge in hyperbole (but, then, he’d hardly be the first marketeer to do so) but something so simple that garners such ace reviews (and massive sales) must be something special.
Having said all of this, I am happy that people won’t buy Apple products—I don’t want to be encumbered with all of the virus and malware problems that PC users have.
So, I implore you, stick with Bill Gates and Stevie Ballmer—they’ll look after you reeeeeaaal good…
DK
* Well, not even then actually, since HTML5 allows offline storage and saving. And the iPhone and iPad have the single best browser installed on them.
.-= My last blog ..Social Security Assurance =-.
DK – I haven’t suggested that anyone is a brainwashed idiot. However, there is something extremely foolish (and sad) about queuing overnight for a product that is hardly going to be in limited supply. I simply cannot understand such fervour over what is after all just a gadget.
As for Flash – I tend to share your view. However, if a website I wish to view uses it, I don’t want to be hampered by the control freakery of the machine’s manufacturer. It is for me – the consumer – to make that choice, not Steve Jobs. And if that affects the machine’s performance, that is my choice.
The reason I won’t buy an iPad is to do with utility; it doesn’t multitask, it won’t display all websites (Flash) properly and it doesn’t have a built in keyboard. In fact, there is very little that it will do for me that my laptop won’t do. Consequently, I have no need for such a device, just as I have no need for an iPod; I bought an MP3 player once and never found a use for it; and have no desire to own an iPhone – my current one makes phone calls perfectly well.
I don’t have a problem with viruses on either laptop or desktop and nor have I had any of the plethora of reported problems with the operating system. Indeed, all of the PCs I have owned, “just worked”. The current one does what I ask of it efficiently. That’s all I ask. If Apple decide to make a machine that fits my needs, I’ll consider it. Until then, they don’t, so I won’t. As PJH points out:
Indeed 😉
The ‘media’ event of queuing up for the release of a new product is a pretty new phenomena isn’t it?
I can see why some might have a reason to want to be first in the queue for some ephemeral event that they really desire being part of (be it Wimbledon or Glastonbury) or perceive that sitting in a camping chair in the rain is ‘worth’ that ‘bargain’ in the sales – but for a mass produced bit of electronics tat or new software that will be on the shelves everywhere the next few days? Mad as chips the lot of them. (Especially as the iPad 2 will be along in 6 months, and be lighter, easier to use and cheaper.)
LR – I was a PC user for ever. Bought a Mac mini earlier this years as my old computer was finally on it’s last legs and the wife wanted me to get a quiet (no fan noises) computer. I could use my old monitor, mouse and speakers Good. Cost me only @£570 with a ‘Mac’ keyboard. When I got it I was expecting to dual boot into Windows most of the time – in reality I use OSX for pretty much everything and it is simple and error free. But it is the only Apple thing I have – I’m not a fanboy and I’m not about to go out to waste £500 on some pointless ‘iPad’ 😉
Oh, yes, I can understand someone queuing for a one-off that’s gone once sold, but this fad for being the first to have an iPad or the latest Harry Potter books is plain daft.
For the past two and a half years I’ve needed a tablet PC so that I can get on-screen signatures from clients. This past week, my circumstances have changed somewhat dramatically. I’ll be giving up self-employment for a salaried position (and a directorship assuming everything goes okay). Next week I’ll be finalising the arrangements. I don’t know yet what my needs will be then. Probably less than currently. I foresee the tablet PC becoming redundant. Quite probably, I’ll have minimal need for mobile computing.
I don’t have a problem with Apple products per se. I have never bought into the Windows v Mac silliness. They are competing computer products and I will buy a product that suits my needs. At present, Apple just don’t do anything that I want or need. The iPad is something and nothing from what I can discern.
I wonder if this queuing fad is, in fact, some marketing driven device created in order to generate media interest in a product? After all the queues are always in front of the flagship ‘store’ (mostly in some major capital) and I wonder if the ‘queue’ is not generated by some public relations personal rather than the geeky fans who join when they think they will miss some part of the event.
(I’m wondering if the next iPhone be an iPad mini?)
Given the cynical nature of marketing, that is certainly plausible.
Any smokers in that queue need some swift advice, as does anyone else who invests their pounds in a Jobs product. Apple have declined to repair any defective product belonging to a smoker for fear of tobacco smoke atoms being stuck to the gizmo that will make their techs fall down dead.
LR,
“I simply cannot understand such fervour over what is after all just a gadget.”
I don’t understand people who do anything motivated by football teams (or any other sporting teams for that matter).
However, I guess that, for me, Apple is as close as I get to supporting a “team”—and I get very excited when they do well.
Mind you, you still wouldn’t catch me queueing overnight for an iPad…
DK
.-= My last blog ..Social Security Assurance =-.
Me neither.
PTB – I’d forgotten about that. A truly egregious act on Apple’s part. Not just because it is based on junk science, but it is not up to a machine manufacturer to dictate lifestyle. They make the product, they are obliged under law to guarantee it.
DK – any examples of having to return products for repair or warranty work, you being an eeeeevil smoker and all that?
I must admit i dont trust the big marketing companies and im sure there were a few people given incentives to que outside the flagship branch, but then again there is nowt as queer as folk.