The iPhone is finally due for release in Australia July 11th July 2008. After a year of iPhone-mania the thought of obtaining such a gadget is lurking. With a perfectly functional mobile phone and mp3 player why would one lust for an iPhone? What is attraction? Have we had our subconscious moulded by a formidable marketing (persuasion) strategy?
iPhone is Time Magazine’s 2007 Invention of the year and Fashion Tribe’s number 5 in 2007 top 10 fashion trends. Why do we want an iPhone? To fulfill the function of a mobile phone or to satisfy an inner desire.
Functionality
At the most fundamental level it is a phone. How does it perform as a phone?
PCMag reviewed the iPhone twice regarding the functionality of the iPhone..”as a phone is still substandard”, “It’s complicated to dial, difficult to send text messages on, and missing all sorts of features that are basically assumed to be in most high-end multimedia phones nowadays.”
As a multimedia player it is hailed as the best portable media player of it’s kind by PCMag. Although it’s low memory capacity and non-upgradable flash memory are a limitation.
There are lots of knockoffs from China. iPhone clones and not quite iPhones cheaper and with extra functionality compared to the iPhone. Popular Singapore blogger Xiaxue reviewed the iPhone and mistakenly a Chinese knockoff as a part of a prank her producers played one her. She liked the fake, whilst finding the real thing mediocre.
Style
Apple lead the way in creating a sense of cool in geek world. Macs and iPods being the most stylish and functional icons for computers and mp3 players. Can they do the same thing with the mobile phone?
‘Think Different’ has been the Apple marketing slogan since 1997. The philosophy as detailed below.
Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.
The ‘Think Different’ club is impressive, including Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Mohammed Ali, Ghandi, Alfred Hitchcock, Kermit the Frog and Picasso. The 2007 ‘Think Different’ commercial features lots of ‘different thinkers’ that are still alive, and possibly owning some Apple technology too.
Think Different. It’s a wonderful call to action, after all who comfortably admits to aspiring to the herd mentality? Just don’t spend too much time pondering the Apple proposition. Maybe “Think Different’ needs a footnote. Apple’s goal of selling 10,000,000 iPhones by the end of 2008 (that is less than 2 years) should be qualified with ‘Think Different! Or the same as the other 9, 999, 999 people who also have an iPhone’.
Teens have joined the geeks in perpetuating the Apple - cool cycle. The iPod, the product teens talk about more than anything else. Wearing a pair of white ear buds signifies to any stranger you pass that you are a member of a cool thinking and listening elite. Obsession with iPods has spread to Apple’s other products—namely, the iPhone.
What will be the next demographic to opt into the i-cool way of life? At what point does i-anything become i-toomuch? Oh Louis you too? Louis Vuitton luxury iPhone protection cases, standard luxury protection cases costing $225(US) or deluxe luxury versions at $1120 (US).
A specific style consideration, some would say limitation, is using your iPhone with long nails. Without the option of using a stylus, it is leaving some women yearning. Check out ‘Apple iPhone Design Alienates Women and Large People. Why do they persist in this mysogyny?’ is a question being put to Apple.
How could it get any hotter? Playboy and iPhone, it’s the next best thing to having chicks on speed dial. Sexing up one’s gadget fetish seems like a natural progression. Does this mean technolust is more than the desire for new electronic products with marginal improvements? Danger: virulent new strain of technolust found in Apple.
Call it whatever you will, a hot trend, technolust, or passing distraction. Edward Bernays, (Sigmund Freud’s nephew) the originator of modern public relations who regarded psychological manipulation on society as a necessity was a master at controlling public opinion and one of the first to use psychology in advertising.
With an overwhelming choice and multitude in phone/multimedia gadgetry one may wonder why all the hype and awe around iPhone. Time to watch The Century of Self an interesting BBC documentary from 2002, Freud’s theories on the perception of the human mind and the ways public relations agencies and politicians use these for ‘engineering consent’. Available in 6 parts on youtube.
In the mean time with a functioning phone and mp3 player, any thoughts of acquiring an iphone are a superficial distraction from all the other stuff in my life. Phew!
