Consumers have paid a price for obsessing over cheapness when it comes to electronic gadgets. It is the reason for the quality and durability being so low. One company that escaped the Cheaper-and-Cheaper Syndrome is Apple Computer. I'm happy for them and their employees. Even those of us who do not buy their products benefit indirectly from the countervailing force that Apple creates.
We also benefit from their innovation, since every company soon jumps on board and imitates it. For instance, I have no interest in a keyboard-less tablet computer like the iPad, but I hope to buy a (keyboard-equipped) clamshell netbook with the trends that Apple is pushing: a non-Windows operating system, faster boot-up, an ARM (non-Intel x86) microprocessor that uses low power, and an all-semiconductor "hard drive."
Consider the "apps" phenomenon that Apple has brought to the world. In the gadget racket this might seem like an innovation. Perhaps it is really just the reinvention of the Dremel tool, for which the customer must buy many accessories -- those ingenious spinning little wizzmo's -- in order to do something specific. I have a Dremel tool and love it. Its "apps" only cost a couple dollars each, but there are dozens of them, and you have to buy them from Dremel. Since the Dremel tool rotates at 20,000 rpm the "app" burns out or dulls in 10 seconds. Soon you have spent more on apps than the original Dremel tool. Gee, I'll bet the company never noticed that.
The title of this blog said 'hate' and yet I seem to be praising Apple. Strictly speaking, it's only the media hype over Apple that drives me crazy, as well as the behavior of fan boys at Steve Jobs's product unveilings. One of the reasons why the Media is so obsessed with Apple's new gadgets is simply that the Medium is the Message. The network always matters more than the gadget. But networks build out gradually; that makes for news about as exciting as saying, "Wheat field grows 4.2% this month." A new gadget makes for Breaking News; that's the only kind that matters.
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