Casual Friday – Why I will never be an iGirl
Posted by PRGirlz Alumni on January 12th, 2007
Yes, it’s very cool. Yes, it’s very pretty. Yes, it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen. But I couldn’t want one less. And I’m probably one of the only people in the world saying that today. If you haven’t guessed, I’m talking about Apple’s new iPhone. I don’t do Apple. And before you ask, yes, I’ve tried it. I’ve used a Mac desktop, I’ve tried out the laptop. I’ve played with the old iPod and I’ve listened to a Nano. And yes, they are all very pretty. But you’ll never see me buying them. And here’s why:
First, they are SO overhyped. One of my favorite games to play on my way home is to count the iPods. Yesterday I counted 10 in my section of the subway car. That’s a lot of people who bought the product for the name, if you ask me. Because there are a lot of other great players out there, ones that get better reviews and last longer. But they’re not called iPod’s. So they don’t sell as well. I’m one of those people who hate to have something that everyone has, just to be in on the fad. That’s one of my reason’s for not buying into the craze.
The next is their advertising campaign. I haven’t done any studies or research on this, but I’d venture a guess that word of mouth was the way Apple products got so big. They have the pictures of the people with the white headphones and the flashy commercials, but that’s about it. There wasn’t any major PR pushes involved. People talk, and they talked about Apple. Since we’re on the commercials, let’s discuss what is the reason that sealed the deal on my never buying Apple. The Mac/PC guy commercials. If you can’t sell your product on its own merit, without putting down your competitor, I ain’t buying it. I’ve talked about this before, so I won’t go into a rant, but Pepsi is the worst for doing this and Apple isn’t far behind on my list.
Apple products are expensive. Like ridiculously expensive. Especially since most people I know who have iPods have problems with them- from software, to mechanical etc. They aren’t the most durable things in the world. I have a Creative MuVo (which I can’t find a picture of because I’ve had it for too long) and I love it. It was around $100, it has a SD card slot for extra memory, a stopwatch, FM radio and it’s REALLY easy to use. It lives in the bottom of my gym bag. It gets tossed around, dropped, hit off stuff and stepped on and it just keeps ticking. I would break an iPod in about 2 days, I’m so hard on my players. I need something that I don’t have to handle with kid gloves out of fear I’ll hurt my precious player.
I could go on and on about how you have to buy special products for Apple, you have to use iTunes, etc. But I think you get the picture. So no, I won’t be investing in an iPhone. Who’s with me?? Anyone? Anyone?
January 14th, 2007 » 11:33 pm
I agree with you, Joscelyn. With the add-ons, the average iPod investment could cost us lot more than we intend to spend. My roommate recently purchased a video iPod. She was extremely frustrated with the complexity of trying to put music and videos onto her iPod. However, despite the difficulty, she still LOVES her iPod. It’s sort of scary.
January 18th, 2007 » 6:59 am
Hi Joscelyn,
So you don’t own and iPod and don’t use a Mac laptop. You don’t like their advertising and they haven’t done any PR. They’re products are hard to use, expensive and keep breaking down. So why is Apple so successful?
As for them being difficult to use, my eight-year-old daughter has no problem using her iPod or iMac. I’ve never had any problems with my two laptops, iMac, video iPod, or four shuffles (in our family). Oh, and they don’t crash, and I’ve never had a virus. (Ok, I did have to return one shuffle).
You can get great deals on second hand macs – bought my daughter’s for $80 – and it’s great for Word, web surfing and the like.
But I understand where you’re coming from – I personally don’t like BMWs!
Great blog…keep up the good work.
January 18th, 2007 » 10:57 am
I’m so with you! While I do have an iPod (no problems so far, fingers crossed) I bought it because it was a) blue and b) on an open box sale and c) I had just broken my discman and badly needed music for my bus ride to class everyday and couldn’t be bothered with doing the research.
I find Apple to be overhyped, and a lot of Mac fans/obsessors to be annoying, frankly. Greenpeace has a campaign on Apple to get them to go green(er) because they are still using chemicals and toxic products that other companies have long abandonned. How good can a company be if they’re all stylish, yet toxic?
I’m tired of the hype. I can’t wait for it to go away! Many bloggers have posted on how the iPhone isn’t actually as good as everyone is hyping it up to be… I’m also very tired of the “i” everything… One day we’ll wake up and it will all be a bad dream.
January 18th, 2007 » 11:13 am
Ross – They’re successful due to word of mouth and hype. They’re also successful because they’re smart and have taken advantage of the public’s need to have the newest and coolest. How many people with a perfectly good ipod went out and bought a nano? Then went and got a nano in a pretty colour? Apple saw this consumer-hungry gene and made a killing off it. And kudos to them for it!
Laura – I really think that the iphone isn’t going to be as great as they think. Anything with a touchscreen is going to malfunction. It has no buttons, so if your screen is messed up, you’re SOL. One good drop and it’s on it’s way to repair.
Something I thought of over the weekend, hanging out with some iFriends is that my player actually came WITH an arm band for the gym. The strap for the nano? That will set you back about 35.
So Jackie, I agree, it is sort of scary!
January 18th, 2007 » 5:11 pm
One thing that hasn’t been touched upon here is sex appeal. Apple’s products are just plain sexy. The design is sleek. The software interfaces are user-friendly and intuitive. And yes, the just look cool. That’s why people talk about them. The products have value (as a media player and an accessory).
Think about your wardrobe…why does one buy the $500 sweater from Holts when a sweater from Wal-mart would keep you just as warm and covered.
It’s easy to revolt against the me-too-ism of Apple products. But they put together products that people like to use.
I’m not a MAC fanatic, but I do have an ipod. No problem so far (famous last words). I had several mp3 players before getting an ipod and it just can’t be beat for useability (I’ll acknowledge there are plenty of horror stories about them crapping out before their time should have come and yes, they are expensive paper weights). The scroll wheel is design genius (esp for people like me who have 3000+ songs loaded up).
I’m not salivating at the prospect of the iphone myself, but I can see why lots of people are. But point well-taken about if the touch screen breaks you’re SOL.
Great blog. Cheers.
January 19th, 2007 » 3:13 pm
I agree with you. One important point that you left out is one the technical side. Apple products often use proprietary technology that prevents (or complicates) the use of the product. For example, iTunes don’t easily convert to use on mp3 players. You need additional, after market, software to convert them before using them on other players.
January 28th, 2007 » 11:38 pm
I have no doubt that a lot of people share your opinion of Apple these days, but I would like to toss in my two cents…
I think it’s important to look at the iPod/nano aspect of Apple’s business as something separate all together. You see, for the longest time (i.e. pre-iPod), Apple was a company that was really struggling to keep their head above water in the computer market. Heck, they almost tanked completely in the mid 90s. They’ve always had an incredibly loyal legion of diehard life-long customers that can’t say enough good things about them to the point where it probably makes most people sick, but they’ve never had any significant mass-market appeal. If I could speak to your point about those PC/Mac ads, you can still see that they’re still trying to dispell those negative stereotypes that have been hounding them for years… like that you can’t run Microsoft Office on a Mac. To criticize them for trying to steal a small piece of the pie from Microsoft (a company routinely referred to as a blood-sucking, monopoly-inducing tyrant in the personal computer industry) is a bit unfair I think.