Oxford dictionaries define this to mean:
Blind love of Apple iOS based products, especially for the latest iPhone variant, whatever that may be.
or at least, they should…
I first noticed this some time ago when I was dismayed to find out that my “pencil and paper” girlfriend had decided that she wanted “an iPhone”. Needless to say, she now has an HTC Desire - which she dropped and broke (it still works, though).
What had happened was that her colleague had been quietly singing the praises of her fancy new iPhone 4 for some time, and then “clearly” demonstrated that it was the ultimate phone by downloading an MP3 for a customer in a time-critical situation. Through this subtle indirect marketing approach (AKA social networking) Apple had made my task (to bring intelligence, rational and reasoning back into the decision) very difficult indeed.
It took me more than two weeks to start to turn her, and more than a month and a half of to and fro emails before the conversation was effectively over.
To summarise what Apple have done to the cellular phone market, you can simply say this:
People don’t go shopping for a smart phone and choose an iPhone. They go shopping for an iPhone and choose the colour.
To be a little more blunt about it, people blindly ignore the fact that there are other comparable, different and in many cases arguably superior products available. IE, they suffer from Apple induced ignorance, which is sad.
Recently an old friend of mine posted this on facebook:
To iPhone or not to iPhone, that is the question? Discuss/voice opinions.
Which, of course, brought out all of Steve’s fans, and a handful of others to remind him, in the onslaught of (in the sound of a zombie or robot) “Buy an iPhone”, that there were perfectly good, more flexible, more open, more powerful, better looking, better performing, lighter, better battery life, etc etc Android based phones available and that he should check them out before committing to Apple’s Nazi-like application distribution policies.
As I rather un-smoothly put it:
The only valid advantage of having an iphone, right now, is if you are stupid or lazy or careless.
And by that, rather poorly written sentence, I meant that Apple check all applications distributed through iTunes to ensure they meet various standards, and that can help keep you safe if you’re prone to clicking install when viruses download themselves from websites, etc.
With an Android the world is your oyster, including all of the bastards trying to screw you. User beware.
There are two lessons here, number one:
As a consumer, think for yourself, do your homework, and don’t be led along by others like a glorified money-bearing sheep!
And number two:
All big worldwide projects require a smooth, charismatic, intelligent, friendly, fun, articulate leader, if they want to be a true success.
To see the difference between such a project and one without, compare Apple with Microsoft.