1.27.2010

Apple Doesn't Equal Revolution

Or does it?

Okay, I definitely do not understand why people seem to literally be jizzing themselves over the prospects of an iTablet (I really hope they're going with iSlate, iPad is a little...um, feminine). Back in the day, Apple did invent the PC, but Windows mass marketed it. Remember in the '90s with the old iMac when they nearly went under?

And then there was the iPod, which spelled the end of CD players--its original clunky design still seems to show up in less spectacular brand names. (I have an older one. It doesn't work, after being replaced...twice. Screw you, Apple.)

And, with the iPhone, smartphones are now everywhere.

But none of these revolutions was solely Apple's. Yes, they were the first, or at least the best-publicized, on the market...but the smartphone would never have worked without all sorts of better data deals and the fact that Blackberry had paved the way for mobile consumers, not to mention Web 2.0 making lightweight websites possible (HTML5 is going to be so sweet). As for the music players, it was going to happen, anyway. Computers...I can't say anything about those, on account of not actually remembering the earliest Macintoshes (ha, ha, I am that young).

In all of these, Apple's real skill has been timing and a sleek, attractive design. So I expect that their tablet will take advantage of newer touchscreen technology, as well as higher resolution and the thinnest design in the industry. Hopefully it'll also make concessions to artists, with improved processing of graphics software...oh wait, that's right, the love affair with Photoshop is over, and Apple's using an Intel chip anyway. Anyway....

Yeah, it'll probably be good. Awesome, even, despite the extreme proprietariness with which Apple weighs down all of its products and which, hopefully, the monolithic Google might topple (like a steel-reinforced woodpecker taking down a mountain). But, seeing every single other thing they've made, the price is going to make it yet another yuppie or specialist dream.

So a revolution? I doubt it.

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