“We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works. How do you recognize something that is technology? A good clue is if it comes with a manual.” – Douglas Adams
The iPhone is here. But several philosophies propose that some unforeseen facets do not want it to stay. Launched at a time when inflation is trying to shoot the moon, political turmoil flipped like pancakes and exploding bombs playing hide and seek. All of this comes at a whopping cost of the middle class man’s monthly pay packet.
Critics and pundits and others who prey on this fabrication of capitalism have taken to this like vultures to an after-buffet dessert. It has a lot of features but they work in an undulated exasperating fashion. A Nokia 3500 Classic for instance is available at 1/5th the cost of the iPhone yet offers a lot more. The iPhone can play videos but can’t capture one, you can’t send an MMS unlike the 3500, and all you settle with is a pitiful and Spartan 2 mega-pixel camera, the same as in the 3500. The Bluetooth in the iPhone does not allow exchanging our precious illegal mp3’s either, again a service rendered by the 3500. The Bluetooth is only there for headset support. And both phones offer Email. And yes you may argue that the iPhone has 3G but it’s in a country without the appropriate network.
On Vodafone, the phone is expensive and the call charges are similar to what is offered in their standard tariffs and Airtel is unequivocally on the same page. It is turning out to be a classic case of duopoly. What it needs is a bit of competition in the market to get the prices down a bit. Then there is the 3G Network itself. The Department of Telecom has announced that it may hike the 3G spectrum usage charges to telcos making the road more knotty than it already is and couple that with the poor sales of the handset with both Vodafone and Bharti Airtel and you have a recipe of oversights. Vodafone introduced the 8GB and the 16GB versions for Rs. 31, 000 and Rs 36, 000 respectively. These were then slashed by Rs 1, 500 as Vodafone and Airtel together only managed to sell 1, 500 in the opening week. (Does this mean that they would slash prices down by Rs. 10,000 if they sell 10, 000 in a week?) Vodafone customer services are not surprised when asked whether the prices will come down further. The standard verbiage then follows, “I am sorry, I am not aware of that…”
Steve Jobs, the father of the iPhone, once got fired from his own company. He tried and succeeded and now earns more than you and me and the guy who fired him. The iPhone seems to be on a similar path.
In spite of all the above …the iPhone is truly a piece of art. It’s like the bastard love-child of Picasso and Michelangelo, smearing your ear with its tongue dipped in paint. It is a masterpiece, a looker. You have to be an ant to appreciate its grandeur, so you may walk around it and look up to it. It is a Pink Floyd concert, complete with strobe and pschydelia all on your fingertips. It is the Genesis of the very philosophy of l’art pour l’art. It is sleek, tender and seductive and it beckons to be used. The display looks clean and captivating while the interface is a crèche to use. Above all and aptly, it is an iPod you can talk from.
It’s like owning a 300kph Ferrari in Mumbai. Sure, people might say that it is impractical and that the roads are inadequate to unleash it, just like the iPhone 3G on a 2G network. But hey, at least you own a Ferrari. It works, and that is what matters. Forget logic; don’t reason; just indulge. Go buy it!
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