I have to admit, I’ve been an Apple fan boy since an early age. But is it so strange? Even when following the launch of the iPad via still images and live blogging, Steve Job’s reality distortion field is as strong as ever. The man can sell, and he does it well. What’s more interesting is the scale of the pre-launch spectacle and how desperate mainstream media has been in covering any “news”, rumors and even blatant pranks.
Having followed and at times covered Apple as a journalist since the mid 1990’s, I’ve experienced this type of hype many times before. Typically the event culminates in a couple of “wow” moments as the product is presented by a polo clad Steve Jobs, and by the virtue of his charisma and rhetoric, even the most banal feature seem like a touch of magic (hey, you can email on this thing!).
The difference this time around, is that as Apple has become mainstream with the iPod and iPhone, the scale of today’s mass-psychosis took on unprecedented proportions. A brilliant example of this, is how eagerly major news sources was channeling Jason Calacanis quite obvious prank on Twitter where he “leaked” information from his beta tests (c’mon, a solar panel?). The combination of Apple, Twitter, and the arrival of a possible savior of old media became so overwhelmingly powerful that even The Wall Street Journal happily posted an article speculating as to if this was a joke or not (leaning towards that it was real).
Saying all that, the Apple iPad does look like a fantastic product which makes the Kindle’s gray-scale screen look about as exciting as dial-up internet. The price point also seem about right, and my previous plans of getting a netbook might just have to be reconsidered.
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