Come on now...my wife and I spent Friday afternoon tearing through the city to find the brand new iPad that I'm now typing this blog posting on...what else could it be?
Someone asked me recently what exactly the difference is between Apple computers/products and everything else, and (as usual) my answer was appropriately vague and somewhat non-committal. I even used that line from The Matrix---"No one can be told what the Matrix is...you have to see it for yourself." Which I admit sounds like complete nonsense, but is the best way for me to articulate what the "Apple difference" truly consists of. Attempting to definitively classify that difference will only grow more difficult in the future as more of their successful concepts and applications are slowly incorporated into their competitor's products. I'd be willing to bet that you like Apple, even if you don't realize it.
My connection to their brand and products is a personal one, kicked off in the fall of 2003, when I sold my first full length script to Marvel Comics. I'd been using a Compaq laptop since 1998 (a high school graduation gift) so it was about time for a real upgrade, and everyone I talked to said the exact same thing---Man, you need to get a Mac. So after doing some more research online, I made the decision to make the big switch and headed out to the Mac store at Oakbrook Terrace. Couple hours later I came home with the single largest purchase I'd made in my life (and in cash, mind you) and I haven't looked back since. And I ain't going back.
But obviously, Apple means a lot more than just the best computers money can buy. It's quite possible you don't care about their computers at all, but they do make something that you'd be into. Or are into. Or should be into. Or secretly want to be into, but aren't quite sure about this strange Mac obsessed technology cult that sprang up from nowhere. I assure you there's nothing to be afraid of...assuming you're not afraid of things to make your existence more enjoyable, anyway.
That is what it is for me---everything I love, Apple found some simple, yet clever way to make even cooler. Here's a couple examples that have nothing to do with the long waged debate between Macs and PCs, but don't worry, we'll briefly come back to that at the end...
The iPod.
I love music. Mostly hip-hop, which I admit feels somewhat stereotypical, but I also have a great passion for film scores and classical music. The option of carrying my entire 30 GB music collection with me everywhere is incredibly important, and I don't know how I survived all those years carrying around individual CDs like some relic from a previous age. When my wife got me an iPod for Christmas in 2007, I think part of the reason was that watching me load discs into that little black case with its plastic sleeves made her incredibly sad. Now, I seldom leave the house without it, so if I need to hear that Little Brother track with the crazy 9th Wonder drum pattern, or the extended version of the
X-Files theme that composer Mark Snow did for the movie's soundtrack, then I'm straight. And if I finally decide to stop stalling and pick up Michael Giacchino's score from the new Star Trek movie, iTunes can have it to me in minutes.
The iPad.
Also, I love comics and books. Mostly superhero, which is also quite stereotypical, but I do have a great passion for the independents out there fighting against the unending flood of superhero books, and you know, I'm also a published comic book writer, so there's that too. Being able to sit down and physically read a book is necessary for me to function as a normal human being. That said, the publishing world will need to enact serious changes in the next few years if they're going to survive with any level of profitability intact. This fact is even more pronounced in the realm of periodical comic book sales, as the average price for a single comic is now $3.99, and the market has almost no potential for growth in its current form. Print is not quite dead...but it is mortally wounded and in need of desperate assistance.
Apple's much anticipated tablet offers a real opportunity for publishers to support and pioneer a new business model for the publishing industry, much in the same way iTunes changed the way a lot of us get our music. Don't be surprised (or upset) if in five years, a growing percentage of consumers are getting their favorite newspapers, magazines, comics, etc. on either this device, or the models that will inevitably follow it. Clearly, this is what's going to happen, and the people like me (and probably you) that have grown emotionally attached to the feeling and sound of turning pages, or with getting ink on our fingertips while reading will have to make do with these newfangled things. Something that offers a mental bridge for people that simply need to hold something in their hands, otherwise it doesn't feel like reading at all. The days of expensive college textbooks and magazines devoting half of their space to ads are gone as well, as are a host of other little things we've all grown accustomed to.
Here's the good news though...the iPad is as great as they say, even in its first generation form. For someone that only uses their computer for internet and word processing, it's functioning quite well as a replacement laptop---if one's laptop was thinner than their cell phone, and could also function as an impressive e-book/digital comics reader. Once the price points hit a more mainstream level (as they eventually did with the iPod) expect the installed base to really explode. And for their well deserved reputation as an innovator and trendsetter in consumer technology to continue into the far, far future. And for them to receive even more of my money.
But even with all that said, we'll always come back to the original question that people will be repeating as long as Apple is around, and marketing themselves as a fundamentally different computer company than the one most of us have the most experience with. Does the Apple brand really mean better, and more innovative, and more intuitive ways to connect people with the things they love to do, see, and hear?
Well...hell yes it does...but I'm supposed to be polite enough not to actually say it.
Please know that I did my best...
B
