Life & Me

I wanted to blog about this last week. But since the whole world has been talking about it, and hasn’t stopped now, I figure it’s not too late to join in the discussion.

It’s about the iPad (*groan, not again?!!). It’s true that everywhere I look, articles upon articles have been written about it. Personally, I waited upon it with anticipation mainly because I was looking for a tablet or netbook as well. I knew I probably won’t buy it, but I was worried that it’d be such a good product that competitors would be forced to lower their prices or even come out with new products. In that case, I’d not want to be caught having an old expensive product.

As it turned out, it was a nice product, but far from great. As it turns out, millions have expressed the same sentiment, while millions others are convinced of the opposite. One thing I’ve learnt through observation is that – you don’t have to convince the whole market. The iPad won’t be a flop as long as a few percent of the market are convinced of its greatness, or “magical and revolutionary”, as Steve Jobs put it. Me though, has been a big skeptic of the company. Let me explain why.

In the past 10 years, Apple has managed to transform themselves into a cult movement, and you might indeed be one of them. What is the defining character of a cult? Fanaticism. That’s a strong word I know, maybe passion would be a more suitable word. It’s true that Apple has come out with many amazing products throughout the years. I remember arguing (I like good arguments) with my brother (who is a member of the cult) many years ago about the merits of a Mac and come out slightly convinced by it.

However, as the company grows bigger, so has its grasp on the mind. Nowadays it’s hard to have a sensible argument with an Apple fan. Any merits would be elevated to the stratosphere while any obvious disadvantages would be brushed aside or deemed irrelevant.

And that is a cult. Because in reality, although many don’t realize it, Apple users are actually giving up many computing technology for the few that Apple does better. They are being conditioned, just like a cult religion do to you (giving up the social norm for the out-of-body experience, for example). No SD-Card, who needs one? No USB? I don’t use it anyway. Can’t change the battery? Apple will take care of it. No network facility? Who wants to join a network?! No flash? What’s Flash? And so on and so forth. I’m not making this up, because that’s exactly what I read from articles from Apple fans in the past two weeks.

Apple has of course, done nothing to discourage this. Almost every single aspect of the products is controlled. You use what the company asks you to use, nothing more. To be sure, what they offer is really attractive, but I feel really uncomfortable about this arrangement.

The winner writes history, right? So if Apple managed to take over the world one day, we’d celebrate the coming of a new era, right? The effects are slowly showing, because Apple uses different interface from everyone else, Apple customers will find it hard to switch back one they’re used to it (Think: coffee addiction). You have a Mac, then an iPod, then an iPhone, soon an iPad?

For this reason, I prefer “the rest of the world, where you can configure anything you like. Surely it’d cause some accidents once in a while (the notoriety of Windows), just like the difference between driving on a free way or a go-kart track. I prefer freedom to safety, I guess.

So in my search for the ideal Pad, I settled for the ideaPad from Lenovo. It’s a netbook, “better in nothing”, according to Steve Jobs. True, but it’s cheaper, lighter and last longer, the major reason why anyone would purchase one. Moreover, it has a webcam, a keyboard, tons of data space, 3G UMTS (what’s the fuss about 3G in iPhone or iPad? Everyone else has it since ages ago.) and most of all, it’s so cheap that no Apple fans would like to hear about it, just say that it’s about half the price of the cheapest iPad.

To balance the bias of this post a little, I have to say, the iPhone, iPods and iPad have a really really attractive interface with the multi-touch screen. That’s one thing I really wish to have. So maybe when iPad does come out to Europe soon, I might eat my words……… and join the cult.

We’ll see.