Had it not been for the fact that the IT in my company supports the iPhone, I would probably have been agonizing over whether to go for an iPhone or an Android. Now, however, I am a proud owner of the iPhone4.. And here’s the thing..
I walk into the MRT this morning and casually glance around, I see roughly 60% of the people in my compartment playing games on their respective iPhones. Among this demographic was an old grandmother, a young kid (who couldn’t have been older than 3) and a bunch of working professionals..
Is it cool to own an iPhone? Probably not.. but I realized a few big things today –
1) Apple has made it ‘seem‘ cool..
2) Steve Jobs has mended his ways and for a change, gone for the masses. He understands geek psychology after all. Geek psychology would dictate going for the lesser known (cue: linux and even Mac OS) and the relatively tougher to use (here, just picture a Mac user trying to work in a team full of windows users with windows only software..). And who can blame them, it’s akin to professional tennis players using smaller rackets as it’s tougher to control but more rewarding when you do..
My mom has occasional trouble using the Android but seemingly, little kids have no trouble using the iPhone. So, all of a sudden, we have Google playing to the needs of the geeks and Apple playing to the needs of masses (by just implementing astounding simplicity combined with a genius app store concept. Case in point – even Nokia phones have more options to customize incoming ringtones but of course, they don’t have apps anywhere as cool as what Apple does).
The bigger realization here however was that while it was only the ‘geek‘ demographic who experimented with smart phones in the early days (Think Palm Pilot etc), the smartphone user base is dominated by ‘non-geek’s‘.
And while I may not be a big fan of many of Apple’s moves and while I may admire the Android OS’s openness, full credit to Jobs for making a device so bloody simple that it is loved by the masses, yet making sure it retains it’s ‘coolness‘ factor.
A Learning a Day 