Random Things I've Learned about our Culture from this iPhone Launch

[michaelsaxon]

1. True, in some cases, but this is false choice. Just because someone spent hours in a line this weekend doesn't mean that they don't do those things at other times. Once you go down this road, every time you make a selfish decision (i.e., lay on the couch and eat chips watching football instead of volunteering at the food bank), you should be chastised. Not much of a life, huh?

2. There was a lot to complain about with this launch. Complaints keep companies honest (or at least they should). How could this have been better? How about not simultaneously launching a new iTunes, MobileMe, and a brand new phone needing iTunes activation in a 72-hour period? Imagine also if previous iPhone customers could have had the option of ordering one online, having AT&T/Apple set it up and activate it while porting the number, and then shipping the activated phone to your house.

90% of these hassles could've been handled if they had thought this out more fully.

It is absolutely crazy that you have people wanting to spend $300 on your product and you turn them away because of some mixup with AT&T. The whole arrangement was flawed.

3. Agreed. But companies also insulate themselves from criticism through this very hierarchy. At the end of the day, I'm not going to get an audience with the CEO of AT&T, but there will be someone from AT&T that should know if I'm dissatisfied.

4. That's because people are accustomed to a quality product experience from Apple. When they don't get it, they get upset.

5. See #4.

 

[interesting]

So you gathered this information from forums talking about the iPhone and people who waited in line for the iPhone or otherwise acquired it in the First 2 days of availability. Your sampling of the population is pretty skewed it seems. Its kind of like, oh I dunno, if I were to go to San Francisco to get a feel for the mindset and overall disposition of the rest of the USA.

 

[XboxEvolved]

I just want to understand how does apple do it?

Like how around the world all the phones sold out within hours when they have better things on the market (japan).

And how do they make people wait on these long lines for days for a store opening that they know exactly what is in it and have seen it before.(it cant just be good products)

I just want to understand their marketing/advertising section of apple.

The same way Nike, Sony, etc do it. They sell their name with the product and the past 10+ years Apple has been doing this very well. In fact, the only thing that really kept Apple alive before Steve Jobs came back was their legacy and image. If not for that, we wouldn't have this site.

Also, they are complaining, realizing they paid $200 +an incredibly ridiculous monthly cost for what is basically a fashion accessory to them and the privilege of saying "I got it before you".

I think what is even sillier, is the people that paid $500+ for the iPhone last year, paid a bunch just to get the newest thing this year (when iPhone last year should have had all this stuff in the first place) and they will pay the same amount for iPhone next year and for what? If anyone would care to give me a real reason other than "just because" I would appreciate it.

 

[hierobryan]

1. We are a very materialistic society. It's sad to see so many people spend their precious free time for hours/days of their life for a cell phone, but some of those people say they don't have enough time to register to vote, donate to charitys, etc, spend quality time with their children/spouse/parents

Duh, most of us care about instant gratification over nurturing & cultivating our happiness seeds. When we buy things our happiness level shoots up quickly then slowly falls back down. When we donate to charities or spend "quality time" with people our happiness level doesn't shoot up as quickly.
Capitalism, gotta love it!

And BTW, so what if so many people spend their free time loving their cell phones? As long as they're not hurting anyone who cares, right?

 

[Hey Jude]

I concur

Jakeacc, I wholeheartedly agree with your post.

I also agree that people have a right to vent their frustrations, but there is a thin line between venting and whining.

I have a lot of hobbies, but I am hard pressed to think of anything that I would stand in line for five hours for when I could pick up up said item in five minutes if only I waited five weeks.

I know that when I read about the issues upgrading to 2.0 firmware, I simply waited until Saturday morning to upgrade my 1.0 iPhone. My upgrade started at 6:31 and ended at 7:07, no problems, no issues and a very happy camper here.

Again, thanks for the very insightful post.

Jude

 

[jakeacc]

Okay guys, you are focusing too much on the word "Learned". No, I didn't JUST realize this about our culture. We have been like this for quite some time. I guess a more appropriate title for this thread should have been "Random Things I've Observed from this iPhone Launch".

I didn't mean it to be a soapbox about American culture and our values. And like I said, I'm not saying I'm better than anyone else. I was right there in line at the Apple Store this morning with the rest of you.

This 3G iPhone launch was just one of many examples. It kind of reminded me of the "Tickle Me Elmo" or "Furby" crazy. (or more recently, the Nintendo Wii) Every holiday season, there is some product that everyone needs to have RIGHT THIS SECOND.

I haven't read through all responses to this thread yet, but I'm glad to see that many of you share my opinions. I also noticed a few negative posts, which was expected. But like I said, I'm not judging anyone. Just some random thoughts and observations. Nothing more.

 

[jakeacc]

The reality is that EVERYONE has some vice in life, some hobby that they devote way too much time to etc. For people who post on this board, cell phones or tech gadgets are their chosen hobby, and this is the ONE place that we can all bitch an moan and discuss every little detail. We can talk about things here that the real people in our lives would die of boredom if we talked about with them.

I think you've misinterpreted what my post was about. There is nothing wrong for being passionate about the iPhone. Everyone DOES have a hobbie/passion/interest, whether it be cars, video games, comic books, or tech gadgets. Anyone who really wanted an iPhone that badly, by all means, camp out in front of Apple and ATT stores. I had no problems with that. And from the sound of it, some of you camped out for social aspects of hanging out together with fellow iPhone fans. And if you want to spend hours each day reading and posting every single detail about the phone, go for it. Like many of you, I love gadgets and technology. Every morning, I check out macrumors and digg.com for the latest tech news. And I'll go on message boards and talk about it. It's our hobby. That's what these message boards are for. That's completely fine.

But, what I did find troublesome was the MINDSET of some of the people that were in line or were posting on this site. You can be upset that you still don't have a 3G iPhone. You can be frustrated that the iTunes servers crashing left you with a nonfunctional iPhone. But you can't blame AT&T or Apple for wasting hours of your life for this. Not ONCE did they guarantee that anyone that showed up on launch day would walk away with an iPhone. They never said "You must show up at X time and wait X hours and you will receive a 3G iPhone." YOU decided to show up at X time and wait for X hours, and the reason you don't have an iPhone now is because they sold out or there was a computer problem or they weren't fully prepared for such a massive launch. You should always expect problems and mistakes to happen during a product launch, especially one for a product that has such high demand. The way that some people acted during and after this launch was what bothered me and was the reason I created this thread.

 

[thedarkhorse]

Most people in my line up were patient(this is Canada), one lady was contiually complaining about waiting with rogers systems down, the iPhone she was getting wasn't for her though and she ended up leaving.

One thing I noticed about the iPhone launch, people weren't interested in seeing or playing with the iPhone, most just wanted their iPhone.
The rest of people in the line played with the display model for less than 10 minutes the 3 hours we were waiting in the store.

 

[CourtneyA1]

NIce post, well thought out. Every once in a while, a reality check in life does us well.