There were quite a few people who thought the new iPhone was a bit, well, underwhelming. They predicted lukewarm sales. Not as good as Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S III or the HTC One X, which have better specs and you can customise them.
The new iPhone 5 is flying out of the shops.
You see, techies, just don’t understand people will pay more for an inferior product, especially one that is ‘locked down’ and limited to the Apple ‘walled garden’. Why people buy something that you can’t mess around with, hack and make unique to you. They think we’re all a bunch of iSheep, hoodwinked by Apple’s spin and cool designs.
The answer is simple. People would rather buy experience than product.
They buy the Apple brand, of course, but that’s not just about ‘looking cool’. It’s the certainty that it will be easy to do the stuff you want to do, that you won’t have to get all technical and mess around with it. It’s easy to buy apps and media. It’s easy to sync with other devices. It’s easy to get fixed. You can go to a shop and get help. The whole thing just works. Beautifully.
It’s not the phone. It’s all the other stuff. The whole ecosystem.
Most people just want to do things. They don’t want to customise their stuff. Don’t believe me? Remember the Nokia ring tone, and how many people left that on their phone, even though it was a running joke (HELLO? YES. I’M ON THE TRAIN.) They weren’t being ironic. Or stupid. It just wasn’t important to them.
It’s why Apple is still ahead of the pack. And, until the penny drops in another tech company, I can’t see that changing any time soon.
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