technology news always makes me understand marxism better

So the Pandigital e-reader thing came and I opened it up grimly to learn to use it and get it all ready and clean for my mom's birthday--and I just could not deal with how slow it was. Or rather, I could not deal with the fact that for only a bit (er, twice the price plus a cover) more, she could have a nice, shiny Kindle Fire, and honest to God, I would not use mine happily if I saw her meandering sadly with that one.

Hence, we're going with Kindle Fire for Mom and both my conscience and my glee at helping break the iPad's death grip on tablets are pleased (I still can't think of it as a tablet no matter what I do, but apparently, I'm the only one in the universe. No matter how many movies I may or may not stream on it). I do not hate iPads, and Apple's hands aren't any dirtier than any other company, so I think it comes down to Apple's highly successful use of snobbery in its ads that turned me against them for life. It's about as logical as navigating by cloud (no amazon pun intended), but the smug Mac computer commercials combined with the constant refrain both implicit and explicit that people who do not have iPads just can't afford them (if one more reviewer says, amused and disparaging "Oh, well, at that price" as if consumers will buy any old junk because it's cheap really--gets to me.

I have to admit, after a long time bowing at the throne of Apple, the way that Amazon's freaked out the complacency of the tech world since Wednesday has been nothing short of hilarious to watch. The constant, consistent, exhausting way the entirety of the tech universe seems to hang upon The Next Version of the iPhone and The Next Version of the iPad et al like the Gospel got caught up in what could almost be called surprise--and amazon hasn't hidden what they're doing either, so it's not like Fire fell from the sky (no reference to the movie implied) to land on their laps like Aphrodite rising from the ocean (not so wet, for one thing). I get the feeling they expected another iPad clone to follow the standard and were completely nonplussed to see something that was uncomfortably close to a suggest that maybe iPad is not the be-all and end-all of what a tablet should be, but just--heresy--a variation of what tablets might be.

I do enjoy watching confusion in the technological trenches, I admit it, and for more than my stock portfolio's health. Though I do wish they'd just get this one thing (I give up on teh entire "only cheap people won't get an iPad" thing; tech's love of Regency-level class lines is not exactly new); at seven inches, fourteen ounces, and less than half an inch thickness...size, people, is a feature. It fits in my bag, my purse, my coat pocket, in one hand being carried while walking, in one hand while reading, watching, easy to pull out, easy to put up, easy as a book to read, use, hold up to show people, glance at, and put away.

That's a feature.

(Only here, quietly: I really wish they'd add the 3G. But I am also thinking how even my phone does not get fantastic reception in most places and a million and a half new Fires coming online abruptly would be--slow, to put it mildly.)

Comments

[clari-clyde.livejournal.com]

the blogosphere picking up an advertising line as a universal truth

But which blogosphere are you referring to? I read a handful of blogs that are clearly fans of Apple but they have no shortage of links to blog posts that are just waiting for Apple to fail, or how crappy Apple products are, or how brainwashed Apple’s customers are. Paul Thurrott, Daniel Lyons and Rob Enderle all have an anti-Apple bent and they’re not the only ones but just the ones off the top of my head.



Macs are Better Because PC's Do Everything Wrong and Also, Their Users Are Stupid and Cheap

But for every reviewer that says that, there’s also the reviewer who says that Apple has $75 billion in cash because their customers are brainwashed into buying overpriced products. I remember when the first iPad came out, so many reviewers were underwhelmed and dismissed it and its future success as products of that famous Reality Distortion Field.

And nevermind that “overpriced” hasn’t been true for a few years as Apple’s strategy has been to use use that cash to position itself closer towards monopsony so that competitors now can’t compete on having a cheaper price. Apple isn’t the only buyer of components, but one could argue that it is the only buyer with power and influence and the company isn’t shy about using that to get larger discounts to build products with lower retail prices and higher margins than their competitors.

I bought my iPad last month. I looked at other tablets but for the same price, they offered fewer apps, smaller screens (10" is non-negotiable to me), smaller battery lives (8–10 hours is non-negotiable to me), 4:3 aspect ratio (ok, this does not affect price but I list this because this too is non-negotiable to me), less memory and promises of “That feature will come eventually!” I know that buyers of other tablets are stereotyped as cheap but people who say such things are obviously unaware of the market or are clinging to a picture of the computer industry from fifteen years ago.

And I don’t think that buyers of other tablets don’t know what they’re doing as much as I know they very well know what they are doing as they tend to be very anti-Apple or pro-Linux for whatever reasons their feelings are so.

And I also don’t think that users are wondering, “iPad or Kindle Fire?” as much as I think most people looking at the Kindle Fire either already have an iPad or already decided they didn’t need an iPad. They really don’t compare. I don’t think that Amazon was asking, “How will we compete with the iPad?” as much as they were asking, “How do we sell more of our content?” I think the pundits and analysts believing and starting with the former question are not understanding Amazon’s business.