Let me say upfront that I am an android user and am generally scornful for those who convince themselves about the mythical superiority of an Apple product simply because they are paying buckets more for it. So, my response at the launch of the new Apple iPhone (XS and whichever other letters that come after it), would have been a tepid ‘ho hum’ had I not seen the mercilessly funny send-ups that greeted the launch.
Apple devotee waits with bated breath for any new launch; this time around the company rewarded people with its new lineup of iPhones – the iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max and the all new iPhone XR. The #AppleEvent was enough to make them all swoon in delight!
Apple has long played catch-up with other phone manufacturers; and many android users were like this with the Apple launch event. Android phones offered features such as the AMOLED screen, water resistant body, wearable gear, split screen, NFC, widgets…I can go on…long before Apple thought to do the same.
The smallest and most basic of phones have long offered the dual SIM feature. Apple has finally recognised it as necessary now.
Any 3 Idiots joke always gets my attention. And this one is so deliciously apt!
One of the new launches is apparently priced the same as the iPhone launched last year. Some were pathetically grateful.
But before Apple devotees get their hopes up, they need to know that the starting price of this year’s launches is Rs. 76,900 in India, and goes up till Rs 1,44,900 for the 512 GB model.
The ‘sell a kidney, buy an iPhone’ jokes may not exactly be new, but they are back along with this Apple Event.
I am clearly not Apple’s target audience, because I am the sort of buyer who instantly loses interest in a product that I see as expensive.
Apple however has always been able to take advantage of the mindset that automatically equates high prices with good quality.
It would seem that the Venezuelan currency crisis is rather similar to the free-fall of the Indian rupee against the dollar and people there have similar reservations about buying a needlessly expensive iPhone.
Why? Because anything can have a Trump allusion these days; the man is a meme-maker’s delight.
Specific issues that iPhone users have asked Apple to fix are sometimes met with indifference, feel some users.
Will Indian jugaad get the better of Apple’s efforts to control the new phones’ sales? We’ll just have to wait and watch.
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