Was reading some news on AAPL and AMZN this morning. AMZN because I’m a huge fan (and loyal customer and shareholder) of the company. AAPL because the AMZN stories kept referring to them.
Now, I don’t hate AAPL. Not at all. I like their products. Very nifty for sure. My iPhone is quite fun. AT&T sucks, although I have been told that is due to the hardware interaction so who knows. So as a phone, it’s quite useless but I don’t like using the phone much anyway so now I have an excuse not to. But I HATE not being able to get my texts. Or 3G where ever WiFi is not. NEVER, ever had that issue with VRZN. But oh well.
I have always been on the MSFT side of the MSFT/AAPL battle. And living in the valley – there are PCs and there are MACs. Seriously. No joke. My neighbor works for AAPL. He’s a great guy. I love the look of their stuff, it’s very innovative, etc. But have simply just preferred using PCs. And I really like Bill Gates as a businessman.
But I totally get why everyone loves AAPL products and goes crazy when new ones are announced. They are fun toys for sure. The level of fanboyism that exists out here in Silicon Valley borders on ridiculous but who is this Star Wars, Comic-Con attending geek to talk about that :)
What bugs me is the insistence of the AAPL fanboys to announce that the iPad is the “Kindle Killer”. And how awesome the iPad is. And how every person in the whole entire universe will buy it and won’ t be able to live without it. And without it, you are a fool. A troglodyte. Of course, this is all said when they haven’t actually seen/used one in real life yet.
Of course, I am biased. I love my Kindle. I read a fair amount. And have a fairly long attention span that can allow for hours of reading if I want/can find the time (preferably in a bikini in the sun.) I love the e-Ink technology. I’ve read some on my iPhone using the Kindle app and it hurts my eyes after awhile. The screen is not built for long bouts of reading. I can see how if you don’t have a long attention span, you would prefer the iPad since you can read OR check your email, play games, go online, tumble, tweet, uTube, facebook, etc. Very handy for sure if that’s what you want. I do not. And I think plenty of serious readers of books would agree. As also pointed out in a MarketWatch story today:
Amazon does have a major head start here, with the Kindle now on the market for over two years. And the die-hard Kindle fans may prefer it for longer-term reading, as opposed to the flashier iPad which seems to be aimed at shorter burst reading, viewing and Web surfing.
I also find the price ridiculous for what it is offering me. But I don’t play online games or watch uTube videos for hours on end. I’m not going to watch a movie on it when I have huge TVs in my house. And when I travel, I read. Not watch movies on any device. I have an iPhone, a laptop and a Kindle so I see no need for an iPad. And would much rather spend those dollars on some killer shoes. Or a new Tiffany charm or 2 :)
But I’m not saying I won’t want to change from my current Kindle at some point when something else offers me features I want. And I’m also willing to admit that whoever comes up with the e-reader that allows me to download and read comic books will likely get my business. But so far that is no one.
So all I ask is if I leave you alone about your short attention span and inability to do just 1 thing at a time, like say…read a book. You can stop being such a blowhard about how the iPad is going to revolutionize the world and everyone will stop using paper and pens and books – hospitals, schools, businesses, everyone will stop, put these ancient tools and buy iPads (I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve heard this from people.) One of these fanboys actually wrote ‘This is the end of books. Who needs books anyway. I never read.’ Well…you might have just summed up what is wrong with you actually.
I really hope these guys are all shareholders so at least I could understand their extreme excitement and devotion about the thing. I’d be excited too about the projected numbers even if I didn’t want to own one. But somehow I think they are not. They are just fan boys.
So this is all I ask is this…ssshhhh. Or in other words STFU about it already.
