Make up your mind, Apple! A complaint 12 years in the making
Yesterday, my daughter who just turned twelve before entering the 7th grade this year, sat down next to me while I was enjoying an episode of Supernatural with my number two son. I looked at her and said, "What's up girl?" And before I tell you what came next, let me say that you know, in every group there's always this person who you avoid asking him how he is doing today? Well, asking her to tell me "what's up" was enlightening and kind of funny. It's funny because, she, unprompted by anything* except gadget news about the new iPhones, came to me with the following rant, which I asked her to put into writing so that I could use it here.
On a sheet of college-ruled notebook paper, which she titled, "Make up your mind, Apple!", is the verbatim rant from a seriously annoyed twelve year old.
"This 'generation of the iPhone' is making people want new i-whatever ASAP! It all started with the iPod but what the point? It can't message or call your friends. So, they made the iPhone. A smaller, portable, easier to use cell phone and laptop with games!
But we couldn't stop there. The iPhone4 was new and improved! Now with straight edges instead of the rounded edges of the previous iPhones. Still wanting to be the latest and greatest, Apple made the bigger iPhone 5 because bigger's better...right? Hold on, I thought that the point of iPhones were that they were smaller!
Now people still want more so they decide to fall back into a great product everyone loves: plastic. But hey it adds color so, so what? Oh but that's not all, the iPhone 5C (or whatever) has different EVERYTHING now with iOS 7 you have to learn how to use your phone all over again!
Wait there's more. They went back to round edges!
And the wallpaper is the same color as everything as your phone! You can see it all the time because everything is slightly translucent. And the new cases fit perfectly on them. Hey who needs convenience when you have Apple. All I'm saying is, MAKE UP YOUR MIND APPLE!"
Yes, that's my daughter as you can tell.
First, she's talking about the old iPods that we bought for all three kids, which were little colorful square things with a clip on the back. They had no screen. These days, and she knows this, iPods use iMessaging, includes FaceTime, and you can make Skype calls on it.
Her main point—and she's heard some of my problem with the ever-changing design issues—is that, once Apple finds a form factor that works, shouldn't it stick with it?
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Apparently she and I agree on this.
I was more than mildly irritated that none of my peripherals that I purchased for my iPhone 4 would work with my iPhone 5. I'm still considering trading it with my number two son who got my iPhone 4. I just have too much invested in peripherals to give it up.
Rounded edges, straight edges, rounded edges again, size changes, connector changes—this whole planned obsolescence thing really bugs me. And it also bugs my daughter. I never knew to what degree.
But she's right.
My oldest son who sports a Windows laptop, Microsoft Surface, and iPhone 4S, will probably opt for a Windows phone or an Android-based one next time. He's not a big Apple fan.
My middle son rarely uses the iPad 1 that I gave him when I got my new iPad 4. He does use the iPhone 4 (my old one) that replaced his much broken iPhone 3GS. I don't think he cares what brand of phone or tablet he uses unless it prepares food and delivers it to him. It seems like he went on an anti-Apple rant the other day. I wasn't paying a lot of attention to him because we were both sick and had spent too much time watching Supernatural and some vampire/werewolf series that he likes.
My daughter who owns an iPhone 3GS, an iPad mini (aka MineCraft game system), and a Windows 8 laptop, has gone totally rage against the Apple machine. I'm a little shocked frankly. I thought that the iGeneration was all into Apple.
How could I have been so wrong?
Aren't kids obsessed with Apple and iStuff?
Maybe not as much as I thought.
As I looked around the room a few nights ago at a parent-teacher meeting at my son's high school, I noticed that a minority of the phones were Apple. Most of the ones I saw were Samsung Galaxy types and two or three HTCs.
I hid my Tardis-cased iPhone 5 so that no one would see it. And not because of the Tardis case.
But here's the question again: Is my daughter's anti-Apple rant an isolated opinion or is it a new trend of the iGeneration?
I'd like to know what you think. Talk back and let me know. What technologies are your GenerationZ (iGeneration) kids using?
*I haven't talked about the new iPhones with my family. I'm too busy and I don't care.
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