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Are iPhone users suffering from "Stockholm Syndrome"

OK, this is weird, but it's a great find by the folks at 9 to 5 Mac.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer

OK, this is weird, but it's a great find by the folks at 9 to 5 Mac.

iPhone users are suffering from delusion akin to Stockholm Syndrome, says Strand Consulting in a weird little slice of research released this morning by this particular team of generally anti-iPhone analysts.

In case you've unfamiliar with Stockholm Syndrome, here's a primer.

The piece makes interesting reading. Here are some highlights:

"One of the areas that has fascinated us the most, is the approach that Apple and the iPhone fans have had to the product, and the energy they have spent defending the product despite the shortcomings and limitations of both past and present versions of the iPhone."

"Simply put, Apple has launched a beautiful phone with a fantastic user interface that has had a number of technological shortcomings that many iPhone users have accepted and defended, despite those shortcomings resulting in limitations in iPhone users’ daily lives."

Note: Here's a direct link to the piece.

The piece then goes on to look at arguments put forth by iPhone fanatics:

The first iPhone was not a 3G phone: What do you need 3G for? You can easily use the iPhone without using a 3G network and anyway, 3G is not particularly widespread, so this is not a problem.

The phone cannot send MMS: There is no need to send MMSs, hardly anybody sends MMSs.

The iPhone cannot multitask, resulting in a great number of applications being unusable: The absence of multitasking is a deliberate design decision resulting in a faster UI.

You can only purchase the iPhone from operators chosen by Apple: Apple has spent a great deal of time and energy selecting the best operators for customers.

You can not install your own browser: The browser Apple has designed is so superior that you do not need any other browser on your phone.

While I have little doubt that there are iPhone users suffering from a tech equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome (which Strand Consulting suggests we should call "iPhone Syndrome"), it's far from being isolated to the iPhone. People feel the need to justify and defend their choice of tech. I love the tortuous logic that some people employ in order to feel they made the right choice.

Note: This isn't the first time Strand Consulting have written about the iPhone. Here's another piece that'll give you an insight into the way their minds work: iPhone the mobile equivalent to Paris Hilton.

What do you think? Is there a tech equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome? Is it something that iPhone users suffer from?

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