Close Encounters of the Apple kind

Although my professional loyalties remain with the guys at Redmond, I have had an unabashed admiration for most of the products rolled out by Apple Computer..err..Apple Inc. I mean.

Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in the MACWORLD Expo in San Francisco amidst an entire legion of MAC followers who do not belong to any religious cult but would be willing to take lives to get their hands on the latest uber-cool device by Apple.

The iPhone is not just another phone.. It is yet another testimony of Steve's genius & Apples larger than life vision of bringing a beautiful & magnificent piece of technology to gadget hungry markets.
The hugely popular & ubiquitous iPod which I guess has become not just a super cool digital device but a symbol of a new breed of 'digitally-wired-always-on-the-move' demographic. Apple is hoping to replicate the same kind of success that it enjoyed with the iPod.
And we have the iPhone which is a phone(duh?), an iPod & an internet device all rolled into one piece of artistic brilliance.

His Jobsness has this uncanny ability to influence even non MAC users & has a borderline hypnotic effect on all of us. His almost evangelical persona creates an illusion & hold us in awe. He gives us these shiny metal thingies which we didn't know we wanted & makes us believe that possessing it can actually transform us into 'Happy Human Beings'.. & it really does.There were hordes of mp3 players but the iPod was a far cry from all the stuff that was out there.

So what's gonna happen to the Nokias & Motorolas of the world? Well only time will tell whether Apple can hynotize mass markets or will it remain another internet enabled device that you cannot do without..

Technical deficiencies (2G, disconnect with Apples iTunes music store..) are a few but the highly intuitive user interface more than makes up for it.

Check out the snapshots.
Also check out why Apple makes us cry.

[image source: engadget]