In case you haven’t already heard (where have you been?), Apple is making an announcement about their new Tablet today.
Though no one knows for sure what this Tablet will be, many have made speculations about the new product, which is supposed to revolutionize the way we consume and purchase news and text.
Frankly, I am really sick of hearing all the hype.
Granted, this company employs some marketing geniuses – their ad campaigns are brilliant, and they are great at building anticipation.
Sure, iPods revolutionzed the way a lot of people listen to digitized music. So Apple does have some street cred and a band of very loyal fans behind them. However, hype is hype.
Natasha Lomas of Silicon.com writes, “Apple thrives on such hype, stoking it through what appears to be a series of carefully placed leaks to the press. Such is its marketing genius.”
As my friend Dan said, “I hope they unveil a fucking pen.”
Okay, so I admit that I was excited to hear that Apple is going to launch a product to rival the Kindle – who wouldn’t be remotely interested? I’m not a complete hater.
But the line was crossed when some people started fudging journalism to report on Apple’s release.
Paul Carr, in a post for TechCrunch.com, compared the hype to fan-fiction.
Instead of reporting the facts (which no one knows since the Tablet isn’t technically real), many have been speculating about its features and capabilities. As Carr states, some tech reporters, lured by Apple’s marketing savvy, have joined the race to guess the Tablet’s features, cost, even its real name.
What will it be? Who will win the contest?
I’m still voting for a pen.
For me, the line was ALSO crossed when some people started to claim that Apple might reinvent and/or save journalism.
No. Fuck you.
Jennifer said it best in a tweet to me, “Tired of journos looking at tech to save journalism. Tech is just a medium; journalism is the craft. Some can’t make distinction.”
Apple is a tech company. It is neither a media nor a publishing company, and I am so enraged thinking that someone could give Apple so much credit.
Media think tanks can’t save journalism, and publications like The New York Times have yet to do it!
Someone WILL eventually figure out how to monetize digitized information, I promise. However, even the chairman of the FCC says that no one can save media except the media, even if it hurts to try right now. Ms. Baker says, “The move to digital has splintered the traditional compensation structure of the news. Scripps has reported that a print reader brings in $500 dollars of annual revenue, but an online reader brings in $75 dollars.”
The University of Georgia also just released a study that claims e-readers will not charm newspaper devotees.
And I wholeheartedly agree.
Apple is not going to figure it out – they are not going to solve something. They are not going to save us.
They are launching something that will allow us to consume media in a new way. Digitized media already exists, and a new way to hold it in your hand is not going to change anything.
Oh, but someone had to point out that Apple IS a media company because they recently acquired mobile advertising company Quattro Wireless. Well, if I had some extra money and decided to buy a motorcycle, guess what? That wouldn’t make me a biker chick. To be something, you have to live and breathe the culture that surrounds it. You can’t buy identity.
Frankly, a new reader on the market should be a concern and an annoyance for the consumer.
Given Apple’s reputation for selling proprietary shit, buying content online is just going to be more complicated for you, the user. Have you ever tried moving mp3s you bought via iTunes to a new computer? Have you ever tried moving stuff from a PC to a Mac? Yeah, have fun:
I am currently trying to move my entire iTunes library from my MacBook to my Windows machine. iTunes doesn’t really like this idea, and I have failed after using a few different methods: iPod, CDs, an external hard drive, and Dropbox.
The most effective method was using my iPod (a proprietary Mac product), but my iPod mini that only holds about 250 songs at once. I have over 4,500 songs in my library. Also, to get my Mac-formatted iPod to work on my PC, I had to download MacDrive.
Apple products are great, but you have to be an absolutely devoted iEverything user if you want to stay sane. Josh Bernoff agrees:
The whole framework of the web (and web marketing) is based around the idea that everything is in a compatible format. Any browser, any computer, any connection, you see pretty much the same thing.
Now with iPhones, Androids, Kindles, Tablets, and TVs connecting to the web, that’s not true. Your site may not work right on these devices, especially if it includes Flash or assumes mouse-based navigation. Apps that work on the iPhone don’t work on the Android. Widgets for FiOS TV don’t work anywhere else.
Am I curious? Yes.
Will I buy it? On so many levels – no.
(Photo by davidgsteadman)
I agree completely that it is not Apple’s job (or intention) to save journalism. Journalism has problems much larger and more grievous than even how it monetizes. However, it’s worth pointing out that while Apple’s products are much more closed systems, they are not unique in that approach by any means–and it is that approach that allowed mp3s and music downloads to really flourish, which is what made possible the removal of DRM from iTunes tracks. That was not Apple being altruistic; it was just good business. And the web isn’t so open either. Flash is a proprietary technology licensed by Adobe. Sure, the web is literally plastered with it, but it’s not open. YouTube uses Flash except in rare cases like its HTML5 beta and when it delivers content to the iPhone/iPod Touch. Closed systems are not inherently bad. They often offer opportunities that open ones do not. I’m not saying the Apple Tablet will revolutionize anything, least of all journalism, but it might, just maybe, alter the way content is packaged and consumed at least here in the US, just the way that the iPod ended the world of CDs, the Album, and brick and mortar music stores. The mp3 and even the mp3 player existed long before Apple introduced the iPod and iTunes, but it was that closed system that worked so well that changed our consumption behavior, and thus, the music industry.
The iThingy will revolutionize the way some people consume media. But for shit-broke schmucks like me, it’s just one more fancy piece of technology to covet. I’ll survive.
Jobs hardly discussed magazines and newspapers. I remain unimpressed and will save my $500.