By Andrea Ordonez, Editorial Editor
The iPhone 4S made its grand appearance this week but did not perform as well as expected in the market, causing a three percent decrease in Apple shares according to the Wall Street Journal.
Many anticipated Apple’s big announcement would highlight the iPhone 5, only to be disappointed by unexciting news on how to upgrade the iPhone 4 with the same A5 chip in the iPad 2.
Most of the time, you cannot think for the fervor surrounding the new Apple product, despite its costs. There are long lines at Best Buy and Radio Shack filled with customers wanting to get anything new stamped with a lowercase ‘i’ and a half-eaten apple.
I’ve had my fair share of long lines (Harry Potter fans, you know what I’m talking about), but never for any hype over some new toy, electronic or not. I never begged my mom to stand in front of the glass doors of Toys-R-Us for a Tickle-Me-Elmo or a Furby. I chose Burger King over McDonald’s when lines for Happy Meals with beanie babies circled around the parking lot, and I bought my iPod months after my friends who stood in the heat did.
As with a fair amount of people at Hofstra, I’m a proud PC user and an Android smartphone lover.
Yes, people who don’t have iPhones and Macbooks can exist happily. A PC and an Android might be the cheap options, but isn’t having them better than putting money into something that loses hype after a couple of months? Picking these devices should be about efficiency and getting the job done well for as little money possible.
I appreciate that my laptop with a warranty still costs less than a Macbook with no warranty or some sort of protective insurance, and that my phone can make calls, connect to Wifi networks, and play music.
I like the Android Market and its thousands of apps, several of which are free like Angry Birds, and the more intellectual Instafetch, compared to their Apple counterparts.
I’ve had my Android a little over a year, and within that time, Apple has introduced the iPhone 4 and iPads. I plan to have my Android until it dies on me, by which time I presume not just the iPhone 5 will be released, but another set of upgraded versions after that.
Will Apple eventually outdo itself to the point that people stop standing in long lines? A three percent decrease in shares is too little to serve as a significant indicator of this dominating electronic corporation’s future. Apple’s influence still has the potential to grow stronger. But the hype over beanie babies and Furbies eventually died down, and one day, the craze over Apple’s new iPhones will too.
