The World after iPhone

September 12, 2012- Mumbai, Churchgate- 10 am: Overcast sky, slight drizzle, high tides in the Arabian Sea. The area is jam-packed with beggars, office goers, businessmen, students, pimps and prostitutes- all careering through at breakneck speed to prepare for another day of money, deals, drug, sex, food. Amidst the chaos and traffic, a young executive of a noted company looks visibly distressed in his fancy car. He flips out his fancy iPhone and holds it up- his face shines with radiance. Incidentally, a young woman trips along the pavement gazing at her iPhone’s updates from friends as John Lennon fills her ears- Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say, I am a dreamer…….

What if Lennon wakes up and slips into the country of his youth on September 12? He will witness a sort of adrenaline-fuelled journey in American history, when the invitees nip away wind and intermittent rain in San Francisco to see the era’s hottest design invention- 4G-enabled iPhone 5. Stuck in a flurry of ideas and sensations, the iconic singer will feel the eerie presence of Steve Jobs, Apple CEO Tim Cook and rock musician Dave Growl. He too will wait expectantly with the audience. Meanwhile, the newly launched iPhone 5 will take on the aura of timeless femininity with its sleek, delicate, soft features, that not only reflects Apple legacy but also creates a digital human culture embedded in life, construction that seem to be half urban, half religious, and quality of both expert workmanship and knowledge that is secret, sacred and mythic rather than practical and functional.

Much like Lennon, Jobs was a libertarian, seized with burning vision, who however believed the fate of the world depend on the effort of an "individual" who builds or propagates machinery of freedom that makes the world safe for capitalism. Jobs unveiled the first iPhone to the public in January 9, 2007 in San Francisco. The two initial models saw record sales, with hundreds of customers lined up outside the stores nationwide. The passionate reaction to the launch of the iPhone resulted in sections of the media christening it the ‘Jesus phone.’ While Apple is the most popular selling smart phone in the US, Samsung is the global leader in sales. Apple reported its best quarterly earnings ever in January 2012, with 53 per cent of its revenue coming from the sale of 37 million iPhones, at an average selling price of nearly $660. In February 2012, Comscore reported that 12.4 per cent of US mobile subscribers use an iPhone.

Armed with a polished surface and tolerances measured in microns, Apple seeks to position itself on a plane far higher than the drove of expensive luxury phones. What is indispensable is the sense of comfort it exudes when one holds it in his hand and operates with his thumb- almost like a seer who ferries people to the world where humanity is the only religion. The diviner detects on a hunch, when to create a radical device so the world accepts. He imparts it with unique features such as improved version of Siri to help it empathise with people.

A JP Morgan report suggests the release of iPhone 5 could potentially add between one-fourth and half per cent point to fourth quarter annualized GDP growth. However, economist Paul Krugman did not seem to buy the forecast and said that immediate gains would come from the way the new phone would get people to junk their old phones and replace them.

Finesse and subtlety define Apple aesthetic. iPhone 5 is 20 per cent lighter and 18 per cent thinner than iPhone 4S. It is just 7.6 millimeters thin and has white earpods. The device is encased in glass and aluminium and comes in two colours- black and white, with a silver black. The new iPhone 5 is priced at $199 for 16 GB, $299 for 32 GB, $399 for 64 GB (US).

meghnamaiti@mydigitalfc.com

ENDS

Of media & reviews

Of media & reviews

The reaction to a supposedly breaking story in a small newspaper can loosen up “men in tights”.  In an age of mainstream media, where a business newspaper is only valued by its liaisons with top corporates, a big story break in a boutique newspaper can gobble up such monsters, if only for a while. Suddenly, one might hear voices in a lone head and see intense visions.

A snobbish editor from an upstart media house might suddenly yield the low ground to “congratulate” the reporter involved with the story. He may even feign ignorance of the existence of the newspaper and recount how he only heard the news in a conference in the morning when others were talking about it. While another big media-house attributes the news by a national newspaper to a local one and refuses to acknowledge its presence. In this case, the solitary hero is foreign to an era in which it is understood that the world is increasingly interconnected now and big brands are slowly losing their exclusivities.

The reaction is often comical when some senior reporter from the industry comments:  “How could this newspaper fire up the stock?” (The story had moved up stock of a certain company). Such reactions reveal the disillusionment of the savvy journalists. It also points us to a certain sense of disconnect with the reality or an escapist mindset to avoid all complexities of modern media.

The recent trend in the media world is the dispersion of the center- it's natural because the news channels and newspapers no longer offer perspectives, because Indian society itself no longer presents an illusion of unity. Many  TV channels which have been anointed as stars with the maximum TRP (television rating point) or viewership’ turn out to be glorified corporate mouthpieces.

And these two realms of media and viewers become dispersed and discentered because people have stopped believing. Often, the result of such brutal reactions is yearning for a time when news was born out of idealism, a time when fewer questions were asked, fewer assumptions were made.

meghnamaiti@mydigitalfc.com