An Open Letter To Apple

AN OPEN LETTER

TO APPLE (THE COMPANY THAT SELLS iPODS AND iPADS, NOT THE FRUIT THAT HIT ISAAC NEWTON ON THE HEAD)

February 14, 2010

Dear Apple,

As a loyal customer and fervent fan, I applaud your innovations and the constant improvements you have made on your software as well as your hardware products. I fell in love with your brand at the introduction of the iPod in the early years of the new millennium, and subsequently, have come to know and love your products: I am an avid user of the Macbook, I entertain myself with my iPod and I stay connected with my family and friends through my iPhone.

You have managed to remodel essential consumer technological products such as the MP3 player, the laptop and even the mobile phone by repackaging them as niche, simple and clean gadgets that appeal to the average consumer. That’s ok, because who wouldn’t want to walk down the street plugged in to their iPod or talk on their iPhone, having an image of superiority and sophistication? But now, you’ve gone one step further and rehashed your own product while claiming to have birthed your “most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device”: the iPad.

Yeah but…. what? When rumors of the Apple tablet started circling in the technological world, many experts theorized that Apple, the same company who came up with the industry-changing iPhone, would produce a tablet computer that would once again bring about an industry-wide ripple effect. But instead, we were introduced to an enlarged version of the iPhone/iPod Touch (depending on whether we’re talking about the 3G or non-3G capable versions, but it really doesn’t matter). How revolutionary.

Secondly, the name. What were you thinking when you came up with “iPad”? I don’t suppose that there were ladies on the project who thought that it was an odd name for the device and didn’t sound it out? I know that you probably want to keep the associative rhyme (like “iPod” and “iPhone”), but any word that is synonymous with a female hygiene product isn’t exactly ideal in making a good first impression, unless you are actually trying to break into that particular market, which you obviously aren’t.

Thirdly, iBooks is hardly a new concept (much less a feasible selling-point for the iPad). Excuse me while I attempt to refresh your memory. If you do a little search in your iTunes store, you will be able to find the “Stanza” as well as the “Amazon Kindle” App for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. These Apps work exactly like iBooks by giving users the ability to download entire books onto their devices, but I’m sure you already knew that because you probably approved of those Apps for the App Store yourself. I have henceforth assumed that the above mentioned Apps would be facing their demise (along with my collection of e-books) when iBooks is up and running, lest you prove me wrong.

Lastly, please stop congratulating yourself on innovation. You're making your fans (ie. people like me) look like douchebags. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Justin Jap