The most exciting moment of the new semester may be getting that new technology for which you’ve spent all summer saving up.
I am a hypocrite as I type this on my beloved MacBook, but I just have to admit it: Too many students tote around too many Apple products.
Why did we all choose an Apple product? Was it because of a previous bad experience? In my case, it was a bulky Dell laptop that couldn’t load Chrome but was very willing to load the useless Microsoft Word Paperclip to bother me as I waited.
I have to credit Apple for its philosophy of promoting form and function: They come into a nightclub ready for heads to turn and focus on them with every new product announcement. The other companies in the market have heard the message we preach about Apple loud and clear for years.
Technology has recently reached an equilibrium of meeting our demand for speed and response at the right price, but we still stick to the California company. We have a variety of phones released with “quad-core” technology inside, but we find ourselves in line for the new iPhone at 4 a.m. Top reviewed tablets with state-of-the-art features go for $200, but people will work extra shifts for the iPad. Why are we so willing to spend hundreds of more dollars for the glowing fruit label and aluminum body?
My MacBook randomly broke down on me in the middle of a marketing lecture last year. Now, all I had sitting before me for two weeks was the same as my old Dell years ago: a large paperweight. Apple isn't as perfect as I once believed.
Much like a well-reviewed restaurant on Yelp, people will come by the dozens following the 5-star ratings for these products. But you have to do some research of your own on the hot new business down the block. Apple was that business. You forgot the “Macintosh,” but you do know that iMacs are the top commodity in the computing commons.
We’re all young adults who will make an abundance of decisions during this time. For now, enjoy being one of the hundreds of illuminating apples piercing the darkroom of a lecture PowerPoint, like me.
Maybe the dramatic shift will only happen when all college classes finally initiate a solution to budget woes by assigning us only “custom textbooks” every year.
Catch Vincent and his Apple product wherever an open outlet lies, email him at vqnguye1@asu.edu and follow him @TaeQuangdoh.
