Seconds ago, my colleague Dana walked into our office and said he tried to talk to the people sharing his elevator up to our floor about the new iPhone 5. To his surprise, neither one of the two people knew what he was talking about, and hadn’t even realized Apple announced a new product.
In our tech-obsessed professions, it can be hard to remember that not everyone (especially not in our industry) keep up with the ever-changing world of consumer technology. Of course, Jimmy Kimmel had a different take on the matter. The late-night talk show host decided to take it to the streets of Hollywood and showed random people the iPhone 4S and told them they were previewing the iPhone 5. This resulted in a ton of people truly believing the phone was new and different, even though some of the previewers owned an iPhone 4/4S themselves.
Some of the comments include a change in weight, thinness, and processing speed. One guy was even holding his own iPhone 4 in the other hand and still commented that the weight was different, while another says he owns an iPhone 4S and likes the “new one” better.
We’re not sure what Jimmy Kimmel actually thinks of the iPhone 5, but maybe this is his way of saying what we’ve all mentioned yesterday… been there, done that, nothing remarkably new. But of course, we’ll be the judge of that when we actually get the authentic iPhone 5 in our hands to see if what this lightweight, skinny body, A6 processor really means. If you see anyone in the street telling you to preview an iPhone 5, just remember: the official Apple product ships September 21. Anything before that is a jerk trying to hoax you!
I’ve seen this time and time again. People want to buy the latest greatest for bragging rights and not for features or functionality. Even those that do do so just because they think it’s going to magically be 100′s of times better. In the long run its all about perception. Apple, and other companies, tell you its going to be “better, faster and lighter” and customers drink the koolaid. Most the time you aren’t doing to notice a difference in an incremental update or the drop in weight of a few grams. Its not until they make significant changes that you’ll truly notice a difference.
This only furthers my point that people only want the iPhone for the Apple logo to show their friends.
Its really all in your head… :-)
Some people… LOL XD