I don’t know what to think of this ‘research’(?) from Strand Consult called How will psychologists describe the iPhone syndrome in the future? except that it ties in very nicely with something I have written for Monday’s 247 news- “It is no secret that there has been a great deal of hype surrounding the iPhone and it is also no secret that Apple probably has the most loyal and fanatic customers in the world.
Here at Strand Consult we have been following the iPhone market and how it has been developing since the beginning. The time that has elapsed from sending out our initial research notes about the iPhone, up to the period surrounding the launch of our report The moment of truth, a portrait of the iPhone has been very exciting.
One of the areas that has fascinated us the most, is the approach that Apple and the iPhone fans have had to the product, and the energy they have spent defending the product despite the shortcomings and limitations of both past and present versions of the iPhone.
Simply put, Apple has launched a beautiful phone with a fantastic user interface that has had a number of technological shortcomings that many iPhone users have accepted and defended, despite those shortcomings resulting in limitations in iPhone users’ daily lives.
When we examine the iPhone users’ arguments defending the iPhone, it reminds us of the famous Stockholm Syndrome – a term that was invented by psychologists after a hostage drama in Stockholm…”
It’s a blessed relief that PDA247 is able to continue its policy of posting this sort of stuff about Apple because let’s face it, the iPhone is a pile of junk and these people need to be told, they need to know that there are so many other phones out there that are, quite frankly, completely faultless in comparison….like the Palm Pre for example.
What should the policy be then? I’m not saying it is good research (hence the question mark after the word in the article). I find the research to be daft, but that doesn’t mean it is not worthy of posting if only to show how daft it is. Having said that, it is sort of true…
Re other phones, none of them are better than the iPhone and none are worse- depends on what you need it for.
Disappointed.
This is a case of generating some headline grabbing but garbage research in order to raise your profile and get funding for something more interesting. I would guess
LOL Preking you have the funniest comment on this page. The article is essentially about Apple fanboyism and you start off the comments with Palm Pre fanboyism.
I wouldn’t consider stockholm syndrome as a true analogy as that would assume that a bad event has happened to the individual in question. A lack of a few features is hardly stockholm syndrome, and if so EVERY phone is guilty of it as no phone is perfect. lets face it, if you’ve bought a smartphone and kept it for more than a week you’re going to defend it’s shortcomings.
Which brings me to my other point – Apple products are far from unique in the way that users defend them. Apple is a nice target as they garner alot of press, but you only need to go to pocketpcthoughts.com or tomshardware.com to see the reverse (windows mobile fanboyism and windows apologists respectively) in action.
Geeks are and will always be defenders of the choice of hardware/software they make. The rest don’t defend their choices and I’d argue that non-geeks that own iPhones complain just as much as everyone else about the shortcomings and would drop it like a hot potato if anything comparable was available. There’s just not many options right now, and in my home country Australia the idiots at Palm are delaying the release of the Pre, and the Nexus one is also not available.