Steadfast Finances
A Personal Finance & Investing 101 blog that delves into current events, consumer education, and techniques to improve your bottom line.
Best AntiConsumerism, Anti-Tech Gadget Ad Ever
My apologies to the pro-Apple cohort, but the anticonsumerism sentiment in this “Anti-iPad” photo is just too spot on not to post.
I write about pragmatic spending and consumer education on this blog quite a bit, and while I love a solid tech gadget that adds productivity to my daily life, the Jon Stewart-like wit of a random passerby with a purple pen and obvious disregard to defaming advertisements might be 99.9% accurate when it comes to the iPad.
While the cheapest iPad is around $499 (as of 2010-06-22), the associated wireless plans and 3G data plans will probably make that $1000 per year cost an easy reality. In fact, the wireless and data plans will almost certainly outweigh the upfront iPad costs, and cost far more than $1000, if you keep it for more than a year.
I get that the Apple has a fiercely loyal following and it’s products have a higher value (perceived or realized is debatable) than other tech gadgets, but lately, Apple (and a few other consumer driven technology companies) appear to be using a 1970s General Motors business model of planned obsolescence.
Consider this: lots of glitz and glam surrounding product release, products are competitive but have a few technological shortcomings, and products have a few “upgrades” or “room for improvement” that will ostensibly be added to future models in one to three years.
In other words, they’re all missing an important something that can be added to a new model to be released at a future date with the premeditated intent of getting you to shell out an additional couple hundred bucks on a consistent basis to ride the wave of (arguably value added) upgrades.
Think Apple iPhones. Think Amazon Kindles. Think Microsoft Windows.
Call me crazy, but I don’t think I’ve drank enough of the consumerism Kool-Aid to fall for the “buy me today, but buy a slightly upgraded me two years from now” sales pitch.
Photo info: permission to use photo was asked for and granted by Flickr user Brittney. I have no knowledge who added the “Douche: let me go spend a grand to check Facebook” text, but it’s a good illustration of the dangers of street level advertisements.
4 Comments
Jun 22, 20101:14 pm
Yep, they definitely have a finger on the pulse of American consumers. You almost have to say they’ve created a grown up version of “little Johnny has one, so I need one too” thing driving sales. 3 million iPads sold in 80 days supposedly, if I heard it correctly.
I was fearful of sounding anti-tech across the board, but with many of these types of gadgetry, I find it’s better to take a “the second mouse gets the cheese” philosophy. As you say, let the techies and early adopters write a boatload of complaints for Apple to add/fix, then maybe, I’ll come by a little later and hopefully avoid overpaying, tech issues, etc.
Jun 22, 20101:47 pm
I’m writing this from my iPad. So I’m a little, erm, biased. But what the iPad does for me is eliminate the functions that I don’t need in a laptop in exchange for a modest price and size reduction. I DO need capability to access the internet and deal with stuff related to my blog while not using my full-time job’s network or resources. I don’t need a mouse or processing power to accomplish the functions I need to accomplish (at home, I do some pretty serious Photoshop and video ed work, so I opt for a desktop there. But to each his own!
And a clarification on price. If you buy the $499 model, you’re going to have wifi access alone. So no ancillary wireless plan costs. With the cheapest 3G model and the cheapest (250MB) data plan. Your cost for one year would be about $850. Also, the wireless plans have no contract. I don’t have a smart phone. So going with the 3G version was a no-brainer for me. Anyway, not trying to sound defensive. Just presenting how a rational person could reach the opposite conclusion to yours! Nice post.
Aug 2, 201011:10 pm
LMAO – this literally made me laugh out loud. So sad and so true. People are sheep, waiting to be herded into spending all of their money as soon as the next gadget is made in their favorite color…I need to change professions…
12:40 pm
The iPad ads are really out in full force, aren’t they? I was out in midtown NYC yesterday and counted at least 5 iPad ads on billboards/bus stops etc. within just a couple of blocks. Of course we heard today that they’ve already sold $3 million of them, so it looks like they haven’t had any trouble selling them to all of the fanboys and early adopters.
I agree though that right now, it’s simply priced much MUCH too high to make sense for the average consumer. At $1000+, you’re talking about the cost of a mid-to-upper range laptop with about half the functionality, if even.
My advice for those interested in one? Wait for the early adopters and techheads to take advantage now and a year later when Apple brings the price down by another couple hundred dollars (and fixes whatever bugs were inherent in the first batch) then buy, if you truly feel you need one. In fact, with Amazon & Barnes and Noble dropping the prices of their e-reader devices just yesterday, the inevitable price drop might come sooner than people think.