I wasn't a fan of Apple products for a long time. My first introduction to Apple products was in early 2005 when my employer gave me a Powerbook and I bought an iPod shuffle. They were both nice looking products and worked just fine, but I wasn't terribly impressed.
Those days I used work on my powerbook with Mac OS X Tiger at home and had a light weight 12" dell for work. As fas as the OS goes, I didn't find Mac OS X to be any more powerful or stable or easy to use than my XP. I found myself more at home with XP than with OS X. Lack of the range of software was a big negative and even for the apps that were available, the Mac versions are limited in feature set compared to my PC. Yahoo messenger didn't have video chat, websites with telugu scripts didn't work with firefox or safari neither does Yahoo music and telugu radio, iphoto couldn't handle a gigabyte of photos without freezing. Many little problems add up and made the experience less than ideal. I liked the hardware very much, a lot of thought is put into the placement of the keys on the keyboard and some special keys that makes life easier. The look of the machine was pretty cool and the coolness factor is pretty much evident. I carried it around to coffee shops, libraries, friends places etc...
And iPod shuffle, I just wanted to check out what the fuss about an iPod was all about and I bought the cheapest one I could get. Not the magic I was expecting. No display, no FM, its just a dumb device. The sleekness will only make u happy when u buy, after all its the utility. For the price $129, it was a rip off. May be if I went with regular iPod, I might have had a different experience. But Hey... the shuffles were selling as many as the regulars. Also, I never had a music player before shuffle and I never understood how can some one spend so much money on a device that does only one thing, play music.
With my experience with powerbook and shuffle, I couldn't understand what is so great about Apple products that people around me love so much and are willing to pay a hefty premium, I was certain that it is just bought by young and hip people to feel cool and so a great but mere marketing win by Apple.
When a phone from Apple is rumored a couple of years before it was released, I vehemently argued with my friend that the mobile phone market is not that easy to crack. Some of the most innovative companies like Nokia, Motorola, Sony, Microsoft have been in the market for years. I said it is impossible for Apple to beat them at their own game. I told him this time it would be different and apple is going to get smacked. My friend said he don't know how, but Apple will come up with something new that can compete with other phones on the market.
When MS was coming in with Zune and its marketing muscle, I said MS will neutralize iPods halo as well. My friend was sure that Apple would continue to innovate on iPod, and MS will be left chasing iPods tail.
I suspected he joined the cult of Apple and cannot see the truth. Not really. His prophecy came true.
Apple announced iPhone. I was on road for a conference and checked out Jobs key note after work. I called my friend and said I would buy it today if they sell it for $500 unlocked and if it is available on Verizon, since my employer pays for the service. I was so impressed with the device I was willing to shell out 500 bucks with out seeing it. But I was disappointed to learn that it is going to be available only on ATT and only 6 months later. Months followed with discussions on lack of keyboard, lack of features, blah blah... When the crazy rush subsided after it was released, I went to an Apple store and was disappointed with the phone as it took me less than two minutes to run out of things to check. I wrote about how expensive it is for the limited stuff to do and declared Apple just sells cool overpriced stuff for stupid kids.
Then things changed. I became a Product Manager. I had to shop for phones as I moved to my new job. I checked out Blackberrys, WinMos, Nokias and what not. I suddenly realized how inelegant and antiquated the rest of the phones and their interfaces are compared to iPhone. I could not believe how stuck the biggies are. There is nothing in those phones that says 'User Experience'. But was sure that Nokia will slam a dozen phones at Apple and drown it. Then, Apple announced App Store. Applications treated like MP3 songs? How did they even come up with that? That made me relate to the MP3 world before iPod and iTunes and why they were such a hit with music lovers. As I continued working on my product as a Product Manager trying to decide what to build and how to build, I started to truly understand the magic of Apple. The fact that after all these years, all these big wigs are still chasing iPod's and iPhone's tails.
I was not around to understand the impact when the first Mac was released or when the first iMac, the first iPod or iTunes were released. But I bet the excitement and WOW factor would have been as much as I have felt when I first saw and read about iPhone and about App store in iTunes. It is truly incredible how Jobs remade so many industries over and over.
The hype surrounding 
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