The iPhone 5S has broken my addiction. It is the first iPhone launch where I have not stayed up until midnight to order (or pre-order) the newest and greatest offering from the mighty Apple. It is already poised to set new sales records and many tech reports are touting it as the fastest and just plain best smart phone money can currently buy. So why my sudden change of heart?
I am a tech-junkie. In a way, I am the digital world equivalent of Charlie Brown, always running toward the football, ready to kick and believing that this time, Lucy won't pull it away just before I connect. That's often how I feel after my purchases, let down by the promise of what I imagined versus the reality of what is. I have been an early adopter so many times, my friends long ago dubbed me the go-to guy for all their electronic purchases. Maybe it's age, perhaps it's maturity or could it be that I have simply realized that being first in the ever-changing world of gadgetry is a goal with diminishing returns?
My current 64gb iPhone 5 works well. As a matter of fact, it's great. Will the momentary rush of excitement over nabbing an elusive Gold 5S really be worth the more than $500 I would have to spend to get it? I doubt it. My 24-year-old daughter is still happy with her iPhone 4S, now TWO generations old. What does she know that I don't? First, she realizes that it's a phone, a tool and not just to be viewed as a status symbol. It works. It makes and receives calls, texts, emails and allows for quick internet searches and catching up on the various news and gossip sites. What else do you need?
I am already a breath away from being reached at any time from anyone, anywhere. Is there something better than instant gratification? Super instant? Maybe I am nostalgic, but I miss those periods before the digital age of remaining at-large and unreachable in my car. I still enjoy being on commercial flights for the very reason that, at least for an hour or two or three, nobody can call me.
I suppose that I was waiting for another game-changer like the original iPhone or the iPod and iPad. Since the passing of Steve Jobs, a lot of folks are wondering if those disrupters are on still the horizon for Apple or if the mantle of the creating that next big thing will be taken by some other upstart who thinks different. Who knows? I can't slam Apple. The company is going to remain remarkably successful regardless of the critics' disappointment over this evolutionary rather than revolutionary new iPhone. And perhaps it should remain the world's most valuable corporation. After all, it makes the greatest iPhone, perhaps even the greatest phone, ever. But for now, at least, I am putting that call to the Apple Store to purchase my next iPhone on hold.