Is Apple In Trouble?

A biased look at the biggest tech company through the eyes of my roommate

*Read the original Post here 

First off – Apple is a giant in the tech world and has been since my early years of high school where I met my best friend and now roommate. One thing about my wonderful roommate is that she is a Tech Junkie (in the most flattering way possible). All throughout high school she always seemed to have the newest gadget from the i-Empire. I remember when she brought home the new iPod and then the iPod Touch when she needed touch screen, and now she has a Macbook Air because her Pro was too heavy, an iPad and the iPhone 4. In fact, if you remember the hilarious commercial from the Superbowl making fun of a particular group of fans sitting in line for the newest iPhone, well, that would be her, which I say with complete loving respect. 

Lately though Apple has faced a few question marks with the recent passing of Steve Jobs and the lack of innovation from the iPad 2 to iPad 3, though their earning reports haven’t seemed to notice. But through it all, my roommate was standing strong in defense of her tech brand. So when we were wandering in the mall on one of our many girly trips, I was shocked to see her staring at the new Galaxy Note (though I will admit it caught my eye as well). Initially, I just brushed it off as new technology curiosity until she pulled out her iPhone right there, opened Safari and logged into her service providers’ website to see how much it would cost to upgrade to the Note that day.

Later that night when we were home I felt my phone buzz and saw that I had a few new pins on my Pinterest board. She was looking at cases for the Note and had sent me a few she thought I would like. We started to discuss the upgrade (that’s right, upgrade from the iPhone to a Galaxy Note) and found that there were many features that were pulling us over. Beyond that, there were a lot of concerns making us wary of Apple. The difference (or lack thereof) between the old iPad and the new iPad really got us - a higher resolution screen and a bit thinner body? That’s it? The iPhone hadn’t seen much improvement either, as its layout and OS hadn’t changed much aside from a recent upgrade that allowed you to personalize ringtones.

Then we came to a sad realization. Despite the allure of its competitors, she may not ever be able to leave the iPhone. She already owns a MacBook Air and iPad. Once she left her iPhone for any other phone she would be sacrificing the easy transferability between devices. Plus, she has a LIBRARY of iTunes music that she has been building for years, and her iPhone syncs so easily with her Macbook as an MP3 player. We realized exactly how sneaky Apple had been; it ninja-d into our lives, with promises of easy use and top of the line technology. Now she was stuck. Was she really ready to leave Apple if it meant giving up so much convenience? 

Having realized just how difficult it may be to leave the Apple family, we decided to wait and see what would be announced at the E3 conference, be it a new phone or software - anything worth staying with Apple? Or maybe it’d finally be time to abandon ship? 

At the E3 Conference, Apple announced their new iOS6 and interesting upgrades coming in the fall, when we can also expect to see the new iPhone 5, otherwise known as Apple’s last chance with some of its more loyal fans. Since it’s still a considerable amount of money to upgrade to the Note at the moment, we are going to wait until the fall and the rumoured launch of the iPhone 5, saving up money now (her and I) for a much needed upgrade since the new iOS6 won’t work with my old school iPhone3. That means I either move to an iPhone5 or the Note this September.

What do you think of Apple lately? Is it worth staying loyal, or is there someone new out there that’s more deserving of my time and money?

Stay tuned for the decision coming this fall! :P