Don't get your hopes up

Last night I had a bit of an incident with my Blackberry. I have long been a fan of this technical marvel for the time it gives me back rather than the time it demands of me.

Reading mail on the taxi ride across town each day is a huge saver of time for me so that when I get into the office I am raring to go and ready to get on with more important tasks…like getting the first coffee of the day. But last night it let me down, it just stopped working, it was like it passed quietly away at a time I desperately needed to make a phone call. In the frustration that followed things might have been said, fingers might have been pointed a blackberry might have been thrown against a wall, who can say.

Bottom line my blackberry doesn’t work anymore and I think I realised I have outgrown it. One reason is I am sick of the sight of it and I am sick of it growling at me at inconvenient times at night when I am trying to relax, but secondly I am a little caught up in the hysteria of the iPhone. It’s the adult version of the Harry Potter phenomena and I make no apologies.

I have long been a mad Apple fan and I have been reading all the reviews from gushing technology journalists about the iPhone and frankly it makes the loss of my BB much easier to take.

I can’t wait. But then we have to because we’re in Asia.

This long awaited iPod/communicator hybrid is now available in the US and that launch even saw some enthusiasts camp out the front of the Time Square Apple store to ensure they were one of the first to get their hands on the gadget. It saw some fly half way around the world from countries where it would only be seen many months later.

In Asia we are in for a long wait. A vague date of 2008 has been given for the launch date here and in neighboring markets and there is nothing we can do but suck it up.

As consumers we have no leverage against these staged roll outs, the hype surrounding the iPhone has been epic and has seen Apple and the Apple fanboys create a massive circle of love for the product particularly by creating an audible hum around the blogs and on forums and social tagging news sites, but all we can do is watch from the sidelines.

Apple will sell all units of the iPhone so these staggered launches make sense to keep different markets keen.

Or does it make sense?

Apple needs to learn lessons the film industry did, that one of the best ways to combat piracy is to do a global same day release. It won’t take long before some enterprising mainlanders get their hands on the iPhone and reverse engineers it and creates a cheaper and probably poorer quality version for the local market.

While I wouldn’t buy, in this instance, anything but the real thing, I would say to Apple it’s a fine line between keeping consumers keen and making them wait so long they give up and turn to a competitive product or cheaper rip off.

Come on Apple bring the release date forward, I am in the market for a phone, I’m a motivated buyer…and I promise I wont’ throw it against a wall.