Gadget Wars. The Phantom Menace
Date: 01.06.2011
Gadget Wars. The Phantom Menace
Just 4 days after launching sales of iPad 2 in Russia, the media reported certain retailers to have sold out their first batches. The marketing genius of Steve Jobs and his Apple team makes the company win one country after another, again and again. If previously “Apple” adherents chose his solutions mainly in their protests against the industry monopolists, to be an Apple-follower is a fashionable tendency now. Surely, devices from Apple are originally designed and user-friendly. But there is no logical choice here but an obsession. And common American users are far from being the only subject to it. Even the nation of Confucian abstemiousness and restraint was unable to control the passion: the Apple Store in Beijing had to shut down when a fight broke out between customers longing for their new iPhones 4. The day before, certain bloggers mentioned jokingly that in case Apple will introduce multitasking, everyone will believe that it was Apple to invent it.
Indeed, Apple was able not to create but to revive whole industry segments previously characterized by unsteady growth or even stagnation. Tablets and smartphones were developed long ago, but the arrival of Apple solutions changed the market radically. With market volumes and device ranges growing, new patent litigations are initiated. Samsung, Nokia, Kodak, HTC and other giants dispute their shares in arbitrages. According to the latest news on a partner dispute (Samsung provides displays for Apple), the Korean giant is demanding to see Apple’s prototypes for upcoming products in its lawsuit.
Rather quickly, this conflict moved to the background the event that could not be overlooked and forgotten. Apple, which cared about its followers so much, which broke stereotypes and was considered the light of informational society, appeared to have tracked user movements. Officially, it was named an undocumented tracking feature for instant and accurate location data or simply a bug in iOS mobile platform but it does not change the matter.
Of course, Apple had to issue a press release. Even the guru commented on the situation noting that any emerging technology faces consumer distrust. “As new technology comes into the society there is a period of adjustment and education. We haven’t — as an industry — done a very good job educating people, I think, as to some of the more subtle things going on here …”. Jobs admitted that the industry should explain to users how certain technologies work. He is such a genius: this seems rather logical and resembles the tale of “25th frame”. As a result, users became much more interested in a launch of white gadget series.
Seems like everything is clear. But what about Russian president’s photos with a personal present from Steve Jobs? One could assume that the undocumented tracking feature covered Dmitry Medvedev, too. If so, a usual bug becomes a factor of international importance: a foreign company tracks the president’s device movement, knowingly and without any notification. Even though certain experts could tell that Dmitry Medvedev did not keep the device for too long and presented it to his son, still there is a serious problem.
If only it were a single fact (an inexpedient turn up it could be though). But we all know that grey import is a huge problem of Russia. Associating with the status and approved at the highest level, the gadgets were sure to enjoy heightened interest from state authorities. The above-mentioned bug took some time to be found. So, movements of Dmitry Medvedev are kept somewhere.
And what about easter eggs hid in the iPad’s iOS? Looking at photos and videos from the government and the parliament sessions, one could presume potential tracking of numerous state officials. Certain regions decided to save money (sic) by transferring local administrations and legislative assemblies to electronic document management with iPads.
The necessity of the media and Internet regulation is a pressing theme now. Is this task really that important? Open informational space helped to instantly inform the world community about global surveillance due to a single bug of operating system.
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