An Apple History of Obsolescence

I hold in my hands something that this time a year ago was the most lusted after product in recent history, perhaps ever. I waited 18 hours in line for it and now observe that, come Friday, it will be essentially obsolete. So goes technology. But Apple, with its never-ending drive to invent what is new, and market it aggressively, is particularly harsh in the area of making things go from lust-worthy to obsolete in a heartbeat.

I'm reminded on the year 1991 and a visit to my friend James Bain's apartment. He was going to show me his brand new Apple IIci with, get this, an external scsi hard drive and a 14" color monitor! I remember leaving that apartment absolutely completely blown away. As equally blown away as when I first used the iPhone (if not more). I went home to my Mac Plus, with its black and white screen and dreamt of getting a machine like James. This was pre-the web (at least for me, at home) so my dreams were satiated by Macworld Magazine. I imagined having the thousands, yes, thousands of dollars to get a system like James.

Now a IIci resides with a collection of my old Macs (over 30, and counting). With it are other memories of lust that now just collect dust.

The blue and white G3. I was working at Rykodisc as a designer and our boss got one. It was blue. It was transparent. It had this huge "G3" on the side. And I wanted one.

In my basement are a bunch of old powerbooks, but I remember my Pismo powerbook, my first portable, with great memories. I loved that machine! A relatively portable Mac that was pretty fast.

I also have my first 10 gig iPod. When I first got it it was futurism at its best. The form factor was delicious, the technology unbelievable....all that music!

Now, next to my iPhone and newer iPod that original iPod has the same look-and-feel as my old Mac Plus. Interesting, but....old.

Which brings me to the new iPhone and the absurdity that come Friday what was once so insanely unbelievable hot will be, well....not. It won't be a paperweight (although, with its all metal-back it'll outweigh the new plastic back any-day). That's the funny thing about technology, I could very easily be writing this article on my old Mac Plus. I could even, I think, swing posting it to the web on the Plus. The point is that all these old things were once so useful we spent all day on them and now we shudder to think spending even an hour using them.

I won't be getting a new iPhone on Friday. The only good new things are GPS and 3G. I want to see how good the 3G coverage really is before buying in. Plus, in this one case, I kind of like being old-school. I won't go so far as to match my old iPhone with my old Pismo powerbook and get out my old ImageWriter. But still, just for once, I'll stick with the old.