It has been dubbed iPerbole and it describes the fascination bordering on pathological obsession with Apple's iPhone that has gripped the United States since the device was dangled in front of the world in January.
"People are going to sell their kids to get this thing," predicts Leander Kahney, the managing editor of high-brow tech magazine Wired. "They are going to go mental for it. You'll be stopped in the street and people will ask to look at it. And you'll be lucky if you don't get mugged."
Kahney, who is also the author of two books about technology culture, is not the only one giving this type of enthusiastic assessment. Many technology pundits, industry analysts, stockbrokers and culture watchers are similarly convinced that this is shaping up to be a big one.
The JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg told the Associated Press this week that this is the "most anticipated phone since Alexander Graham Bell did his", referring to the Scottish-born inventor whose 1876 utterance - "Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you" - launched the age of telephony.
It's raps such as these from respected, impartial observers whose reputation is staked on their sagacity that is making many think that maybe iPhone mania is not all hot air.
Just how big is the buzz on the gadget? A Google search on "iPhone" returns about 80 million references, about the same as a search on Harry Potter. A "Paris Hilton" search gives you a choice of 77 million links to look through. As big as Harry, the franchise which has its climactic book and fifth movie released in July, and bigger than Paris, who emerged from jail this week. That's big.
And six months of pent-up anticipation comes to a head this morning, Australian time. Apple shops and AT&T outlets across the US are opening their doors and ushering in the long lines of Apple fans, early adopters and opportunists who have queued up outside - some since Monday morning. Thousands will walk out clutching a package containing either a $US499 model with four gigabytes of memory or a $US599 model with an eight-gigabyte storage capacity.
As they emerge - especially those from the larger Apple shops around the US - it'll be like hitting the red carpet at the Oscars. Scores of ordinary folk will find fleeting fame for no other reason than they bought a mobile phone. They will be mobbed by reporters, cameramen and photographers and asked: "How does it feel to own an iPhone?"
Source : http://www.smh.com.au
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