Leading analysts at Strand Consult have created an
internet storm over their comments that iPhone users are nuts.
Strand released an opinion entitled "How will
psychologists describe the iPhone syndrome in the future?." It said that Apple has launched a beautiful phone with a
fantastic user interface that has had a number of technological shortcomings
that many iPhone users have accepted and defended, despite those shortcomings
resulting in limitations in iPhone users' daily lives.
It claims that iPhone buyers behave in a similar way to
kidnapped hostages who end up defending their captures. It is what
psychologists call Stockholm Syndrome. It is not surprising that Mac fanboys have rushed to
defend themselves against claims that they are barking mad. As well as the usual whining that it is Microsoft users
who are the real victims of an abusive company, the Apple fanboys make
themselves living examples of the complex that Strand describe.
As you would expect the comments have provoked badly
written, poorly spelt posts, often in capitals, on news groups. The posts claim that Apple fanboys are picked upon, and
that Strand are paid by Microsoft. There are long lists of the features of the
iPhone without comparisons to other products followed by statements like “I
LOVE MY IPHONE”.
What is even more amusing are the attempts by reporters
in the US to play down the comments. The
tech press over there is so well and
truly in Apple's pocket that they make snide comments that imply that Strand's
minds are not “finely calibrated”. In fact the comments are pretty much a no brainer and an
attempt to explain why a mediocre phone with a nice interface has managed to do
so well.
If you talk to fanboys and point out the shortcomings of
their gadget they some how manage to turn these things into advantages.
Otherwise they ignore the problems with the phone all together and just insist
that there is not a more wonderful piece of gear out there. However it is unusual for an analyst firm to say anything
this amusing about any product, or its customers, and we have to salute Strand
for having balls so big you need a wheelbarrow to get to the shops.