I'll tell you what the effect is...

 Apple fans generally go nuts when rumors of the latest iToy hit the tubes. It's sort of cultist in a way, but also a testament to the community that Apple has developed over the last ten years they have spent developing a powerful brand image with mass appeal. More people are jumping over to the Mac side of the force every day, and it's largely due to their marketing penetration that began with the smart designs of the Mac and Macbook lineup and spread out to the iPods, iPhones, and other non-computer devices that really put them back on the map.

 With all the talk about the iTablet or whatever it will be called, it started to make me wonder about many things Apple.

 First, their devoted fans are sort of nuts, and this announcement sealed the deal. When people get excited over whether or not the iTablet will include a camera, I look at my iPod Nano that does have a camera and wonder why this is big news. It's a camera. People have cameras all over the place. It was a big-ISH deal when the DSi had one, because it was the first time that a gaming system really broke the games-only barrier by adding functionality beyond the game itself. A computer not having a camera is not news, and the fuss I've seen reminds me of a Star Wars convention. The bad kind, I mean, not the good kind.

 On top of that, the very second rumors started to get out, every other YouTube link was some extremely white guy reading off the pre-printed list about how everything about it is big news. They even said something along the lines of "my sources tell me..."

 You don't have sources. You have the Internet just like everyone else. How do I know? You're "reporting" over YouTube, and you're doing it badly. Of course, if you decided to just lick the iPhone instead, a website may just ignore your useless banter and hire you anyway.

 I hate to continue with the Apple bashing, but I have to, because this next part is a mixed bag that both benefits and hurts them all at the same time.

 Nothing Apple has ever done has been original. As a matter of fact, Apple's MO is generally to take an idea that has existed for years, patent it, then enforce as much control as possible over it. Laptops existed before the MacBook, MP3 players were widespread before the iPod came around, smartphone users in Japan have for years had the advanced features of the iPhone, and the tablet has been commonplace since before Stargate: Atlantis launched. I say this because they flaunted those tablets every chance they got because Dell was paying them obscene amounts of money to do so.

 Nothing about Apple is earth shattering, original, or creative.

 Where they succeed, however, is doing what no one else does. Functionality. Yes, there are arguments, and I will be the first to bring them up, but Apple products are generally solid and much more reliable than the jumbled mess of components a PC can turn into. MP3 players used to be garbage. If it wasn't a flimsy plastic piece of crap to begin with, they never stood up to any regular use, were a pain to get music onto, and were obsolete within the year it was bought. Apple changed that into an overpriced product, but they gave it the pride, usability, support, and pipeline that music lovers didn't know they wanted all along. Macs have come a long way, too, becoming functional workstations when serious business needed to be taken care of with as little fuss as possible. The entertainment industry has pretty much preached for years that powerful applications for movie, music, and graphics are much more intuitive on a Mac. iPhones are standard social toys now because they wrap 100 useless products into a single useless product that works well.

 This all could have happened before if someone stepped up, but Apple pretty much led the charge when it came to stealing ideas and making them functional. Granted, you're completely limited if you choose them, because there is always a distinct lack of options with it comes to Apple. They choose their hardware so that everything works right every time, but that is usually all you'll ever get. You are literally paying Apple the premium to be organized and nothing else. I've seen idiots set up a wireless Apple household down to the Apple TV. I've seen geniuses fight to get their customized rigs to work right.

 Why has no one else stepped up? Well, it's a problem that leads to my third and final remark.

 That lack of organization is going to come back and bite someone in the ass sooner than later, and that someone is Microsoft. Microsoft doesn't quite realize it fully, but they know the danger is there. The reason that they are pushing themselves into gaming more now is that they know that they do one thing extraordinarily well, and that is to mercilessly advance things beyond the points of usability. Unfortunately, that also carries risks, but Microsoft is trying to strategically place themselves at a point of power in gaming, and this goes way beyond the XBox brand. Their tech is being used, their ideas are being implemented, and they threw so much money into gaming a decade ago because they knew that there was going to be an endless flow of cash that they wanted to be a part of. They are trying to expand themselves because the monopoly is crumbling fast.

 Apple is simply doing what makes too much sense. Microsoft develops something and throws it into the clusterf*** that is the Windows infrastructure, then forgets about it. Apple picks it up, organizes it, waits until they can make it work right, then releases it for a lot of money. Apple has started small, getting their devices into people's pockets without them ever buying a Mac. Google started small on the internet, and is now proving that they can make an impact outside of the browser.  The Linux crowd is always dangling the "it's free, and it works better" sign in front of them, and for good reason. Microsoft is left with Windows, but that's not going to last too much longer.

 Soon, all three are going to make an emphatic push all at once. Google's OS is going to nab the netbook hold from Windows XP, and in doing so, they will take aim at the flagship. Apple is working its way up, but one day, people are going to realize that the iTablet is only a whisker away from being a Mac, and there will be too much comfort there to ignore. Linux is going to get experimented on more and more by people looking to delve deeper into how a computer works. There isn't much room left for Microsoft after that.

 Not that I'm legitimizing Apple, don't get me wrong. It's just that Microsoft could have really pushed the hardware guys to give us a good tablet years ago. You know, when it was new and original. At least when Apple releases the iTablet, it won't cost so damned much to go buy one I'll actually use. Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit