Apple's sneaky changes

Apple is freaking brilliant.

Last week, Apple released the new iPhone 5 just a year after the iPhone 4S hit the market.

With a quick release date like that, you would expect the public to be cautious about jumping too soon onto the band wagon.

This has not been the case.

If press coverage is any indication, the iPhone 5 has been a fan favorite, sparking many preexisting iPhone owners to fight for upgrades while those on the outside scramble to find ways to join the iClub.

The features of the newest upgrade are startlingly few.

Yes, the screen is bigger. This is hardly a drastic change, yet it gets the public all hot and excited to beef up their phones.

The camera is the same. Siri is the same. The battery life is almost identical.

But here is where we get to the pure brilliance of Apple. There are three very specific differences between the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5 that are less for actual usable improvement and more for business domination.

First, the SIM card found in the iPhone 5 is not compatible with any other iPhone or any other phone. This makes it impossible to transfer significant amounts of data to a new piece of hardware and requires that only iPhone 5 equipment be used in the future.

Second, the headphones that come with the iPhone 5 are a new and sleeker design and come with their very own carrying case.

Third, and most important, the adaptor capable for charging the phone and connecting it to a USB drive is a new design. The new “Lightning” design sends the “30-pin” connector of the past into oblivion, creating a generation of obsolete connectivity.

These changes seem small, yet they create total dominance for Apple. By creating new hardware options, it outdated the old models and made it impossible for those past purchases by consumers to be used on the new product.

For those who used to have car chargers, two different USB cables, or spare headphones, all those appliances need to be repurchased. And it isn’t as though Apple went to the almost universal “mini-USB” adaptor. This all-new plug is just one more way that Apple creates a cellular monopoly.

Whether or not you buy into the consumer crazed iPhone rush, the bottom line is that Apple has set themselves at the head of the social cellular race.

Even if iPhone doesn’t have as nice a camera, as usable apps, as sleek a design, it most definitely is a status symbol — one that grabs the attention of the entire world.

Let’s just hope the iPhone 6 doesn’t come before you get the chance to open the box.

­— azoot@indiana.edu