Dear Apple:
I love you. Seriously. I loooooooove you. I have drunk the Kool-Aid, forsaken all others, suffered through the application of an elaborate tribal tattoo on that little spot just above my crack. If you were an actual person, not only would I never forget your birthday and always bring you chicken soup in times of illness, I would probably also upon occasion drive around your house when you weren't there just to feel close to you.
So why you do me this way?
I know, I know, I used to run around on you with that bad, bad man. Not all the time, just for email and contacts. But I'm with you now. I abandoned my Palm for you. I started syncing to my eentsy-weentsy nano, even though I can barely make out those addresses in -4 font size. It wasn't a bad workaround, all things considered.
Still, a girl needs to feel connected. She needs to talk. And what do you do when I feel this need to express myself, to feel safe and connected? You proffer...the Rockr. The Rockr!!! 20+ years of bold, innovative thinking and the best you can muster is a half-assed music player cobbled onto a phone so ugly, it offends my ToastROven.
Good god, you're Apple! Apple, man! A design leader! A tech visionary! Creator of iTunes, the user-friendly UI and the hottest displays on the planet! And you're letting that behemoth Blackberry and that buggy-ass Treo horn in on your action? Get real, dude! No, I'm not seeing either of them...yet. I'm just dicking around with a Razr for now. He's not everything I want, but he can take care of my basic needs and, let's face it, I'm not ashamed to pull him out of my purse.
Look, I don't want to break up with you, but it's clear right now that we need some time apart. Who knows? Maybe this'll be kind of a wake-up call. Maybe once you see me juggling my Razr and nano and odd scraps of paper, trying to get by as best I can, you'll step up to the plate and be the brand leader I've come to know and love.
In the meantime, take care of yourself. I know the whole content upsell thing is fresh and new, but it can be a trap, too. You have one major asset over all your competitors, Mr. Hotty-Mc-Hot, and it ain't your price points.
Okay. I'm getting bitter now and I promised myself I wouldn't. I'll see you soon...white and silver and gleaming, vibrating with an iTunes ringtone, like a dream I dreamt but forgot.
Right?
Right?
xxx c
Photo by Brian Eric Ford via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license