The Counter-Revolutionary Apple

Amidst the full fury of the marketing machine that is Apple Computers, here's a refreshing take on the class-fueled consumption of Apple products. While the author is far too generous on Apple's contributions and omits their numerous faults, this is right on the money:

[T]he killer feature of the iPod was always those white earbuds. That was what really sold. You could ride the subway or walk down the street and everybody knew that there was something very expensive in your pocket. Why, otherwise, not switch to some nondescript-- and likely higher quality-- headphones? Because such headphones didn't tell anyone that you were someone who could throw down $300 on an iPod, that's why.

and for those that might object on Industrial Design grounds, there's this gem:

Incidentally, people always say one of Apple's biggest strengths is aesthetics. This is always weird to me. Aesthetics are subjective. Personally? I think the toilet-seat white plastic shell that has come to define Apple is the absolute apotheosis of whitebread design, an entirely safe, focus-group vision that nonetheless prides itself on danger, a yuppoid futurist fantasy that isn't about "clean lines" or minimalism but instead about a certain sexless, antiseptic stab at middlebrow design profundity, the illusion of depth for people so shallow they're fooled into think that there's anything more moving about smooth white plastic than about that sickly computer beige from a decade ago.

Well said.