An Apple is Still an Apple

     As a self-proclaimed techie, I've been taking notice recently of a fair share of "Apple: the new uncool"- esque articles. Just this morning I came across a post on a tech site that will go unnamed entitled "Your Grandpa's iPhone".  While I tend to believe consumer reports and internally position CNET as the technology guru, I am sorry but I'm just not buying this anti-Apple hype.
     I would be remiss to deny the fact that the absence of Steve Jobs is both tangible and apparent. It is. I tend to feel that the world at large no longer gleans that all-encompassing sense of innovative brilliance from today's Apple as they did from Jobs' Apple. While iPhones and iPads under the reign of Tim Cook appear the same on the surface as they did when released during Jobs' era, I think consumers have lost that feeling of magical optimism of years passed. The tech sphere was a different place when Steve Jobs inhabitted it.  No matter how advanced the current generation of iPhones was, consumers knew that the subsequent generation would be just that much more awesome, that much thinner and lighter, and would provide that surprise "it" factor no one saw coming.
     The above being said, much of the population does still own iPhones. They are still partial to iOS over Android's constantly evolving, name-changing Jellybean/Ice Cream Sandwich operating systems. (I'm sorry but are childhood favorite desserts really the best Android could do on that?) Apple, from my perspective, still offers the sleekest, cleanest, and yes, most user-friendly smartphone platform in the market, and clearly a large proportion of the smartphone consumer base concurs.  While no longer a twenty-something myself, which took me quite a while to embrace, I do still consider myself on the semi-cutting edge of technological advances. I consistently visit CNET, Engadget and countless user Apple forums on a weekly, if not daily, basis. I am typically abreast of upcoming product innovations or releases before they occur and, if I had to answer a focus group multiple-choice question, would place myself in the "People come to me for tech advice" bucket. The knowledge aforementioned in hand combined with the advantage of living in a top United States urban DMA, I do not understand nor believe the hullabaloo over Apple's "downward-spiraling" market share.
    No less than 50% of fellow Manhattan dwellers I observe on a daily basis are touting around an iPhone 4 or 5...and I pay attention. Facts are facts. While I do take note of the occasional much-too-large -to-be-practical Galaxy Note, these are pretty few and far between. The headphones stemming from most hoods I've seen this winter tout the signature Apple on-wire remote, and I am not convinced all these headphone-wearing folks purchased them separately from an Android. Where the smartphone market lands in coming years of course remains to be seen and I will be attentively watching. But for now, I think I will mentally abandon the constantly cropping-up "Android as leader" gospel. Now please excuse me while I power off and upgrade to iOS 6.