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I’ve always thought that Apple’s success is based on a lot of hype. And that it was a social status accessory rather than the actual device that sells the product and the brand. I have a Macbook but that was because the idea of actually not having to load antivirus programs and firewalls and spyware removers appealed to me. I hope they don’t get too popular that the world will start writing more stuff to attack the Mac OS.

Then I was given an iPhone, the 2G version. It is still running on firmware 1 or something so the App store is beyond my reach. I am not a big fan of the iPhone, but recent firmware changes have of course fixed some of the issues that I had problems with in the first place.

When it was first released, I thought it was not fit to be called a phone. The SMS system was a mess, I can’t copy and paste, I can’t send MMS, it was like well, an iPod with the ability to make calls. Thankfully, they have fixed all of that now.

Then I was given the iPod Touch for Christmas and I was introduced to App stores. And that opened up a whole new world to me. And I began to understand why the world fell in love with the iPhone and iPod Touch. The iPod is not exactly the best music player, with many other brands trumping it in audio quality. The big screen is great but it sucks battery like no other devices.

Let’s face it, the iPod or the iPhone is not perfect as a device. But its salvation is the App store. The ease of using it, downloading an application and everything else about the store pretty much screams “Any idiot can use me”. And when things look so cheap, 99 cents almost everywhere, you wonder how many people have been suckered into clicking that button and paying a lot of 99 cents.

Other brands are starting to take notice and are introducing similar stores but its still not as friendly as the App store. I have used Ovi on the E61i and it could be my phone, but the experience was not one I will recommend. I have yet to see Google Marketplace but when someone quite tech-savvy asked me how to install apps for Android, I knew then, it wasn’t as monkey-proof.

So, my love affair with the iPod is not so much of the device, but rather the applications that I can run on it. Well, mostly games but well, thats the idea of owning a portable entertainment device, no? And other brands should stop looking at churning out phones with super mega specs, but start looking at what people can do with their phone. Oh, and make it monkey-proof as well.