Tuesday, September 18, 2018



Far-Left Lunacy: New iPhone Being Slammed as ‘Sexist’

It’s a routine as old as Apple product launches — disappointment at Apple product launches. In fact, there’s often outrage at Apple product launches, although this is usually the realm of rabid techies.

According to the New York Post, feminists are beyond angry that the screens on the new iPhones are larger. The backlash includes everyone from a member of the U.K. Parliament to a prominent sociology professor and New York Times writer.

The new iPhones released this week were from the XS line, where the screen ranges in size from 5.8 inches to 6.5 inches. The iPhone SE — which retained some of the features of newer iPhones while retaining the 4-inch screen and smaller form factor of older models — was discontinued.

“In so much design and technology development the default standard is always that which suits a man,” Jess Phillips, a Labour MP, told The Telegraph. “Companies have got to get better at recognizing that their idea of normal should account for all their customers.”

That may have been the worst comment inasmuch as you could reasonably interpret it as featuring the implied threat of some sort of government officialdom coming down on Apple for its product decisions (“Companies have to get better”). It was hardly the only remark from a prominent feminist on the new iPhones that was woefully divorced from reality, however.

Take prominent sociologist and Times writer Zeynep Tufekci:

"We want to reach as many customers as we can with this incredible technology," Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said, without irony, while Apple phased out the *only* phone I can hold without risking dropping.

Schiller’s remark actually was made regarding the iPhone XR, which comes at a lower price, so that’s an interesting point to make from a sociology professor who probably uses the word “contextualization” more than a few times a week. (I’m guessing from prior experience here; I apologize to Tufekci if she’s extirpated that word from the standard linguistic toolkit of the sociology prof.)

I find it interesting, however, that she — “without irony” — notes that Apple has failed “to reach as many customers as we can” by phasing out “the *only* phone I can hold without risking dropping.” Solecism, meet solipsism.

Caroline Criado Perez, a noted U.K. journalist and feminist, took it a step further when she said that Apple will literally be injuring her with this decision.

According to The Telegraph, Perez, “the feminist campaigner behind the Millicent Fawcett statue in Parliament Square and the Jane Austen ten pound note, said she developed repetitive strain injury from using a phone which was too big for her hand.

“She told The Telegraph: ‘I genuinely have RSI from having an iPhone 6, and it went as soon as I switched to an iPhone SE.

“‘It genuinely does affect women’s hand health, women do buy more iPhones than men, it just baffles me that Apple doesn’t design with our bodies in mind. “‘We should be furious about this, we are paying just as much money for it as men for a product that doesn’t work as well for us.'”

Here’s why they shouldn’t be furious, however: The iPhone SE was always an average seller at best, accounting for 9.8 percent of sales in 2016. That declined by well over 50 percent in 2017. It was a niche product for individuals who didn’t want a larger phone.

That niche is clearly no longer a profitable one, indicating this isn’t something that “genuinely does affect women’s hand health” but the hand health of a very small minority of users — and that would be true even assuming every SE buyer was purchasing it for health reasons, which is almost certainly a false assumption.

If women were a majority of iPhone buyers and this was a major health issue, Apple (and other manufacturers) wouldn’t be moving to bigger screens and bigger phones exclusively. That’s how markets work — something that I freely admit escapes most sociology professors I’ve met but that should probably be of more than a passing interest to government officials and journalists.

Will these individuals realize they’re extrapolating their individual experiences and projecting them onto women as a whole, girding their personal outrage in the armor of a wider social movement all for the added benefit of press attention?

SOURCE 

7 comments:

Stan B said...

Caroline Criado Perez said ‘I genuinely have RSI from having an iPhone 6, and it went as soon as I switched to an iPhone SE.'

Ms. Perez has NO idea of how RSI works. It doesn't "clear up" just because you use a different phone....

Anonymous said...

I am unaware of a law requiring the purchase and use of the latest Apple iPhones in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Can't these women just buy a smaller phone from a different manufacturer? Of course, they can. The problem isn't so much with Apple's design; it's with the desire these women feel to be seen with the latest, most trendy technology on the market. And, of course, their desire to insinuate themselves and their politics into every facet of society.

Bill R. said...

You mean there ARE differences between men and women?

Anonymous said...

As a senior citizen, I object to the small screens. They are to hard to see and cause eye strain.

Dean said...

Anon 1:35 AM - But, but, but, if I don't have the latest and fanciest iPhone my friends will spurn me because, well, you know, you just have to keep up with the latest trend.
So says the insecure gotta have the newest in fashion and the most expensive of that as well.

I purchased an iPhone 8+ - The only thing about I liked was the camera and the ear phones that came with it. It was bulky, heavy, a pain to carry and had to have an elastic band on the back to keep a grip on it. I detested that phone. So the wife and I swapped phones - her Samsung S5 for the detested iPhone 8+. She loves it, I'm happ7y with the S5. Problem solved.

The person griping about iPhones has the same option. Buy something else. Or keep the one she has. But then she doesn't get her 15 minutes of internet fame, she just has a phone that fits her needs.

stinky said...

It's got nothing to do with being too big for the size of a woman's hand. It's got to do with being too big for the size of her overpriced purse ... but rad fems will never admit that.

Use the Name, Luke said...

"Can't these women just buy a smaller phone from a different manufacturer?"

Sure. If you're willing to buy all new applications, learn a different way of doing things, are willing to lose some data, and aren't using Apple's proprietary integrations with their other devices, such as the watch.

ALL of the new iPhones are larger than even last year's iPhone 8 Plus, which I have. I'm still not used to how big this thing is, and my wife already has trouble with her smaller phone not fitting into (or staying in) her pockets. And that phone size is larger than the SE.

More and more, Apple seems to be losing touch with their customers' needs. There's nothing illegitimate about making such complaints. Though framing such complaints in Victim Olympics terms is worthy of ridicule.