iMHO

Steve Jobs is dead, to begin with. (Yes, I re-visited The Christmas Carol, recently.) And, the magnitude of the reaction, from the masses, has been huge. Ok, the Internet-masses, let me re-iterate that to. The last time we saw such an out-pouring reaction was, probably, when Michael Jackson died. Infact, I feel this one’s a bigger wave, considering the fact that it has come from virtually everywhere across the web-wide-world, and from everyone, irrespective of anything that can potentially classify them. Also, the reaction was quite consistent, from all over.

Yes, it might be unfair to judge these greats, or even compare these two different personalities, based on this or, probably, anything else. But I think what we can certainly try to do is – draw parallels between the popularities, of not just theirs, but, may be, of the two different streams they are from, to see if we can spot a trend or two.

I think it would not be wrong to assume that the following for technology has gone up many folds, in general. Or, technology has become mainstream, can we say? For a long while now, it has been commonplace for people to eagerly wait for the release of a new music album, a movie, or such sorts. But, off-late, we are witnessing a lot of hype building up, amongst the masses, before a product/feature release/upgrade, and lot of noise coming across after it. Like it has been with music and movies, people are following the previews and reviews closely. Everyone reads and understands product specifications now, and out of interest. They keep updating themselves with information about various products, not just when they are looking to buy some stuff. That is, people are not just being consumers of information technology, but of technology information too. And, magazines, blogs and other media sources, channelling such information, doing incredibly well, getting their share of popularity, stand testimony. There is a sense of enthusiasm in this following, much like that shown by movie-buffs and music-lovers. At times, there is a sense of religiousness too, for there are fan-boys for products and brands, and fans of rival brands are set up against each other, like how it has been in South India, with the film stars. Over the years, brands have been using film stars to promote their brands. Now, film-makers are looking the tech-industry way for stories. The Social Network movie was hugely watched all over. Sony Pictures, reportedly, is shelling out millions to acquire film-adaptation rights for a Steve Jobs biography. We’ve seen fans being happy if their idol’s movie made record collections in the first week, et al. Recently, I’ve seen people sharing the news, that Apple reached a million orders within 24 hours of throwing the bookings for iPhone 4S open, with happy smileys, over the social-networks.

Overall, can we say that tech-stuff is the new movies and Apple is the new Rajnikanth? Rajnikanth sir, only if you wont…. mind it!