For those unfamiliar with the classic joke referenced in the headline, I’m sorry for spoiling the punchline. With that said, there’s an interesting report from MSNBC about the current Pope lighting the world’s largest Christmas tree via tablet. MSNBC has taken an interesting angle on this. It seems the Vatican had initially announced the Pontif would be using an Apple iPad, but instead he used the lesser known but more eye catching Sony Tablet S.
"Now remind me, what do the little blue birds do?"
MSNBC reached out to Apple and Sony for comment on what should probably seems like a bit of a non-story. Had they not specified iPad, I bet no one would care. So, why did they? While the makers have no comment, I have one.
I suspect we’re seeing the Band-Aiding of the iPad. There are some products that are such industry leaders that their names become synonymous with the product. Band-Aid, Kleenex, Frigidair (if you’re over a certain age, in that case). We even see it with technology, with lower-case “g” google as a sort of verb and with “Photoshopping” becoming such a generic term that Adobe felt the need to speak out and ask people not to do that.
"Gimping" means something else entirely.
Most smartphone early adopters are familiar with being asked “what kind of iPhone is that?”, but I can’t help but wonder if this is just more of the same. Which is a great sign for Apple. Not as good for Sony, mind you.
I’m afraid I don’t have much more to add to this than I’ll now be using the term “Gimping” to see how many people it freaks out.
(As a kid I remember us calling any and all instant mac’n’cheese “Kraft Dinner” and any cola “Coke”)
Could easily be very bad for Apple, though, unless they intervene quickly. If they don’t defend the trademark, they’ll lose it.
Hold the phone- you mean there are tablets that aren’t iPads? Next thing you know, you’ll tell me there are music players that aren’t iPods, copy machines that aren’t Xerox, cotton sticks that aren’t Q-tips- MADNESS I TELL YOU, MADNESS!
And I thought the anti-christ would be an apple fan-boy?