iPhone 5 rumors: revealing our ignorance, revealing our arrogance.

Posted by TastySlowCooker on July 31, 2012 09:06 am 8

via cdn.artoftheiphone.com

Yesterday I had a cursory look at the rumors from this time last year. Here's a quick reminder. An uncountable number of articles, many with bold headlines (although some ending with question marks) about the iPhone 5. There was a larger screen. There was a thinner bezel. There was a tear drop shape. We had case manufacturers handiwork. At one point there were two new iPhones being announced. We worked ourselves up into an absolute frenzy. And when October 4 finally rolled around, we criticized Apple for not living up to our expectations.

Why do we have to be so sure about what Apple will or will not do? In our exuberance for giving our ten cents worth, I feel we've forgotten the fact that we have no idea what we're talking about. Everyone speaks with such arrogance in their speculation: Verge articles with 1000+ comments stating boldly what Apple's new phone will be and whether they are right to do it. But we don't have any skin in the game. We have the luxury of making ignorant claims knowing that if we're right we'll hail ourselves as prophets, and if we're wrong nobody will remember our naivete.

I wish we could all just calm down. We type as if our words are the most important ever written. We comment as if we alone have access to objective truth. But in reality none of our speculation will have any bearing on what Apple will come up with or whether it will be successful. Apple will do what they will do, and in time we'll see if their strategy is successful. But saying this isn't going to get people clicking on a link, is it?