Since Krispy Kreme opened in Japan late last year, the Japan blogs have been following along with the first shop's progress in Japan. Since many vocal members of the expat community predicted it would fail after an initial burst of enthusiasm, the unfailing interest of the Japanese for KK's donuts has remained a curiosity. Lines continue to snake around buildings and waits for a crack at those super-light, super-sweet donuts continue to be long.
Most of the news-based sites that carry updates about Krispy Kreme Japan and news regarding the offerings and progress of other fast food/junk food shops of American origin always include a section for comments. Invariably, a perusal of the comments section will include at least one, if not many, comments from expatriates booing the success of places like KK, McDonald's and Pizza Hut in Japan and telling them to get out and stop contaminating beautiful, thin Japanese people with their gustatory pollution. It's overtly stated that, if Japanese people over-indulge in these foods and become fat, it's America's fault.
One point I'd like to make before I go on to editorialize on this tendency is that Krispy Kreme Japan was licensed to Lotte (a Korean-Japanese partnership best known for their fast food franchise, "Lotteria") and Takeo Shigemitsu. The American corporation has no ownership of the Japanese operations. That means that the ultimate disposition as well as the implantation of this franchise in the first place was solely a Japanese choice. While KK U.S. will make money from the licensing, the Japanese themselves are the ones who decided to peddle these carb-loaded, blood sugar-spiking treats to the Japanese public. America may have invented them but Japan chose to sell them. Similarly, McDonald's franchises in Japan were started by an ambitious Japanese shoe salesman named Den Fujita. Mr. Fujita's ultimate goal was to open 10,000 McDonald's in Japan by 2010. Though Mr. Fujita has passed away, his family still holds 25% of the company.
I'm sure there are people out there who believe that this is a case of cultural contamination and would still hold the U.S. to blame for exporting unhealthy food culture. However, the Japanese not only chose to import that culture when they formed joint ventures with the American parents but they also spun off their own home-grown versions of the same types of junk food establishments. There are a great many Japanese fast food places and purveyors of high calorie, nutritionally-empty foods. So, even if all the U.S.-based businesses were to fold up their tents and go away, the consumers would still seek out and find the same menus from places like MOS burger and Pizza-La (which incidentally is the most successful pizza chain in Japan, not Pizza Hut, Dominos or some other U.S.-based pizza joint).
Even if you choose to ingore the fact that American corporations didn't barge into to Japan and force their shops onto the unsuspecting public, the fact that a lot of Japanese people have to make the choice to consume such foods has to be considered. While it may satisfy a need to vilify the U.S., the Japanese people are the ones keeping fast food and junk food places of American origin successful enough to remain open. Americans aren't cramming the food into their mouths, forcing them to chew and swallow and then taking the money from their wallets. It's ironic that the people who like to rave about Americans being "fat pigs" and the presence of places like Krispy Kreme plumping up trim Japanese physiques hold Americans responsible for the food choices which make them obese but not the Japanese. Either the Japanese are absolutely unable to think for themselves and do whatever America says or the Japanese are just as responsible for the choices they make that result in them gaining weight as Americans are. Clearly the former is not the case and it's insulting to even consider but nothing else can explain the irrational conclusion that America is responsible for Japanese eating habits.
All in all, it seems there are far too many people who want to blame America for every single social problem in the world. This sort of prejudice is no different than any of the other prejudices applied only to one ethnic group or nationality but somehow it's not offensive to hate Americans nor to assign blame to them arbitrarily as it is to do so for other nationalities. If you take all the negative comments about Americans and substitute any other nationality, the comments show themselves to be the ranting of racists but somehow people fail to see them for what they are simply because the ugly comments are made about Americans and that's okay with the rest of the world right now.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Illusion
One of my students just returned from a trip to England where she was lucky enough to experience the charm and beauty of some of the small villages within reach of London via public transportation. She brought back pictures that made me ache for home because the expansive and richly green farms, fields, and trees reminded me of Pennsylvania. She also brought me back a box of Cornish Fairings which are incredibly good. I must say that I've rarely had a bad or mundane pre-packaged cookie made in England and the vast majority of "biscuits" I've had from there seem to be perfect blends of flavor, sweetness, and just the right texture. If bad cookies are being made there, they aren't finding their way to Japanese shops or into the hands of souvenir-distributing students.
Getting back to the topic at hand though, which is my student's trip, she told me that she went with a friend and her sister. I asked her if either of them spoke English as well as her and she said that her friend hardly speaks it at all but her sister's ability is superior to hers. My student is no slouch in terms of her English abilities so I asked her why she had this impression of her sister. She said that, when they engaged in casual conversations with strangers in England, her sister always responded readily and fully while she felt rather uncertain about whether or not she fully understood the question.
My student said that she couldn't figure out how her sister managed to develop such talents because she hasn't studied for quite some time and her only English study experience was while studying for university entrance exams. While it's possible that her sister has a knack for languages and just took to English like a house on fire, it's also possible that her sister is simply offering an illusion of fluency that my student is unable to detect.
In part because I didn't want my student to feel inferior to her sister (or anyone else), I decided to tell her about a well-known fact among English teachers who work in Japan. The truth is that it is possible for a student to jabber on in a fashion which makes them appear quite conversant in a language to those who don't natively speak it when they really aren't understanding the question properly at all or giving an appropriate answer. Such people usually guess at the nature of a question based on various key words and then charge ahead with a long-winded reply which completely missed the gist of the question. I can't tell you how many times I've said "tell me about your company's business" and gotten the answer "I work in (accounting/sales/research)." The student hears "your" and "business" and ignores the rest.
This particular problem is probably more common among Japanese people because they often experience teachers who aren't fluent (Japanese teachers of English in their pre-college years) or who are native speakers of English who are more interested in entertainment than in improving their students' skills. A lot of teachers never insist that a student answer a question correctly or explain the nature of their misunderstanding. They just smile and pretend the answer was right and carry on. This is essentially the same thing that a stranger you'd meet on a train in London would do if a question he's asked is answered in an energetic but incorrect fashion. Natives who strike up conversations with tourists are unlikely in the extreme to do something that will embarrass the person to whom they're speaking.
While I have no way of knowing for sure, I'm pretty sure that my student's sister was giving the illusion of fluency she does not truly possess and my student, who can't judge the English skills of others just as she cannot correct her own mistakes, couldn't tell the difference.
•••••••••••••••••••••
Incidentally, and tangentially-related to this story, my student told me that a nice young British fellow on a sleeper train they were on who struck up a conversation with these three obviously Asian young women broke the ice with "are you French?" She said that one of her friends was carrying a shopping bag from a famous French bakery but she was still baffled that he'd conclude from the bag that they might be French. It's my guess that he knew they were not but didn't want to guess at their nationality for fear of offending them should he guess wrong. While some Japanese people think they can distinguish between Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, etc., just by looking at their faces most of us westerners can't make such distinctions.
Getting back to the topic at hand though, which is my student's trip, she told me that she went with a friend and her sister. I asked her if either of them spoke English as well as her and she said that her friend hardly speaks it at all but her sister's ability is superior to hers. My student is no slouch in terms of her English abilities so I asked her why she had this impression of her sister. She said that, when they engaged in casual conversations with strangers in England, her sister always responded readily and fully while she felt rather uncertain about whether or not she fully understood the question.
My student said that she couldn't figure out how her sister managed to develop such talents because she hasn't studied for quite some time and her only English study experience was while studying for university entrance exams. While it's possible that her sister has a knack for languages and just took to English like a house on fire, it's also possible that her sister is simply offering an illusion of fluency that my student is unable to detect.
In part because I didn't want my student to feel inferior to her sister (or anyone else), I decided to tell her about a well-known fact among English teachers who work in Japan. The truth is that it is possible for a student to jabber on in a fashion which makes them appear quite conversant in a language to those who don't natively speak it when they really aren't understanding the question properly at all or giving an appropriate answer. Such people usually guess at the nature of a question based on various key words and then charge ahead with a long-winded reply which completely missed the gist of the question. I can't tell you how many times I've said "tell me about your company's business" and gotten the answer "I work in (accounting/sales/research)." The student hears "your" and "business" and ignores the rest.
This particular problem is probably more common among Japanese people because they often experience teachers who aren't fluent (Japanese teachers of English in their pre-college years) or who are native speakers of English who are more interested in entertainment than in improving their students' skills. A lot of teachers never insist that a student answer a question correctly or explain the nature of their misunderstanding. They just smile and pretend the answer was right and carry on. This is essentially the same thing that a stranger you'd meet on a train in London would do if a question he's asked is answered in an energetic but incorrect fashion. Natives who strike up conversations with tourists are unlikely in the extreme to do something that will embarrass the person to whom they're speaking.
While I have no way of knowing for sure, I'm pretty sure that my student's sister was giving the illusion of fluency she does not truly possess and my student, who can't judge the English skills of others just as she cannot correct her own mistakes, couldn't tell the difference.
•••••••••••••••••••••
Incidentally, and tangentially-related to this story, my student told me that a nice young British fellow on a sleeper train they were on who struck up a conversation with these three obviously Asian young women broke the ice with "are you French?" She said that one of her friends was carrying a shopping bag from a famous French bakery but she was still baffled that he'd conclude from the bag that they might be French. It's my guess that he knew they were not but didn't want to guess at their nationality for fear of offending them should he guess wrong. While some Japanese people think they can distinguish between Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, etc., just by looking at their faces most of us westerners can't make such distinctions.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Location
Back when I worked at my company's office in Kudanshita, there was a relatively hefty earthquake at one point. It wasn't the sort of earthquake that does a lot of damage but it was just strong and long enough to set off all the automatic alarms which shut down various services across the city. I had left my office and was standing on the platform waiting for my (subway) train when I felt the platform shudder in an odd way. When you're underground or on the street, you feel earthquakes far less than when you are in a building, particularly a tall one.
The next train pulled in and I got on but the doors remained open and the train sat there. After a prolonged wait, I figured something had gone wrong. When a certain magnitude of earthquake comes along, the trains automatically shut down in case there is track damage and it takes hours for the tracks to be inspected to make sure it's safe for them to start rolling again. I decided I'd be more comfortable waiting back at my office so I left the station only to find that the elevators had shut down and I was locked out of the stairway access. My company, in its infinite wisdom, dead-bolted the door from the inside with locks that cannot be accessed from outside with keys. I was lucky, however, as some people were trapped in elevators when they shut down. I was probably five minutes ahead of that particular fate given the timing of the quake and my departure from the office.
At this point, I was pretty well stranded though I did attempt to find a way out via JR (Japan Railway - the above ground option) but it was all shut down as well. When this sort of thing happens, all of the cabs are taken and traffic gets pretty gummed up anyway. Kudanshita is too far from our place to walk home and I didn't know the way anyway so I had to hang around waiting for 3 hours there then another half hour at my transfer point in Nakano.
Yesterday, there was a typhoon in Tokyo and a less severe but similar situation occurred. My husband left work and the subway was shut down. He works in Shinjuku though (where I also worked before my company moved its office to a cheaper section of Tokyo) and said he'd walk home if the subway wasn't going to run any time soon. One of the great benefits of where we live now is that the commute for him is not only very short but also it is short enough that one can reasonably walk home if there is a natural disaster of some kind that knocks out public transportation. It's also along a very easy to follow route along a major street which we both know well.
On more than one occasion, people have encouraged us to move to another location. One of the reasons they encourage this is that our place is old and crumbly in places. Another is that it is about as far from the local stations as possible as stations are nearly equidistant from us on either side. Our rent is also a tad pricey and we could very likely get a bigger, nicer place for the same (or lower) rent if we were willing to move further out from the center.
Generally speaking, we have resisted moving because our time together is important and wasting any more of it than necessary on commuting for less important gains in apartment size or beauty doesn't appeal to us. We also don't see it as worth the not inconsiderable expense of moving. When my husband said he'd walk home yesterday, it occurred to me that there are other benefits to this location that those advising us to move may not immediately recognize. One that has been obvious to me since I started teaching from home is that being near the center has gotten me far more business from private students than if I were out on some train line leading to the Japanese equivalent of Podunk which allowed us a lavishly large place (well, by Japanese standards) for the price we pay now. Another has been that the domestic and mundane shopping here is cheaper and more plentiful than most areas (something which my students often remark on when they come for lessons).
Mainly though, my husband and I aren't the sorts to seek out more than we have when what we have is satisfactory. It's a personality trait of his that my father-in-law remarked on recently in a conversation we had. He mentioned that my husband had never tended to seek change when he's content with the way things are and it's a trait he has exhibited since childhood. This is actually a core personality trait that he and I have in common which neither of us knew or thought about much before having lived together in Japan but I do believe it's the sort of thing that can have a serious influence on marital harmony. It also explains pretty well why we have stayed put for so long in the same location.
The next train pulled in and I got on but the doors remained open and the train sat there. After a prolonged wait, I figured something had gone wrong. When a certain magnitude of earthquake comes along, the trains automatically shut down in case there is track damage and it takes hours for the tracks to be inspected to make sure it's safe for them to start rolling again. I decided I'd be more comfortable waiting back at my office so I left the station only to find that the elevators had shut down and I was locked out of the stairway access. My company, in its infinite wisdom, dead-bolted the door from the inside with locks that cannot be accessed from outside with keys. I was lucky, however, as some people were trapped in elevators when they shut down. I was probably five minutes ahead of that particular fate given the timing of the quake and my departure from the office.
At this point, I was pretty well stranded though I did attempt to find a way out via JR (Japan Railway - the above ground option) but it was all shut down as well. When this sort of thing happens, all of the cabs are taken and traffic gets pretty gummed up anyway. Kudanshita is too far from our place to walk home and I didn't know the way anyway so I had to hang around waiting for 3 hours there then another half hour at my transfer point in Nakano.
Yesterday, there was a typhoon in Tokyo and a less severe but similar situation occurred. My husband left work and the subway was shut down. He works in Shinjuku though (where I also worked before my company moved its office to a cheaper section of Tokyo) and said he'd walk home if the subway wasn't going to run any time soon. One of the great benefits of where we live now is that the commute for him is not only very short but also it is short enough that one can reasonably walk home if there is a natural disaster of some kind that knocks out public transportation. It's also along a very easy to follow route along a major street which we both know well.
On more than one occasion, people have encouraged us to move to another location. One of the reasons they encourage this is that our place is old and crumbly in places. Another is that it is about as far from the local stations as possible as stations are nearly equidistant from us on either side. Our rent is also a tad pricey and we could very likely get a bigger, nicer place for the same (or lower) rent if we were willing to move further out from the center.
Generally speaking, we have resisted moving because our time together is important and wasting any more of it than necessary on commuting for less important gains in apartment size or beauty doesn't appeal to us. We also don't see it as worth the not inconsiderable expense of moving. When my husband said he'd walk home yesterday, it occurred to me that there are other benefits to this location that those advising us to move may not immediately recognize. One that has been obvious to me since I started teaching from home is that being near the center has gotten me far more business from private students than if I were out on some train line leading to the Japanese equivalent of Podunk which allowed us a lavishly large place (well, by Japanese standards) for the price we pay now. Another has been that the domestic and mundane shopping here is cheaper and more plentiful than most areas (something which my students often remark on when they come for lessons).
Mainly though, my husband and I aren't the sorts to seek out more than we have when what we have is satisfactory. It's a personality trait of his that my father-in-law remarked on recently in a conversation we had. He mentioned that my husband had never tended to seek change when he's content with the way things are and it's a trait he has exhibited since childhood. This is actually a core personality trait that he and I have in common which neither of us knew or thought about much before having lived together in Japan but I do believe it's the sort of thing that can have a serious influence on marital harmony. It also explains pretty well why we have stayed put for so long in the same location.
Friday, September 07, 2007
The Fury of the Fan(atic) Scorned
I've been a fanatic three times in my life. First, I was obsessed with the Osmonds (you have permission to laugh until you choke on your bodily fluids) as a pre-teen. Second, I was obsessed with KISS well in my teens and early twenties. Third, I was obsessed with Apple and the Macintosh in my twenties and thirties.
My Osmonds fanaticism wilted naturally as my short attention span and growing concern with puberty and its painful effects squeezed it from the forefront of my attention. My KISS fanaticism, on the other hand, died a hard, lingering death of bitter disillusionment after the group revealed themselves for what everyone who wasn't enamored of them already knew them to be, a crass commercial enterprise exploiting their fans for every dime they could squeeze out of them.
The way in which KISS "lost" me was through waning creative releases and focusing on peddling various "greatest hits" (which contained few hits) with one or two re-mixes or new songs and live albums which were nothing more than an excuse to trot out the same songs in a marginally different format. Creatively speaking, they were exhausted and it was clear that they never had a really full tank of creativity to draw from in the first place.
It didn't help that they became increasingly antagonistic toward their fan base as the Internet loomed as a competitor for the fans' dollars and attention. They had lawyers telling fan sites and fan magazines that they could not use their logo and would sue them if they continued to use it. They complained about the sales of second-hand collectibles because they weren't getting a cut of the money from them and felt they were being cheated. (I guess they wanted 10 cents from the quarter you sold your old KISS puzzle for at your yard sale.) They also started saturating the market with goods of questionable taste (coffins) with their likenesses plastered on it, though this happened long after I'd lost that lovin' feeling for them.
One thing which happened when my disillusionment was sprouting was that I became increasingly bitter and negative when I talked about them. I found it very hard to post to newsgroups and forums and find anything good to say. I hated the fact that they were changing their music and look to match whatever fad was going on in hard rock or metal at the time of an album's release. The proposed album cover designs were things I regarded scornfully. Other fans participating in these forums started getting mad at me and wouldn't take my opinions seriously because I was so relentlessly negative.
Fast-forward to now when I've grown into a disillusioned Apple fan. Given my past experience, I've done the best that I can to reign in my negative feelings though I've certainly not held them back entirely by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I'm acutely aware that the vast majority of my Apple-related comments and posts are critical and the previous article was one I in which tried intentionally to be neutral.
Unfortunately, Apple has tested me beyond the limit with the iPod price reduction fiasco. For anyone living under a rock, I'll say that they lowered the price from $600 to $400 two months after its release. This was obviously planned from the start as a means of milking the hard-core during the initial hoopla then roping in the less die-hard with a more reasonable price. Steve Jobs had an apology at the ready and a plan to mollify the masses with a $100 Apple store credit so that those who already put $600 into Apple's bank account can use the "rebate" to buy more Apple crap. I'm guessing that Apple will get back at least 50% of that store credit or even make more money off those who apply it toward Apple goods exceeding the value of the credit.
The fans who purchased iPhones and who were initially outraged are cooing about how wonderful Apple and Steve are for this consideration but it seems to me like Apple is the attractive boyfriend who treats his girlfriend like dirt. She puts up with it because she's so infatuated but just when she looks like she's going to finally gather up some self-esteem and dump his ass, he buys her a bauble and apologizes and she's back to staring up at him in abject adoration. Now that she's been re-hooked, he can go back to treating her like a dog again. Mind you, I don't have a problem with what Apple did because they're a business and, as this proves, a manipulative and savvy one at that, but let's not give them props for "generosity" when this was all so clearly calculated. I also don't have a problem with it because my expectations are now those of a normal consumer rather than a drooling fan girl.
My inability to resist this sort of negative commentary got me thinking about why disillusionment doesn't fade into indifference. I still regard KISS with muted contempt when they pop into my consciousness (which honestly isn't all that often) and I haven't had any interest in them for years. My Apple contempt is fresh and fiery since "the love" bought the farm relatively recently. I guess one of the reasons is that fanaticism is like a love affair, albeit an imaginary one with an entity which has no feelings for you. What is worse is that it's like a love affair where the object of your affection was never what you initially though it was and now you feel pretty stupid about having ever been infatuated with it in the first place. Maybe all that anger is not completely directed toward the thing that let you down but is also directed at yourself for being so gullible and foolish in the first place or maybe you just need to tear down that which let you down as an act of petty vengeance.
My Osmonds fanaticism wilted naturally as my short attention span and growing concern with puberty and its painful effects squeezed it from the forefront of my attention. My KISS fanaticism, on the other hand, died a hard, lingering death of bitter disillusionment after the group revealed themselves for what everyone who wasn't enamored of them already knew them to be, a crass commercial enterprise exploiting their fans for every dime they could squeeze out of them.
The way in which KISS "lost" me was through waning creative releases and focusing on peddling various "greatest hits" (which contained few hits) with one or two re-mixes or new songs and live albums which were nothing more than an excuse to trot out the same songs in a marginally different format. Creatively speaking, they were exhausted and it was clear that they never had a really full tank of creativity to draw from in the first place.
It didn't help that they became increasingly antagonistic toward their fan base as the Internet loomed as a competitor for the fans' dollars and attention. They had lawyers telling fan sites and fan magazines that they could not use their logo and would sue them if they continued to use it. They complained about the sales of second-hand collectibles because they weren't getting a cut of the money from them and felt they were being cheated. (I guess they wanted 10 cents from the quarter you sold your old KISS puzzle for at your yard sale.) They also started saturating the market with goods of questionable taste (coffins) with their likenesses plastered on it, though this happened long after I'd lost that lovin' feeling for them.
One thing which happened when my disillusionment was sprouting was that I became increasingly bitter and negative when I talked about them. I found it very hard to post to newsgroups and forums and find anything good to say. I hated the fact that they were changing their music and look to match whatever fad was going on in hard rock or metal at the time of an album's release. The proposed album cover designs were things I regarded scornfully. Other fans participating in these forums started getting mad at me and wouldn't take my opinions seriously because I was so relentlessly negative.
Fast-forward to now when I've grown into a disillusioned Apple fan. Given my past experience, I've done the best that I can to reign in my negative feelings though I've certainly not held them back entirely by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I'm acutely aware that the vast majority of my Apple-related comments and posts are critical and the previous article was one I in which tried intentionally to be neutral.
Unfortunately, Apple has tested me beyond the limit with the iPod price reduction fiasco. For anyone living under a rock, I'll say that they lowered the price from $600 to $400 two months after its release. This was obviously planned from the start as a means of milking the hard-core during the initial hoopla then roping in the less die-hard with a more reasonable price. Steve Jobs had an apology at the ready and a plan to mollify the masses with a $100 Apple store credit so that those who already put $600 into Apple's bank account can use the "rebate" to buy more Apple crap. I'm guessing that Apple will get back at least 50% of that store credit or even make more money off those who apply it toward Apple goods exceeding the value of the credit.
The fans who purchased iPhones and who were initially outraged are cooing about how wonderful Apple and Steve are for this consideration but it seems to me like Apple is the attractive boyfriend who treats his girlfriend like dirt. She puts up with it because she's so infatuated but just when she looks like she's going to finally gather up some self-esteem and dump his ass, he buys her a bauble and apologizes and she's back to staring up at him in abject adoration. Now that she's been re-hooked, he can go back to treating her like a dog again. Mind you, I don't have a problem with what Apple did because they're a business and, as this proves, a manipulative and savvy one at that, but let's not give them props for "generosity" when this was all so clearly calculated. I also don't have a problem with it because my expectations are now those of a normal consumer rather than a drooling fan girl.
My inability to resist this sort of negative commentary got me thinking about why disillusionment doesn't fade into indifference. I still regard KISS with muted contempt when they pop into my consciousness (which honestly isn't all that often) and I haven't had any interest in them for years. My Apple contempt is fresh and fiery since "the love" bought the farm relatively recently. I guess one of the reasons is that fanaticism is like a love affair, albeit an imaginary one with an entity which has no feelings for you. What is worse is that it's like a love affair where the object of your affection was never what you initially though it was and now you feel pretty stupid about having ever been infatuated with it in the first place. Maybe all that anger is not completely directed toward the thing that let you down but is also directed at yourself for being so gullible and foolish in the first place or maybe you just need to tear down that which let you down as an act of petty vengeance.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Apple is E.F. Hutton
None of these things look like the other yet each of these things belong. (Screenshot from the Apple Store page)Note: I'm not going to talk about the iPod (or iPhone) that were just announced. I'm sure you've had enough already.
If you're old enough, you may remember commercials for a stock brokerage called E.F. Hutton. If you're not old enough, I'll tell you that this company was mainly known to the non-financially-oriented-set (that used to be a lot more people than nowadays where everyone from servers at McDonald's to your granny play the stock market) by its commercials. These ads featured crowded, noisy places (such as packed to the gills restaurants with a loud murmur of chatty people) and one person at one table would say something like 'E.F. Hutton says... ' and the whole room would go quiet. This was followed by the tag line, "When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen."
One can't help but notice that Apple is the E.F. Hutton of the computer industry. When they roll out new products, every major and most minor news sources cover not only the actual announcements but also announce that there will be an announcement. This is in rather stark contrast to most other computer hardware makers such as Dell where the release of new models is mainly covered by computer industry news sources.
As someone who has used a Mac since my earliest days as a computer user (I started with a 128K Mac in college and moved on to a Mac Plus for personal use a bit later and am now on my 11th Mac now), I've seen Apple spend far more time as the media whipping boy than as its darling and it leads me to wonder how Apple made the transition from the company that could not possibly survive because of its proprietary hardware and small market share to the company whose every product release people perk up their ears for and whose products are so desired that people are willing to pay a premium for them.
The obvious answers as to why Apple is the company everybody listens to and watches are the "iPod" and "Steve Jobs". While it's true that the release of the iPod has put a stylish Apple product in many hands and Mr. Jobs has put a strong figurehead with consummate sales and showmanship skills out there as the voice and face of Apple and Apple would not be where it is today without these two factors, I think the attention Apple's releases get are due to more than Steve and the iPod. I think one of the bigger reasons is that Apple has such a heavily pruned (or streamlined if you prefer) product line that new releases are considered events. Unlike Hewlett Packard or Dell, which offer relatively bland, highly-customizable and varied models, Apple has a very limited range of products - Minis, iMacs, Pros, MacBooks (and Pros), iPods and only recently iPhones.
It's not only the fact that there are just a few products though. It's also the fact that, by and large, each product has a very distinctive form factor. Different Mac models actually look different from one another in an instantly recognizable way. Different Dell models tend to have small variations in color aside from the obvious differences in size based on type (tower, mini-tower, notebook). This has nothing to do with the value of the computer inside, of course, but Apple's design and style are more about making you feel like each machine is a piece of art or stylish furniture rather than boring you with options for maximum RAM capacity or expansion slots. It's not that these things don't matter to serious users but they don't matter to most average consumers who use their machines for relatively mundane tasks.
In the case of Apple, less is more. Since new products are rarely released, announcements of upcoming products generate a lot of buzz. Everyone is wondering if we're going to see something fresh and innovative or a revamp of older models. The former often brings excitement and praise (though there are always detractors and nitpickers). The latter sometimes brings disappointment because there's always hope that Apple is going to wow us with something new rather than spruce up something old. If you read tech blogs, you find that people are so intensely interested in all new design changes that they're analyzing things like possible changes to keyboard and mouse designs. When was the last time anyone got excited about the way a Dell keyboard looked? Apple has seriously got the whole business of using select design to drum up interest and excitement down pat and only they can manage it because they have always been seen as a maker of elite (and possibly elitist) machines. This used to work to their disadvantage but now they're using it to their advantage.
It's no surprise that each new release is talked about and greatly anticipated though I guess the down side is that the news when it finally arrives almost never lives up to expectations. It's a little like seeing a beautifully wrapped Christmas gift and being more excited about what might be inside than what is actually within. It's not unusual to be a little disappointed when the gift is finally opened. This is probably one reason why Apple's stock usually drops after the release of a product even if that product is almost certainly going to sell well.
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