Have
you bought a new phone lately?
Recently,
I had to head in to upgrade my phone. When I said I had to do
it, that’s not a great stretch of reality. I don’t upgrade every
year, or even every two. It wasn’t broken or dropped into a bucket
of water. It was just due.
I
need my phone to be, well, a phone. I like the ability to play
games when I’m waiting someplace. I like having a camera available
for unexpected moments. Nice to be able to look things up on the
internet. But if you are selling me a phone and ask my needs,
I’m telling you calls and texts and everything else is a bonus.
I
walked in to a local store, went through a few things with a wonderful
sales person, and left with my new phone. And that’s where the
expectations being met begin to create a lot of laughter.
Ear
buds? Nope. Didn’t come with ear buds.
Charger?
Well, no. It came with a USB cable. But the block we’ve all grown
accustomed to having that goes into an electrical outlet? No.
That wasn’t in the box.
It
did come with a paperclip.
Yes.
A paperclip.
Oh,
Apple makes it fancy. It’s not a real paper clip. It’s called
a SIM ejector tool. But I’m betting that for most of us, given
the number of times we actually need to remove a SIM card and
the size of the darn thing, the SIM ejector tool will be a fond
memory and never found when the time arrives for it to be applied
to its purpose.
Seriously,
have you seen one? The darn thing truly is roughly the size of
a mini paperclip. It’s an oval with a pin on the end, giving a
nice appearance of a paper clip form. And I’m sure that in the
strong majority of situations, a person is going to grab a paperclip
and not even bother with attempting to figure out where they put
the ejector tool. (Hey, if it looks like a duck…)
How
special is this thing? Well, in addition to being replaceable
by one of the most common office supply items in history, you
could head to Amazon right now and find a pack of three hundred
of them on sale for less than nine bucks. I can think of some
occupational reasons you might need a few of these on hand, but
the kicker is wonderful… SIM ejector tools can be head for about
three-cents each and the vast majority of us don’t need them to
change our life in any significant way.
Who
needs head phones, or an adaptor for plugging your phone in to
charge, when Apple is willing to toss in a three-cent piece of
metal you’re never going to find when the need actually arises?
(*Sarcasm alert*) Sure sounds to me like we’re making out terrifically
with the progress to the latest contents of the box. That’s some
extra high-end bonus stuff being included and often forgotten
items eliminated.
But
can we blame Apple?
Really?
Because
in the places where I shop, this is just a really obvious example
of something that’s happening all over. Containers of ice cream
are getting smaller. More and more restaurants are charging for
beverage refills. The less for your money phenomenon isn’t just
a hunch, it’s a reality.
For
right now, I guess I’m just laughing because this is hardly a
case where the new item in the box fills an incredible need. If
you work with electronics, specifically smartphones, then maybe
you do want some type of tool to assist with SIM cards. Maybe.
Awesome if you do. But on the list of items I’d like to find in
the box when I open it, the SIM ejector tool is something that
I’d never really think of mentioning.
But
there it is. And since, in my box at least, they tossed in an
official Apple logo decal, the contents just keep on giving.
Maybe
I’m old fashioned. I probably don’t get it. But personally, I’d
find it more satisfying to get refills for my lemonade, a full
half gallon of ice cream, and the ability to charge the electronics
I just purchased right out of the box.
I
suppose I’m cranky that way.