The Apple Tablet and the Birth of the Pre-Fan

It’s Wednesday 27th January, or Year Zero for some – today we finally get to see what Apple’s tablet device is. Variously able to save journalism, switch up gaming and give us an entirely new vocabulary with which to deal with technology, the tablet has been the most anticipated gadget of all time.

In my short lifetime I can remember certain other moments when a piece of tech has been so obviously the next step – joining slack-jawed peers in playing and watching Wipeout on a Playstation in the corner of HMV; the first sighting of an iPod and its beautiful backlit screen. But these things appeared in a very traditional way – at a launch and on a short wave of proto-viral marketing, with oblique, interest-piquing advertising quickly backed up by the majesty of the thing itself.

Over a decade on, the launch events are still en vogue, and allow Apple their crucial blend of Mount Sinai didacticism and inclusive cosy-speak. But they don’t need a costly ad campaign to trail before the launch – instead they’re constantly getting to cash in on the capital they’ve built up since the iMac launched, an ever-germinating seed of lust planted in the heart of a populace newly aware of the power of great design. The weight of expectation behind this thing (Apple having already “changed the game” so many times before), boosted by a now full-tilt social networking environment, is wondrous, almost scary proof that Apple have manoeuvred themselves into unique position. Their cycle of lust, beginning with secrecy and ending in beautiful products, only to renew itself again, ruthlessly exploits the unquenchable desires of its fanbase; it also generates its own marketing power through the delirious speculation from that fanbase.

Back in June last year, I spoke to Cult of Mac writer Leigh McMullen, who said that “we’re due for something game changing”, before mooting Apple developing “a color e-ink that draws nearly no power and is capable of full motion video”. Meanwhile Leander Kahney, the site’s editor, told me a tablet device would be “like a big wireless iPod touch, an entertainment center and communication device in one. It’ll have a nice big screen for watching high-definition video in bed, but it’ll also do wireless videoconferencing.” Since then the rumours have grown to accomodate entire sections of tech sites, and have generated a cottage industry of Photoshopped fakes and industrial designers knocking together their own tablets in their shed on the weekend; the rumour mill is still going now just hours before. This is years-long, completely free marketing for Apple. Of course there have been similar speculations ahead of each iPod and iPhone release, with po-faced debate surrounding pics of clearly doctored iPod “upgrades” with cameras and the like, but nothing on the scale of the fevered wonderings around the tablet.

This is a bizarre new development: the Apple pre-fan. Overly ardent fans have always existed, the “Avatard” meme the latest example, but they always wait until the object of their fandom is made manifest before attaching themselves to it. Apple have built up such a compelling series of objects that their legacy is drawing a new kind of worship out of their fans, the desire to spend hours of time speculating on something they know they won’t be able to second-guess. They’re like a train set enthusiast building a future high-speed west coast line, or a philatelist designing their own range of stamps.

The tablet rumour mill is a new, truly pointless hobby – without the comforting nostalgia at the heart of so many hobbies, the desire to muse on Apple’s unknowable objects emptily retools nostalgia as anticipation. Where the train set owner reaches towards a past they can’t reach but are at least certain of, the pre-fan reaches towards an inevitably unsatisfying future. And where the Avatar fan dreams themselves into and often extends a pre-existing world, the pre-fan pours their love into the void. There’s no doubt that the tablet can be game-changing, but can’t we just wait until we see it in the corner of HMV, real and surrounded by excited people?

Posted by Ben Beaumont-Thomas in Sci-tech | January 27, 2010 11:55AM |