By Ruma Dubey

Tomorrow night, do not be alarmed to see long serpentine queues outside Apple mobile vendors. Be assured, exactly at the stroke of midnight, till the wee hours of 16^th morning, sale of iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models will debut in India. And like always, some die-hard Apple fans will spend a sleepless but excited night, working towards emptying their pockets and acquiring another Apple phone.

One cannot help but wonder, each time, we see this queue as to what was it exactly about Apple that made monkeys out of people? One could not get it – people were standing in queues through the night, ready with money, to buy a product. It was not even something free or an offer on discount. It was an exorbitantly priced phone and people are going ballistic. In USA, immediately after the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus went on sale, Apple trumpeted that it had sold more of its latest models on their launch weekend than any other model before.

So what is this fascination that we have for all things American? Remember the long queue to get into the first Starbucks in Mumbai and the lines at McDonald’s continue till date. Dominos and Pizza Hut are doing roaring business, what with Indian Railways tying up with Dominos and KFC to supply food on order on 45 railways stations across India.

It is the brand building which USA does so wisely. The build-up before a launch – news leaks, rumours and similar news after the launch is so high that people who have not eaten a McDonald or had the coffee at Starbucks feel that they are not “cool” and are missing out on something very big in life.  Apple iPhone 5s was launched in USA and China ahead of India and there was news splashed all over about it being sold out within a few hours. That was essentially a buildup for those in India – it soon became an obsession where, price tag did not matter, one just HAD to possess the iPhone; it became a matter of prestige or status. The same will happen this time too.

That is the kind of obsession which Apple generates. This kind of frenzy is never seen with Samsung or Nokia but only Apple. It is clearly is an indication of the strange hold which Apple has over the people and the entire smart phone industry.

There are other similar, identical products like the iPhone in the market, so why this obsession with Apple? Its more media created – where even the most trivial of news on Apple becomes big news. Blog posts about Apple get more hits than any other article – so it starts with the media initiating these write-ups and then people take over and drive it to a frenzy. Just before the launch on the new iPhone, search interest in Apple had almost reached the same level it did when Steve Jobs died. And to his credit, Steve Jobs created a brand which has become a lifestyle statement. The iPod revolutionized the way we listen to music and the iPhone and iPad have been equally life changing. Others have merely imitated Apple. Also Steve Jobs, had managed to stoke an incredible, worldwide fascination with every Apple product announcement and the same legacy continues.

Last time, the iPhone5 was gold in color and people HAD TO HAVE IT. And this time around, once again, despite the price tag, it’s a must have. But that’s the message which Apple has sent – big phones are difficult to take calls and make calls yet it has been made….. because calls themselves are on the decline in this age of Whats App and texting, more importantly taking selfies and listening to music. That probably explains why Apple is an obsession.