Digital Equity Series - The Rising Costs of Staying Connected

Brian Sankarsingh writes about the increasing cost of participating in the digital world

Have you bought into the Apple ecosystem? If so, given the rising financial pressures squeezing everyone, what are your thoughts about the prediction of Apple’s continued rising prices?   

For the sake of transparency, I will confess that I am fully bought into the ecosystem – from Apple watch to Airtags and everything in between. But I was not always this way. For many years I resisted the Apple siren song, faithfully clutching my Blackberry with an actual keyboard!  

“You’ll have to pry this from my cold, dead hands,” I was known to scream every time someone mentioned Apple iPhone.  

Nevertheless, ever so slowly Apply insinuated itself into my household. My kids, asked for Apple devices. My partner decided to move away from Xperia and got an iPhone when it was time to renew her phone. Suddenly, I found myself alone on an island, my Blackberry in hand but no one to talk to. If I were going to keep up with my family, I would have to get on the Apple bandwagon. But I silently resolved to go kicking and screaming into this new world. I was NOT going to enjoy this transition in any way, shape or form!  

Then my family bought me an iPad.  

First understand that I was one of the first people who bought an IPAQ Pocket PC – which I absolutely loved. I used my IPAQ faithfully for years. The iPad was like an IPAQ on steroids. I loved it! It was intuitive and easy to use. Okay. I decided to give myself the leeway to enjoy the iPad but that was where I would draw the line.  

Then they bought me an Apple watch.  

No! This must stop. I mildly protested, while slipping the watch onto my wrist.  

There is something to be said of a technology company that thinks about their products as life-improving products as opposed to technology products designed to meet a certain need. The way the Apple watch synchronizes with my phone, iPad, and Mac makes navigating the constantly shifting technology ecosphere much easier. I can speak reminders into existence using my watch and they are replicated across my devices. I can add a new appointment to my calendar and if there is an address, it prompts me to navigate to it prior to the appointment. I can send a message to a family member without touching a device. These were not “needs” that I had; this was not what I was demanding of technology. But there they were and guess what...I was using them. I existed without being able to do any of those things for a long time. Yet, here I am.  

Indications are that Apple is going to be selling their new iPhone 15 Pro Max as much as $200USD more. If you’re in any part of the world other than the USA, then you know what this increase means to you. Where does this stop though? How much more can your pocketbook take before quitting the Apple train? And here’s an even tougher question - “if, like me, you’ve bought into the whole ecosystem, do you have the intestinal fortitude to abandon it?” Have your say by taking this poll

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Bio: Brian Sankarsingh is a Trinidadian-born Canadian immigrant who moved to Canada in the 1980s. He describes himself as an accidental poet, with a passion for advocacy and a penchant for prose, an unapologetic style, he offers his poetry as social and political commentary.