The Day the Magic Died

For Tim Cook ( Who is responsible for my broken heart?)

Dear Tim,

I do not know if you will get to read this, but I decided to try anyway.

As a young analyst equipped with a telecom engineering degree I first came to know about Apple as I saw people running with their iPods. I could not justify buying one as a student so I didn’t pay much attention.

In a few years, Apple — from their online branding, to marketing, to stores and genius bars became the benchmark for excellence and magic for which ever client I worked with. I woke up nights, and spent hours reading analysts, MAC rumors and following Twitter on the ‘one more thing.’ The experience of owning an Apple device or even being an Apple fangirl was exhilarating.

Finally I got an iPod and then an iPad and then the iPhone and I fell in love with Apple and its halo effect. From reading Steve Job’s biography to converting everyone in my family to Apple (including getting both my parents iPhones) was a matter of pride. I was a part of the magic. No other device has come close to making me feel things are easy- and all you’ve got to do is respect the user.

I did not just become an Apple owner, I became an advocate and embodiment of the philosophy that it shared. I wanted Apples in every single market. I often joked with friends that the only thing that could save printers and scanners was Apple.

I started my own business in 2014–15 and it was a big step for someone with no links in the industry and just hard work to carry forward. My very supportive husband bought me a MacBook. For the first time in my life, I felt I could fly. My MacBook traveled with me to my working honeymoon, vacations and every single client meeting. I found clients, wrote extraordinary stories and fell in love with it. Each day turning on my MacBook felt like carpe diem. I was seizing my moments and making a difference with each word that was well crafted and did something more. I wanted to think and design like Apple in everything I did and worked on.

On August 16, 2016 exactly 1 year and 7 months later, my MacBook did not turn on. I am in the middle of sending an entire book that I crafted on the Mac and I had had my most productive day this Monday. And without a warning or a sign, the MacBook stopped breathing. I cried.

The next morning I took it to the genius bar where I was told that my Apple had a hardware issue. It was less than 2 years, and it had some hardware failure. I know that things like this can happen. I know about technology. I can get it fixed now for $300, I am told. The genius told me he would go over and above to get me my data (especially the book that I had spent hours on over the weekend).

Was securing my data going over an above? Was the expectation that a MacBook with all its flamboyance and price would last me more than 2 years over an above? Was the magic that I believed in over and above?

My husband was about to buy a new MacBook himself and yesterday he felt sorry for giving me a gift that didn’t last long. He also vowed he’d never buy one himself.

I could perhaps fix the machine, but it broke my heart. It was all the magic I had believed in. And it is now gone. I spend every waking hour trying to work hard and not stay mediocre. My Apple experience was a reminder of getting away from the Gaussian curve of average. It inspired me to be more. And now it is dead.

How could you let that happen?

Yours unsurely,
Upasna

Upasna is a small business owner at brandanew.co and always believed that an Apple all day kept her mediocrity away. Till, one day, the Apple broke her heart.