“Aristocrats are characterized by, among other things, desirable social privileges and conveniences, especially in transportation. In the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe, aristocrats traveled in horse-drawn coach carriages. The riff-raff not only had to walk, but get off the road when an important person came along in a carriage. Travel has always been more convenient for aristocrats,” Elgan writes. “Cult of Mac reported back in April that Apple had filed a patent for an app called iTravel. (The patent was granted this week.) You can follow the links to read the details, but in a nutshell the app is a kind of ‘Easy-Pass’ for air travel. While the hoi polloi queue up for check-in, security and boarding, the Apple aristocrats just stroll onto the plane.”
Elgan writes, “Of course, aristocrats have to pay more for better travel services. A recent report revealed that Orbitz routinely offers only higher-rate rooms to site visitors using Macs, as it found that Mac users typically spend more anyway. This difference in hotels offered is not revealed to users. Visitors to Orbitz who use Macs simply live in a world in which hotels are better and more expensive.”
Read more, including commercial, privacy and other privileges afforded to Apple users, in the full article, in which Elgan concludes that Apple is not creating a new aristocracy, here.
MacDailyNews Take: Elgan’s right, there’s nothing new about it. Mac users have always been the aristocrats of personal computing and now iPhone users and iPad users are the aristocrats of the smartphone and tablet/personal computing markets, respectively.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers "Fred Mertz" and "Dan K." for the heads up.]
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