Memes Explained: "599 US Dollars"

So I thought I might harken back to an old meme supposedly originating on /v/. Techology correspondents, geeky bloggers, and Apple fanboys eagerly anticipated the launch of the then-super-secret iPad back in January. Now apparently Apple execs have expressed the possibility that prices could be cut in anticipation of poor sales due to the, ahem, *premium* prices. To elaborate: you get the 16-gig with no 3G for $499 and a 64-gig with 3G for $829. Personally I think not having 3G with a device like that is really crippling to all the applications (like email) that constantly get updates from the Internet, but I'm getting off track here.

The history of the "599 USD" meme can be summarized by discussing one event in particular that was markedly similar to the launch of the iPad: the launch of the PS3. It was, of course, eagerly anticipated. But another similarity was that people were a bit tweaked by how much they were trying to charge. This led to the creation of the "599 USD" meme on the Internet (specifically /v/, if I UD.com is true). I presume that there was a thread mocking the price of the PS3 versus that of the Xbox 360 (this is from my limited experience surfing that board--it's usually a bunch of troll threads about how one console is DA BEST!1). This presumably led to a posting of the video, whereupon the character of the person speaking on behalf of Sony, Kaz Harai, was thoroughly denegrated for "the lulz".

And this YouTube clip followed:



Then this one:



This is the best one though by far because it's a sick tune:



So there you have it. I wonder if there will be a revival of the "599 US dollars" meme couched in terms of the iPad? Perhaps not, because the Apple launch was trying to be way more serious than Kaz Harai was trying to act on stage.