Adapting the mobile phone: The iPhone and its consumption

In this paper, I look at the Apple iPhone as a fascinating instance of adaptation, especially as it relates to digital cultures. A theme in the rise of the mobile, or cell, phone has been how it underscores the active role that people play in the orchestration and use of culture. The gambit of the iPhone is that the mobile phone itself will be decisively remade, and through this that media culture will itself be reformed. To make sense of this rapturous reception, I examine the iPhone as a notable instance of consuming culture. The paper discusses the double sense in which the iPhone functions both as a signal adaptation of the mobile phone at the same time as it introduces new practices and politics of adaptation.