Apple Inc. is the biggest bully in the playground of handheld technology users. Nobody has experienced peer pressure quite like iConsumers.

When the newest version of the iPhone was released last summer, my roommate in New York City, Dan, went out and bought it the first day. He switched around his family plan, suspended his sister’s phone for two days and dropped a few hundred bucks to buy the phone and switch to AT&T.

And it was worth every dime and every minute of peer pressure to him.

“”Dude, it’s an iPhone,”” he said. “”Everyone has them.””

Welcome to the iWant generation.

In the spring, the iFamily, full of bullies, will gain its newest and physically largest member: The iPad.

Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple, introduced the world to the newest and coolest piece of technology on Wednesday. The device, which is a hybrid between an iPod Touch and a Mac computer, weighs 1 1/2 pounds and has a 9.7-inch glass touch screen. And despite its cost — $499 to $829, based on memory size — consumers are going to gobble it up.

There’s no such thing as an iRecession.

What we’ve learned from the overplayed media hype is that members of the iCult will be able to experience Internet through Wifi connections, and 3G Internet with the use of the AT&T network, which is already feeling stress from the massive influx of the more than 42 million people around the world who use iPhones.

The iPad, which is about the size of a magazine, will make the Amazon Kindle burn into the fiery depths of oblivion with the introduction of the iBooks store. Textbooks will fill fewer backpacks when students purchase the iPad versions.

The new device has no camera, no Flash program for the Internet and no pocketability. But that won’t matter.

The bullies are more persuasive than ever. Dan, your best friend and maybe even your grandmother will soon have one.

But I’m not buying into the peer pressure. iJust don’t care.

— Lance Madden is a journalism senior. He can be reached at editor@wildcat.arizona.edu.