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Why Apple Is So Sticky
Hugh Pickens writes "'Sticky,' in the social sciences and particularly economics, describes a situation in which a variable is resistant to change. For websites or products it usually means that visitors or customers keep coming back for more. Now Fortune Magazine reports on an analysis by Deutsche Bank's Chris Whitmore on what makes the (iTunes-based) iPhone-iPod-iPad platform so sticky and why it's going to get harder, not easier, for Apple users to switch, no matter what Google and the rest of Apple's competitors have up their sleeves. Whitmore says the investment Apple's customers have made in content for those devices in terms of apps, videos, and music purchased at the iTunes Store creates Apple's 'stickiness.' Apple has an installed base today of about 150 million iTunes-dependent devices that could grow to more than 200 million by the end of 2011. Whitmore comes up with a cumulative investment in those devices of about $15 billion today, growing to $25 billion by the end of next year. 'This averages to ~$100 of content for each installed device,' Whitmore writes, 'suggesting switching costs are relatively high (not to mention the time required to port). When Apple's best-in-class user experience is combined with these growing switching costs, the resulting customer loyalty is unparalleled.'"
Yes, stealing is always a better idea than actually paying.
You're an idiot.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
easy to use: pass
reliable: way to early to tell: N/A
easy access to all the content most average people want: no flash, fail
pretty: pass
I guess It was just modded down to oblivion.
The same goes for the ipod interface. Thankfully my nano is rock box compatible and I was able to install something that was a bit easier to sync my music with.
I call bullshit on this one. Was hooking your USB cable into your nano too hard for you or something? Honestly tho, you drag your mp3s to the iTunes window, and you hook the iPod in. I can only imagine it being easier if the music was beamed directly into my brain.
I pretty much find all of their interfaces confusing and I really don't have the desire to learn them. Good news is that there are many alternatives on the market.
It all makes sense to me. You can sort by artists, songs, genres, playlists... what more do you want? Song length? (I think iTunes will do that, but not the iPods, so you got me there) My million dollar question however is: if you cant stand the iTunes/iPod software, why the hell did you buy an iPod??
All your 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 are belong to us
Flamebait? Funny? This should be informative. I mean, who here hasn't met an Apple fan so excited about getting some new Apple device that he blows his load the moment he gets to touch it for the first time?
I hate printers.
I'm sure apple nerds like to think they aren't nerds.
But they are... they're just nerds in turtle necks.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Thats a bull shit statement by apple users that its easier to use. It's the same as any other OS with regard to ease of use. I hate Microsoft because it's proprietary. Why the fuck should I move to another proprietary system that has LESS applications just to get away from the first one. If I'm going to move away from microblows, it sure as fuck won't be to some other vendor that costs more. I'll move completely to open source and tell all of them to fuck off. By the way, I will be buying much more usable products with the money I saved not buying apples want to be's. I refuse to buy any apple electronic appliances. Its a complete lockin for them. I REFUSE to be locked into one vendor for all my shopping. And guess what. There are a lot of other vendors/sources for everything that apples makes. And in every case where I have compared, apple loses both in cost and ease of use. Do the apple goose step. Walk with your arms straight, and click your heals together when you go heil steve jobs. What a fucking sheep. .
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
So it's hard to make a playlist, put a blank disk in the drive, hit "burn to disk", and select "Audio Disk"?
It's so easy even a Fucking Apple Fanboi could do it. Hell I could also do it with iTunes for Windows does that make me a Fucking Microsoft Fanboi as well?
You are nothing but an Apple fanboy who'd prefer to blame the customer than acknowledge that your pet company or product might be at fault for something. Nice how you jump on blaming the user and assuming that I'm incompetent knowing nothing about me. You must make a lot of friends with an attitude like yours. To answer your ridiculous accusatory questions:
Q: Why would you feel the need to do that? Are you running out of disk space?
A: Lots of good reasons to move the iTunes library. From a general reorg to moving machines.
Q: Are you running a really old PC? Do you have a lot of crapware installed?
A: iTunes is the "crapware" you speak of. I know how to admin my machine very well. I even know what the iTunes services do. A helper app for intercepting URL launches, and lots of phone home rubbish. I'm a developer and have a good understanding of what is and isn't needed.
Q: Ever hear of backup? There are plenty of third party applications for both Windows and OS X that let you move music from an iPod to your computer but you really should be using a proper backup mechanism.
A: No backup software is foolproof or completely future proof. Relying on it is for fools. Best backup is to store your data somewhere under your own control and separate from OS and settings. Apps like iTunes don't make that easy.
Q: Maybe they made it hard to RMA because of a high incidence of fraud?
A: Please explain why fraud is my problem if I'm not being fraudulent. Are you reallly trying to defend a company shirking their responsibilities under the law? Are you smoking something?
Q: *Sigh* Maybe you should RTFM. You can create smart playlists in iTunes or on the fly on the iPod using the current song to generate a genius playlist.
A: *Sigh* Maybe you should get some people skills and take some classes in basic comprehension. Genius requires a login to generate a playlist. A login in Australia requires giving them your credit card details and agreeing to their store rules.
Q: You might want to get some help for your OCD or accept that plastic does scratch especially if you keep other things in your pocket with your iPhone.
A: I've never had problems keeping other things in my pocket. Even putting my iPod in the case it came with started scratching the housing. Fortunately I've added a home made screen protector so at least the part I read isn't damaged. It makes the whole thing look cheap and stuck together though. I guess you'll defend that too.
Now go fly a kite.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
how so? Is that just your personal observation or do you have some data to back your statement up?
I disagree with the easy to use part, at least on the desktop. My brother has a Mac, and I'm having the hardest time getting the hang of it: why do windows lose focus when I move the mouse, where the heck is the Wifi config stuff... I say it's as idiosyncratic as Windows.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
They don't just re-brand it. They steal it, polish it up, and releases it in a stream-lined and user-friendly product with all the bugs worked out. And as we all know, copying ideas and improving on them is Good(tm). And some of Apple's ideas are original, like multi-touch.
I guess the single button mouse was another one of those brilliant ideas?
On another note, Come'on we are talking about reebok vs nike here, PC/Mac, their differences these days are SFA except for the OS, and the OS is limited on the Mac because it's designed to be simple and not flexible.
Marketing isn't everything. Having the right idea, the right people and the right corporate culture at the right time and place counts for a lot.
Microsoft could have made Windows as user-friendly as Mac a long time ago, with all their money and their foothold on the market, but yet they fail in that department again and again.
Interesting, though it could look as if your being a little redundant. I'd like to take your Marketing + Ideas concept a little further.
Back in the day when Apple and MS were at it, Microsoft had the marketing message "here we are cheap, flexible and adaptable". Apple's was "I'm an artsy freak who likes to show up at fashion shows and I also like to sell these things we call computers".
Oddly enough, the marketing message back then failed for Apple. Whats even more interesting is the fact that now in current days that exact same marketing message seems to work. Microsoft's still pretty much stays the same, your not going to be shifting them anytime soon, but Apple has tapped into this new faucet of business.
Selling the idea that the Mimbos and Bimbos of the world can now use computers so they can send photos of themselves with their spray-on-tan via Facebook has certainly worked out for old Apple in current days. There is endless combination of simpletons that need to use a computer, and that single button clicker and that metro-sexual sales identity has been bringing them in by the hordes.
Now, Virgin a brand that sells their products blatantly through the innuendos of sex (hetero-sexual mind you) with re-banded PC's (like Macs are really any different) Virgin could stand to do the same, I would go so far in saying it could cause an upset in Mac's market-place if done correctly.