Slashdot Mirror
Media Loves Apple and Its Army of Fans
cgriffin21 writes "Apple is getting more media attention right now than any other technology company, including Google. Microsoft, meanwhile, is languishing in the shadows like Cinderella on the night of the ball. That's the upshot of a study released Monday (PDF) by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, which found that Apple was the focus of 15.1 percent of media coverage between June 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Google received 11.4 percent of media coverage during the period, while Microsoft garnered just 3 percent."
Even Apple haters want things like what Apple produces - just not from Apple - witness Android phones and tablets. Google touches everybody too. We all use one or more Google services.
Best description I've read yet of the "irrational haters" in technology, who want the same features that everyone else is excited about, but can't admit it because they'll lose their "l33t" cred, so they "hate" all the companies/product offering said features, call everyone that buys such products or uses such features "mindless fanbois," then go off and buy either inferior kirf versions or they try inadequately to re-create the very same things via Sourceforge projects that languish in half-completedness for a decade as they badger people in Slashdot discussions about not using the "evil" products they've tried to copy.
Sorry haters, I have no problem admitting that I like commercial products if they do the job. And no, the alternatives often don't. Android is not an iPhone alternative; it simply doesn't offer the same benefits. No, no, no it doesn't. The social benefits (the app store and its cleanliness) are not equivalent; not even close. Same thing with Mac OS, which has superior social benefits (metaphor, signification/representation, visual cues, conceptual elements like filesystem layout and software packaging practices). But Slashdotters, true to stereotype, don't understand anything human or social; they fetishize technology. It's actually Slashdotters that are blind, self-defeating enthusiasts -- of grungy, dystopian metal-and-led assemblages, of overcomplicated user interfaces and APIs, of convoluted mashup projects, and of "open" code (even in cases in which it's actually totally nonfunctional; because it's not the function that matters to Slashdotters, but the form) which they conceptualize as some sort of rebellion against power.
In short, Slashdotters are basically wedded to the fantasy that they are living inside a dystopian cyberpunk novel and mock anyone that doesn't want to play along the way RPG gamers make fun of people that don't walk through Manhattan wearing suits of armor, carrying plastic swords, and speaking in Shakespearean English. Everybody else sees it as pitiful, but they wear that plastic sword like a badge of honor and are sure that it's everyone else that's a loser.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Simple bullshit.
Mac Box Set
(Mac OS 10.6.3, iWork 2009, iLife 2009)
$169.00
Windows 7 Home + Office 2010 Home
$328.00
Nevermind that the Microsoft set doesn't have any equivalents at all (much less included in the cost above) for iDVD, iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, or GarageBand.
And it's patently ridiculous on its face to suggest that Mac OS X users can only accomplish a "restricted to the point where success is a lot less meaningful" subset of tasks with their computing environments. That's troll territory.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Maybe because parent is trolling. I have a MacBook Pro that just works.
The notion that Apple "focuses on the user experience" quickly seems absurd
as soon as you try to do anything that Apple didn't account for or is actually
trying to prevent.
You're confusing offering a great user experience with offering every feature ever invented. Apple is focused on what they perceive to be a very positive user experience. And based on user satisfaction they're very good at it. Many people actually like the walled garden.
Developers: We can use your help.
Another example is transferring files from the iPad. This goes beyond the Apple sanctioned usage of the iPad, so they make it really difficult, and it turns out the easiest way to share files is to e-mail them (a function which must be implemented on a per app basis, as the mail application does not allow attachments).
Is ticking a single check box in iTunes that difficult for you? If so, you may want to consider that you may not be Apple's target demographic, because last I checked they weren't making software for complete retards.
Disclaimer: I own a 5-year old iPod, but that is the only Apple device I own. I am not a fanboi, but the PP is citing something that is not an issue.
No, what the parent is saying is that the user experience is good as long as you conform to Apple's definition of user behavior. It's not even about including every feature ever, since Apple is notorious for omitting even the most rudimentary industry standard features.
Take copy/paste. Apple allegedly omitted it because for some reason with all their resources they couldn't figure out a way to implement it.
Good point, but not for your argument - most things people "need" the retarded implementations of copy/paste on other "smartphones" for were already implemented easier to use on the iPhone.
Fandroids hate facts.
Either you're just a hater (a far worse breed than the "fanbois", at least the fanbois are positive about their cult) or you're trying to make the opposite point (badly) using irony. Perhaps that's it - really you love Macs, but were trying to be clever.
As for market-share, again, who cares ? Sure, those numbers you quote are small, but Apple owns about 50% of the tablet market, about the same as Google (21%) in the mobile-ads market, almost 40% of the worldwide mobile phone profits (with only 3% market-share) and their shares of these markets is (as you say) really small. In other words, they're just getting started and there's a lot of room to grow.
Here's a thought. You don't get to be the most valuable tech stock on the planet by only appealing to "fanbois". You have to be able to sell to a wide marketplace to get that sort of traction. Apple does. Deal.
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!