That Awkward Moment When 'Apple Mocked Good Hardware and Poor People' (dailydot.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a DailyDot article: Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, took the stage in Cupertino, California, earlier this week to explain some of the new features and specs on the new iPad Pro. Between showing off a new display and camera, Schiller also took some digs at Windows and PC users, specifically calling out those users who are on computers more than five years old. Schiller said that 600 million people are using PCs that are over five years old. 'This is really sad,' he said.
C. Custer, reporter for Tech in Asia also didn't like Schiller's remarks. He writes: If Apple's really targeting those 600 million old PC users, it seems to have done a pretty poor job. It's been more than five years since I saw the need to upgrade my primary computer, and nothing about the iPad Pro presentation made me rethink my position at all. But of course, Apple isn't really targeting those people. That was mostly just a cheap shot, a jibe at all of us poor fools who haven't yet seen the light. That's why the audience laughed knowingly, and even applauded. "Using the same machine for five years? How barbaric! Thank god we live in civilized society, where everyone throws their gadgets out and buys new ones every two years."

Comments

It's official then?

[gstoddart]

The Apple Marketing really are targeting the shallow and vacuous assholes who want to feel smug about the latest shiny?

My last PC was over 6 years old before it keeled over, and I hope this one lasts about the same.

Know what I still don't have? My first gen iPad that Apple updated until they made it useless. Know what I do have? A 3.5 year old Android tablet.

Huge amounts of people are running older machines ... and, once again, people in marketing are shallow idiots.

Don't overreact

[LichtSpektren]

It was a dumb comment for sure, but turning this into a matter of class warfare or social justice is orders of magnitude dumber.

Re:Don't overreact

[PopeRatzo]

It was a dumb comment for sure, but turning this into a matter of class warfare or social justice is orders of magnitude dumber.

What's dumb is ignoring class warfare as the elite drop bombs on your head, and decrying social justice when you're having injustice inflicted upon you every day.

But maybe you're more comfortable in the role of useful idiot. You wouldn't be the first.

Re:Don't overreact

[ranton]

It was a dumb comment for sure, but turning this into a matter of class warfare or social justice is orders of magnitude dumber.

My interpretation goes the other way. This is similar to how a drunk man speaks a sober man's thoughts. This comment shows how he really feels about people who don't refresh their devices every other year. He would never say this publicly other than in a slip up like this.

Ultimately it shouldn't be surprising to anyone though, which is why I think calling it awkward instead of outrageous is accurate. Anyone who is paying attention knows there is a huge chasm between the upper middle class / wealthy and the working class / poor. I grew up in a working class home and now that I am in my 30's with a $200k+ household income I find it hard to remember how I ever lived on $40k. In only a decade I have lost nearly all empathy with people who had the same upbringing as mine, and in its place is only sympathy for those who I barely understand anymore.

I now have similar awkward moments sometimes when I talk with an old friend who has kids the same age as mine, but is raising them on a $50k household income. If I accidentally bring up how our maid is a lifesaver or how "hard" it is to afford $3200 in monthly daycare costs it could certainly come off as elitist.

Re:Don't overreact

[DNS-and-BIND]

Huh? Useful idiots are Western leftists. The term was coined in the Soviet Union, whose Communists could not understand why people could live in such magnificent free societies and yet wish to turn them into authoritarian hellholes like their own. Shrugging their shoulders, they called them "useful idiots" and used them for their own purposes, showing them Potemkin villages on their pilgrimages and putting them up in the best hotels for free. Their descendants are today's Cultural Marxists who still continue with the plan but have no Soviet Union to betray the West to. I see already that the story has already been twisted from "out of touch Apple executives who want to sell more crap" into "cis white males fucking disgust me". You can misuse a term if you want but that doesn't make it right.

"There's glory for you!"
"I don't know what you mean by 'glory'," Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't - till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you'!"
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument'," Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more or less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be Master - that's all."
-- Alice in Wonderland

Really Sad?

[JustNiz]

>> 600 million people are using PCs that are over five years old. 'This is really sad,' he said.

No it really isn't. Most people just use PCs to write emails and surf the net. Heck even 5 year old hardware is overpowered just for that.

Re:What about

[serviscope_minor]

That said, I may buy an iPad. My daughter had hers with her last visit, and it takes REALLY sharp photos.

If you're only after really sharp photos, you'd be better off with a recent model compact camera. They're a lot cheaper, and will take much better photos.