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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."

23 of 551 comments (clear)

  1. Meanwhile... by rwven · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...The coworker sitting next to me us using a 5.5 year old macbook pro and defending it as "still as good as anything new."

    What a barbarian.

    1. Re:Meanwhile... by cdrudge · · Score: 5, Funny

      MacBook Pro Core 2 Duel

      So do the cores battle each other to see which one is better? Or how does that work?

    2. Re:Meanwhile... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My Current laptop a ThinkPad is approaching 5 years now.

      Snap! Mine's a W510. Actually, it might be older than 5 years. Well, I say laptop, I use it as a portable desktop which I take home once every few weeks or so.

      It's acceptably fast, not a speed demon nor a slacker. A very few things could be faster, but I don't bump into them often enough to upgrade. It also holds desktop sized SSDs and has 16G RAM so it's fine for just about everything I do.

      My eee900 is even older. 8 years, I think, though gmail is getting almost unusable though in the web client (50% speed, 50% screen space). Proper clients still work fine and trolling^Wbrowsing on slashdot is fine too.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    3. Re:Meanwhile... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      They joust prior to executing each instruction.

    4. Re:Meanwhile... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Funny

      What a barbarian.

      What a sad barbarian. If he bought a brand new Apple(tm) MacBook(r) he'd be a happy barbarian.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    5. Re:Meanwhile... by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Interesting

      When we looked at upgrading our hardware last autumn (most of our systems are Dell Vostros with 2 or 3gb of RAM bought in 2009 and had Windows Vista Pro), we decided that there was nothing new hardware could offer most of the staff. All but a few staff are basically running a browser and Office 2010, which these older systems run quite well. While I'm no fan of Windows 10, at the end of the day, it just seemed a better investment to buy Windows 10 licenses, upgrade the forty or so workstations we have, and factor attrition through hardware failure into the equipment budget. Yes, there's a bit of a gamble, in that we could have twenty of these seven year old computers crap out in one year, but we have a few spares and don't view it as a significant risk.

      Save for certain applications (mainly graphics intensive or calculation intensive applications), PCs really peaked in the last decade, and the gains to be had to updating to the newest hardware isn't likely even be noticed by most users. The chief reason to even upgrade the operating system is because Vista's EOL is approaching, and it is getting rather long in the tooth (Chrome support will be pulled soon).

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    6. Re:Meanwhile... by kuzb · · Score: 5, Funny

      Does this exchange start with a civilized white-glove-slapping? I'd expect nothing but the highest quality challenges to get issued.

      --
      BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    7. Re:Meanwhile... by yodleboy · · Score: 4, Funny

      "I assume this competition is that race condition thingy I've been hearing about?"

      Someone ALWAYS has to bring race into the conversation! ; )

  2. You mean 600 million LUDDITES. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Modern app appers know that only apps can app apps, and if 600 million LUDDITES are still using LUDDITE software, that ruins it for the rest of us app appers! Apple wants to destroy LUDDITE software and replace it with good wholesome appy app apps!

    Apps!

  3. It's official then? by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:It's official then? by avandesande · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah I had to laugh when I identified more with the friendly/dorky/pear shaped pc guy than the metrosexual twerp. I guess they don't care about our business.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    2. Re:It's official then? by wile_e_wonka · · Score: 5, Interesting

      5 years ago, using a 5 year old computer could be rough. All but the most powerful machines seemed to be largely unusable by that age. But 5 years ago, 64 bit multiple core processors became common. 8 gigs of ram or more was suddenly commonplace. Hard drives under hundreds of GBs were uncommon. And then cheap SSDs came on the scene, reviving old hardware everywhere.

      So, yeah, anymore a 5 year old computer is commonplace. I purchased my home desktop in 2010 (Dell XPS 8300, if I recall correctly, with a core i7 and 8 gigs of RAM), I added a 100 GB SSD in 2013 for use as the boot/OS drive, a second monitor around the same time, and a 4 TB drive for media storage in 2015. Although I am a relatively techie person, I see no need whatsoever to purchase a new computer within the next few years. Normally I want to be up with the times, but I am having a hard time seeing what I am missing out on. USB C, I guess? I can't think of anything else.

  4. An Apple fan being a snob?!?!? by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Funny

    No way!

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    1. Re:An Apple fan being a snob?!?!? by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Funny

      [Camera focuses on hipster as a barista approaches]

      Narrator: This is a rare opportunity to see an Apple customer defend his nest against attack from another species...Let's watch

      Barista: Look you can't just sit there all day if you're not going to order something

      Hipster: Are your latte smoothies organic and locally-sourced?

      Barista: I....I don't know.

      Hipster: Well, let me know if you can find out, then maybe I'll order one.

      Narrator: Brilliant! Did you notice the way he used his smug sense of self-importance to put the attacker on the defensive and fend her off? An amazing sight to behold!

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  5. Don't overreact by LichtSpektren · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Don't overreact by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Don't overreact by ranton · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    3. Re:Don't overreact by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  6. Really Sad? by JustNiz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >> 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.

    1. Re:Really Sad? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This is the fundamental problem all computer makers face. The relentless advance of computing tech has far, far outpaced the computing needs of most people for at least the past 10-15 years. As long as the hardware keeps functioning, those people have no real need to buy anything new... so the manufacturers have to resort to other tactics (appeals to snobbery, techno-lust, inventing new "must have" features, etc.).

      And, as others have pointed out, that comment of Shiller's was especially out of place given how many Mac users point to their still functional and useful "ancient" Macs. Heck, I've got a 2006 MacBook Pro that's still happily humming along, playing the role of our home media server. The battery is basically non-functional; but that's irrelevant for it's designated task.
       

      --
      #DeleteChrome
  7. The Quiet Classism of The Gadgeteers by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The rich boys and their expensive toys, about which they understand a fraction.

    It's tough to show off your new Porsche to the Marketing chippies around the watercooler, so your new Apple-thing will have to suffice...

  8. How it used to be by david_thornley · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Way back when, Apple was claiming that its computers lasted longer, and retained their usefulness longer, than other computers. Suddenly, this is supposed to be a problem?

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  9. Re:What about by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.