It's the concept in graphic design that people know when something looks better than something else, but they can't explain why, they just can tell.
Same thing goes with a lot of Apple stuff. People don't know what they want until they see a good example of it. It defies "supply and demand". There was no demand for the iPad...Apple created demand where there was none by showing the consumer what they didn't know they wanted.
Apple products are no more easier or harder to use the Microsoft's. But Apple has done a tremendous job building up a cult like following. That is why they retain such intense customer loyalty. People didn't line up because the products worked, they lined up because it was "cool."
This is the most immature, disingenuous post I've seen this month.
I'm 42 and very much not cool and have mostly Apple stuff (I have 1 HTC phone and a Windows 7 pc, in addition to a plethora of Apple stuff). I also teach people how to use computers and to say Apple products are no more easier or harder than Microsoft's is an insult to my career field.
I hate to do this to a +5 insightful, but you're wrong.
The first iPod that came out was in direct competetion with the nomad zen. The zen had a longer battery life (14 hours vs 10 hours), bigger harddrive (60gig vs 20 gig), usb1.1 and firewire (the iPod only had firewire), a tuner, and a microphone, and worked on windows, osx and linux (the iPod was a pain on osx and a nightmare for windows).
When I was 18 I cared about tech specs, because, well, I was 18. By the time the iPod came out, I had matured beyond obsessing about tech specs and bought the better overall product, the iPod, because there's more to a device than its specs.
I'm dubious that Apple had any weight to throw around in the early 2000s. They were almost dead by 1999. The iPod single-handedly saved the company. But other than that, nice revision of history you've provided.
I know what I want Mr. Jobs, I need Apple to make devices I want with the options I want. And one of those options is... lots of options and price ranges. Until then, I'll continue to go elsewhere.
You are free to do what you please. Nobody said Mr. Jobs was FORCING you to buy into their business model.
It's almost like people buy Apple because they don't want to have to think.. it's safe.
You say this like it's a bad thing? Just because it's not what YOU want, doesn't make it bad. And one of the reasons it's safe is because of a long history of shit that just works.
... I and others have stumbled over such idiotic interface choices like... swiping to unlock. Pinching to zoom and unzoom.... Sure, they make sense and are easy to use once you are shown, but that didn't make them intuitive.
Seriously? Apple devices provided affordance, which is defined as presenting a device in such a way that it's use is obvious. Think of a pair of scissors. The big hole is for your fingers and the little one for your thumb because the design affordance dictates that is the only logical way to use them. How else would you unlock an iPhone when the only options are: a round button at the bottom, a rectangle button at the top right, two volume buttons, and, wait for it....a big GUI thingy that is just begging to be swiped to the right that says "Slide to Unlock" and is animated from left to right?
And you are complaining about pinching to zoom? You ever try using a non-multi-touch Windows phone and Google maps? Yeah, good luck with that.
An American working in "manufacturing" is not going to be working for minimum wage. I posited a rather conservative $20-$30 an hour, depending on where you live. I guess it could be as low as $15 an hour, but that's still orders of magnitude higher than $17... A DAY.
Apple has 40,000 US employees and 20,000 international employees (not outsourced, they support their respective regions). They also provide all their US tech support from the US, not outsourced.
Paying a contractor to assemble 10,000 iDevices a day in the only place on the planet with that type of manufacturing capacity is not the definition of "outsourcing" you are looking for.
But that still goes against my contention that my 2nd and 3rd gen iPods and first gen iPhone are still on their original batteries and my Macbook has a user-replaceable battery.
Since you can't provide any evidence supporting your claim that Apple devices are engineered to fail, you are indeed a troll, especially so when there is so much evidence to the contrary. Give us one shred of evidence that Apple devices fail after one year. To the contrary, Apple's model seems to be build up a bunch of hype for a slightly improved version, then people will flock to buy it, even though their previous model works just fine. This explains Siri. This explains every incrementally upgrade to the long line of current uni-body Macbooks and Macbook Pros. This has been Apple's model since the late 1990s.
Nice troll.You need to define "obvious". Because to me, it is obvious that Apple makes really good devices that work the way most people like.
Planned failure is a joke of an accusation. I have a 1999 G4 that still works pretty well and has had zero defective parts. I have a 2nd and 3rd generation iPod that are on their original batteries. I've got a 2006 Intel Macbook (the one you are supposedly supposed to avoid as a first-gen product) and a 2006 Intel iMac, both work with very few problems (DVD doesn't work on the Macbook). I have a first gen iPhone that still works. I think there's plenty of data showing that Apple quality in the long run is industry-leading.
They dropped CarrierIQ with iOS5, which is more than most competitors can say.
"Vendor" lock-in. That is an imaginary Apple problem. Vendor is right there in your accusation. Vendor. As in not Apple. Isn't that what vendor means? You realize the iPhone is available on 3 out of the 4 major carriers in the US? How is that locked-in to anything? How are two-year contracts for subsidized phone prices any different than HTC and Samsung on any network?
Please. There are plenty of reasons to not like a product, but your short list is pretty lame. Walled garden is your only valid point, and that's only valid to the minority of geeks who don't understand the success of the walled-garden approach.
Apple doesn't outsource engineers or tech support overseas, so they aren't above spending money on American employees. There aren't any companies in America that can produce 10,000 devices a day like Foxconn. This is the main reason Apple (and like you said, EVERY OTHER TECH COMPANY ON THE PLANET) uses them.
while you may be willing to pay $70 more does that mean everyone else will?
I would, but it's is moronic to think that paying a US worker $20-$30 an hour as opposed to paying a Chinese person $17 a day would only increase the price of the iPad $70.
More importantly, there is currently NO organization in the United States that could manufacture 10,000 devices a day, like they do at Foxconn. The backlash against supply shortages would be more damning than a $70 price increase.
Slashdot Mirror
It's the concept in graphic design that people know when something looks better than something else, but they can't explain why, they just can tell.
Same thing goes with a lot of Apple stuff. People don't know what they want until they see a good example of it. It defies "supply and demand". There was no demand for the iPad...Apple created demand where there was none by showing the consumer what they didn't know they wanted.
Oh boy, I could go on forever, but here's a short list:
Ever install a Mac app vs. a Windows app? Pretty painless on Macs, and sometimes painless on Windows but sometimes disasterous.
Ever UNINSTALL a Mac app vs. a Windows app? Yeah, no contest, because, well, you don't uninstall apps from a Mac.
Ever try to rename an open file in Windows or move it?
Ever try to edit video on a PC running Windows any version?
Ever seen the directions for connecting to a wi-fi signal in public hot spots for Mac vs. Windows?
Ever try to get a wireless printer working on either?
Ever try to move user data from one computer to another with either system?
How about burn a cd? Why did it take Windows 10 years to be able to burn a cd from the desktop right in the OS?
Apple products are no more easier or harder to use the Microsoft's. But Apple has done a tremendous job building up a cult like following. That is why they retain such intense customer loyalty. People didn't line up because the products worked, they lined up because it was "cool."
This is the most immature, disingenuous post I've seen this month.
I'm 42 and very much not cool and have mostly Apple stuff (I have 1 HTC phone and a Windows 7 pc, in addition to a plethora of Apple stuff). I also teach people how to use computers and to say Apple products are no more easier or harder than Microsoft's is an insult to my career field.
More importantly, iPods actually got better with each generation. Whatever happened to Nomad?
I hate to do this to a +5 insightful, but you're wrong.
The first iPod that came out was in direct competetion with the nomad zen. The zen had a longer battery life (14 hours vs 10 hours), bigger harddrive (60gig vs 20 gig), usb1.1 and firewire (the iPod only had firewire), a tuner, and a microphone, and worked on windows, osx and linux (the iPod was a pain on osx and a nightmare for windows).
When I was 18 I cared about tech specs, because, well, I was 18. By the time the iPod came out, I had matured beyond obsessing about tech specs and bought the better overall product, the iPod, because there's more to a device than its specs.
I'm dubious that Apple had any weight to throw around in the early 2000s. They were almost dead by 1999. The iPod single-handedly saved the company. But other than that, nice revision of history you've provided.
Not to bust your joke, which is pretty funny, but it was called Dogpile because it is a metasearch engine...a punny name for a nerdy architecture.
I suppose Apple invented the idea that sentences in English begin with a capital letter and end with a punctuation mark.
I know what I want Mr. Jobs, I need Apple to make devices I want with the options I want. And one of those options is ... lots of options and price ranges. Until then, I'll continue to go elsewhere.
You are free to do what you please. Nobody said Mr. Jobs was FORCING you to buy into their business model.
It's almost like people buy Apple because they don't want to have to think .. it's safe.
You say this like it's a bad thing? Just because it's not what YOU want, doesn't make it bad. And one of the reasons it's safe is because of a long history of shit that just works.
... I and others have stumbled over such idiotic interface choices like ... swiping to unlock. Pinching to zoom and unzoom. ... Sure, they make sense and are easy to use once you are shown, but that didn't make them intuitive.
Seriously? Apple devices provided affordance, which is defined as presenting a device in such a way that it's use is obvious. Think of a pair of scissors. The big hole is for your fingers and the little one for your thumb because the design affordance dictates that is the only logical way to use them. How else would you unlock an iPhone when the only options are: a round button at the bottom, a rectangle button at the top right, two volume buttons, and, wait for it....a big GUI thingy that is just begging to be swiped to the right that says "Slide to Unlock" and is animated from left to right?
And you are complaining about pinching to zoom? You ever try using a non-multi-touch Windows phone and Google maps? Yeah, good luck with that.
Take Google Docs out of your "nobody uses them" list. I think I know more people now who use Google docs instead of MS Office.
I'm pretty sure I use Google Maps on my iPhone by default.
An American working in "manufacturing" is not going to be working for minimum wage. I posited a rather conservative $20-$30 an hour, depending on where you live. I guess it could be as low as $15 an hour, but that's still orders of magnitude higher than $17 ... A DAY.
When I was a kid, my family would go to Prineville reservoir in the Summer. I think we doubled the population.
You've obviously never been to Prineville, OR. You could fill up 90% of that place with river and nobody would notice.
Apple has 40,000 US employees and 20,000 international employees (not outsourced, they support their respective regions). They also provide all their US tech support from the US, not outsourced.
Paying a contractor to assemble 10,000 iDevices a day in the only place on the planet with that type of manufacturing capacity is not the definition of "outsourcing" you are looking for.
But that still goes against my contention that my 2nd and 3rd gen iPods and first gen iPhone are still on their original batteries and my Macbook has a user-replaceable battery.
Since you can't provide any evidence supporting your claim that Apple devices are engineered to fail, you are indeed a troll, especially so when there is so much evidence to the contrary. Give us one shred of evidence that Apple devices fail after one year. To the contrary, Apple's model seems to be build up a bunch of hype for a slightly improved version, then people will flock to buy it, even though their previous model works just fine. This explains Siri. This explains every incrementally upgrade to the long line of current uni-body Macbooks and Macbook Pros. This has been Apple's model since the late 1990s.
You can't just say "garbage in/garbage out" and run back to your mom's basement.
The fact any post remotely hating on Apple is modded +5 insightful and yours is not is a sad commentary on the quality of dialogue around here lately.
1. All the manufacturers don't take advantage of this.
Yes. They ALL do. The last major American electronics manufacturer was Zenith, and they sold to Korea in 1995.
Nice troll.You need to define "obvious". Because to me, it is obvious that Apple makes really good devices that work the way most people like.
Planned failure is a joke of an accusation. I have a 1999 G4 that still works pretty well and has had zero defective parts. I have a 2nd and 3rd generation iPod that are on their original batteries. I've got a 2006 Intel Macbook (the one you are supposedly supposed to avoid as a first-gen product) and a 2006 Intel iMac, both work with very few problems (DVD doesn't work on the Macbook). I have a first gen iPhone that still works. I think there's plenty of data showing that Apple quality in the long run is industry-leading.
They dropped CarrierIQ with iOS5, which is more than most competitors can say.
"Vendor" lock-in. That is an imaginary Apple problem. Vendor is right there in your accusation. Vendor. As in not Apple. Isn't that what vendor means? You realize the iPhone is available on 3 out of the 4 major carriers in the US? How is that locked-in to anything? How are two-year contracts for subsidized phone prices any different than HTC and Samsung on any network?
Please. There are plenty of reasons to not like a product, but your short list is pretty lame. Walled garden is your only valid point, and that's only valid to the minority of geeks who don't understand the success of the walled-garden approach.
Thanks for posting this so I didn't have to.
Apple doesn't outsource engineers or tech support overseas, so they aren't above spending money on American employees. There aren't any companies in America that can produce 10,000 devices a day like Foxconn. This is the main reason Apple (and like you said, EVERY OTHER TECH COMPANY ON THE PLANET) uses them.
while you may be willing to pay $70 more does that mean everyone else will?
I would, but it's is moronic to think that paying a US worker $20-$30 an hour as opposed to paying a Chinese person $17 a day would only increase the price of the iPad $70.
More importantly, there is currently NO organization in the United States that could manufacture 10,000 devices a day, like they do at Foxconn. The backlash against supply shortages would be more damning than a $70 price increase.
Yeah, we'd never want any articles about the world's most valuable tech company on a tech forum, amiright?
Speaking of tech ignorant... iPhones run on Sprint and Verizon as well.