Apple Cult -- All Just Vacuous Branding?

Pangur Bán;11351281 said:
I know you can buy a Lenovo with the same specs for a third of the price or less than a mac book,

No you can't, a $2k Lenovo is roughly on par with a $3k Apple, and the price difference decreases on lower end models.

In some cases Apple might have a slight quality advantage, but nothing that justifies the price.

Well, I think most people buy Macs for the wrong reasons. I use a Mac for my Unix-based development because Mac OS is better than Windows for that, Linux interfaces are ass-ugly, and my development computers are either provided by work or written off as a business expense.

Apple products are for idiots. That's what makes them so great.

There isn't much evidence to back this up. If you watch people who have no computer experience, they fail equally miserably on any computer product.

$104/share in cash is nice. Apple's operational expertise is the best in class. As Integral said, their supply chain management means they don't have large profit sapping inventory. In 2010, HTC couldn't buy enough screens because Apple pre-paid their manufacturers for the iPhone 4. Same for high end drills for iPad 2.

Question is whether they can continue to be revolutionary rather just evolutionary?

Apple fronts a lot of capital for new product development though, so in a lot of cases, if they hadn't pre-paid for 6 months worth of supply, supply would be delayed for that timeframe before being available anyway.

I think Apple is making a conscious effort to move to being evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Moving to their PC naming system for the ipad (new models released regularly, same name) is part of this. PC manufacturers dreamed of selling PCs by model year rather than specs, over a decade ago, but were never able to pull it off like Apple is doing.

@Hygro: honestly I'm not a fan of Apple's keyboards, either the desktop or laptop versions. Lenovo keyboards are physically a joy to use while chiclet keyboards are just awkward.

Yeah, other than their laptop trackpads and bluetooth trackpad, Apple input devices are really not very good.

I find Mac's obnoxious to use, the interface really gets in the way of what I want to do.

Yeah, this is just a matter of familiarity. I use Windows and Mac OS about equally, and my workflow and productivity is very similar between the two, with each OS having a handful of features I wish the other would implement.

Except for the harddrive browsing. That's one thing Apple sucks at.

I use muCommander.

I hated this keyboard for the first couple months. Once I got used to it, that's when it got awesome.

Well, I'm spoiled, but Mac keyboards suck for not being like mine:



You guys simply don't comprehend what you're missing out on.

I don't prefer to keep programs going, when I close out, I want them gone (I'm very RAM conscience, better for my gaming).

You need to put more RAM in your computer.

I'm interested to see what their plans are in the low margin tv business. Content? Streamlined devices? Should be interesting.

I'm curious too - Microsoft recently backburnered a pretty big effort to make a push into similar territory because the content owners wouldn't play along.

Apple has cultivated a myth of technological superiority, but it's really superiority in terms of interfacing. I've yet to find an mp3 player I enjoy more than an ipod touch. It's just so brilliantly laid out -- so much so that for no other reason than the mp3 player function, I'd buy an iphone.

my ipod is awesome, as is itunes. I don't know of any other company that can really touch Apple in the music distribution market. Their innovations with music downloading have been revolutionary.

The Best Smartphone for Music Lovers

As well as all the regular itunes stuff, you can also pay $10/m and get unlimited streaming/downloading (as long as you keep paying) on your phone/PC/xbox. I'm surprised Apple hasn't implemented something similar yet.
 
@DT: I hope you mean iTunes as a distribution platform, not as a music player. :)

Ha yeah, that's exactly what I mean. I think there are better actual PLAYERS around (I like WinAmp, personally), and the market is crowded with other apps that help recommend new music (Pandora does this better than Apply Genius I think).

But as a music distribution and promotion platform, iTunes is second to none. Ditto with podcasts, and increasingly with other digital media.
 
Change the settings on System Preferences. It's one big button for me too. It's awesome, because you have all the room and control in the world. But you do need to customize the settings a tad to set up a good right-mouse setting and the touch options.

I would if I could, the Mac's I use are the school's, so I can't screw around with the.

Didn't know you could change mouse preferences though on a Mac, duly noted.

Yeah, this is just a matter of familiarity. I use Windows and Mac OS about equally, and my workflow and productivity is very similar between the two, with each OS having a handful of features I wish the other would implement.

Yeah, I mentioned the familiarity thing. I don't use Mac's very often because I'm not familiar with them, which prevents me form becoming familiar with them.

It's a vicious cycle.

You need to put more RAM in your computer.

Ugh, I wish. I'm running Vista 32 bit, which I've been told can only use a max of 4 gigs of RAM, which I have.
 
I'm no apple fanboy, but I'm not an apple hater either. I'm kind of middle of the road on the issue.

My thought is that some apple products are overpriced, and that is my number one complaint about them.

But as to them being "designed for idiots"? Come on. The POINT of a mass produced product is to be as simple to use as possible. If Macs were far more complicated to use than windows, you guys would just be bashing apple even more. Before GUI, computers were far more complicated to use. Is Windows for "idiots" where as the pre-gui stuff is for "smart people"?

There are plenty of valid arguments to use against apple (overpriced products being the first that comes to my mind) but saying "It's designed for idiots" is just plain stupid.

For the record, I think Linux and OSX have a lot of similarities, but I don't think either are designed for idiots just because it's easy to learn. The difference is you can have a linux computer for a lot less money.

edit: Windows 8 is supposedly going to be a lot simpler to use than previous versions of windows; they are making drastic changes. Does this mean Microsoft is now "catering to idiots" or do you think they're making a product that is simpler to use, and therefore more marketable? If you ask me, anyone that makes ANY product (regardless of whether it's technology related or not) should not make the product harder to use than it has to be.
 
They neither extreme as stated in the OP. They produce really good gadgets, but so do other people. In the end, you need to determine what your needs are and then find the device that fits them best.

That said, I think they have done an incredible job in terms of innovation. You might not like the iPhone but the smartphone you use is better because the iPhone exists.

Innovate? Not so much. Sell what others that pioneered before failed at? Definitely. What did they do that was truely their own idea? Not much. But they can sure create a market. How many times was tablet pc attempted before ipad for instance.

Although I agree though. If iphone didn't exist and it was LG trying to push its prada on its own, this smartphone market probably wouldn't have blown up as big as it is now. But that has little to do with apples innovation and mire to do with how apple is capable of understanding the consumers psyche and convincing them imo.
 
Innovate? Not so much. Sell what others that pioneered before failed at? Definitely. What did they do that was truely their own idea? Not much. But they can sure create a market. How many times was tablet pc attempted before ipad for instance.

Although I agree though. If iphone didn't exist and it was LG trying to push its prada on its own, this smartphone market probably wouldn't have blown up as big as it is now. But that has little to do with apples innovation and mire to do with how apple is capable of understanding the consumers psyche and convincing them imo.

Couldn't you make the same argument for Microsoft though? Not that I'm disagreeing with that, but I'm just making sure you're consistent.

1. Microsoft's Xbox 360 seems to be more successful (at least in the United states) than the PS3, despite the PS3 being a better console, and I say that for multiple reasons.

2. Windows controlling the vast majority of the market share, even though Linux is free and from what I hear "doesn't have viruses".

I'm not denying the fact that Apple is great at marketing, but couldn't you say that for just about any company that is very successful?
 
Some of their marketing is certainly designed for idiots - for example, "It just works."
 
Innovate? Not so much. Sell what others that pioneered before failed at? Definitely. What did they do that was truely their own idea? Not much. But they can sure create a market. How many times was tablet pc attempted before ipad for instance.

And each time it was ugly, used a stylus and understandably was not appealing to most consumers besides, perhaps, digital artists.
 
Ofc I would. I don't wanna comment on the console wars (I own a ps3 but don't know too much about it) but ms and apple have a rich history between them.
 
When I was back in undergrad, Apple was sort of the thing that more technically-orientated people pretended to like to be superior and different. You'd use it rather than Windows because "Microsoft is evil" or it was "more stable" or "more secure" or any of a variety of other reasons, but actually everything cost more, you couldn't play as many games, and there were few advantages beyond having less programs and people didn't target you with viruses as much. Lots of the guys doing that then ended up as cool trendy types, professionals or bosses or high players in up-and-coming internet firms and so on. Apple for sure have mastered marketing and the semiotics of presentation and design--space age appearance, sci-fi symbolism, and so on--but as a historical factor that has definitely helped.
 
Apple is becoming much more mainstream now, I should think: ever more games are cross-platform or eventually ported to Apple, they have the Office suite of software as well as a lot of exclusive productivity software.
 
And each time it was ugly, used a stylus and understandably was not appealing to most consumers besides, perhaps, digital artists.

Exactly. It wasn't appealing because they couldn't pitch a sale. Tablets are and always was p.o.s gimmick but that's not stopping apple and now other industries are desperately following apple. That's some skill at least.
 
Some of their marketing is certainly designed for idiots - for example, "It just works."

"It just works" is what every company shoots for in their product, regardless of whether they admit it or not. Why wouldn't you want your mass produced product to just work?
 
That's the point.

Everything just works, Apple is nothing special in this regard!
 
Apple is becoming much more mainstream now, I should think: ever more games are cross-platform or eventually ported to Apple, they have the Office suite of software as well as a lot of exclusive productivity software.

They've had that for a long time. Back in 2004 I remember the first thing I noticed and liked about mac most was that I could just copy one excel program (or word) from one mac to another and it would work without all the hassle Windows would give.
 
Pangur Bán;11354008 said:
They've had that for a long time. Back in 2004 I remember the first thing I noticed and liked about mac most was that I could just copy one excel program (or word) from one mac to another and it would work without all the hassle Windows would give.

I don't know if this is true, but that is hilariously ironic considering both Excel and Word are Microsoft programs.
 
But as a music distribution and promotion platform, iTunes is second to none. Ditto with podcasts, and increasingly with other digital media.

True to an extent, but not so much recently. A lot of the recent perceived quality of the platform has more to do with superior market share, and marketing that has convinced so many customers to think Apple invented something when it was already being implemented by their competitors.

Amazon Music and Zune are a good examples of this. They were way ahead of Apple when it came to sync, streaming, social, and just about every feature related to itunes match and ping. Zune/Xbox/Windows Phone is probably a better all around ecosystem, but most people haven't used it and don't know the features it has. If iTunes were to implement something like a Zunepass it would drastically increase the quality of iTunes as a promotion platform, and most customers would think they were the first to do it.
 
I don't know if this is true, but that is hilariously ironic considering both Excel and Word are Microsoft programs.

Indeed it is. You just needed to move one little icon and that was it done. Not all that ironic if you think about it ... Apple didn't have the same incentive to limit copying of mainstream software as Microsoft might have back in those days.
 
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