This article from Newsweek: "One Bad Apple,Apple is looking like what Microsoft was 10 years ago—a Bigfoot that squeezes smaller competitors." is pretty interesting. You can't blame Apple for its tactics, its finally gotten the popularity that its been jonesin' for years...
The "Made for iPod" markup fee is interesting, but once again...I can't fault Apple for it, iPods are crazy successful such that they gotta take advantage of other people trying to piggyback off their fame.
That being said, the one Macbook that i've had to use has phenomenal hardware (seriously, the h/w designers are brilliant), and the OS appearance is pretty nifty, however I've had nothing but problems with the s/w...everything from OpenOffice to MS Office freezes up, seriously every application freezes up on it. Not that it's all Apple's fault, i'm simply saying...I've had more problems in 3 months with a Macbook than i've ever, ever had with a Windows PC or laptop.
Marlene and Bryan, i KNOW you're going to give me your two cents, so go for it :P
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2 comments:
Ok I want to know what the H*ll your doing that you can freeze your computer up. Seriously Steve uses his mac laptops all the time with the PC crap running and he never has any problem and he plays like hella games & runs all kind of apps on his...
So have you went in and talk to the like the genius guys and what do they say????
Sabina, I've been on a PC for ages, I still hold a huge soft spot for Mac's, I own an iPod, (gift from work) and I'm a proud owner of an iPhone 3G and if my job wasn't so PC-centric I'd probably have a Mac or two at home. As for your Mac woes, they are like anything computer related, if you have some careless I.T geek set it up, or if you don't RTFM or do your research the computer won't work the way it should. Slovebunny's Steve is probably a computer, hence the zero problems. :)
Actually, what NewsWeek highlighted is something that every hardware manufacturer does, Intel, Microsoft, damn there are even websites that only work with certain browsers, people are just picking on Apple because it's the cool thing to do now since all of the release mis-steps that occurred with the release of iPhone 3G and it's new software 2.0 and the App Store. Jobs wanted a big splash with all these new and wonderful things - although not all that wonderful because a lot of what Apple's done has been done before. (Where have we seen this before????) And the blind Apple lemmings always tout, "So what if it's been done before, it's never been done like this." If there's one company that can sell anyone the Brooklyn Bridge, I bet Apple could if the smacked an Apple logo on it. :)
I love Apple, they innovate where other companies pass off to the public mediocre products. Take note of the cell phone industry where before the first gen iPhone came out, cell phones were lacking any sort of innovation from the old stand by, (Motorola, Nokia, Siemens) then LG and Samsung got into the mix and things improved ever so slightly, Look at Treo's and Crackberries. Then Apple comes along and makes something people have come to live without even better, it's by no means perfect but it's a huge leap compared to what I've seen with Windows Mobile, and the offerings from Nokia. :)
The Made for iPod markup fee also prevents the 'fly-by-night' accessory makers overseas from making crappy add-ons. The one thing that Apple has always stood for is quality products, even back in the day circa 1984. :) and the "Made for iPod" markup fee helps separate those companies that just want to make a quick buck from those that want to make an already fantastic even better. This is especially true of accessories that plug into the iPod, like carkits and charging stations, there's a safety element there that people all too often forget about.
People draw the parallel between Apple and MS from 10 years ago and how is MS any different than 10 years ago? Oh wait they have the majority of the desktop locked into their software and the bulk of the back-office locked up too. Apple has something close to 70% of the mp3 player market share, who wouldn't want to protect that?
The Apple of 10 years ago was a small-ish company that had it's financial woes, many would agree it did things better but their business model just didn't work out and it failed horribly when they let a few other companies make their hardware.
Apple nailed down an easy delivery method for music and now TV, Movie and applications to handheld devices. Yes it's not perfect but look at the alternatives MS is still a scary beast who's finally realized that opening up a bit is a good thing but is now lumbering like the old IBM they dealt with way back in the 80s.
I think Apple turning a quick buck while other piggyback off their fame is a good return for allowing them to piggybaack off of Apple's success, considering that other people are trying to make a quick buck off of Apple's success.
If Apple didn't have the "Made for iPod" markup and quality program, people would turn to Apple when their accessories busted their iPod and would harp about Apple not helping them out when this happened. At least if a consumer sees that "Made for iPod" logo on the packaging then you don't have to worry as much whether it will work with your Apple device and you don't have to bug that BestBuy guy or FutureShop freak, (or Circuit City creep).
Apple's always had the best Industrial Design, it makes something that can be otherwise intimidating a lot less so and they carried that to their OS. UNIX still scares me to a degree and they make it less scary.
You mention having problems with OpenOffice, OpenSource software where you're pretty much left on your own to fix and well MS Office freezes up on PCs so I wouldn't worry too much about that but then again, who maintains your MacBook for you at work? I say blame rests on your I.T Support staff.
I have been working on PCs for the better part of my career, everything from Windows 95 to Windows XP, Vista, Window Server 2003 and 2008. Put anyone of those products in front of someone and not set them up properly they'd feel the same way you do. :)
I hear it every day how my iPhone is a fashion accessory but I've seen the Nokia N95 and I have a friend that has an HTC Touch and I'd still take the iPhone over any of those... I won't even consider a Crackberry. It's about time someone lit a fire under the collective ass' of PDA, SmartPhone and cellphone makers because consumer choice is what it's all about. :)
Ok done ranting now... :P
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