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Why I Avoid Apple Products

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Darwin:
Anybody who doesn't realize that marketing always trumps technology in the technology business is either very young, not paying attention, or has severe memory problems.
-Jimdoria (February 19, 2009, 06:00 PM)
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BTW: I'm not all that young; I have been paying attention; and my memory is just fine!  :P ;D
-40hz (February 19, 2009, 09:17 PM)
--- End quote ---

What was the middle bit again?

Stoic Joker:
I just feel that iPods and iPhones have become a cultish phenomenon which rather belie common sense. I cannot understand why the iPod has become ubiquitous when other media players have equal functions, equal quality in construction and sound, are cheaper to purchase and have replaceable batteries and yet struggle to sell.
-Carol Haynes (February 19, 2009, 04:54 PM)
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Just think fashion accessory/status symbol ... and you've answered your own question. :)

I want my phone, to be a phone, nothing more nothing less. I don't need it to make a statement about me...thats what the attitude I've been carefully cultivating for 44 years is for.

...I cringe at the insanely placed Apple logo's on TV also.

Paul Keith:
While I agree with Jimdoria's assessment about marketing trumping technology in the tech business, I believe that as far as Apple being closed source, it really doesn't come to marketing at all and as he stated, it's more because Apple is as much a flash and bang tech entertainment company than a user friendly "stable and solid" hardware/software producing business.

And let's not forget that Apple got where it is because of it's deals with record and movie companies. Those guys are so paranoid they make Bill Gates look like an advocate for piracy. They would never have done the deal with Apple if Apple hadn't promised them a closed, secure platform to ensure that the criminals consumers who buy the product wouldn't turn around and steal share the product with all their friends.-Jimdoria
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I would also like to disagree with Carol Haynes. Apple products are still middle of the line appealing products that provide something the competition doesn't even though often times it doesn't seem to look that way. A lot of that comes from the subtle we rarely feel so important kind of need that all comes down to what justice wrote:

But there isn't anything competitive on the market.-justice
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It's kind of like the ribbon taking over some user interface. Enough people like it. Enough people are converted to it. NOT enough people who are bitching about it has created a superior interface with as much marketing and traction.

IMO the Ribbon would be dead if a new office suite came out with an even more radical but user-friendlier interface and I don't think I'm alone in saying that as far as design concepts go, there are lots of designs that could easily improve upon the Ribbon but no core "team" has really brought any of it into fruition.

Same thing with most Apple products. Smartphone companies blew it by trying to sell their underpowered (for smartphones) gadgets to the point of even alienating their niche group of PDA lovers by dropping most of the PDA-only lines which allowed Apple's Iphone to secure the market by truly embracing the PDA screen with an even more poorly designed but more powerful smartphone.

That alone is a deal seller and combined with Apple's marketing scheme, it was gold that the other companies "reacted" to and at that point, Iphone just as the Ipod became a brand already and traction was there for all the many apps that made it even more appealing to sell the gadget to people who don't even want it. Ex. the casual e-book reading userbase.

Ipod was the same. Internationally it was cheaper than Creative's line and locally, it was already much more of a brand than Creative's cheaper alternatives. Outside of Creative, many companies were mimicking Ipod's touch wheel too much or had other more major problems like Sony's proprietary drivers and when you don't create a heads and above better program, slightly better doesn't beat the established brand.

The Mac in general though IMO is just a foothold for Apple although OSX has that mystical, "Goddamn Apple for keeping it only on their hardware and that's why they'll never beat Windows, GAHHH!!! I have to buy a Mac" mystique.

Deozaan:
It's like the saying goes: "One bad Apple spoils the bunch!"

app103:
Up until 1999 I didn't own a computer, and I never really gave much thought to buying one.

Then in the early part of that year, Apple did something that made me sit up and take notice and make me interested in buying one....they came out with one in purple!  ;D

Unlike other smarter people that would shop for a computer based on something that was actually important, the fact that it came in purple was the most compelling reason I would have had for owning any sort of computer at all, at that point in time. And Apple was the only one to tease me with my favorite color.

But I procrastinated about it for about 8 months...just long enough for my dad to decide to give me his old P1 with his OEM Bundle From Hell™ (he downloaded everything he could find on Tucows and installed it all).

It had issues...lots of them, and instead of enjoying a life of "it just works", I was forced to learn a whole lot more than I had anticipated, with all the troubleshooting that had to be done "out-of-the-box". (this isn't a bash against PC's in general, remember that it was a used computer set up by someone that overloaded it worse than any OEM does with a new PC)

I could have been a stupid "happy Mac user" but because my father enticed me with something that appealed to me even more than purple (free!), I was instead forced to learn and tinker with things that most Windows users don't even know exists. That machine, by its very nature, forced me to become a power user....fast. It became a challenge, a competition between me and a machine, and I was determined to win.

For the last 24 hours I have been contemplating what the last 10 years of my life would have been like if I had bought that iMac. Would I be the computer nut I am today? Would I even be coding?

I was a whole different person with a completely different way of thinking, and Apple knew that. "Think Different" isn't a command, it's their target consumer. For a long time they have been very good at making pretty things that appeals to clueless people. I am not saying that all Apple users are clueless, just saying that you are pretty clueless if you consider "pretty" to be the most important or only reason to buy something, and a lot of Apple's customers do think that way. I know because I once thought that way, I almost bought a purple iMac!

Then they hold on to you by using fear to keep you, convincing you that you are happy and don't want to change that by wandering off into the scary world of the unknown. The famous Mac vs PC ads serve a dual purpose: to convince Windows users that they would rather have a Mac than deal with "scary Vista", and to convince Mac owners to stick with their product and not try anything new unless its an Apple product. It's a form of brainwashing. "Stay Clueless" should be their company motto.

Today, the most compelling reasons I have for choosing something else over an Apple product all comes down to choice and freedom. I like being free to choose from many options, and unless Apple decides to give me that, I'll continue to stay away from their products.

I want to choose my hardware, my software, and everything else...not allow a company to tell me what to use, where I can shop, what I am allowed to buy, who I can code for, etc.

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