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Fairware: an interesting experiment in getting paid for Open Source
superboyac:
Paul, what you wrote just confirms to me more my philosophy on all this. Forgive me if I don't sound pleasant, I'm not trying to be rude:
A poor businessman criticizes the desires or needs of the customers. You are criticizing the fact that Apple customers care about the look of their stuff. You are saying that looks are not important, and the features, functionality, flexibility, etc. is what matters (I would agree with you). So as a businessman, if your perspective is one of criticism of the people who you want money from, how in the world are you going to get them to willingly pay for your thing? This is what all of us pc guys say about the Apple people. What we are really saying is "we like our way better, and you are stupid for liking your thing". And it's perfectly fine to have strong opinions and to argue and stuff. But if you want to sell stuff, don't argue with your customers.
So a good businessman, instead of arguing with his customers, will LISTEN to them and GIVE THEM what they want. A GREAT businessman will be able to instill a great desire in his customers to want the exact thing he is providing.
That's where I feel all of us pc people are blindsided in the Apple vs. PC debates. We keep wanting to tell the Apple people how stupid they are, how wrong they are, how Apple is tricking them to overpay. We don't realize that the end result of all this is that we are making them feel shitty for wanting the thing they want. Why do we have to be such assholes about it? I speak from experience, this is not directed at anyone. Obviously the Apple people know about PC's and they have made up their mind and chosen Apple over PC. Just like we have made up our minds and have chosen PC over Apple. Why do we have to make the other side feel bad about it? Is it going to make us happy if we were somehow able to force Apple users to use something they didn't want?
Paul Keith:
No, it's not unpleasant at all. I wholly agree with your premise.
I think if there's any disagreement, it's the line of words that you may feel semantic but I feel is due to my failure to commnicate well:
You are criticizing the fact that Apple customers care about the look of their stuff.-superboyac
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I think if it were this simple it wouldn't make sense for me to bring it up. At least I hope we both been talking enough here that we often read about what each other is saying.
I'm a casual user so especially for me I love and support aesthetics and if I was only criticizing Apple users for wanting something pretty, I wouldn't have written that long of a post just to showcase this simple point.
I hope this clears up any misunderstanding but I'll just go down denying this trail for the sake of clarity:
You are saying that looks are not important
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Nope. Not at all. It wouldn't match many of my posts in this topic - would not match the personality I've shown throughout DC.
and the features, functionality, flexibility, etc. is what matters
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I'd go farther and say all these falls under looks too. You can't get usability if you ignore looks and think features, functionality and flexibility does not overlap with looks.
So as a businessman, if your perspective is one of criticism of the people who you want money from, how in the world are you going to get them to willingly pay for your thing?
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Assuming equal resources and equal knowledge (or at least equal luck), use that criticism to create an alternative appealing product and once you get the thing down, look to see if you can steal some of your competitior's customers by adopting those things that they really want back into your product.
This is what all of us pc guys say about the Apple people. What we are really saying is "we like our way better, and you are stupid for liking your thing". And it's perfectly fine to have strong opinions and to argue and stuff. But if you want to sell stuff, don't argue with your customers.
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On the contrary, Steve Jobs is famous for making unpopular decisions. This video is not against his own customer but hopefully you get the idea.
A GREAT businessman will be able to instill a great desire in his customers to want the exact thing he is providing.
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I disagree. You have to keep updating. Keep moving. More so than just making a company run.
A great businessman does not settle for what makes a good businessman though semantic this may seem especially coming from someone who has no business but IMO in the words of Jobs, strategy is different from ideology. You can't instill anything if you don't keep taking your customer into a place of not only sales but also loyalty and experience.
We keep wanting to tell the Apple people how stupid they are, how wrong they are, how Apple is tricking them to overpay.
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I agree although ironically I'm not one of them. Sometimes you just have to say something that sounds anti-Apple even though it really isn't, you know?
Finally:
Obviously the Apple people know about PC's and they have made up their mind and chosen Apple over PC.
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I still agree but I just think you need to stretch this out. Apple people don't know PCs. PC people don't know PCs. That's the beauty of it - especially for those who can do something about it.
superboyac:
Paul, all I learned from that video is that Jobs is 100% focused on giving non-techie people EXACTLY what they want. Another very revealing statement was this: his goal is to sell $8 billion - $10 billion of merchandise. Notice his goal was not to improve technology or advance technology. His thinking is this:
I want to make billions of dollars.
So I need to make something a lot of people will buy.
Who buys computer stuff?
Tech geeks and non-techie people who need computing equipment.
Which one represents a larger market?
The non-techies, probably by some orders of magnitude.
So what do the non-techies want?
Easy to use. Simple. Good looking end result. They are confused by event he most basic techie terms, like RAM or CPU. It's foreign to them.
So how can I make technology for the non-techies?
(and here is where he builds the imac, ipod, iphone, ipad, etc.)
In the meantime, the techies are popping boners over the 1432x765 resolutions, honeycomb builds, java compatibility, hdmi output, expandability, removable batteries.
This is all there is to it. I'm not arguing here, I'm just telling you what he's thinking and where it is rooted in: billions of dollars.
Paul Keith:
To each his own I guess. I do feel you're a bit selling me short (and in turn selling your own point short) by taking my post as if I've only posted a video in reply but you have made your point previously and I have made mine so I don't think there's any need to quibble about it.
superboyac:
To each his own I guess. I do feel you're a bit selling me short (and in turn selling your own point short) by taking my post as if I've only posted a video in reply but you have made your point previously and I have made mine so I don't think there's any need to quibble about it.
-Paul Keith (September 22, 2011, 05:43 PM)
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I am actually. ;D Sorry. It's just too long for me right now. I'm trying to avoid these discussions because I always end up sounding like a condescending douchebag.
It is a subjective issue, I know that.
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