Why Apple?
As we have just finished waiting 5 hours waiting (it rained for part of the time) to get an iPhone from the Rogers store in Ottawa, I wonder again—what’s the fuss about Apple?
Click this link for a video of me and fellow TechOnline Analyst Allan Yogasingam waiting for an iPhone.
I personally have an iRiver digital music player, use a Samsung phone, own a Toshiba laptop, and download my digital music from Spiral Frog (and sometimes buy the odd CD). No Apple there.
Maybe I am a little too old fashioned in certain respects. I use the phone I have for talking to people. I am also starting to use text messaging when in a loud (or very quiet) environment. I am intrigued by smart phones as a way to surf the internet and receive emails, so I might get one eventually. Will it be Apple? Maybe–maybe not.
I view consumer electronics as a tool to help me do things, not necessarily as a fashion accessory. But in saying that, I do have colleagues who are engineers and just love Apple for the functionality, not just the form. Apple is easier to use, and (I’ve been told) breaks down far less. A Mac supposedly unlocks the user’s creative potential with good utilities for video and audio. To counteract that, there seems to be so much more freeware available for the windows environment. Many people are developing for that platform, which helps create a diversified group of software to choose from.
Now, I’m not saying I’m a Microsoft fan–far from it—but it does the job for me right now. I have frustrations with the odd blue screen of death and other issues, but I am considering Linux instead of going to all the way to a Mac.
All this leaves me with some conversation starters.
Why does Apple get all the buzz?
Does Apple make technically superior products?
Is Apple particularly innovative?
Or, is it just easier to use?
Overall, does Apple create a much better user experience?
Please let me know your thoughts on Apple as a technology company. Also, please suggest to me which Apple product I should try first, as I try to discover the famous Apple experience that several of my colleagues talk about.
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Vista is a usability turd. I use it everyday. It’s a XP wrapped into another ugly clown suit.
Interesting Read:
http://rixstep.com/2/20080704,00.shtml
Why does Apple get all the buzz?
Because they lead others follow. Yes, usability is a huge factor.
Nothings perfect. Yes over all Apple does create a MUCH better user experience, right now no one is even close.
JS - July 14, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Thanks for the link, JS! I’m really going to think about getting a Mac next time around. I have XP (thank goodness not Vista) but I’ve been muddling along in the windows world for so long now, not sure how to make the switch. Your link would help when I get around to it.
What’re your thoughts on the iPhone?
TigercatTomorrow - July 15, 2008 at 12:48 am
People make the mistake of thinking Apple is all style and no substance because their devices and software looks so gorgeous.
However, Apple’s genius is in great design of the WHOLE device – not just looks, but user interface, elegant yet powerful object-oriented code underneath the surface and amazing hardware engineering that oozes painstaking attention to detail.
As an engineer you must surely appreciate great engineering design – look at the Mac Pro for example: machined aluminium perfection, no cable clutter, drive bays that slide in and connect without cables and plugs, and compare that to your typical tin box with a cheap plastic facia tacked on that is your average PC.
The iPhone itself is another example – the user interface is a revelation – it draws even technophobes in and they end up using so many more features than users of any other phone. Sure the device is still missing a few important features, but Apple has a laser focus that refuses to throw millions of half-baked features into a product until they have got it perfect. Look at the feature-bloat of the Nokia N95 for example. It has a laundry list of impressive-sounding features (like built-in bar-code scanning, GPS, 3G, etc) but in order to cram all that in, the device has a tiny non-touch-screen and is several times thicker than the iPhone and has a user interface from hell that usability tests have demonstrated defeats all but the most determined users.
-Mart
Martin Hill - July 15, 2008 at 1:10 am
I’ve never used a Mac but I’m thinking about getting an iPhone when my iPod dies eventually, because then I wouldn’t have to buy a separate phone, camera, and iPod (I’ve been told the camera on the iPhone is actually decent, unlike most camera phones), and because I’ve heard the user-friendliness is better. My current phone is a Motorola, I think it’s in the Razr family but I forgot the name, and I don’t think it’s designed very well in that respect. It’s pretty, and it’s not HARD to use, but – well for instance, if someone leaves me a voicemail, it asks if I want to hear the voicemail, I say yes, then it ignores that and asks if I want to see who called, which it should have asked me first, then I look at who called and then I have to go into the messages section on my own to find the voicemail. It says I have one new voicemail right there, so I click on it, and it says I have one new voicemail, would I like to listen to it? Just seems like they could have streamlined that a little more. On an iPhone, I think you just look at your messages and touch the one you want to hear. I’m told you don’t even have to play the press seven to delete or nine to save game.
judgesnineteen - July 15, 2008 at 2:47 am
“I view consumer electronics as a tool to help me do things…”
That’s exactly why I like to use Apple products. They help me do things.
An iPod touch would be a great product for you to try.
Partners in Grime - July 15, 2008 at 5:22 am
Try it. You’ll need a month or so to get a real feel. If after that, you don’t love a Mac, then its not for you. That’s not a problem, its not for everyone, but its works real well for many people. Its not religion, its a just a really good computer that doesn’t make me mad on a daily basis like Windows on some random box. What I find annoying is that many windows users out there just hate to protect their religion, their confort zone, their money making by providing the apparrantly endless well of support and then call Mac users a cult. They don’t want to learn something different and thus must fight the danger of displacement by something new. I don’t give a rat’s behind what computer you use, just don’t insult me for liking something different.
Byron - July 15, 2008 at 5:44 am
Get a mac, you won’t go back. I’ve been working in high-tech for over 20 years now (GASP! how did that happen?!), I’m comfortable with any OS, I’m a techie, and I now use only Macs for my personal computing. Why? Because they provide the best solution available. Besides, with any current generation Mac, you can run OSX, Windows, and Linux – all on the same box. Apple is the only manufacturer with this capability. And running Windows on a Mac isn’t a second-rate experience either, a few reviews actually name the Macbook Pro as the best Windows laptop available.
I won’t go into the iPod and the iPhone, which are gushed about endlessly everywhere – and deservedly so.
As for what Apple product to try… I think you could try any current Apple product and, in contrast to its “competition” you’ll be able to see the many nuances Apple nails that keeps people coming back.
Brad - July 15, 2008 at 10:27 am
I went back to the windows world one time in the last 22 years. Never again. Give me a Mac or give me a pen and paper. Adios, windows! http://www.bentpage.wordpress.com.
Daniel - July 15, 2008 at 11:07 am
Thanks to all for your quick thoughts!
As for my quick take on all this, my Toshiba laptop will probably do me for a while, but the Samsung phone is getting long in the tooth, and the iRiver might not have enough storage for all the music I want to put on.
Maybe I will get an iPod in the short future, and think about the iPhone for later.
Any thoughts on Blackberry vs. iPhone?
TigercatTomorrow - July 15, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Hey Steve,
Glad to see you are starting to consider entering the Apple fold. My first computer experiences were with Macs since that’s what my first engineering supervisor had in his lab. I liked the Macs and it seemed it was the only computer I would be able to use for anything practical. Then something very unfortunate happened. Ithaco came out with a lock-in amplifier plug-in card for the PC. It was the only thing we could afford for my MSc research, so I had to convert to the PC and DOS.
From there, it was Windows 3.1 (actually one of the better – if not the best MicroSquash ever managed). After many frustrating MS Windows experiences, I gave up. I could not act as system admin for the home computer anymore. I was getting at least one call per day from the wife at home asking me what was wrong with the computer (by now a Compaq K6 II running Win 98). So I took the plunge. I bought my wife an G4 iBook on eBay. She was hesitant but quickly impressed. The only downside of that purchase was that it came with MS Office Quite for Mac. That kept us stuck into the poorly designed MS products that CIO’s and business keep forcing us to use.
Since then, we have bought a G5 iMac, and the only problems were a dead hard drive and a dead optical drive that Apple quickly replaced on warranty. Okay, so the iBook is almost impossible to swap an HDD out of, so it sits dormant.
Now what was the point of this diatribe? I kind of forgot after it turned into a personal history of my life with Apple. Right. I wanted to respond to Steve’s comment about freeware compensating for the bad design difficulty using Microsoft and Windows. Consider how cheap and versatile the great Apple programs are. For $80, you get iLife which is an amazinly powerful and easy to use (of course) set of multimedia tools. But you can also buy a suite of office software – iWork – for $80 as well. The spreadsheet was only available in the most recent iWork and it doesn’t do quite what MS Excel does. But it’s more than enough for most people and way easier to use if you aren’t an accountant. And the presentation program, Keynote, blows the doors of PowerPoint. The word processor is a competent layout program too – something where Word falls miserably short unless you get professionaly training or countless hours of frustration.
There is freeware for the Mac, but quite a bit less. However, a lot of it is excellent, and when you factor in the cheap Apple programs (their OS is also cheaper than Windows) and excellent and cheap third party software, I think the choice should be clear. Give Apple a try, and you will realize that we are not just fan boys!
semiconDr - July 24, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I used an Original Lisa with the 10Mb hard drive, then 128K and 512k Macs. They were great for everything but my engineering work. After college i got away from using Macs since they didn’t do my work. I occasionally used a friends Mac and I got frustrated with the lack of pre-emptive multtasking (it sucks to have to wait for the printer to finish). All these faults have been since fixed, but they point out to Apple not being perfect.
What Apple does right is wait until someone else has explored the market, then they come out with a unit that has the same technology, but better industrial design and user interface. They never have bleeding edge technology, but they make up for that with stylish packaging that gets people to want to hold the product, and they keep the buyer with simple easy to use interfaces. This gets the user to buy into Apple so deeply that instead of going out to buy an 802.11g router they want an ‘AirPort’.
My brother the Apple sales guy tried to set my father up with WiFi for his Cable internet and brough up an Apply ‘AirPort Express’. Well it was worthless for that because it was a wifi gateway, not a router. Apple calls it all AirPorts hence the confusion and he had no idea of the difference between the different ‘AirPorts’. For a fraction of the cost and time I installed a standard wifi router which works great with everything.
My brother also called me an Apple hater when I told him the iPod shuffle sucked because it is tied to one PC. My step son recieved a shuffle from his dad for christmas, and I tried to put music on it only to discover only his dads computer or ours could. All the MP3 players I’ve used allow music to be added from any computer, so I add from my work computer. my laptop, my home desktop, without a problem. No can do with the iPod, which to me is poor software design, but people love it because they find it easy.
So basically from my experience Apple finds a market, determines the shortcoming in the existing products, sets there excellent industrial design and software folks on doing those parts better, then has their marketing wing create the hype to get people to want it. Their hardware design is usually a couple generations behind the competition, but that keeps the BOM cost down and the profit up while the user doesn’t care because they love the interface.
AlfaElan - July 24, 2008 at 8:54 pm
[...] Cell Phone Popcorn This one comes from http://www.quicklybored.com . A good site with much information on cell phones and applications, especially smart phones like iPhone and Blackberry. I met the editor Kyle while waiting in line for the iPhone in Ottawa (see previous post). [...]
Cell Phone Popcorn « Engineering Politics - August 1, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I myself am a WindowsXP user. And realize all of the benefits of Macs. And yes, I’ve used a range of Macs – all of my friends have Mac laptops… For me, becoming familiar with a Mac isn’t the issue. For me, the issue is the software I use for GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is Windows based. So I am confined to using the Windows, (which I am quite happy with.) Additionally, the work/lab software (stats packages, etc.) which I have free access to and use regularly, is all Windows based. Working in academic settings and attending multiple conferences, I am yet to be convinced by anyone that there is 100% Mac-PC compatability. Every attempt at using a Mac created .ppt presentation has resulted in a host of problems for the user.
To summarize:
For me (knowing Apple probably makes the better machine), until Macs become the dominant computer system with the software I need, I will continue to use WindowsXP, and will be comfortable and confident using it. The number one thing people switching to Macs need to consider (in my opinion) are software availability, usage, etc.. If this won’t be an issue for you, than I can’t think of a reson not to jump in.
Still XP'ing it... - August 5, 2008 at 3:47 am