Apple…Love ‘em, hate ‘em, or none of the above?
Posted by: Craig in Computers, Usability, tags: Apple, Best Buy, Circuit City, iPod, Woodland MallI have to admit, today I really wanted to thrash Apple. Specifically the Apple Store in nearby Woodland Mall. A week or so ago my wife and I were just walking around the mall with nothing specific in mind. Being that I love technologies of any kind I generally gravitate to the Apple Store knowing full well my IQ will slowly be sucked through my right ear in their attempts at assimilation. When were were there I started to play around with the new iPod Touch -and I have to admit, it’s a nice little device. The touchscreen keyboard left a lot to be desired - I don’t care how intuitive it is, my fingers just aren’t that small. Anyway, while I was playing around with the iPod Touch, my wife was listening in on a sales pitch from one of their borg drones and I overheard a interesting tidbit: “Nope. You don’t have to worry about viruses. They don’t exist for the Mac.” Interesting. Granted, there aren’t many but there are viruses specifically written to attack Apple’s OSX - LeapA being the first. And it’s not as if OSX is the most secure Operating System on the market, it’s not if the recent security update from Apple is any indication.
Anyway, I was rather intrigued by what little Ms. Borg Drone had said - at the same time I wondered if Apple (or the store) would try to hide any negative information about their product(s) from customers in their stores. So I went back to the iPod Touch I had been messing around with and opened up the Safari browser, went to Google and typed Apple Virus in the search box. This is the result. Now I know that’s pretty hard to read. The camera on my cellphone doesn’t do the greatest job with closeups. But I can assure you that under the Google Search button it says No Results Found. I found that to be interesting in deed. I wanted to check one of the desktop systems or one of the laptops, but there were far too many drones roaming this store and a few saw me take a photo of the Touch I was using and they didn’t seem to like that very much.
I saw this as my chance - the Borg Collective was indeed manipulating their customers and I had proof! But like any researcher, I needed to back up and verify my research. So today I wandered back into the Apple Store and wandered around until the drones left me alone long enough to take this picture. Drat! I tried a different iPod Touch - same results. I tired yet another one…and another one…same results. I felt defeated.
In retrospect, I’m sure there was simply a problem with the store’s WiFi when I had found the original glitch. Or that’s what they want me to believe… Anyway, after the letdown of not being able to take the Apple Collective to task on this rather dubious little issue I had another stroll around the store. I will hand it to Apple, they train their drones well - they all have their little sale pitches down pat and generally hover around you like a vulture. After 5 minutes it became down right annoying. But maybe their sales staff ‘works’ for people who would migrate to a Mac (or other Apple products). They’re generally happy, enthusiastic, and really believe in Apple’s products. They’re knowledgeable about the Apple products and seemingly willing to help. But they do seem to dumb it down a notch or two for just about everyone. They were going through a training in the back of the store and the level of simplicity the instructor was using had me entranced. I couldn’t believe people could or would have that much difficulty with something I find so simple (using a computer). Even my Mom would have felt dumbed down. But the people going through the training were looking at the instructor as if mesmerized. The funny thing is, every person that I know that own Macs are all very intelligent. College professors, IT professionals, college students…what is it about the Mac that caused them to spend 150%-200% more than a comparatively equipped PC? Is it the vail of increased security? Are they that much easier to use? I guess I’m at a loss on that subject - so anyone that can enlighten me as to why I would be indebted.
In my travels around the store I discovered more over-priced products. A $50 mouse (there are comparable for much less) and a $99 wireless router/access point and print server (yeah, those can be had for less as well - but admittedly the Airport Express is pretty cool). But amidst all the over-priced Applicious products, I found a 4 meter HDMI cable for $29.95!??! Didn’t Apple read the Best Buy or Circuit City sales manual on accessory pricing? Having worked for Best Buy in the past I can assure you that you will make a sales managers day when you buy a load of accessories on top of the low margin HDTV you just picked out - the margin on accessories is just unreal (like 300%-700%). Just look at this midrange HDMI cable at Best Buy. A foot shorter and $47 more expensive, it’s no better than the HDMI cable sold at the Apple store. (For all you haters out there that believe you need the best cables, read this.)
Love Apple or hate Apple, I will grant them this: they have a loyal following that seems to be increasing 1 2 3 4 (thanks to Microsoft’s Vista by most accounts). I wont deny their products have a certain cuteness factor - but I keep looking for the Mattel badge underneath the Apple logo on much of their product. I do own a iPod Mini - purchased it two weeks before the Nano was announced. That’s part of my dislike for Apple products - I’m afraid if I were to buy another iPod (I do really like that iPod Touch) Steve Jobs will announce my new purchase is all but a dinosaur thanks to a new, thinner, lighter, smaller, and/or more Applicious version. Good thing Apple isn’t in charge of printing the Bible.
Bottom line for me: Apple makes decent products. I’m not convinced they are any better than other similar products. Only owning a iPod mini, I can’t really comment on Apple’s dependability - although a few friends have 1 2 3. With the growing popularity of Macs and the every increasing popularity of the iPod line, I’ll certainly concede Apple has the design aspect of their products down. Their designs have commonality and simplicity and obviously consumers like that. I just don’t understand what makes some consumers gravitate to the Apple product line - I bought a ipod simply because I use iTunes and find it to be the best media play for my needs. So I figured it made sense to sync my mp3 player to the media player I liked to use. But I can’t figure people out on purchasing those computers when a comparably equipped PC is half the cost and will run as well. Someone told me that they loved their Mac because it was so easy to search for a file they needed. Interesting since the Windows OS has had a search function since Windows 95. And although it’s not indexed out of the box, the first search you do the OS will ask you if you’d like the search indexed (yes is chosen by default). But if you don’t like the Windows search feature, install Google Desktop. It will search your computer (faster than Windows XP and earlier but not quite as fast as the new search function in Windows Vista and Server 2008) and install a cool sidebar with installable widgets. So with a simple mouse gesture I can see my Google calendar, see how strong my WiFi signal is, do a system or internet search and see any other widget I might installed.
I don’t hate Apple products…although it may seem from reading this that I do. But honestly, I understand that they have a place in people’s lives - and someday when funds allow, I may add a iPod Touch to my own life. But otherwise, I think I’ve got to go with none of the above. Because I certainly don’t love’em.
Entries (RSS)
