Thanks for stating the obvious...
which it seems very few people happen to see.
Thanks, seriously.
I am tired of being called a "cultist". Why aren't Windows users called "cultists" for their willingness to stick with total c**p out of the irrational fear they might be incompatible with some horrible VBScript from the 90's if they switch to Mac?
The problem is not with "choices" per se , or even with numbers - as you so clearly demonstrate, it is better to have fewer "choices" as long as there are sufficient opportunities to >customize
Or to put it succinctly:
It's freedom of choice we want, but freedom from choice we need.
For the very same reason, many people dread going to the supermarket and being confronted with so much pointless choice like 100 different types of toothpaste, most which come in 3 sizes that differ by only 5, 10 or 15 grams. How many different choices of toothpaste could the human race possibly need?
The same thing is happening in every aisle and category from laundry detergents to cleaners and even milk!
Claims on the packaging - "whiter whites", "faster acting", "removes the toughest stains", "less than 1% fat", "super-charged performance" etc - are often far fetched and stretch credibility, let alone the laws of physics and chemistry.
Not only is such superficial 'differentiation' stressful to encounter, it's often designed to be misleading and confusing, is inefficient and wasteful.
Ironically enough, it was Steve Jobs who reigned in these "choices" when he came back to Apple in the late 90's. Before Steve Jobs returned, Apple suffered from the very same pandemonium in their product line that every other technology company seems to currently have: there was the Performa 6200, Perform 6205, Performa 6208CD, Performa 6210 CD, Performa 6230, Performa 6230CD, Performa 6400, etc. You get the idea. Thank God Steve Jobs figured out how to make Apple a powerhouse again. The man is a genius.
Amazing, finally a non Apple customer got it. Amazing it took so long.
Don't dare touch anything that truly fulfill my needs completely: being a computer, a car, a brand of flakes, coffee or donuts.
Don't you see the same *obvious* strong reaction when someone dares to say your favorite coffee shop, with delightfully rosted beans and a great after taste is ridiculed by a moron saying: "ahh, you're delusional, a coffee is a coffee. Our vending machine in the office just sells good enough coffee"
Got it?
Paragraph 9 contrasting choice and satisfaction is very insightful. Thanks. That will be helpful as we go forward designing new products.
My first experience with Apple products was at university using Apple II's for assembler programming. Very cool considering the punch card alternative. I was hooked than and when the Lisa and finally the Mac came out I was a lifer.
I've used Apple products ever since, always at home, but rarely did i have the luxury of using them at work. I had to endure the steaming pile of Windoze boxes and software everyday, until I ran home to experience my Mac and the warm beautiful feelings it produced deep inside of me.
I've used about every Mac model ever manufactured, some great, some not so great, but none worse than the best PC. To me the Mac and OSX is a religious experience that I can't stop myself from sharing with others who have not been as fortunate as I have been in coming into the light early in life and basking in its radiant glory, soothing my soul, and inspiring me to greater and greater heights.
I've lived through all of the ups and downs of Apple Computer and now Apple Inc. Even the toughest times did not make me waver because I had faith that superior hardware and software design will always triumph in the end. Today is a good day for Apple and for all those who seek a better life on the road less traveled.
Brilliant!
Apple has established deserved reputation for creating innovative, stylish products and offering very good customer service.
Your statement that "All their products are designed, at every stage, with the customer clearly in mind", though, sounds a lot like a Mac loyalist talking.
Apple has repeatedly made some spectacularly user-unfriendly decisions about products. One example was the decision to drop floppies with the iMacs. This was visionary, but it inconvenienced users, who were stuck buying outrageously priced USB floppy drives.
There are also plenty of examples of design flaws in Apple products - exploding laptops, Mac Cubes with cracked cases, iBook keyboards where the key labels rub off on your hands, Apple TV putting low res video on your HDTV, etc.
Your basic point, that Mac fans are loyal because they are smart people that appreciate intelligently designed products, is valid. Saying that Apple always makes decisions with the customer's needs in mind, though, ignores the way that they frequently infuriate even their most loyal fans with their idiosyncratic decisions.
This post wisely articulates Apple's comprehension of its consumer base (of which I am a shameless groupie). Apple understands its audience far more comprehensively than its competition.
Yet, as I read it, I found it eerily reminiscent of Ivan Karamazov's parable of "the grand inquisitor" (F. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov). In that tale the leader of the inquisition argues that human satisfaction is tied to the limitation of freedom. For this inquisitor freedom is to be dreaded as its pain and ambiguity inflict an unbearable burden upon humanity. It must therefore be controlled by the elite so that the masses can be happy. He states "freedom and bread enough for all are inconceivable together". (pg. 234 in Barnes and Noble Classics edition, 2004)
We are left between two equally distasteful options. On the one we have the limitless plethora of choices that each seek to steal the consumer's attention. On the other we have this extreme oligarchy in which choice is controlled and freedom is forgotten. We must search for an alternative.
Perhaps the limitless product choices are not freedom at all, but merely the illusion of said freedom. Perhaps to be free has nothing to do with 111 flavors of ice cream or 240 types of digital media players. Perhaps in our capitalistic rush for success and HD tvs we have forgotten what freedom actually is, trading life and love for some cheap facade made out of plastic and silicon.
jlewin:
"Apple has repeatedly made some spectacularly user-unfriendly decisions about products. One example was the decision to drop floppies with the iMacs. This was visionary, but it inconvenienced users, who were stuck buying outrageously priced USB floppy drives."
Sometimes, what's in the consumer's best interest isn't what they themselves will ask for.
The PC industry was stuck in a catch-22 regarding USB; if Apple hadn't taken the plunge to only have USB ports for peripherals in the iMacs, the whole USB standard wouldn't have taken off and we'd all still be using PS/2 and parallel ports.
Yes, consumers may initially have really hated Apple's decision, and have a hard time finding peripherals early on, but in the long run, don't you think we're all better off with USB and CD/DVD drives?
The point is, sometimes consumers don't actually know what they want — thankfully, Apple (sometimes) does.
I'll agree with you wholeheartedly about some of their decisions being less impressive (if not downright poor) and some of their products being ridden with flaws, but that can be said about effectively any company in any industry. Apple's not perfect, but when they do get something right, they get it VERY right.
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I'll chime in.
I have been a programmer and technologist for 10 years now. I was being paid by large corporations therefore MS was the only platform of choice.
Now I can code on a mac thanks to OS X integrating linux.
I will never go back to a PC and do not even own one. I now own all things Apple if the build it.
The mass drones of clones can call me a fanatic, an idealist, a fundamentalist, a zealot, or a cultist.
The fact is that Apple gets just about everything right in it's business. I'm a picky bastard and they understand that, so they build products that actually work. Must be because the CEO is a picky bastard as well who has standards of excellence.
Junkie/Zealot/Cultists..... Yep, you got me.
Right on! The "need a product fills" before "what kind of technology is inside" is one of the main keys Apple has figured out. Who cares if it is a disk or flash-based mp3 player? It holds roughly 2,000 songs, that's all that matters. Excellent insight.
like germans to hitler...
So true the less options+less confusion= more productivity. Shame after all these years Micro$oft has never came to this conclusion even with Windoze Vista there are sooo many different versions to think off top of my head to count. Yet Apple only has 1 version of 10.5 Leopard not 5 or 6 like M$ Vista. WAKE UP MICROSOFT and don't get me started on different Distributions of Linux there are soo many makes M$ have a limited range.
(Just my 5 cents worth)
Cheers
Simon
I do like osx, but for all of us who are use to building pcs/ paying less then 1,000 for a computer, a Imac doesn't make sense. When you use vista( flame on but its not that bad anymore) it feels the same no matter what u buy to run it on. It installs all those drivers for you. Now if your time is worth more then a certain amount, then go ahead, buy a 1600 macbook, plus 300 for mac care so they talk to you after 3 months. But for all of us who don't have money to waste, a cheap 400$ vista laptop is ok. Heck, if you want to learn something run linux and it'll be perfect.
And im using a Mac right now, and kinda pissed i keep runing into apps online that im use to running just run fine under vista that wont run in osx.
But like i said, if you have far more money then time, buy a mac, buy apple care and be done with it. But if ur like me, with a 400$ laptop budget, get vista and deal with it.
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