Apple Is Flailing Badly At The Edges

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/19/apple-is-flailing-badly-at-the-edges/

by epi0Bauqu • 18 years ago

27 32 18 years ago

techcrunch.com

tptacek• 18 years ago

Apple is definitely the worst computer company. Except for all the other ones.

stcredzero2• 18 years ago

Capitalism, Democracy, and Apple?

F/OSS would fit in better with that group. But a few years ago, I decided that I was tired of fixing and tweaking Windows and Linux and said: "Okay, Steve, I'll pony up the cash, just take care of me!"

Then Ubuntu came along! Time to switch again?

jrockway• 18 years ago

What's wrong with Lenovo and Dell? They both make millions of solid machines. I suppose that they're not very sexy... but I tend to pay attention to what's on the screen, not whether or not the case won any design contests.

(And FWIW, the Thinkpad has won a lot of design awards. The matte-black box is beautiful and durable. The Macbook feels like a cheap toy in comparison.)

Finally, Asus' eeepc is also a beautiful computer.

ank7ovy7• 18 years ago

It's the OS.

kylec• 18 years ago

Since he doesn't detail the nature of the problems he had with his failing Macs, I can't really say anything definitive. Personally, I've owned 4 Macs over the past few years and the worst failure I've suffered has been a hard drive crash, so maybe he just has bad luck.

I do believe his criticism of MobileMe is warranted though. I'm happy enough to play with it on my free trial but I wouldn't trust its reliability to exclusive use, nor do I want to be locked into an email address at $100/year.

cstejerean• 18 years ago

I signed up for .Mac about 18 months ago and it continued to work well for me even after the transition to MobileMe. I would never use that email address as my primary one, but then again I don't need all my email pushed to my phone. Having GMail forward my important emails to my .Mac account has worked out well. What I really like about MobileMe is that my contacts, calendars and bookmarks are automatically synchronized so I no longer have to worry about docking my iPhone.

Not quite sure what kind of problems people are having with MobileMe but as long as I keep getting free extensions from Apple I guess they should keep complaining.

mrtron• 18 years ago

I just found it hilarious that to paraphrase he said 'My Macbook Air couldn't stay connected to our office router so we took it apart for another project.'

Wait...what? You realize that there could be many reasons for that - and many solutions.

Follow that up with his 'high end' black Macbook had a problem...wait just because you pay 200$ more for a different colour doesn't make the laptop high end.

Yes, quite an 'expert' able to judge how a company is doing by his folly with devices.

alaskamiller• 18 years ago

Within corporate only Apple TV is considered a flop. Mac mini had great demand but not important enough for more focus, the same with MacBook Air.

People also tend to forget or don't know this but Apple only has 26,400 or so employees and it caters to consumer, enterprise, and government/school on a global scale. Dell and HP and IBM are running around with hundreds of thousands of employees. And the size of the company is impacted entirely by the managerial abilities of one Steve Jobs. It's a mixed blessing.

joao• 18 years ago

And more than half of those employees are in retail, not development/business/management/etc.

martythemaniak4• 18 years ago

"I love that damn phone, and it will take a lot more than lost apps and dropped calls to get it out of my hands."

As long as stuff like this (and you can see a lot more of it here on HN) is the prevailing wisdom, Apple has little motivation to actually do anything to fix their problems.

The hype around the iPhone is particularly telling - people put up with developer draconian restrictions, they put up with unstable software and poor reception that most other companies would be ashamed to release.

I've had an iPhone for about 3 weeks now, and I still don't get the hype. Have iPhone owners never used a smartphone before? Did they all trade in their Nokia 5110s before buying the iPhone?

stcredzero2• 18 years ago

Lots of iPhone users never had a smartphone before. You can think of them as the AOL of smartphones. Considering that, maybe the draconian babysitter policies they have over apps make sense.

EDIT - iPhone users I know:

Me - programmer, but no longer an early adopter. Had a Palm V awhile back, but found it annoying to have the additional device. 1st time smartphone user.

Fellow musician - singer, engineering student. 1st time smartphone user.

Veterinarian. Her husband's a Gentoo developer though, and he bought her an iPhone for her birthday.

I also know of two coworkers who are early adopters who also own an iPhone.

So of the 5 people I know, only two are early adopters. Two of them are female, and both of those users prize the iPhone because it's fun to use and it looks nice.

jsdalton• 18 years ago

> Lots of iPhone users never had a smartphone before.

This statement may be technically true, but I highly doubt it's true among the writers and commentators like Arrington that we hear so much about the iPhone from.

In fact, most of the people I know who have iPhones are early adopter types. People like my mom -- a prototypical AOL user -- wouldn't have a clue as to what to do with an iPhone.

Arrington's willingness to put up with the bugs, flaws, and "draconian" babysitter policies is a less a statement about Apple as it as about the rest of the smartphone marketplace, which frankly stinks.

tjr• 18 years ago

I went through several Palm Treos before getting an iPhone. The Treo made me almost give up on smartphones; I was considering going back to a non-smartphone, but decided to give the iPhone a try, as I like Apple computers.

I was very happy with the iPhone, far more than the Treo. I haven't noticed dropped calls, lost apps, or, really, much of anything significant. The interface seems sluggish at times, but overall it's a net win for me.

mattmaroon3• 18 years ago

Palm OS is brutal. Also, having a touchscreen actually detracts from that phone. I switched from the 650 to a Moto Q and greatly prefer the Q. I don't find myself trying to tap at things that are way smaller than my finger, or worrying if I'm going to drop the stylus. But I still get the high call quality and the amazing keypad for tapping out emails.

axod3• 18 years ago

Name a smartphone that has a web browser that competes. Also one that has a keyboard that can compete with the iPhones.

kschrader• 18 years ago

Wait, a keyboard that can compete?

How about a Blackberry, Treo, or anything else with a physical keyboard?

glymor• 18 years ago

The title's some kind of mixed metaphor about medieval weaponry. It's terrifying.

What's wrong with fraying? It would have worked better anyway.

sdurkin• 18 years ago

A couple anecdotes of broken machines does not make a trend, or a commercial failure.

evgen2• 18 years ago

And to prove that the plural of anecdote is not data, today's news is that Apple has once again topped the PC industry in consumer satisfaction scores [http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10019711-37.html?part=rss&...] and is the only company in their class whose satisfaction rating actually increased since the last survey.

mattmaroon3• 18 years ago

Consumer satisfaction is as much about marketing as it is about sustained product quality. Apple customers may just be happy to be part of the club, even while their iPhone drains in one hour or their Macbooks are in an out of the shop, because it's better than using Windows.

I'd be much more impressed with them leading something comparable to the IQS JD Power does for cars. It's kinda sad that nothing like that exists.

gaius• 18 years ago

unexceptable

Is this a new word meaning "unable to make an exception for"?

rainface• 18 years ago

I have owned a number of Apple products; workstations, laptops, iPods etc. I had one super bad incident with Apple which they will never live down. (After 6 months of phone calls, and visits to their 'geniuses'. It ended with them giving me a brand new $2000 workstation in exchange for my $1300 brick.) But that was it. If you are having problems with everything you by from them, you're doing it wrong.

Apple Is Flailing Badly At The Edges

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