Khris,
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
KrisCarnmarker said:
The problem with Apple's products is that the owners of the products become too emotionally attached to them and it clouds their judgment.
Yes, Mac owners to tend to be very loyal, as I have discovered during my "research". Then again, so are Nikon owners, and Pentax owners, etc. Each platform behaves in a way which suits the users that choose it, so in that respect the loyalty Apple receives shouldn't be that suprising.
I am however convinced that Microsoft has won it's share of the market though sheer size and lots of underhand competive strategies, rather than by haveing a better interface (quite the opposite), and that a lot more people would prefer Mac's OS if they were to give it a chance.
"it just works"? Give me a break! <snip>
I sound like you've had you faire share of bad luck there! I currently have lots of friends who use Mac, and they've never experienced any problems like that. In fact, they've all stated rock solid reliabilty as one of the strong points. Given the close tie-in between hardware and software, I don't find this surprising.
On the other hand, I could recount countless tales of my personal experiences of Windows just
not working at all...
Innovative? How exactly? Apple where so successful with their marketing that people started believing the lies.
After reflecting on your and Sean's comments, I tend to agree with some of your points. I will rewrite this part of my article.
The link that I provided does show that Apple have proved themselves to be innovative, but I agree also that in lot of cases where "innovative" is used there would be more approprate choices of word.
It seems to me that the "innovative" image comes from a combination of
some innovation, some observation, some true ingenuity, plenty of creativity, and a strong understanding of the end user. This results in interfaces that have been constantly reputed for their ease of use and pleasent aesthetics compared to the competition.
Would you agree with that?
To this day you still hear them claiming that Apple invented the Windows GUI and even the mouse. I saw it in another thread here on OPF! Tim, in his article modified the claim a bit to say that it brought Windowing GUIs to the masses. What masses is that? They are more popular than ever and have about 5-10% of the market. How is that the masses?
My understanding here is that they were the first to bring
overlapping windows to the desktop computer scene. This was then copied by Microsoft, and thus delivered to the masses. Would Microsoft have done this first? Apple have nearly always been the first to bring such developments to the personal computer (even if they weren't, in fact, the orriginal innovaters).
Microsoft released their Windows OS before Apple and they both stole the concept from Xerox.
This entry doesn't agree with you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_graphical_user_interface
The iPod's menu system is the latest claim to innovation, but there is nothing at all special about it. My stone age Creative MP3 player has the same menu system. The only obvious choice really.
On the Nano that I tried, I loved the touch sensitive thumb wheel thing. I've personally not seen that done before. (Note that I'm not stating that it hasn't been done before).
There are other points made in Tim's article that could be commented on, but I will leave it at that.
Don't get me wrong, Apple's products are not bad. It may sound like I'm bashing them, but I am only bashing the lies that they are so much better. Thanks to the iPod, Apple has become the "cool" brand. And just like Nike or Pokemon, people buy them because "everybody else" has one. The fact that there are so many articles out there justifying their choice of a Mac speaks volumes.
There aren't actually that many articles justifying Macs. I haven't found any that claim that it's "so much better". I think that the major motivation for these article is to bring the Mac that attention that it deserves.
Windows has 90% of the PC market. I truly believe that the World will be worse off if Microsoft succeed in taking all of it - competition is a necessary driving force. My personal wish is a simple one - that people take a good look at Apple's offer before jumping blindly on the Windows band wagon. Windows may well be better for lots of poeple, but I don't believe it's that best solution for 90% of personal computer users.
Tim