Apple Joins Microsoft in Fear Factor; Look to Lenovo 23 comments
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I told someone the other day that Apple (AAPL) was just a tech version of Hot Topic -- a mall brand popular with the kids that could see fans turn on it at any time. I admit that this was probably hyperbole. The iPhone, for example, is clearly a breakthrough product, regardless of what you think of the brand, or other nits you could pick.
Still, I can't help but wondering if the tide is turning. Fred Wilson describes his relationship with the company as one of Fear and Loathing:
My brand image of Apple these days is fear and loathing. I am afraid to upgrade to a new version of iTunes because it might make my music and video unusable or it might brick my iPhone. I am afraid to upgrade to Leopard because it might brick my MacBook.
I have a brand new iPhone sitting right next to me on my desk that I can't figure out how to unlock and jailbreak now that it comes pre-loaded with 1.1.2 firmware. So it just sits there on my desk making me hate Apple more every day.
Bottom line:
I fear Apple and I hate them. As much as Microsoft (MSFT). Who I've hated for years.
Zouch. Fred isn't unique on this count, I've heard and seen the same from others. For the past few years, Apple has been doing the impossible: appealing to a mass (mall) audience and to geeks at the same time. But I think it's probably getting increasingly difficult to design for both audiences. Certainly, Mac culture hasn't been counterculture for a long time.
And honestly, if you're in the market for a new laptop, I can't recommend a Lenovo (LNVGY.PK) Thinkpad highly enough. If I had a black Macbook, I'd probably put a Thinkpad sticker over the glowing white Apple... well, not really, but you get the point. I see more and more Thinkpads whenever I'm out, so I'm tempted to say it's riding a wave, but then again, I also predicted a big wave of popularity for Samsung, and look how that's turned out.
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This article has 23 comments:
The difference between Microsoft and Apple is the difference between cheese and diamond.
They are not comparable.
Leopard has had a few issues, most of which have been fixed with 4 weeks of its launch. Bearing in mind it is an OS from the future compared to anything from Microsoft, that is not surprising.
I along with several of my employees have lost hundreds of hours of productivity using this PC. It constantly locks, early aborts applications, and is just plain not reliable.
I spoke with another Director today and he said he lost a hard drive on his, it was in the shop, he was happy because he thought he was out of vacation !
Go for the Macbook Pro, I have one for personal use, and upgraded to Leopard, it was painless.
He's afraid iTunes will "brick" (word du jour) his iPhone? Or a new OS will give him some install difficulties?
It's obvious his guy has a Windows past. I guess what's really happening is he read a couple articles about some people having problems with their Apple products and he is having flashbacks to his days with Microsoft. Sad, really sad.
It's obvious you never spent much time with OS X or a recent Mac and are just posting this to further any interest you might have in Lenovo.
As far as seeing Thinkpad's everywhere you obviously did not look here:
duggmirror.com/apple/L...
Statistically, Apple's upgrades have tended to work very well for people who haven't loaded up their machines with lots of low level hacks. Even Leopard, which was a very big upgrade, seems to be generating mostly positive reviews. I am impressed by the fact it benchmarks similarly to "Tiger". Other OS vendors have been known to release "bloaty" "upgrades" after 5 years of effort that actully slow your system down and offer no interesting new capabilities.
As I said before, I just received my iPod touch (I'm typing this message on it), the guy next door ordered one hundred of them, and the FeDex guy said he had "a million" in his truck...
At least you could have picked one that was mildly interesting and not so easy to pick apart.
C'mon... give readers something to read and not this phoned-in pablum.
And no, I am not being hypocritical. Posting a comment under a pseudonym is perfectly fine. I a. Not pretending to be a journalist nor an analyst.
He says he hates Microsoft but goes out and buys (and recommends) a computer that runs Windows????
This is nothing more than a hit piece.
Hmmmm... could it be that he has been breaking the user agreement, hacking the machine, making unauthorized changes to it and now fearing an update?
Imran
imran.com/media/blog/
To even somehow compare this to Apple's products and to assert that there is fear and loathing with Apple much like there is with Microsoft is absurd.
I, for one, am a thrilled Apple product user. And yes, I am completely aware of the restrictions that an Apple product set brings, but compared with the headaches that Vista brings, these restrictions are well worth it.
But if you want to compare the two companies that's fine but realize that no matter how many people whine and complain about Microsoft they still bought and still buy the products. Windows and Officer are juggernauts and while Apple has to scratch and claw for market share, Microsoft's cash cows will be sitting there doing nothing inspiring, yet still making billions and billions of dollars.
"I have a brand new iPhone sitting right next to me on my desk that I can't figure out how to unlock and jailbreak now that it comes pre-loaded with 1.1.2 firmware. So it just sits there on my desk making me hate Apple more every day."
So some genius buys a new iPhone and complains because Apple made it more secure. And rather than returning it, (or not buying it in the first place), he'll just keep it sitting on his desk, making him angry and raising his blood pressure. What's he going to do when the SDK is released and jailbreak is no longer needed? Take out the iPhone, shoot it, and then hate Apple for its inadequate resistance to ballistic events? Or maybe the bullet will ricochet off, and he can hate Apple for the iPhone's indestructibility?
What garbage.