Apple Joins Microsoft in Fear Factor; Look to Lenovo

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.

Comments

[JoeW]

Whoever "fear" Apple product must be living under a rock for the past 20 years. Apple makes the most intuitive devices and software. There is nothing to fear about it. Fear of upgrading the iTune? You have got to be kidding me. What people should fear is if they still run Windows Vista or having one of those Palm OS based devices. Now those software are scary.

[JoeW]

Whoever "fear" Apple product must be living under a rock for the past 20 years. Apple makes the most intuitive devices and software. There is nothing to fear about it. Fear of upgrading the iTune? You have got to be kidding me. What people should fear is if they still run Windows Vista or having one of those Palm OS based devices. Now those software are scary.

[Jon T]

What utter rubbish. This is showing the paid to dispense FUD campaign from Microsoft is in full flow.

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.

[DocColorado]

I'm sorry I didn't go for a Macbook Pro when our company handed out Lenova's Thinkpads.

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.

[kbear2]

You've got to be kidding. Some idiot is living in 'fear' because he is using a product that he hacked and is worried that it won't work the way he wants? Huh?
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.

[mike hough]

If anything is bricked it is your reputation. A complete load of codswallop!

As far as seeing Thinkpad's everywhere you obviously did not look here:

duggmirror.com/apple/L...

[Macbth]

I think you are over playing the whole situation. 99.9% of the apple end users do not feel this way. I had no trouble with Leopard – so he can’t hack into the iPhone – what other cell phones can be hacked??

[JIM]

Too bad that moron can't figure out how to unlock his phone and he lives in constant, unrelenting fear. STFU. What an idiotic post.

[Dan Poarch]

Ill conceived post. Anyone living in fear of iTunes or an iPhone shouldn't be around technology at all.

[Tom B]

Agreed. I am a long time Mac user and even so avoid "gratuitous" upgrades. I do contemplate (as a pessimist) that every upgrade could "brick" my device. But if an upgrade offers advantages that interest me, I go ahead and hit "OK".

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.

[wagonjumper]

Fred is a creation of the author's imagination, a borderline crook!
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...

[therepairer]

So are the quote and the theme of your article, "People who agree to a contract with Apple for the use of an iPhone but who have premeditated to break that contract by circumventing it, hate Apple for creating software that protects their investment from dishonest hacks"? Hmmn. Let me suggest this one. "Some criminals unhappy with Apple and ATT for protecting both its investment in iPhone and the rights of those customers who keep their agreements and honor their contract."

[NightWriter927]

Must be vacation time for a lot of web writers. What's up with pouncing on one sad soul's gripe with Apple and making a trend out of it? Oh yeah... it's Friday. Time to take the easy way out, set any creativity aside, and just write up a quick article using a lot of quotes from *one* pitiful blogger's gripe with Apple.

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.

[peter02l]

It should be illegal to post articles in financial sites under a pseudonym. The author clearly fears for his own reputation more than anything.
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.

[User 126618]

I'm not sure who Fred Wilson is..but sounds like he might want to spend 10 minutes reading the upgrade notes for iTunes and Leopard to see if an upgrade is right for him or not instead of whining about his fears. As for his iPhone "brick"; if he is looking to jailbreak it, then he deserves a brick. Maybe poor Fred should get an abacus for computing and a cup and string to make his calls.... nothing fear then Fred.

[brewer]

Probably the stupidest thing I have ever read on the internet. And that is saying something. Apple is nothing like Microsoft, never has been. Microsoft are simply not to be trusted. No one knows this as much as any self-respecting Mac user though.... or some company M$ forced out of business with their endless monopolistic practices.

[Scooby Doo]

I'm confused.

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.

[Imran Anwar]

Huh? He is afraid of an iTunes update bricking the iPhone? Sorry, idiotic commentary is all this was....

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/

[Devin]

Ignorant or intentionally deceiving (PERIOD)

[Nimish Mehta]

I have Vista Home Premium (I think that's what it's called) running on Parallels on my Mac. Vista is the being piece of crap that I have seen in a while. I could write a book on flaws in this OS. The funny thing is, I worked in the product side of a large enterprise software company, and this company's products were routinely criticized as being ugly / unuseable / etc. When I used Vista, I realized that even this much maligned enterprise software company actually did quite well in terms of useability and robustness when compared with Vista! That's quite a statement...

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.

[Brandon]

I find it amusing that people could compare Apple to Microsoft at this point. It's crazy. Microsoft made the blue screen of death a joke that millions upon millions of Windows users could painfully laugh at. There are really very very few problems with the Iphone and the vast majority of the problems are cause by people screwing with them.

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.

[Former Academic]

I'll quote:

"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.

[fer]

don't know what this guy is talking about, I know my truly portable computer/phone/address finder/personal stock broker/waether (iphone) its the most beatufull phone I ever used, my friends get impress when I show them my small town down in Mexico via satelite, I've done same trades with no problem on the go , check my stocks which is the reason why I got my iPhone.