I am sorry I should have included you in my response to JaguarXKE. I wasn’t making an insult. One of Apple’s primary demographics is people who are not very computer savvy. There are two or three decades of literature from Apple’s own advertising department that demonstrate this amply.
I have been using a smart watch with my cell phone for approximately 6 months. Now Apple has come out with their own watch. Does it have more or better features than say the Samsung Gear II which has been out for a year? Probably, Apple has been studying the competition and trying to improve upon their products and add extra features. That is how capitalism is suppose to work.
The primary problem that I have with Apple is the way that they use their legal department to manipulate the patent system and stifle innovation. Obviously they are not the only ones guilty of this... but...
The best example was the well publicized billion dollar litigation against Samsung where a big part of their lawsuit was the shape of the case of the competing product. I remember debating the merits of this right here with Apple apologists. This was the lawsuit that convinced me that Apple was run by a bunch of goons.
When using the term “goon” I am not talking “a silly, foolish, or eccentric person”. I mean, “a bully or thug, especially one hired to terrorize or do away with opposition”. Up until the time of that lawsuit I might have been willing to purchase an Apple product if I had the money. Since that time I can’t help but think of that lawsuit before I have considered the purchase of an Apple product. I am not comfortable supporting an organization that is run by goons. Obviously millions of others including Huckabee and yourself do not care at all that the largest corporation in the world (by market capitalization) uses unethical strategies to stifle competition. I am not going to argue that other corporations do not use unethical strategies. But there should be some repercussions after blatant abuses... so I am doing my part be sticking with non-Apple products.
It is true that Apple appeals to the not so computer savvy. But in order to capture that market, Apple needed to design hardware and software of exceptional quality. As a result, they've also captured the high end of the market — engineers at Google and NASA and at plenty of tech start-ups, as well as fans of high tech and good design, such as Rush Limbaugh.
As for Samsung, I think it's a good thing that they and Android exist.
The patent system is out of control. The simple fact is, too much is patentable. Utility patents should only be granted for genuine innovation having a physical implementation, not for software nor business methods. Design patents should not be granted for basic aspects of a product's physical form that are required for it to be useful, such as rounded corners. But I don't let such considerations influence my tech purchases.
When using the term “goon” I am not talking “a silly, foolish, or eccentric person”. I mean, “a bully or thug, especially one hired to terrorize or do away with opposition”.
Interesting. TIL I learned that "goon" can also mean "a silly, foolish, or eccentric person". But it's true:
goon (gūn)
n. Slang
- A thug hired to intimidate or harm opponents.
- A stupid or oafish person.
[Probably ultimately short for GOONEY, simpleton.]
That's from answers.com. My Mac's built-in dictionary actually lists the senses in the reverse order:
goon |goōn|
noun informal
- a silly, foolish, or eccentric person.
- a bully or thug, esp. one hired to terrorize or do away with opposition : a squad of goons waving pistols.
ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: perhaps from dialect gooney [booby] ; influenced by the subhuman cartoon character ‘Alice the Goon,’ created by E. C. Segar (1894–1938), American cartoonist.