Posted on 04/11/2010 2:38:33 AM PDT by Swordmaker
What does Apple get that Sony, HP, Microsoft, Dell, Samsung, and LG don’t?…. Usability in software. All these other geeks out there making hardware love packing on “specs”, stuffing big numbers like RAM, gigahertz, and hard drive space into small or cool looking gadgets. It all looks good on paper, but after you use one of their gadgets for more than a few weeks, you just want to throw it out a window. Thousands of new gadgets released every year all using the same-old crappy unfriendly, unintuitive, unattractive software. It’s no wonder so many are flocking to Apple when we can just pickup one of their simplistic products, start taping and swiping our fingers, and lo and behold… it just does what we want it to do. Of course, it isn’t easy, or cheap, to make software this user friendly, which is why everyone is having such a hard time keeping up.
As a software developer, I hear the phrase “I just want it to…”. Which, as any experienced software developer knows, is the most expensive phrase we ever hear. People have software needs all the time, which may require vast complicated effort to achieve, but they want it to hide all that complication behind a simple and user-friendly interface. What most people don’t know is that making software do just about anything doesn’t cost nearly as much as making it easy and intuitive for them to use. This lack of cost awareness is what ruins so many “brilliant” product ideas.
Sony is, in my opinion, the worst offender. In the past decade, I have seen Sony release cutting-edge gadgets to the market before anyone else. The PSP was an amazing gadget when it came out, in theory. It played music, videos, viewed photos, surfed the web, and of course, played games. The problem was that, excluding the last feature, it didn’t do any of them well. In fact, all the claimed features were so hard to use that almost no one could figure it out. Then, even more idiotically, Sony received reports that users were not using the extra features and stopped improving them! Sony could have been the what the iPod Touch is today, but lost the chance with bad software.
But I don’t just write this to rant, I write this as a warning to other business owners and entrepreneurs out there. Developing software and technology is one thing, but making it user friendly is another. In fact, usability can consume up to 80% of a project’s time and resources. That is, if your actually going to make something people will want to use. You have to build it, review it, fix it, test it, fix it, beta release, fix it, get feedback, fix it, get more feedback, fix it… and maybe… just maybe… people will be able to actually use it.
This is why the only mobile platform even close to keeping up with Apple is Google’s Android. Google is the only one in the fight with the know-how and resources to keep up. Even RIM, makers if the Blackberry, can’t keep their mobile software up to par, they have to invest in starting from scratch or spending huge resources in fixing what they have.
If you or your company has a “great idea” for an application or gadget, just remember, once you price the development… multiply it a couple times for usability.
Well, there you go, that certainly is the fault of the machine/software.
By the way, considering the ( less now ) price premium on Apple, shouldn't you compare machine's of equal value, such like Sony, or HP PC's, vs the complaints form say low end corporate Dell's or off brand machines. ( Although I bought some e-Machines for a bar for the patrons to destroy and they've worked fine for the usual email, facebook....stuff. They were, the dirt cheapest box I could find, under two hundred dollars. ) Now would you supply a new Apple box for that physical/use application? No you could not.
Yes and I had a AT&T phone for several years. Their network hasn’t gotten any better.
So your charges of a lie are false. You are the one who is telling falshoods.
“Two years ago, I traveled from Southern Indiana across to Southern California... I had no signal for a total of only five minutes during that entire trip. “
yeah I know you keep talking about it. A complete falsehood because AT&Ts network is not that good. Plus unless you were watching your phone continuously you would have no idea if it was 5 mins or 5 hours.
blah blah blah swordmaker. hype is hype
“Macs can run more software than PCs can,”
Simply not true
That’s why I asked a question, you know, with the question mark finishing off the sentence. Other wise I would of made a declarative sentence.
God forbid having a nation of people tinkering with their computers, or customizing cars, or adding rooms to their houses, or boat building.... Why who knows were such curious behavior would lead too? eh? Much better is the German like/elite like Apple sensation of ‘don’t you dare open the box you low, base prole! This, is a work de arte!’
I’m a weight guy. Still roofing, occasionally, a house at 53, ex SF, bar tend in a real old, stabbing biker bar, and just bought a 35 wood ketch to rebuild in my spare time. Males that run, or ride bicycles for that matter, are a little to....wispy.... for my cultural biases. Although I do have a VW station wagon, which I get ribbed on, but a tool is a tool.
I have been following, for stock reasons the latest HCT/Apple grudge match. It seems that the then match made in heaven between ATT and Apple is devolving. Back then Apple had the machine, and ATT the network, which was pretty cool and could command a price premium. However AT&T’s network is antiquated, lower band width, to Sprint. Sooooo, when the picture/voice new HCT ( that Apple is trying to suppress in court ) comes out this summer, only Sprint’s will be able to carry the traffic.
Which should cause a lot of Apple ‘must-have-latest’ fan base to cringe to be in their favorite Starbucks and be dissed by lowly ....( GOD HELP US ) Sprint owners.
With all the pressure of all these now common phones, eating at the margins of supposedly profitible Apple’s I-Phone buisness. What happens now, vis a vis AT&T? Is Apple going to force them to redue their network? Or does AT&T have exhaulted Lord Jobs over a contractual barrel?
Just thinking, outside the box( is that allowed ) Apple is profitable, right? Cause Cult Jobs, even though he never pays out cash, has cash, right, right, Bueller, anyone? You know, like Apple might be the AIG of the computer world. We’ll see what happens to Apple shares the day Job dies and the corporate curtains come down.
The controls for the display are below the widescreen presentation... and a 16:9 wide screen on a handheld device is not suitable for other purposes like e-reading, surfing the web, photographs, or other purposes. Best choice was to letter-box widescreen movies, and put controls below. Engineer and esthetic choice. Or would you really prefer a door shaped screen in vertical mode?
2. That isn't multitasking, it's apptasking, and it blows.
And you have used an iPhone or iPad and know that it blows WHEN? I use an iPhone 3Gs daily, and I can tell you that you would not know that it was not multitasking... because it IS. Ergo, you don't know what you are talking about... the iPhone has multitasked the native apps from day one. . . and some of the 3rd party apps DO multitask if they follow the guidelines Apple has established and permitted.
3. Riiiiiiight, unlike "super efficient" Quicktime. LOL
Quicktime in H264 is super efficient... again, you haven't the foggiest idea what you are talking about. H264 is the most efficient way to stream HD content yet devised.
4. So I need 99 cent app.... plus a $300+ iPhone and monthly contract with AT&T to do what a basic laptop can do. FAIL
No, not fail. Again, more ignorance. Nor do you need a monthly contract. This is NOT a laptop. It is another device entirely. So don't compare it to a laptop. Any bluetooth camera will do... and the iPhone is only $199... and if you have one already... so much the better. And the camera and iPhone minus phone funtions still work without the contract... so that is not required either.
5. No video means no video. WiFi? Add another $130 to the already outrageous price.
Again, you display more ignorance. The basic iPad is WIFI. And is fully video capable... or do you truly believe that I wasn't watching streaming videos on the one that I was holding in my hands Thursday????? The 3G model is $130 more.
6. It's called a battery-swap, and people who do more than listen to MP3s don't do "charge time."
What are you blithering about? Do you know how much weight you are talking about to make the battery swappable??? You REALLY don't know what you are talking about... do you? Walt Mossberg really stressed his iPad watching movies, surfing the internet, downloading, doing almost everything watching streaming videos...he threw everything at it and timed the battery,... and it died at 11 hours and 40 minutes in the middle of watching an episode of a network TV program... I forget which one. So don't give me lies about mp3 listening.
7. Adapters for USB? Sold seperately! $$$$$
IF SOMEONE NEEDS a USB adaptor, they can buy it. So what. Most people don't need it. Why add the weight, thickness of case, and cost for them?
8. Exactly. As for the vast majority of computer users, we use video ports regularly.
Video ports... most users DO NOT USE VIDEO PORTS ON LAPTOPS... so that is just more BS. I'm a heavy computer user... and I can think of the times I used the video port on my laptop in the last two years... never. And again, weight, thickness of case, and cost?
10. Blue-Ray is antiquated. Now I've read everything.
It is. Why carry around a disk when the same content can be downloaded from the cloud? It was becoming antiquated when it was being introduced. HI DEF content is available from Netflicks and iTunes... and why weight down the iPad with an optical reader that breaks. This device has NO MOVING PARTS... why add one??? WHY ADD A DUST ACCESS PORT??? Weight, thickness of case, and cost? Show me a netbook with a blu-ray drive... Hell, show me a netbook with a cd/dvd drive.
11. NOT OSX is NOT OSX
Do you understand that iPhoneOS is OS X???? It is a mobile maximized version of OS X...
Thanks for sharing your ignorance.
driftdiver wrote: “blah blah blah swordmaker. hype is hype”
True words, sir. And you deploy a more than seemly array thereof yourself.
Because you don't believe it... because you have not used a Mac. Really used one. You have not experienced both worlds. We have. Mac users have come out of the Windows world. Something like 80% of Mac users were Windows users now... and, frankly, we have a better knowledge base to make the comparison of what is hype and what is not. We are not the kool aid drinkers. We were... but not any more. We poured it out when we went Mac and are not going back.
No.
I have a degree in Business Administration, concentration in Finance, minor in Economics. So, Leisler, yes, I do know about the time value of money...
Thanks for the iPad capability lists.
I have my iPad and I love it.
Just to play devil’s avocate for a second - on a different site, a fellow held much the same position as yourself. Determined to prove his assertions, he went to his local AAPL Store and actually played with a real iPad. When he left, he said something like, “It is magical, amazing. I was wrong. See my new iPad?”
Just saying.
It certainly is. Macs don't need anti-viral ware... as of this time the total number of Viruses for Mac OS X in the wild, after ten years of OS X being in the wild, is ZERO. The business would not have lost a week of productivity due to viral infection if they had a Mac in that location. EVERYTHING that was being done on that computer could just as easily be done on a Mac... and even the Windows vertical solution database they run the optometry Office software on, being that it does not have to connect to the internet, could be run in a virtual machine sandbox under OS X, and be safe. All other work, especially internet ordering etc., could be handled by the Mac side... and be safely done without the need for cycle eating anti-anything ware.
Actually, I was. My daughter was driving and I was surfing the internet on my iPhone. So don't call me a liar. I can actually show you on the map where the five minutes of no signal were located. AT&T has a strong presence across that corridor...
Not a lefty by any streach and have been using AAPL since 1989. Payback = stock price. Bought at $100 in 2000, 2 splits. Now $230+. Market Cap just $10 billon less than MS.
AAPL, like its products, are long term investments, not dividend paying, trust fund crap.
According to Job’s slide show at the 4.0 Demo, Andriod is now 19 and iPhone 64.
All right, prove your negative.
Macs can run all Windows software, All versions of DOS, UNIX, BE-OS, AmigaOS, AtariOS, C-64 Software, all variations of LINUX, Mac OS X, Mac OS, THE-OS, and several other more obscure operating systems that run under emulation or Virtualization. So what proof do you have that PCs can run more?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.