Mac Man tries to gobble up all the Apples. Illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Posted on 08/11/2016 11:07:31 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Cult of Mac 2.0 bugYou don’t see long lines for the latest Lenovo PC or LG Android phone. But take a quick peek on the internet and you’ll find plenty of people lining up to say how much they hate Apple.
Every successful person or company has its critics, but the expressions of vitriol for Apple are more complex than the popular refrain ‘haters gonna hate’.
Some are bugged by the price of Apple gadgets, others sneer over the enthusiasm of Apple fans, mockingly referring to them as iSheep or fanboys. Others are rubbed the wrong way by late founder Steve Jobs, whose charisma and marketing savvy repelled some as strongly as it attracted others.
Even in death, his critics could not be silent. “I don’t wish anyone to die,” wrote one on a message board on League of Legends on Oct. 6, 2011, the day Jobs passed. “However, I refuse to sanctify him.”
Fuel for the fire
Saying so only makes the fans circle the wagons. Apple occupies rare air, in that its customers have become a distinct and potent brand community that only grows stronger from the hatred, says Albert Muniz, professor of marketing at DePaul University.
“It gives legitimacy of true membership,” Muniz says. “It’s such an entrenched user base. That sentiment (against) has persisted as Apple has gone from David to being Goliath.”
So to the “misfits, crazy ones and rebels,” here is a small dose of what you put up with because you love your iPhone or Mac.
“People who buy exclusively Apple all the time are unsettling. A sense of loyalty to a multinational, profit-driven company is just weird in my book, especially when it manifests itself in utter loyalty, a refusal to accept any alternative, an unnatural love for the product and an inability to accept that there are any flaws in the love they feel.” —David Stewart, Australia, on Quora, Sept. 13, 2014.
“I wonder if their new guy is going to try to continue building a fortune off of artificial quality and people who don’t know anything about computers.” —DinerCar on League of Legends, Oct. 6, 2011.
Or from this YouTube tech blogger last September with a channel named Gaming Wildlife:
Apple haters
If you find humor in the insults, there is an Apple Haters blog as well as the “official” Twitter account of Apple Haters “We are everywhere.” Any time stocks dip, malware strikes, or a new product gets tepid reviews, these and other forums come to life. The blog even has a store, on which you can buy coffee cups and T-shirt, including one that says “KEEP CALM and DESTROY APPLE.”
The chatrooms stir up some interesting discussion and often include reformed Apple haters or even some current user Piyush Michael, a student in Delhi, Indiana, who likes Apple products enough, but otherwise is not swayed by Apple’s messaging or the passions coming from what this website lovingly refers to as a cult.
Michael told Cult of Mac he has used both Apple and non-Apple products, his favorites being the iPhone and MacBook. He describes himself as indifferent to Apple, but his emotions are more likely to get stirred up by expressions of loud love for Apple.
“It’s just the smugness of the fanboys I hate,” Michael says. “In India, those who can afford (it) almost always buy iPhones. It’s supposed to make you stand out of the sea of mid-rangers. And in most cases the smugness isn’t even discrete. The same attitude you get from the PC (camp). Both camps form opinions without any experience of the other side and stick to it.
“In order to justify the money spent, they spend the rest of their lives denying any flaws in the products.”
Popular YouTube tech blogger Austin Evans has an audience that mostly uses PCs, especially for gaming.
He is reminded how deep passions run whenever he reviews or unboxes an Apple product, like a new iPhone. Evans can count on a small flurry of comments accusing him of being paid by Apple.
“I don’t do a lot of Apple videos because I am mindful of my audience,” Evans tells Cult of Mac. “Apple is one company I don’t have much of a relationship with. I do full-sponsored stuff all of the time and nobody cares, but when I do an Apple video, it’s ‘How dare you say something nice about them.’”
Another tech blogger, Lamar Wilson, has an interesting theory that may explain some of the hate for Apple.
He considers himself an ex-Apple hater who used to make a living building and fixing PCs. He even saw a number of viewers unsubscribe from his YouTube channel when they realized he had become “one of them.”
“There may be fear in the tech community,” Wilson says. “There’s a morbid fear of things that are easy to use. They hate tech that is dumbed down. For some, their jobs and personal reputation is ingrained in being the tech person.”
What’s the big deal?
Apple mostly shrugs and may even revel in the free advertising the debate gives its products.
Sometimes impatience and even hot rage comes from its own community, which expects Apple to put out a perfect game changer every time.
Jobs may have even handled some direct hostility from one customer, complaining about poor reception with the iPhone 4s in the early days of what became a widespread antenna problem.
Several tech websites published what was believed to be an email exchange with an angry man and Jobs. The writer allegedly threatened to go back to using an Android phone and said he was ashamed to be a Mac fan.
Apple’s public relations team said the emails were fake, but even in fiction, the final word from Jobs may be the best response the next time an Android loyalist gets in the grill of a happy iPhone fan.
“Relax … It is just a phone.”
You know, I have an iPhone 6s and an iPad Pro, a Mac Pro, an iMac, a MacBook Air, a new MacBook, and five AppleTVs between my three houses, and I cannot recall the last time I used iTunes for anything, other than peripherally on my devices through its app stores. It had to have been four years ago when I restored my iPhone 5s after I upgraded from my iPhone 5. But even then, iTunes on a Mac is a much nicer experience than on a Windows machine.
My documents are on every one of my machines, totally transparent to me, and I don't need to worry about moving them from one to the other. So why bother? It doesn't matter if any document, music file, photo, video, etc., is on any particular device or on the iCloud, I have access to it wherever I need it, whenever I need it. I don't need to plug in and "move and copy" anything. You guys really just don't grasp the concepts, transparency, and utility of Apple's shared ecosystem at all.
If you want a phone that is secure, out of the box, with full 256bit AES encryption built in the hardware, not pasted on as an after thought in software, go with the iPhone, but wait until after September 7th. That's when the new iPhone 7 is being announced. Release probably a week later or so. Faster, more capacity, better camera, etc.
Some "fad." Some time last month the one billionth iPhone was sold. That's not a fad, that's a movement. Over 800,000,000 are still in use!
Apple over charges for thier products. Beyound that they’re fine.
But, not Chevrolet!
The iPhone is the Apple of my eye. Most everything else sucks by comparison.
Being a byte mechanic, Windows 7/10 is my preferred workstation.
That would mean a whole lot more, if they were being made in America.
Just saying...
They are not. So what is the big deal? Apple is just like every other company, completely sold out.
It’s not the company, but their pretentious users that aren’t well liked.
Your post is brilliant! :)
I would like to see a Physiologist’s analysis on this “Hate” reaction to Apple.
If you don’t like Apple, don’t buy it. Simples.
I wish it was every five months that Apple refreshed their product lines. But it’s more like two years between major iterations with a relatively minor tweak in between.
The Apple products just last. I have about a dozen Apple gadgets since 2003 and all of them still function. Though I have little practical use for my original iPod that only holds maybe 4,000 songs.
Despite all the hoopla over the years about batteries, I never had to replace one. Apple did the right thing by sealing them in tight. Also Apple OS and iOS are very secure. I guess it took the FBI quite a while to break into that iPhone.
Never waited in line for the newest product. I usually upgrade in the “off year” and let the early adopters work the kinks out. All my iPhones are the “S” version. That way I get a solid, proven dependable product all the time.
I don’t like the politics of Apple founders and CEO. But guess what, Bill Gates and the Microsoft top brass are no,better. In fact I would say Bill Gates is more of a flaming liberal than Steve Jobs ever was.
I like the way all the Apple devices work together and give you universal access to all your data, media content and applications. Whether I’m working on my laptop, tablet or phone, it’s seamless. It’s a good ecosystem.
This "Apple hater" understands EXACTLY how cartridges work. And yeah, good catch that the maker of that meme was ignorant about firearms.
I also know how followers of "The Great Apple Mothership" work. I live with one. While I have no love for Microsoft, I doubly dislike the snotty little attitude that seethes from the mothership and a good bit of it's adherents. Apple is same-same greedy corporate leviathan as the rest. With the same marketing plan as Harley. They sell an idea and facade of superiority.
That said, this thing will always be right up there with other endless rivalries.
Ford vs Chevy
9mm vs .45ACP
Harley vs Honda
7.62x39 vs 5.56mm
Yadda, yadda, yadda.. No sense in beating it into the ground. Very little changes.
I savvy what I savvy. Others savvy what they savvy.
But it seems that every-so-often some apple fanboy {cough-cough} hasta pick at this old scab. Kinda like Obummer and his racism game. Y'all just can't stand it that that everybody doesn't necessarily wanna "be different, just like everybody else". Hehehe. How dare those insolent hill-billies for not being "enlightened" enough to make proper purchasing decisions! Sounds a lot like the "group-think" of the current rendition of the democratic party to me. I wouldn't waste the energy "hating" (again with the "democrat-speak"), I just disagree. And have a l'il fun with it on these occasions. It's almost as much fun as aggravatin' Miz Kris while she's tryin to get her apple-thing-a-ma-bob to work with something. d;^)
Exactly.
Hipness (as embodied in the "Get a Mac" campaign) isn't something you can buy in a clothing store, a hair salon, or an Apple store. Either you have it or you don't.
But the myth that consumer products define what you are is what sells, and Apple has used that approach very effectively.
Your answer is perfect. It is the absolute epitome of the arrogance I expect from the lemmings camped out at the Apple store waiting for the latest color offering which makes their entire $10,000 investment in gadgets obsolete.
Next time you're in a library, sit down at a PC, and google "satire". (Don't bother to ask Siri, she's not allowed to answer it.)
I agree.
Outside of the smug attitude of its users, I’ve always said if you want to know what conservatives sound like when they speak like SJWs, just lists to the Apple users on FR.
Planning on getting MacBook Pro 15” retina when they come out. Supposedly in Oct. but the price is steep! $2500 fully loaded. Apple keeps delaying the release if one is to believe ‘Mac Rumors’ and other web sites that profess inside knowledge of Apple.
Itunes is the only Apple product that I have used extensively because it is free and allows you to create unlimited MP3’s; which I use on my ultra cheap Coby MP3 player.
There is nothing like taking a walk at lunch time and listening to Machiavelli.
The placement of that damn power button. Miss the delete key, then bam. Other laptop power buttons are usually separate from the keyboard.
Get a Strobe 8.0....
Most of my battles with Apple’s numerous limitations ended many years ago when I went to Android.
So many features I wanted from my device are still not available from Apple’s lineup. Expandable memory, IR, easily replaceable battery, high quality digitizer input, HD camera and video, Bluetooth and WiFi communication with third party devices, audio line out, larger format screen, USB connectivity with thumb and hard disk drives, etc. Over the years Apple has slowly incorporated many of these features into their products, but with Android there was little or no wait.
Not saying Apple doesn’t have its strong points, but their weak points were too much for my intended use.
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