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.”
A good product made by suicidal coolies.
As long as everything in your “ecosystem” is Apple, I’m sure you’re fine. Just don’t try to make Apple “play nicely with others”. It’s a closed, proprietary architecture.
I like most of the hardware, but I stopped using apple because of iTunes ..
Maddox had a great article about Apple users: (warning strong language) "One thing PC users can do that Mac users can't:"
Amen! I’ve had both Apple and Android products, currently have an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy S5 (still going strong!) and I appreciate them both for different reasons.
I don’t “hate” Apple, just the attitude of the hipster brand whore customers. But I acknowledge that there’s a strong “anti-Apple” crowd on the other side of the fence.
I’m not rooting for the failure of either Apple or Android...as a capitalist, the best thing we can have is a split market and a healthy competition between the two. Otherwise, innovation will stop and prices will climb.
Describe the steps to change your iPhone ringtone to the first 30 seconds of "Train Kept a'Rolling"
Then tell me how user-friendly Apple products are.
Android:
Sonar Ping:
Download or select a sound file with the ping
Copy it to your Android
Select the file to be your text notification.
Train Kept a'Rollin':
Download or select a sound file with the song
Copy it to your Android
Select the file to be your ring tone.
I don’t hate apple, but I avoid it at all costs. The reason can be summed up in one word: Proprietary.
I’ve gotten so bad that it affected my wife’s phone purchase a few weeks ago. Her LG G3 died. Her company is iPhone friendly but you can use Android devices with a bit of work around. So we thought we’d finally bite the bullet and get an iPhone.
Then I remembered, you can’t change the battery. Then I remembered, you can’t use an industry standard charging/usb connection. Then I noticed, the iPhone was $500 more expensive than an LG G4 (which is what I have and really like.
So, it is more expensive, we’d suddenly have to start carrying around and purchase (at significantly higher prices) charging chords for her phone specifically. Everything is more expensive. And then there is the whole iTunes thing.
Meh. We got her the G4. She loves it.
About the computers.
I used to be a hi-fi and video salesman in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I can say with confidence that Beta was better than VHS. I had two beta VCR’s. Loved them. ‘Course, I couldn’t swap tapes with my friends because they all had VHS. And all beta machines were really expensive, so most people just bought VHS. I learned my lesson and abandoned Beta, even though I believe it to be better. Life got a lot simpler. And VHS really was “good enough” for what I had it for.
I see Apple as Beta, except it got a large enough following that it didn’t go away. But the issues remain. It’s more expensive. It is highly proprietary, and you are somewhat limited in functionality in a business world that is mostly PC.
I have a friend who is a graphic artist. He uses both Apple computers and PC’s. He likes both and is frustrated by both. He sees the apple as the winner for his graphics stuff, but prefers the PC for everything else.
Apple really lost me when they forced people into the small floppy, and again when they forced people into the CD. I haven’t followed them since then, but I’ve read some complaints here about iTunes, etc.
The funny thing is marketing. I’ve said that if you came to this planet and only knew what you saw in movies, you would have the following misconceptions:
1. a lot of our presidents were black.
2. Most people use Apple computers.
I don’t hate apple, but don’t consider it to be a good value and meet my convenience standards for the things for which I use a computer. YMMV
And yeah, it’s more the Apple geeks that get my panties in a bunch, not the products.
This is exactly it. I encountered the same attitudes and objections twenty years ago, when trying to introduce Microsoft Windows 95 (in support of vertical applications my internal customers desperately needed) into an IBM OS/2 shop.
I won't even get into how those token-ring buzzards reacted when confronted with Ethernet for the first time. :)
Wow, that was actually hilarious!
A related story: I took my nephew to a “computer swap meet” in Kent, WA back in the early 90’s. It’s people selling old monitors, hard drives, software, cases, you name it. When we got to the door and looked around I said this to him:
“Donny, soak this in. You are in a moment in history that is very fleeting. PC’s are in their infancy and they will soon be a commodity - like a toaster. But right now people are enamored as if they have gotten a glimpse of the future and they want it.”
Computers are, in fact, a commodity now. But the Apple brand is fighting it hard, and still relatively successfully. And just as many young people are big into brands for clothing, the same is true for other things they use like, well, computers, phones, the car they drive, etc.
Me, I buy my jeans at Costco for $16 and they last me years. I see everything I own, even my PA equipment and basses and guitars as tools. I couldn’t care less about brand. If they get the job done for the right amount of effort and money on my part, I’m golden.
I prefer the iPhone, but the Mac computers are confusing to me.
I don’t hate Apple but I’m not wild about the smugness of Apple users; however, I may switch to Apple on my net computer after suffering the agony of upgrading to Windows 10.
Oh, and I’m not wild about BMW owners either. But I may upgrade to a BMW just to get the “Yes, I do own the whole damn road.” certificate.
Same here. I don’t get it. I have apple products because they’re simple and just work. No instructions required.
>The placement of that damn power button. Miss the delete key, then bam. Other laptop power buttons are usually separate from the keyboard.<
Hey, that’s my problem, too. Miss the string or the fret on my bass and bam, wrong note.
Coming from a website that calls itself “Cult Of Mac” this bears a certain irony. Asylum inmates never seem to realize they’re the crazy ones...
these days I really have no hard opinions (on computers) or time to consider - my focus has been getting my work done.
if an etch a sketch and a pot strong coffee would sever me better, I'd use it as well...
Given the fact the new phone will not have a headphone jack, are they expecting me to buy $200 Beats headphones as well?
You do realize that what you think is awful, is a strong selling point for Apple? Apple customers are largely not hackers they just want to turn on a computer and get the stuff out of it they need.
Sort of like a refrigerator with Ice in the door, put the cup in the door press and get ice out. There is no expectation that they will get flavored ice or even ice cream, just ice.
Uh...no.
I have to work in a mixed shop. We have mostly Macs and a few Windows boxes to run certain proprietary devices.
All of our devices share the same printers, USB drives, we all log onto the Mac Server, in fact I can't think of the last time we had an incompatibility.
The App Store does effectively "close out" most crapware from being installed on your computer. It is very rare that I have an issue with a program I downloaded from the App Store. If you are adventurous (and possibly stupid) you can still download and install "outside" software, but I wouldn't recommend it.
In fact you could say that Macs are more compatible than Windows machines. I can run Windows easily on my Mac, but I can't (and really wouldn't want to) run OSX on a Windows box.
Or maybe a $10 adapter.
In case you haven't checked lately there are lots and lots of bluetooth headphones out there, some as low as $20.
Welcome to 2016.
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.
And typically you reply with an insult and ignore the question.
Attacking the user because he is satisfied with his choice makes a lot of sense.
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