Apple Cult: The Cult of Unpopular Gadgets?

XBit Labs ^ | 7/09/2009 | Anton Shilov

[Wooly]

In the last few weeks numerous technology and mass media web-sites published hundreds of stories about Apple, its products, their availability or their issues. But does that enthusiasm towards the company have any correlation with Apple’s actual market share? It seems that not really.

Apple is a company that has been extensively covered by media, especially in the USA, for many years now without an obvious reason: apart from the iPod, all the products from Apple are hardly used by a lot of people around the globe. But the latest load of rush coverage about Apple on the Internet more resembles hysteria rather than a normal exposure of a popular topic.

The most recent wave of wide-ranging coverage of Apple began with the pending release of the iPhone 3GS: almost all the tech web-sites published rumoured specifications of the device, some were correct, some were wrong. Then, after the 3GS was finally launched and the press released a load of ecstatic articles on the matter despite of the fact that nobody has tried to use the device, the media rejoiced over the return of Steve Jobs, chief exec of Apple, to his position at the company. Virtually all tech and mass media web-sites decided to inform their readers that Mr. Jobs had liver transplant in April and was back in the office on time.

[Wooly]

New Mac and PC ad script

Mac: Hello PC

PC: Hello Mac

Mac: Caught any bugs lately?

PC: Before I answer you what is your market share again?

Mac: Uh 8.2%

PC: So while you think that you are smart and the 90.5% of the people that use Windows are morons to be made fun of, maybe you ought to climb back into your Yugo, go home and look in the mirror.

[PA Engineer]

Already posted.

[jessduntno]

Got an iPhone 3G for Fathers Day. It sucks. Battery life is about 10 minutes and it costs a fortune each month. Unless you get one given to you and you don’t want to hurt any feelings, don’t touch this POS with a ten foot pole. The network is crappy, the upgrade was only marginally better...it is junk.

[JRios1968]

Macbots arriving in 3...2...1...

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Your iPhone experience is sure a hell of a lot different from mine and my sons’. For me, it’s an indispendible tool. Best phone I’ve ever used, in fact, even just considering its phone functions. Battery life is not a problem for me, and I use the thing intensively. Typically I charge it every second or third day, same as my old Motorola flip-phone. You can do things like turn off WiFi when you’re not using it, that might help. And some applications use more juice than others. Streaming-radio apps, for example (like my beloved Pandora) use a lot of power and will drain the battery in less than a day. But they would on a laptop, too.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

[SJSAMPLE]

My wife has an iPhone (FANTASTIC !) and the life is much better than 10 minutes. I don’t know which apps would drain that much power so quickly?

And, I have a very old AT&T/Cellular One/Cingular contract that gives me monthly rates lower than anything an AT&T employee can get. Not everybody can get such a great rate, but you get what you pay for - if you use it.

It’s an incredible device.
I was showing off Google Earth and the associated map features, as well as the cool apps you can get for a buck.

iPods and iPhones are the ONLY Apple products that intrigue me.
On those, they have no equals.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Sturgeon’s Law: 90% of everything is crap.

Works for computers, apparently.

[justlurking]

I've had an iPhone 3G for about a year. I'm using it now.

It's not perfect, but it's better than any phone I've had before. Battery life is fine, and network is adequate in most places.

[Richard Kimball]

Had one for a year. I disagree. Best phone I’ve ever had.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

I think your phone warrants a check-up. I have a feeling that its battery is defective.

And if it is, don't accept anything less than a replacement of the entire unit.

[SJSAMPLE]

Ditto.
I only wish it would default to WiFi when it finds it.
You have to specifically request WiFi each time, or it defaults to 3G.

I love that thing.
I wish I could ditch my corporate Blackberry and go back to AT&T.

[GonzoGOP]

Apple is great for coming up with great ideas and then not pulling them off properly. The iPod was a revolution, but you couldn't replace the battery, couldn't add songs without using their software, and couldn't expand the memory. Sansa came out with a player at a fraction of the cost that offered everything the iPod did, in addition to expandable memory, the ability to edit files like a hard drive, and a battery you could swap out yourself. All you had to give up was the snob appeal. My wife's iPod died after a year when the batter wouldn't take a charge for more than 30 minutes. We now have three of the Sansa players in the family.

[ctdonath2]

Mac: Uh 8.2%

Yeah: ONE SINGLE COMPANY, providing not only the hardware but most of the software running on it, has 8.2% (>10% according to some) of a market which has _thousands_ of competitors. Nothin' to sneeze at there.

Dell has the biggest share of personal-computer hardware at 13.2% - but they don't make operating systems or applications.

Microsoft has 88% of the OS market - but they make virtually no hardware. Observe too that Apple's OS X's share grew by 31.7% within one year.

So Apple is basically second only to the Microsoft/Dell symbiosis. That's pretty darned good for "unpopular".

[perfect_rovian_storm]

As a person with a distaste for just about everything Apple, I was so frustrated with Windows Mobile smartphones that I broke down and bought an iPhone earlier this year. I just wanted something that worked reliably and I had heard from friends that it would fit the bill for what I need. I’m glad I did it. It’s an amazing device and hands down the best smartphone available on the market. And you name it, I’ve used it.

There is literally an app for everything in the app store. If you’re still not satisfied, jailbreaking is easy enough. I had mine jailbroken the first day. Took about 5 minutes.

If you don’t like your iPhone, it’s cuz you ain’t usin’ it right. :p

I am on my iPhone for one thing or another pretty much all day long. I recharge it every night and it never runs out on me.

Can’t disagree with you about AT&T and the cost of ownership, but I was already with AT&T anyway.

[Wooly]

By the way, 3G uses a lot of battery on any smartphone and ou should turn it off when you are not needing it. In most cases you do not really need it. Same with WiFi and Bluetooth, if you are not using it, shut it down.

[jessduntno]

“I think your phone warrants a check-up. I have a feeling that its battery is defective. And if it is, don’t accept anything less than a replacement of the entire unit.”

Thanks...I’ll try and exchange it...maybe this one is an anomaly, but I have read an awful lot of posts from people who had the same problem from web searches;

Google this and you will see what I mean;

iphone battery problem

there’s gotta be something wrong to get a zillion complaints...or we must be one lucky bunch of users on FR...except me, of course...

[SJSAMPLE]

But the ads are "Mac vs PC".
Not "Mac vs. Dell', "Mac vs Gateway", etc.

Mac started with those asshole commercials, so let's follow that vein.

When people can choose an OS, they're choosing the Windows OS over 10x more.

Them are facts.

[Wooly]

It not the Windows Mobile that is the problem, it is the restrictions and apps the carrier puts on them. If you had ever used an HTC Pocket PC that had been reloaded with a cooked ROM from XDA Developers you would have seen what I am telling you.

[AFreeBird]

Wow, a week ago I got my first Mac, an iPhone 3GS, 32GB.

I put all my digitized music library on it (16GB), and use Safari extensively (FReeping) via WiFi or 3g networks. I get about a day's use out of it with that heavy usage. I suppose if I were to turn off WiFi and Bluetooth, battery time would increase. But so far, I'm quite pleased with it. I've also heard that it might be possible that the 3.0 version of the OS is not managing battery life as efficiently as it should, and the 3.1 is going to address that.