Posted on 11/05/2009 10:37:52 AM PST by Swordmaker
When you buy an Apple device, you're often locked in to buying other Apple products that are compatible with it. Here are five examples, and some advice on what to do. Oh, wait--there's nothing you can do.
Once you enter the Big Tent of Apple, it's exceedingly hard to find the exit.
Over its 33-year history, Apple has consistently elected to limit consumer choice, creating a situation known as "lock in." As soon as you start buying stuff from Apple, you'll find it difficult to move to products made by someone else without losing everything you've already paid for.
Of course, many people don't want to leave Apple's tent. After all, it's filled with iPhones and MacBooks and other cool stuff. And Apple is hardly the only business that tries to lock in customers--wireless carriers (including Apple partner AT&T) are probably the worst offenders. Nor is Apple the only vendor to use one product as leverage to push others onto consumers (let's declare Microsoft the champion there).
But no other technology company exercises the same amount of control over what its customers can and can't do with the things they bought. Part of this approach is due to Apple's deep belief that a closed digital ecosystem with limited options benefits both Apple and its customers. Part of it is due to an all-consuming desire for control on the part of the ringmaster, otherwise known as Steve Jobs.
The bottom line: Apple makes great products, but its marketing practices limit your choices and cost you more money. Here are five classic examples of how the company has done it.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
It's my fourth Benz. I've owned all big ones. I also have a '90 TownCar for hauling Spot. (and 3- '87 300ZX's for toys).
Mac user since 1984.
Between Windows Media Player, my rather expensive wireless router and my PS3, streaming media to the PS3 was a royal pain and very hit-or-miss. DLNA and UPnP compatible my ass.
Windows Media Player to the XBox worked relatively well. However, I strayed from the Microsoft ecosystem by using MPEG4 movies, which introduced headaches.
Streaming among iTunes just works great. But the flipside to the above is that don’t expect to use WMV movies.
Things are easy when you stay within the ecosystem, and a pain when you stray.
It’s a judgment call: accept restrictions and have it easy, or reject restrictions and prepare to lose many valuable hours of your time.
>>Limewire is essentially a virus that you install of your own volition. It downloads adware and spyware to your system and makes it impossible to take off; just throwing the info out there to those who dont know.<<
I’ve used it for years with no problem whatsoever.
Maybe it is because I also use firefox.
In other words everyone who bought an Apple product is stupid, eh?
hahahahahaha
Apple is a company run by hardcore liberals.
And Microsoft is run by hardcore what? tuna fish?
Steve Jobs wants to control what you do with your computer.
And Bill Gates and Steve Balmer don't? -- even with their continued domination (aka monopolization) of the software market.
Nor is Apple the only vendor to use one product as leverage to push others onto consumers (let's declare Microsoft the champion there).That's the buried lead, right there. :') Other than that, this screed is a quintessental Apple-bashing article.
NeXT was Steve Jobs' venture when he was in exile from Apple. It went nowhere commercially. If it had, things might have been a lot different.
I got introduced to it via WindowMaker (an X11, NeXTstep-based UI). Mac OS X has a GUI based on top of the O/S I've used for almost 3 decades and at home for almost 2 1/2 decades. Except that the OS X GUI is done a bit better.
Read the article. Apparently this guy makes a lot of his reputation throwing bombs at Apple. The purpose of the article, as far as I can tell, is that it appears to be a hit job to try and pump up the Android phone.
You want an example of "lock in" do something in Publisher.
Consider it a preemptive strike on Microsoft fanboys who claim that anything without market share is automatically worthless.
I'm a Unix guy. I was drawn to WindowMaker before I knew it was based on Jobs' NeXT work. I'm delighted to have a similar (and vastly improved) interface, seamlessly integrated with X11 and running on top of my beloved Unix.
I first did computer UI work in 1987 (on top of SunOS). The holy grail has always been a UI that appeals and works with hardcore programmers (me) and novice appliance type users (Mrs. Altair). Today that seems to be pronounced "Leopard" or "Snow Leopard".
“Id file this article under REALLY WEAK ARGUMENTS
point 1: the Apple stuff really works
point 2: everybody waits on Gates.
point 3: People dont b!tch about Apple and th Apple OS; but almost everyone complains about the MS experience.
point 4: the guy who wrote this article has apparently never owned and maintained a premium brand car.”
Well said. Just for fun I charged up the battery for a MacBook 145 that I recently found and had been buried in a box the basement for what? 15 plus years - booted right up and ran ... ahhhh memories. Now the PCs in boxes in the basement are junk - won’t boot - HDs toast - motherboards crispy after multiple replacements till the warranties ran out etc. Finally hauled them off to the electronics recycler in Berkeley - but not the 145 - it still can do it’s job and it’s fun demonstrating it at garage sales. And yes - my 91 BMW 325ix still rocks and blows away all 4x4s on snow and ice.
Quality as a foundation has it’s advantages for longevity.
“Apple users are suckers. They pay more for for the same commodity hardware that Dell, HP and others charge far less for. Apple is a company run by hardcore liberals. They are secretive, controlling, and monopolistic. Steve Jobs wants to control what you do with your computer. Microsofts products are far better - more secure and more customizable.”
Bull - not the same commodity. Consider MTBF* ratings for components. Low MTBF = low cost. MIL-SPEC on the other hand costs more - duh! The PC mfgs use the cheapest they can get - and that is why their products are toast after a few years or sooner. Yes there are occasional premature failures with Apple branded hardware however the ratio is profoundly less than the cheap PCs.
I have built my own PCs for fun - first one was back in the early 80s. I buy Apple to get the job done rather than spending time troubleshooting hardware and software problems that plague the PC community.
Way back when in the 60s - IBM had a lot of new competition - most wayward customers came back. Why? We may not have had the fastest computers or the sexiest technology - but out computers ran and so did our software and we had the guys and gals to keep it so.
IBM has two mottos - “THINK” and for the FE Division “IBM Means Service”.
Apple tagged on with “Think Different” - it has served them well and I have had a bump or two with their service but have always, in the end, been satisfied.
Toshiba, and almost all the rest can go pound sand. Cheap is dear.
Retired IBM Field Engineer - circa 1963 - IBM ID 224795 (yep! a dinosaur)
* http://www.t-cubed.com/faq_mtbf.htm
“It’s my fourth Benz. I’ve owned all big ones. I also have a ‘90 TownCar for hauling Spot. (and 3- ‘87 300ZX’s for toys).”
Spot obviously rules. You get to drive him to exercise locations as I did. My 124 lb. GSD “owned” and customized my 91 ix - a pristine classic until he teethed in it for the second time while left alone in it for an hour or so. Shame on me.
Love MBZs - 78 300D first and still have the 87 300td - State of CA offered me $650 for it in writing. I did not respond.
No, you just... change the battery.
That's why this article's FUD.
And exactly what percentage of the personal computer OS market does Microsoft control?
Apple?
One is a convicted monopolist. The other is not.
Twenty five years ago. That's Ancient history.
Apple's APIs are open and available and Apple provides free development tools for the software. You can also get help on your designs from Apple.
Perhaps we're not being robbed. You have no experience with BOTH platforms to hold your opinion. You are a blind man in the land of the sighted, telling the sighted the DON'T see what they see... because he can't see.
Yes, it would work until someone came and underbid them for the contract... then nothing would work like it did.
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