Bad Apple: Five Classic Apple Marketing Tactics That Lock You In

PC World ^ | Nov 3, 2009 6:15 pm | Dan Tynan

[Swordmaker]

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. Microsoft’s products are far better - more secure and more customizable.

And when did you use a modern Mac to earn the knowledge to have that opinion?

[Swordmaker]

Made no sense then and less sense now.

Why do you think it applies to Apple now?

Note the words: ". . . register for a free ADC Online Membership."

[Swordmaker]

I eat a Fuji Apple every day.

I like Golden Delicious myself...

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

I'll say one thing that dominates the conversation of Mac users; Most of you are strongly opinionated and one-track minded.

Everything you own is the best, the most dependable, the most powerful, the baddest, the fastest, etc,,,.

One of you even made the claim that his 325 BMW would out perform ALL 4x4’s on snow and ice. (OF COURSE!) Like my Duramax powered 2500HD, (500 hp) with 295x18” wheels and 22” of frame clearance would get blown away by a pissant 325 BMW in 3 feet of snow going over Lolo Pass in a snow storm.

You all tend to sound very arrogant and experts on EVERYTHING. Nobody else’s opinion could ever meet your standard, unless they support your own or resemble the tone of your elite little group.

With that having been said, enjoy you over priced toys. You have the right to throw your money down what ever rat hole you choose. Especially the marketing philosophy of Steve Jobs; Keep the system exclusive, keep it expensive and be ruthless at all costs. I can see where this philosophy suits you well. It keeps your heads or necks pumped up and swelled beyond your own recognition, like a Whitetail Buck in the Rut.

[Swordmaker]

1.) How do you run more than one application at the same time on an Apple iPhone ?

1 The iPhone runs more than one application at the same time out of the box. All apps run with iPhone's phone apps running in the background. iTunes app can run in the background of many other apps... or it can run in the background of an app that uses it.

Now a question for you: What apps do you think you have to run simultaneously when you have only one screen with one window? Why is it so onerous to switch apps when it takes less than two seconds to switch? The iPhone can multitask exactly the same way that the Palm Pre multitasks... they can both use Web based apps. In fact, for the entire first year the iPhone was out, that was the ONLY way that 3rd party apps could run on the iPhone and you could have eight of them running at once. The only difference is the way you switch between said web-based apps.

2 Comparing specs is not the be-all and end-all of the operation of the phones. The smoothness of how it accomplishes what it does counts much more than the speed that it may accomplish a task. What difference does it make if a given task takes 10% less time to accomplish if it has a poor user interface... and what matter does it account for in the real world when you are talking fractions of a second difference. This is a HANDHELD device. Accomplishing the task easily is the important thing... not that you get done 1/10th second faster.

3 The iPhone's user interface, a function of the OS, is consistent throughout its operation. Android, being a one-size-fits-all phones varies the user interface from phone to phone... even the input method and the display size and resolution vary between applications. Ergo, one app will always work the same on the iPhones... but the one app will NOT work the same on various phones that Android will work on. The Droid phone's OS will only allow 256MB of apps on it, on the built in memory. The 16GBs of MicroSD card memory can only carry data for the app. The iPhone's memory is monolithic and the OS allows the apps to take up as much memory as you want/need them to up to the limits of your built in RAM.

[Swordmaker]

“I can only congratulate Apple. How a company can charge 36.6% gross margin for the same hardware every other provider sells at razor thin margins is a testament to Apple’s ability to cloud the judgment of 5.37% of the market.

Show me how you can sell the "same" hardware that Apple sells. Show us the PCs versions that have unibody aluminum engineered cases, that direct air where it's needed, that fit batteries into every available nook and cranny to increase operation time. How about show us the PCs with built in 27" LED lit LCD monitors that can be seen at 178º in any direction without loss of brightness, that's just 2º off of perfectly parallel to the plane of the screen. How about tower cases of aircraft grade aluminum with motherboard and components that connect to each other with NO CABLES?

How about the prices of PC notebooks that match the MacBook's specs, including polycarbonate case, a 13.3" LED backlit screen with 1280 x 800 pixel HD display, graphics that support Extended desktop and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors, has a built in camera, stereo speakers, that has a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB on-chip shared L2 cache running 1:1 with processor speed, a 1066MHz frontside bus, with 2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM installed, WIFI A,B,G,N, Bluetooth, Gigabit ethernet, and a 7 hour battery in a full powered, full sized keyboard notebook that weighs in at only 4.7 Lbs. The "same hardware" has to sell for less than the MacBook's $999.

Of course, that's just hardware. The Macbook also includes a world class 64 bit OS that runs 32bit apps transparently and flawlessly, comes with a full suite of utility and productivity software such as Time Machine, Quick Look, Spaces, Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Photo Booth, Front Row, Xcode Developer Tools, iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD... all at no extra charge.

How about fitting a lot of that into a 2" high, 6.5 inchwide, 6.5 inch deep box and add three more USB ports, a Firewire 800 port, that weighs only 2.9 pounds. Now find THAT hardware in a similar specs PC that sells so much cheaper than the $599 Mac Mini.

Remember "same" hardware. That includes the engineered cases...

[Swordmaker]

Macs are great, it’s just the darn closed system that can get annoying.

And how much experience have YOU had with that "darn closed system" that embraces open standards, uses lots of Open Source Software, even keeps its kernel as open source? How much of your opinion has been shaped by similar ignorant FUD articles to this one, as opposed to hands on experience?

[Swordmaker]

It keeps your heads or necks pumped up and swelled beyond your own recognition, like a Whitetail Buck in the Rut.

Quintessential ad hominum. Not bad. You are aware that ad hominem attacks are the primary tool of the incompetent debater, aren't you?

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

Oh, I almost forgot, you also come across as so much “smarter” (as in intelligent) than all the rest of us P.C. idiots.

By the way, do you have any Gray Poupon? One who drives a Mercedes, BMW or Rolls would not settle for less......

[pyx]

Thank you for the reply. Its information to consider.

[The_Victor]

One is a convicted monopolist. The other is not.

So Micro$oft did a better job of cornering the market. Micro$oft is successful because people willingly buy their products. But if a particular tactic to capture the market is monopolistic, and therefor illegal, then it should be illegal for all.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Gee, that must be why Apple is doing so, so, so poorly!

:-)