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Apple Is Forcing Ubiquity And Conformity On Consumers
Forbes ^ | July 4, 2015 | by Theo Priestley

Posted on 07/05/2015 12:13:45 PM PDT by Swordmaker


Being locked into a single ecosystem isn’t necessarily a good thing

I stepped off a train in London one morning and it struck me how many genuine and knock-off Barbour quilted jackets were among the commuter throng. And it made me think about just how commonplace they’ve become to the point that they’ve diluted their own brand image. “By Appointment to Her Majesty” has now become “By Appointment to Everyone”.

It’s the same with the Hipster trend. Humans naturally struggle with their own identity so seek to adopt one from a group to feel included. Individuality is lost to conformity.

And that’s not necessarily a good thing. Conformity and ubiquity are a dangerous combination.

The same is happening in technology circles. Apple AAPL -0.12% and iOS has become synonymous with smartphones and tablets but has only one product per line of business. Therefore it’s the same hardware you see people with and it’s becoming ubiquitous. They are gorgeous products, they work seamlessly (apparently – Apple Music), but they’re everywhere. And for me it’s destroying the perception of brand value and consumer choice.

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Society
KEYWORDS: apple
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To: Swordmaker

If I were gay, I’d probably be an Apple fan.


21 posted on 07/05/2015 1:31:46 PM PDT by BobL (REPUBLICANS - Fight for the WHITE VOTE...and you will win (see my 'about' page))
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To: Swordmaker

Love Apple products. Can’t stand their progressive politics. So I purchase only pre-owned Macs so Apple never gets a dime.


22 posted on 07/05/2015 1:35:38 PM PDT by TheStickman
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To: BobL
If I were gay, I’d probably be an Apple fan.

If I were gay I would hang out at a Starbucks all day with my iPad.

23 posted on 07/05/2015 1:38:17 PM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: TheStickman

“Love Apple products. Can’t stand their progressive politics. So I purchase only pre-owned Macs so Apple never gets a dime.”
*******************************************************************************************************
Thank you VERY much. Folks such as yourself help Apple customers such as my family have a ready market for their quality Apple products when it’s time for an upgrade.

I’m actually kind of like you in that when it’s time to upgrade I buy my wife the new product (Happy wife, happy life), I get her “old” product as a hand-me-down and I sell (or give to one of the kids) my old products. Everyone has what is (to them) a “new” machine that works well.


24 posted on 07/05/2015 2:50:44 PM PDT by House Atreides (CRUZ or lose!)
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To: BobL

25 posted on 07/05/2015 4:07:21 PM PDT by CodeToad (If it weren't for physics and law enforcement I'd be unstoppable!)
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To: minnesota_bound

I abhor Apple being so danm vocal in their reprobate politics. That said, when I have my iPhone mounted to the side of one of my rifles, using a ballistics app such as this one from Kinght Armament: http://www.knightarmco.com/bulletflight/ , I don’t believe I fit the profile of an lemming, accurately sending small projectiles, at very high speeds, down range, at whatever the target may be at that time. Then when I shoulder my weapon and mount my phone onto the handle bars of my XR650, I use a different app that recognizes orbiting satellites for navigation, or even just a speedometer app since the stripped down bike doesn’t have any extras such as a speedometer. Apple has created a great interface that I rarely have difficulties with, which I use for many different scenarios, the very least being as a phone. I just don’t like talking on the phone. But again, I abhor Apple being so vocal about their gayness to the point that I give serious consideration to switching to a manufacturer who focuses on their product and skips the reprobate politic preaching.


26 posted on 07/05/2015 5:45:43 PM PDT by Carthego delenda est
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To: TheStickman
Love Apple products. Can’t stand their progressive politics. So I purchase only pre-owned Macs so Apple never gets a dime.

Yep! That's how you do it.

Jesus Christ: You can’t impeach Him and He ain’t gonna resign.




27 posted on 07/05/2015 6:03:21 PM PDT by rdb3 (What did you dream? It's alright, we told you what to dream!)
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To: Carthego delenda est

How many iPhones does it take to stop a bullet fired from an AK-74 assault rifle?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3148232/How-iPhones-does-stop-bullet-fired-AK-74-assault-rifle-Apple-handsets-lined-destroyed-quest-answer.html


28 posted on 07/05/2015 6:55:47 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: TheStickman
So I purchase only pre-owned Macs so Apple never gets a dime.

Here's another benefit - if the seller allows it, you may get a machine fully loaded with software. I bought a used 2-year-old Mac that was loaded with over $1800 of extra software (like the latest Adobe Photoshop suite, Windows 7 and more). And it cost me less than half of a new machine, but fully loaded with max RAM and features. Nothing wrong with not being cutting edge, let someone else pay for getting the latest and greatest.

29 posted on 07/05/2015 7:48:16 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: minnesota_bound

The caption part about “Browsing Facebook/Reddit” should be “Posting on FreeRepublic”!!!


30 posted on 07/05/2015 10:27:48 PM PDT by dayglored (Meditate for twenty minutes every day, unless you are too busy, in which case meditate for an hour.)
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To: donna
The irony is the fact that in reality: APPLE IS "BIG BROTHER" and the gray, mine-numbed conformist slaves of "the system" are in point of fact APPLE USERS!

Isn't it ironic that APPLE'S "revolutionary" 1984 commercial accurately pictured what APPLE and it's users would become! It is the exact opposite of how Apple wanted to be viewed ane perceived by the world and consumers: With Apple's highly restrictive "controls," massive "user restrictions" and APPLE'S proprietary, "fill in the blank"-"EVERYTHING;" Apple litterally BECAME what it purportedly despised most as presented in their "ground breaking" commercial!

Given what we now know about Apple, it's "business model," what it has become, and how it views/manipulates it's "users"/customer base;"Anyone watching their "1984 commercial" today would perceive the hammer-throwing heroine as the ubiquitous open-source PC come to set the mine-nummed, conformist Apple users FREE from "Big-Brother" Steve Jobs and the APPLE "machine".

31 posted on 07/05/2015 10:54:19 PM PDT by Jmouse007 (Almighty Jehovah, deliver us from this evil, in Jesus name, amen.)
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To: TheStickman
Love Apple products. Can’t stand their progressive politics. So I purchase only pre-owned Macs so Apple never gets a dime.

That's not how the market works.

If you buy used Macs, you indirectly support the price of new Macs.

Why do you think the purchase of used kiddie porn is illegal? Because it supports the price of new kiddie porn and thus encourages the abuse of little kids! Duh!

32 posted on 07/05/2015 11:25:26 PM PDT by cynwoody
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To: cynwoody

Thanks for the non-sequitur. Have a nice day :)


33 posted on 07/06/2015 4:56:19 AM PDT by TheStickman
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To: Zeppo
Am I the only one who had to do a search to figure out what a "Barbour quilted jacket" was?


I ain't never even seen one.

34 posted on 07/06/2015 8:54:37 AM PDT by itsahoot (55 years a republican-Now Independent. Will write in Sarah Palin, no matter who runs. RIH-GOP)
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To: Jmouse007
It's like the first time a little kid rides his bicycle. We see all the videos and it happened to me.

My mother got my new bike out of the car and I was to ride it home for the last 2-blocks while my family watched from the car.

I got a shaky start, but I was going, and then I started staring at the back end of a parked car - no matter how I tried not to, I ran into that bumper. My ride only lasted 20 seconds.

Apple ran into the bumper.

America ran into the bumper.

35 posted on 07/06/2015 10:16:57 AM PDT by donna (Polls are mob rule . . . faked.)
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To: minnesota_bound
How many iPhones does it take to stop a bullet fired from an AK-74 assault rifle?

Now posted on FreeRepublic Here

36 posted on 07/06/2015 4:01:29 PM PDT by Swordmaker ( This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue...)
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To: Jmouse007; donna
Isn't it ironic that APPLE'S "revolutionary" 1984 commercial accurately pictured what APPLE and it's users would become! It is the exact opposite of how Apple wanted to be viewed ane perceived by the world and consumers: With Apple's highly restrictive "controls," massive "user restrictions" and APPLE'S proprietary, "fill in the blank"-"EVERYTHING;" Apple litterally BECAME what it purportedly despised most as presented in their "ground breaking" commercial!

You spout so many anti-Apple myths in your screed, Jmouse, it is obvious you don't use any Apple products. Can you specify anything at all that is Apple proprietary in your "anything" category? How about some specifics the highly restrictive controls? Massive user controls? Name the ones there are no easily accessed alternatives. Please.

37 posted on 07/06/2015 4:09:54 PM PDT by Swordmaker ( This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue...)
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To: Swordmaker; Jmouse007

Yes, master. As you wish, master. Hut, Two, Three, Four... |


38 posted on 07/06/2015 4:26:26 PM PDT by donna (Polls are mob rule . . . faked.)
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To: donna; Jmouse007; dayglored
Yes, master. As you wish, master. Hut, Two, Three, Four... |

Your sarcasm means nothing, Donna. It is ignorance on parade from someone who doesn't know what she is talking about. I am a cross platform consultant and do know what I am talking about. I use my Mac in supporting my clients who use multiple platforms.

Try using an Apple product before you criticize that which you know nothing about except what you hear from others who also do not use the products and know nothing about them repeating their ignorance. You just create an echo chamber of ignorance.

Apple computers are certified and trademarked UNIX™ computers, and every user is a couple of keystrokes away from a UNIX™ terminal which gives them far more control of their computers than the vast majority of Windows computer users have of their computers.

Those Apple computers can run FAR more software than Windows computers can run. My Apple Mac runs SEVEN operating systems, and in fact can run them simultaneously. I currently run UNIX™, Mac OS X.10.10, Windows XP, Windows 7, and Window 8,1, and two versions of Linux. Apple computers can access and use industry standard peripherals. I can also run all the software for those operating systems plus more. I have several more boots sectors set up for Windows DOS, THEOS, Amiga, and even Commodore 64/128 if I should need to run them to support my clients, and the Mac will run them. That is NOT proprietary, Donna. . . nor locked down as you seem to think.

As for hardware, contrary to your claims, there is nothing "proprietary" about the peripherals Apple Macs use. Apple's have a far better "plug and play" than you can find on any other platform, most often never requiring a manufacturers' drivers for installation of printers, cameras, etc. With a Mac, you do simply just plug the vast majority of peripherals in and they really do just work.

The whole point of Apple's philosophy of their equipment and OS is that users can work WITH their computers and devices and not be perpetually working ON their computers and devices, merely to get them to work properly at all. . . that the OS gets out of the way and assists them only when necessary and does not obtrusively insert itself into the process.

The best description I have ever seen of the differences between Windows and OS X is this:

Microsoft Windows is a frenetic boy scout, doing good deeds, but insisting on telling you when ever he's done one and demanding appreciation; Apple Mac OS X is an English Butler, who silently appears at your side, providing exactly what you need, exactly when you need it, and then disappears, until you need him again.

Therein lies all the difference.

39 posted on 07/06/2015 5:18:22 PM PDT by Swordmaker ( This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue...)
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To: roadcat

Take a look at the above post. . .


40 posted on 07/06/2015 5:20:03 PM PDT by Swordmaker ( This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue...)
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