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Apple is professional, the web is amateur

dave.is

41–50 of 61 posts

Re: Apple is professional, the web is amateur

#41
On the web, PHP is professional. iWeb makes it easy to imitate professional trends (you said it yourself: just like Apple's website). Likewise, GarageBand is mostly used as a quick and dirty way to imitate professionally produced music, although there is a lot more truth to the "Apple = professional" boast in that industry.

Re: Apple is professional, the web is amateur

#42

More trolling on HN I see! The Web is professional, it's the developer who blogged about this story that is an amateur. Just because he doesn't know what he's doing, now the web is amateurish? These nerd-rage blog posts are just noobs venting that 'they don't get it'.

very little depth, the only thing that is to learn here, is that the write is an apple fanboy.

Re: Apple is professional, the web is amateur

#43
technology is amateur. technology probably shouldn't be analyzed by analog methodologies either.

how apple(substitute any company) 'catches on' can be derived from http://ow.ly/59Maa. our perception isn't as important as the ubiquity of that which is available to perceive.

apple properties will catch on as long as they don't go out of business or lose the power to shout about their products(though this probably sits under the former).

Re: Apple is professional, the web is amateur

#45

I think you're correct that Apple is going to have to do things differently get some of their web properties to catch on, but I disagree heavily on your premise. For a counterexample, Facebook is professional-looking and very structured compared to MySpace, which in turn is very amateurish-feeling. There isn't any question which is preferred. Forums are amateurish. Stackoverflow is professional. I know where I'm goin…

My point wasn't that less professional looking websites succeed over more professional looking sites. It's Apple's focus on professional content (the select few) vs amateur content (all of us). I didn't mean to use amateur in a derogative sense. Amateurs are just people who don't get paid for their work. Re: Facebook/MySpace, I think this was a different dynamic. The thing facebook did right was tone down the design…

Maybe "professional/amateur" isn't the right dichotomy here. I think it's more accurate to describe it as "peer/tiered". In Facebook/MySpace/SO users are all at the same level and communicate roughly as equals. In most Apple products, there are a small number of special broadcasters (creators) and a large number of receivers (consumers).

Re: Apple is professional, the web is amateur

#46
post #42

More trolling on HN I see! The Web is professional, it's the developer who blogged about this story that is an amateur. Just because he doesn't know what he's doing, now the web is amateurish? These nerd-rage blog posts are just noobs venting that 'they don't get it'.

very little depth, the only thing that is to learn here, is that the write is an apple fanboy.

And so are many of the most active people of this site. Thats why the article gets so many upvotes for such shallow nonsense excuses about Apple failing at the social web etc. (Not necessarily a bad thing, a company is good at some and not great at others). This post is for and by fanboys who take Apple's weaknesses personally and have to spin it as if Apple is too good for the web. (bye bye karma).

Re: Apple is professional, the web is amateur

#47

> If Apple's going to succeed at the web, they have to unlearn a lot of what makes them Apple. No more pixel perfect web apps that feel like desktop apps, no more sites that look like glossy brochures, and embracing chaos and amateurism over order and professionalism Here is yet another argument based on the premise that, in order for Apple to succeed, it must do the same thing as everyone else. We have heard the sam…

I don't think these situations are parallels. Clones were a bad idea because they diluted Apple's brand and cut way into their margins (Apple is a hardware company and makes money from that). As for cheap phones, Apple now sells the 3GS for $49. I don't think this is an example of the naysayers being right, it's just Apple having their cake and eating it too. The point is not that Apple should do the same thing as ev…

>>As for cheap phones, Apple now sells the 3GS for $49. I don't think this is an example of the naysayers being right, it's just Apple having their cake and eating it too.

$49 vs. $200 is peanuts compared to the 2yr data plan that you're signing up to, that's where the real cost is.

Re: Apple is professional, the web is amateur

#48
Apple has tried amateur. The were very early out the gate with the podcast directory through iTunes. I think they were hoping that Podcasts + AppleTV would be an end-run around the cable companies and content providers.

Turns out, not enough people wanted amateur podcasts. I'd wager that the easily availability of paid Hollywood content drives far more people to the iTunes ecosystem than the free and easily availability of podcasts.

So I think their experience indicates their customers value professionalism.

Re: Apple is professional, the web is amateur

#49
I don't agree that youtube is about amateur content. Sometimes my friends upload interesting videos to youtube or someone links to a mildly amusing clip like MyDrunkKitchen. However, most of the youtube links I see go to professionally produced content such as music videos, news clips, or comedy shows.

Re: Apple is professional, the web is amateur

#50
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there was ever a hatred for Ping -- a hatred would infer that people cared about it. Nobody cared at all... logged in once, and then never went back to that part of iTunes again.

Fair point, but a lot of people freak out over Ping for some reason.

I think people freak out over Ping because it has a lameness to it that people would have expected to originate from Microsoft or even Google -- but not from Apple.

Its entire approach is actually anti-social. It's not web-based, it's locked into iTunes and is meant for customers. Customers are busy buying, they want "Give it to me and let me go enjoy it now." They connect with other people on the Internet, outside of a commercial setting.

Apple's own support forums are more social even though the purpose is to solve customer problems. You don't need iTunes to use them.

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