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The New Apple Advantage

daringfireball.net

161–170 of 354 posts

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#161

The problem with what Apple does to its advantage is that it isnt really always in the consumer's best interest. Gruber shines light only on how it is working great for Apple but ignores the fact that people have by and large benefited from having choices. For people who get real work done the specs matter. The fact that Peter Bright wanted anything but an Apple says something. But there is also a section of users th…

I don't follow your logic. How does Apple catering to a subset of consumers mean they are not acting in the consumer's best interest. From the standpoint of the consumers they cater to, they are. From the standpoint of those they don't cater to, I suppose they don't. Having more choice at a competitive price is not "good for the consumer", it's only good for consumers who want more choice at a competitive price. And as Apple has shown, that isn't everybody.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#162

The problem with what Apple does to its advantage is that it isnt really always in the consumer's best interest. Gruber shines light only on how it is working great for Apple but ignores the fact that people have by and large benefited from having choices. For people who get real work done the specs matter. The fact that Peter Bright wanted anything but an Apple says something. But there is also a section of users th…

[deleted]

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#163

The problem with what Apple does to its advantage is that it isnt really always in the consumer's best interest. Gruber shines light only on how it is working great for Apple but ignores the fact that people have by and large benefited from having choices. For people who get real work done the specs matter. The fact that Peter Bright wanted anything but an Apple says something. But there is also a section of users th…

"he doesn’t want an Air running Windows using Boot Camp because he doesn’t like Apple’s U.K. keyboard"

What is it this says? That for another manufacturer he could have several choices of keyboards for their laptops?

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#164
post #81

> It’s even worse if I just browse without searching. The options I get are just… meaningless. Yes, I want “Everyday Computing,” so I want an Inspiron. But hang on, I also want “Design & Performance,” so I want an XPS. Wait a second, I want “Thin & Powerful,” too. This is the crux of the problem with all of Apple's competitors, in the PC business and in mobile. Why choose when you can have everything? Apple's lineup…

I'm a geek and I couldn't care less what WiFi chipset is in my laptop. I was shopping for a ThinkPad X220 for someone, and it had the option of the regular screen or the "premium" screen for $50 more. They don't tell you what the "premium" screen is or why you'd want it. I presume the regular screen is shitty. Can you even imagine Apple offering such an option? A $1000+ laptop with a shitty screen, with a $50 option…

> Can you even imagine Apple offering such an option?

They do, actually. The 15" MBP has a "High-Res" option and most (all?) MBPs have a "matte" display option (~$50 on the base glossy glass screen).

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#165
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He has his bias, you have yours.

I think we're in violent agreement. But we can summarize the vast majority of Grubers posts thusly: "Something about Apple = Great" then generate a dozen or so threads of nothing but either fawning praise for Gruber or the same repeated complaints about his bias. At this point Gruber posts and the follow up "conversation" (I'm using it charitably at this point) are something one could probably machine generate, then…

If you can write a bot that posts cogent arguments in favor of Apple products, you can put Gruber out of a job. Kill two birds with one stone!

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#166
post #99
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How hard is it for you to not click on something you don't want to read? I see hundreds of posts here every day that I don't click on, some in the top 5. I don't start campaigns to censor these posts, I assume people upvote them because they find value in them. Obviously people find value in Gruber's posts if they are being upvoted. So here's the suggestion again: don't click on it bro . Problem solved.

It'd be better if something I did want to read was in its place.

Yeah, but you still wanted to read it badly enough that you came here to comment 3 posts deep.

It's funny how someone can hate a certain type of article so badly that they will read it and comment about how badly they hate it. I mean, why go to all the effort?

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#167

What I grasp from this is that John Gruber and Peter Bright are just too dim to understand basic online stores. This qualifies for mockery from Gruber/Bright: > "Everyday Computing" But this is good understandable product description: > "The ultimate everyday notebook" (that second one is Apple's marketing copy for the Macbook Air). The low-end Macbook Air is $999 in Canada. Let's compare. I just priced a Lenovo X220…

That's not an entirely fair comparison - the x220 is currently substantially reduced in sales in NA, to the tune of over $400. It's not a reflection of the usual price of the machine, or its price in the rest of the world.

Reasonable, but wrong. The Lenovo site always has sales running. Bullshit, but effective bullshit.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#168
post #85

Another way to put this, Apple loosely abides to the "Good, Better, Best" lineup for their product offerings. They don't follow it exactly, but in general, they keep selection simple. This doesn't confuse customers, and allows them to easily compare one thing to another. If you've ever eaten at Panera Bread, you'll usually see people staring at the menu on the wall for a few minutes. Their menu is huge and all over t…

great analogy. and just like with food, anyone who has a clue about what they are ordering, will never enter an apple store.

Presumptuous. I, just like many HNers like me, have more than just a "clue" about what I'm ordering, and I love Apple products.

As a sidenote, I hear these types of statements a lot from those in the anti-Apple crowd, but I can't remember the last time I heard someone switch _away_ from Apple products say things like this.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#169
post #85

Another way to put this, Apple loosely abides to the "Good, Better, Best" lineup for their product offerings. They don't follow it exactly, but in general, they keep selection simple. This doesn't confuse customers, and allows them to easily compare one thing to another. If you've ever eaten at Panera Bread, you'll usually see people staring at the menu on the wall for a few minutes. Their menu is huge and all over t…

great analogy. and just like with food, anyone who has a clue about what they are ordering, will never enter an apple store.

My job is assembling special purpose, high performance storage servers with specially tuned OS. But I wouldn't buy any other laptop than an Apple at the moment.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#170
post #2

There's a story that I've heard told about Tim Cook numerous times. I can't remember the original source (there's a reference here: http://www.cultofmac.com/who-is-apples-new-ceo-tim-cook-bio/... ), but I think it basically sums up Tim: > When in a meeting discussing a problem in China, Tim Cook noted that the problem was “really bad” and that someone should be in China fixing it. Thirty minutes later, Cook then famo…

I really don't understand the story. Why can't they just call someone in China, that is smart enough to understand what needs to be done? Seems like really bad management to fly around the world, hunting bugs.
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