The New Apple Advantage • Hacker News Board

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#221

Post by mgcross » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:12 PM UTC

nohat wrote: post #139

eropple wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having owned an X201, test-driven an X220, and having sold the X201 in favor of the 11" Air, I have to disagree - the X220's screen isn't as nice as the Air's. The backlight on the Air can be made about as dim, but also much brighter, and color seems a decent bit more accurate (though that could be that Windows's color management sucks, while OS X's is pretty good).

Was that the ips display? IPS is used by graphic designers because it has higher contrast and better color fidelity (and viewing angle). Not sure about screen brightness though, and the response time is less.

Agreed, must not have been the IPS he used, while that's what the OP referenced. I've got an 11" MBA, and the display, while better than my EeePC, is certainly inferior to any IPS panel I've ever owned or used.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#222

Post by icebraining » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:33 PM UTC

ecaradec wrote: post #199

The Apple way is to design amazing product, I do own an iphone and an ipad and I really like them. Apple does an incredible job at designing products. But the Apple way is also to not be at conferences or shows but their own, to forbid developers to talk about the OS and to sue others companies using their patents. I really dislike Apple, if there was some other company that could do as amazing phones and tablets as…

There's no such thing as the PC buyer, it's impossible to build a single profile from so many millions of people. Even if his opinion holds true for >80%, there's still a huge market of people who actually care.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#223

Post by lwhi » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:34 PM UTC

dasil003 wrote: post #94

felipemnoa wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Jobs deserves a lot of credit, but there are hundreds (if not thousands) of people doing the critical design work that make Apple products great You could say the same about the car-driver relationship. "The driver deservers a lot of credit but the car has hundreds (if not thousands) of parts doing the critical work of moving the car forward" Or you could substitute parts with designers. Keep in mind that Steve Job…

Those parts are inanimate, they are not making decisions in and of themselves. Even the engineers working on the cars are operating within the unchanging constraints of physics. Also, if Apple fails people would blame Jobs, but if the car suffers a mechanical failure people don't blame the driver. The driver of a race car needs to push the machine to it's limit but not past it or he will flame out spectacularly. Such…

It's a decent analogy .. especially when you consider what happens when the driver has to be replaced ...

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#224

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:41 PM UTC

old-gregg wrote: post #142

Steko wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The two laptops weigh almost exactly the same" Rofl no. "and are the same thickness at the thickest point" If by the same you mean the Mac Book Air is half the thickness of the Lenovo then yes. [edit]It's really hard to take your comment as anything more then a troll when you call other people dim but make basic factual errors like this.[/edit] This is where "configure your own Macbook Air" arguments always end up:…

"Ugly as shit"? I think Lenovo machines in their matte black rubberized cases look gorgeous. It's all about what you've been pre-conditioned to like. I will not buy a laptop with a glass-covered glossy screen. That screen would be useless to me. Also I will not own a laptop without a layout like this: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/03/thinkp... It's called attention to detail and immaculate ergono…

[deleted]

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#225

Post by swombat » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:43 PM UTC

lwhi wrote: post #218

davidedicillo wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry but I can't see where Apple limits your choice... Is that because they don't offer configurations for each component of their computers? Simplicity by definition is something simple. 10 configurations are simpler than 1000.

You are missing my point. Yes, simplicity by definition is something simple. But that's not the issue. I'm talking about the way that simplicity is offered at the expense of freedom of choice. Freedom of choice by definition needs choices. If you have twenty choices vs. two; by definition, the former offers more freedom of choice.

You can have the Model T in any colour so long as it's black.

More seriously, you have all the choices you want - no one is forcing you to buy a Mac. For the 0.5% of the population who want that freedom, it's there, for a price (both financial and in terms of quality, hassle, ease of purchase, etc).

For the other 99.5%, who want the simplicity, it's there too.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#226

Post by swombat » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:46 PM UTC

mkr-hn wrote: post #198

swombat wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about "the overall human population"? That seems like a good constraint when we're talking about consumer electronics.

Do you have evidence that Apple's products appeal to the majority of the human population? And don't do the TC thing and extrapolate from a SV coffee shop/your office. A sentiment poll would do. I'm sure one exists, but I looked around and couldn't find one. It wont help us determine how humans overall perceive Apple products, but it'll at least cover markets where they operate.

Walk in any public place (tube, business lounge, bus, whatever) and look at what people are using... You'll see a lot of macs, iPods, iPhones and iPads. On the laptop side, it's not quite such a clear win, but about 50% of the people in a typical business lounge are using Macs. On the phone side, I'd say it's about the same. On the tablet side, I've yet to see someone actually using something other than an iPad to do work. On the music player side, it's easy to see that again, more than 50% of people listening to music are using an iPod (if they haven't upgraded to the iPhone).

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#227

Post by SamReidHughes » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:50 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #184

I agree with this. What I like about Apple is that they don't try to be low end, and they don't try to sell low end as high end. For years, I avoided buying a Thinkpad because the screens were so shitty. "We're a Chinese manufacturer owned by the Chinese government, so we won't use Korean LCDs." Great. Now I can't see what I'm working on, making your computers completely useless. Apple doesn't pull this shit. They go…

> "it's a Thinkpad, but it has a shitty keyboard and a ...

The "Thinkpad Edge" and the X120e and X1 actually have very nice keyboards, arguably nicer than the usual scissor switches. Except that the layout is messed up.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#228

Post by Artagra » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:53 PM UTC

I think another important factor to remember, is that Apple simply able to spend more on development for each computer they sell. No-one else makes as much profit per machine as Apple does, and no one else sells as many of each SKU as Apple does.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#229

Post by jarek » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:55 PM UTC

Steko wrote: post #134

jarek wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well geez that's a really strong argument in return. "Ugly as shit" is not subjective at all .

Clearly the entirety of my argument. You have delivered internet checkmate tonight sir, bask in the eternal glory.

Thank you sir. May you enjoy the beauty of a black plastic keyboard surrounded by grey aluminium forever. Or at least until Apple unveils the new beautiful look.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#230

Post by Artagra » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:57 PM UTC

padobson wrote: post #212

If you're going to attack Gruber for being an Apple apologist to the point of utter irrationality, then you don't want to attack the substance of this post, but rather its use in supporting his thesis: Apple is the best run business in the world. More specifically to this post: Apple sells laptops better than anyone else. I refute it thus: http://m.techcrunch.com/2011/07/14/apple-continues-slow-but-... Apple is a dis…

You need to remember that Apple decides to avoid certain markets (want a laptop less than $1000? Apple won't sell it to you). Also, sales do not equal profit.

I think Apple is hugely successful, both in terms of selling computers to individuals (Vast majority of Apple sales are above $1000, Apple has a 90% market share of retail PCs sold that are above 90% [1]) And they are hugely profitable [2].

1: http://macdailynews.com/2010/02/01/apple_mac_owns_90_market_... ) 2: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-revenue-vs-o...