Apple Is Flailing Badly At The Edges

Since he doesn't detail the nature of the problems he had with his failing Macs, I can't really say anything definitive. Personally, I've owned 4 Macs over the past few years and the worst failure I've suffered has been a hard drive crash, so maybe he just has bad luck.

I do believe his criticism of MobileMe is warranted though. I'm happy enough to play with it on my free trial but I wouldn't trust its reliability to exclusive use, nor do I want to be locked into an email address at $100/year.

Re: Apple Is Flailing Badly At The Edges

#5

Post by stcredzero » Tue, Aug 19, 2008, 3:57 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #2

Apple is definitely the worst computer company. Except for all the other ones.

Capitalism, Democracy, and Apple?

F/OSS would fit in better with that group. But a few years ago, I decided that I was tired of fixing and tweaking Windows and Linux and said: "Okay, Steve, I'll pony up the cash, just take care of me!"

Then Ubuntu came along! Time to switch again?

Re: Apple Is Flailing Badly At The Edges

#6

Post by alaskamiller » Tue, Aug 19, 2008, 4:02 PM UTC

Within corporate only Apple TV is considered a flop. Mac mini had great demand but not important enough for more focus, the same with MacBook Air.

People also tend to forget or don't know this but Apple only has 26,400 or so employees and it caters to consumer, enterprise, and government/school on a global scale. Dell and HP and IBM are running around with hundreds of thousands of employees. And the size of the company is impacted entirely by the managerial abilities of one Steve Jobs. It's a mixed blessing.

Re: Apple Is Flailing Badly At The Edges

#7

Post by joao » Tue, Aug 19, 2008, 4:05 PM UTC

alaskamiller wrote: post #6

Within corporate only Apple TV is considered a flop. Mac mini had great demand but not important enough for more focus, the same with MacBook Air. People also tend to forget or don't know this but Apple only has 26,400 or so employees and it caters to consumer, enterprise, and government/school on a global scale. Dell and HP and IBM are running around with hundreds of thousands of employees. And the size of the compa…

And more than half of those employees are in retail, not development/business/management/etc.

Re: Apple Is Flailing Badly At The Edges

#8

Post by cstejerean » Tue, Aug 19, 2008, 4:06 PM UTC

kylec wrote: post #4

Since he doesn't detail the nature of the problems he had with his failing Macs, I can't really say anything definitive. Personally, I've owned 4 Macs over the past few years and the worst failure I've suffered has been a hard drive crash, so maybe he just has bad luck. I do believe his criticism of MobileMe is warranted though. I'm happy enough to play with it on my free trial but I wouldn't trust its reliability to…

I signed up for .Mac about 18 months ago and it continued to work well for me even after the transition to MobileMe. I would never use that email address as my primary one, but then again I don't need all my email pushed to my phone. Having GMail forward my important emails to my .Mac account has worked out well. What I really like about MobileMe is that my contacts, calendars and bookmarks are automatically synchronized so I no longer have to worry about docking my iPhone.

Not quite sure what kind of problems people are having with MobileMe but as long as I keep getting free extensions from Apple I guess they should keep complaining.

Re: Apple Is Flailing Badly At The Edges

#9

Post by martythemaniak » Tue, Aug 19, 2008, 4:08 PM UTC

"I love that damn phone, and it will take a lot more than lost apps and dropped calls to get it out of my hands."

As long as stuff like this (and you can see a lot more of it here on HN) is the prevailing wisdom, Apple has little motivation to actually do anything to fix their problems.

The hype around the iPhone is particularly telling - people put up with developer draconian restrictions, they put up with unstable software and poor reception that most other companies would be ashamed to release.

I've had an iPhone for about 3 weeks now, and I still don't get the hype. Have iPhone owners never used a smartphone before? Did they all trade in their Nokia 5110s before buying the iPhone?

Re: Apple Is Flailing Badly At The Edges

#10

Post by stcredzero » Tue, Aug 19, 2008, 4:15 PM UTC

martythemaniak wrote: post #9

"I love that damn phone, and it will take a lot more than lost apps and dropped calls to get it out of my hands." As long as stuff like this (and you can see a lot more of it here on HN) is the prevailing wisdom, Apple has little motivation to actually do anything to fix their problems. The hype around the iPhone is particularly telling - people put up with developer draconian restrictions, they put up with unstable…

Lots of iPhone users never had a smartphone before. You can think of them as the AOL of smartphones. Considering that, maybe the draconian babysitter policies they have over apps make sense.

EDIT - iPhone users I know:

Me - programmer, but no longer an early adopter. Had a Palm V awhile back, but found it annoying to have the additional device. 1st time smartphone user.

Fellow musician - singer, engineering student. 1st time smartphone user.

Veterinarian. Her husband's a Gentoo developer though, and he bought her an iPhone for her birthday.

I also know of two coworkers who are early adopters who also own an iPhone.

So of the 5 people I know, only two are early adopters. Two of them are female, and both of those users prize the iPhone because it's fun to use and it looks nice.