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The New Apple Advantage

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Re: The New Apple Advantage

#271

Post by jarek »

achompas wrote: post #153
dlss wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the reply. It cleared up my misunderstanding -- I think HN readers don't do a good job thinking when it comes to Apple stories. (for those curious here is the breakdown of why pbreit is wrong: 1. The guy I was replying to is by definition an HNer, and was talking about buying an air over a sony SB due to reinstall concerns. My "how odd" was in reply / directly to him. 2. Macs aren't ready to use out of the…

With #2 you're being disingenuous. All computers need some work, but PCs require much more work to uninstall crapware. As for #3, only one of the laptops you listed fits comfortably in my girlfriend's purse. As for the Air's hard drive? She has zero complaints, and I doubt her (or many others) would notice tiny differences in sequential read times (which is, I think, a measure of app-opening performance).

As we're talking about the X220 here, it might be worthwhile to mention that Thinkpads do not ship with crapware. Period.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#272

Post by philwelch »

NaOH wrote: post #69

I understand why it wasn't addressed in Gruber's post, but the customer-facing points he made about online sites and how they compare to the Apple site could just as well have been extended to the retail presence of the various companies. The same design aspects which take place online are also present at the retail level. Step into an Apple Store, and the product differentiation is clear and accessible. Step into a…

Yes, Apple does include a small display card of the basic specs near each machine

They've replaced the cards with iPads. No joke.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#273

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

socratic wrote: post #72
dasil003 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody said Gruber wasn't biased, but he forms cogent arguments. The same can not be said for Apple's consistent detractors who seem to have a real chip on their shoulder and thus end up grasping at straws. Granted there is a lot of valid Apple criticism that you won't get from Daring Fireball, but everyone has their viewpoint. Gruber is far from the worst stuff that shows up on HN.

I am not sure if this is what you meant, but cogent means convincing. 1. Are you convinced that going forward, Apple's most "sustainable advantage" is economies of scale? Do you believe that consumers primarily buy Apple products based on price? 2. Do you believe that building up economies of scale would take Dell or Samsung a "decade"? (These are the primary claims in the conclusion of Gruber's essay.)

1. The economies of scale may not translate to lower prices for the consumer. Consider their mobile offerings. Apple has a tiny portion of the handphone market share, but makes huge profits. They appear to get massive economies of scale.

If you sell a handphone cheaper than the iPhone, you make very little profit and if Apple ever feels threatened, they can just slash their own prices and still make more profit than you. Until then they charge what the market will bear and make huge profits that they reinvest into their business increasing their lead.

2. It's possible. In 2009 Apple purchased all of Samsung's NAND. At the time that was apparently over 40% of the world's NAND.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#274

Post by jarek »

rsynnott wrote: post #253
dlss wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, last reply and then I leave you guys to the fate of irrational happiness paying more for worse hardware. re 2: It takes an hour to reinstall windows. If you swap out the hard drive (so a vertex 3 in a MBP), this is something you have to do with an apple anyway. One hour is not " much more work ". Don't kid yourself. re 3: If the MBA owner does anything CPU intensive they will likely profit by upgrading to the x…

That's the 2010 Macbook Air, which did indeed have a brutally slow Core 2 Duo. It would be more useful to look at the mid-2011 model, which has a processor three generations newer (due to some sort of tedious dispute between Intel and NVidia, there were never embedded NVidia chipsets for Nehalem, so Apple waited until Intel GPUs got good enough, in Sandy Bridge; they never made a Nehalem Air).

Wait, I thought Apple hardware just works and delivers exceptional user experience without concerning the user with "2010" vs "mid-2011" or specifics of which CPU it uses and why.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#275

Post by philwelch »

bignoggins wrote: post #161
blinkingled wrote: post #158

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…

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.

No, even from the standpoint of customers they don't cater to. You can't be all things to all people. You make the products that you can make best, and the products you can't make best, you let other people make. If your needs don't fit what Apple is good at making, then you shouldn't buy an Apple even if they try to make something in your category.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#276

Post by jarek »

sjwright wrote: post #244
rbanffy wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know... You may have a point. Some people may have been spoiled by operating systems like Linux or BSD, where you can look up each and every line of code that comprises the whole software stack, but, in fact, most people don't really care about that. Still, OSX is more open than its main competitor - you can see most of it, but not all. The fact most people don't really care about what they are using is sad, but…

Most people drive their car without knowing how an internal combustion engine works. Most people watch television without knowing that the picture is comprised of pixels (or scan lines). Is that also sad? Must everyone understand everything they use in sufficient detail? Why should a computer be different? Why should my mum need to understand what an operating system is, let alone care about it?

Most engines don't cut out if you do choose to pop the hood open.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#277

Post by jarek »

lwhi wrote: post #234
swombat wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

While I agree with you, I don't think 99.5% of the population owns a mac. There will always be a benefit to being able to choose. I'd rather have to acquire knowledge, and be able to make an informed choice - than have someone else make that decision for me. I know I'm not the only one. EDIT: Okay - so why the down-vote? Commenting on any Apple-centric post, with any comment that can be considered even slightly dispa…

I've come to view downvotes when commenting on a Gruber post on HN as a sign that I'm doing something right. (Disclaimer: this post is a generalization, valid and relevant 80% of the time, but I will make it sound universal anyway. It will not provide good experience for some users, but that's okay.)

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#278

Post by rsynnott »

jarek wrote: post #274
rsynnott wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the 2010 Macbook Air, which did indeed have a brutally slow Core 2 Duo. It would be more useful to look at the mid-2011 model, which has a processor three generations newer (due to some sort of tedious dispute between Intel and NVidia, there were never embedded NVidia chipsets for Nehalem, so Apple waited until Intel GPUs got good enough, in Sandy Bridge; they never made a Nehalem Air).

Wait, I thought Apple hardware just works and delivers exceptional user experience without concerning the user with "2010" vs "mid-2011" or specifics of which CPU it uses and why.

Who's claiming that? For a while, the Macbook Air was in fact a particularly bad choice if you wanted high processor performance (which is a big if; computers are now fast enough that for many users it hardly matters). This is no longer the case. Simple enough.
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