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IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

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Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#31

Post by shimfish »

blhack wrote: post #15

Apple is making the exact same mistake the RIM made. They've gone from targeting hardcore fans, to targeting teenagers. The problem is that teenagers are quick to jump ship to the coolest new thing. Apple has been making "coolest new thing" for a while, but they're getting really popular now, which seems to be inversely proportional to "cool". For RIM, they moved away from targeting hardcore, email-addicted business…

This mistake started when Steve Jobs returned to Apple.

And now they have $80 billion dollars in the bank.

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#32

Post by ripperdoc »

I can sympathize and I feel less content with Apple than I used to. I love their hardware - anyway I always find myself buying a new device rather than upgrading. Apple does great stuff but as other's I'm really worried that they won't fix their awkardness with the web.

But another note - how come no one can throw in a bit of analysis to back up these kind of argument? Otherwise it just seems like typical disillusionment (as products and companies inevitably evolve). As such it doesn't mean anything, it just means one person with a blog decided to use Ubuntu. There is a guy with a blog for every product that has ever changed. Throw in some analysis, and it may make a bigger difference.

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#34

Post by xoail »

shimfish wrote: post #31
blhack wrote: post #15

Apple is making the exact same mistake the RIM made. They've gone from targeting hardcore fans, to targeting teenagers. The problem is that teenagers are quick to jump ship to the coolest new thing. Apple has been making "coolest new thing" for a while, but they're getting really popular now, which seems to be inversely proportional to "cool". For RIM, they moved away from targeting hardcore, email-addicted business…

This mistake started when Steve Jobs returned to Apple. And now they have $80 billion dollars in the bank.

$120B.

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#35

Post by jusben1369 »

blhack wrote: post #15

Apple is making the exact same mistake the RIM made. They've gone from targeting hardcore fans, to targeting teenagers. The problem is that teenagers are quick to jump ship to the coolest new thing. Apple has been making "coolest new thing" for a while, but they're getting really popular now, which seems to be inversely proportional to "cool". For RIM, they moved away from targeting hardcore, email-addicted business…

What happened to RIM is that all they were left with was their hardcore, email-addicted, security minded end users and corporations. But that proved to be a small subset of their overall user base. The majority (me) jumped ship when the iPhone came along. Why? Mobile email was critical to us because we were always on the move. The apps that you could get on the iPhone - whether a 2 hour movie for a plane ride or a flight app that let me understand where my plane was before the gal at the counter did, or maps that let me find a Starbucks near the meeting - more than made up for the slightly less (then) optimal email vs a BB. RIM had to move. They just moved poorly because they couldn't adjust.

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#36

Post by mdonahoe »

derleth wrote: post #7

A serious Mac-head going Ubuntu. I am also surprised, and I've been running Linux since before Ubuntu even existed, back in the before-time when Red Hat was the default distro. But I refuse to be a partisan anymore. I remember when Apple was ... well, remember Mac OS 8? Remember the time before the iMac? Those computers made me wonder how newspapers ever got published. So I'm happy the Mac people have (mostly) usable…

I haven't used Ubuntu in two years. Is it true that there are now ads in it?

Edit: I am referring to this http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/09/22/1319216/ubuntu-will-n...

I haven't seen them first hand, but I was hoping someone might give their opinion here.

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#37

Post by shimfish »

It's simply stunning to me to see how long it's taken the computer geeks to work this out. Apple stopped making toys for you over a decade ago and you are only just realising it now?

I guess this is another consequence of the filter bubble. As all we read on the internet is the opinion of other geeks, we forget that geeks are hopelessly outnumbered by normals and they are the ones Apple is targeting and reaping the rewards.

This was always Steve Jobs vision and it's not like it was a secret.

However, the most ludicrous part of this post is the suggestion that Apple would be best served as a company making servers again and trying its best to grab back that lucrative desktop linux market.

This, in a nutshell, is why Apple was revolutionary. The geeks just simply didn't see normal people and made hardware and software that suited their own needs and behold, it sucked mightily. Apple made the step of putting the normal person first and, shockingly, normal people decided to pay good money for their products.

All of this should be obvious to anyone who reads HN and witnessed Apples meteoric rise. It's a bit disconcerting to discover that apparently it isn't.

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#38

Post by jmpeax »

bpatrianakos wrote: post #13

This sounds more like bandwagon-backlash than the real thing. There's no reasons here. Just a bunch of recycled generic complaints that are pretty trendy to toss around about Apple these days. The next cool thing is hating Apple so all the Apple users will probably write more articles like this and we'll have to read it every day on the front page. Brace yourselves.

It's remarkably easy to spot these types of article early. They always begin with short sentences, and almost always include the sentence "It has been a good run."
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