Apple Is Flailing Badly At The Edges
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
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?
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.
This statement may be technically true, but I highly doubt it's true among the writers and commentators like Arrington that we hear so much about the iPhone from.
In fact, most of the people I know who have iPhones are early adopter types. People like my mom -- a prototypical AOL user -- wouldn't have a clue as to what to do with an iPhone.
Arrington's willingness to put up with the bugs, flaws, and "draconian" babysitter policies is a less a statement about Apple as it as about the rest of the smartphone marketplace, which frankly stinks.
The BB Bold vs. iPhone 3G is pretty telling - the Bold was announced a month before the 3G iphone, but is only to be released a few weeks from now. Meanwhile, Apple went ahead and released their product with piss poor battery life and according to many users, unstable software, often unresponsive UI etc. When the Bold comes out it won't have these problems.
iPhone users have made a pretty clear choice: looks above ALL else.
> "statement about Apple as it as about the rest of the smartphone marketplace, which frankly stinks."
I'd really love to see you try and back that statement up
Now, if depended on your smartphone to get stuff done, you'd be scratching your head over the iPhone. It may have eye candy, but what about the features, reliability or stability that you'd actually need? I don't think the HN crowd appreciates how many people out there can do 80% of their job with just a BlackBerry. I didn't understand what the big deal around the BB is until I actually used it in such a scenario for a bit, and I know using the iPhone like that would be a no-go.
Really, the bold and the iphone are competing in different markets though.
I was very happy with the iPhone, far more than the Treo. I haven't noticed dropped calls, lost apps, or, really, much of anything significant. The interface seems sluggish at times, but overall it's a net win for me.
How about a Blackberry, Treo, or anything else with a physical keyboard?
As far as typing goes, my iPhone is just comical. It is not even responsive enough to register all keypresses, let alone get them correctly.
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 $100/year.
Not quite sure what kind of problems people are having with MobileMe but as long as I keep getting free extensions from Apple I guess they should keep complaining.
Wait...what? You realize that there could be many reasons for that - and many solutions.
Follow that up with his 'high end' black Macbook had a problem...wait just because you pay 200$ more for a different colour doesn't make the laptop high end.
Yes, quite an 'expert' able to judge how a company is doing by his folly with devices.
What's wrong with fraying? It would have worked better anyway.
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?
(And FWIW, the Thinkpad has won a lot of design awards. The matte-black box is beautiful and durable. The Macbook feels like a cheap toy in comparison.)
Finally, Asus' eeepc is also a beautiful computer.
I'd be much more impressed with them leading something comparable to the IQS JD Power does for cars. It's kinda sad that nothing like that exists.
One was being used as a proxy for the other here. Apple products could be somewhat unreliable yet still score high in overall satisfaction, apparently even given the methodology they used.
Also, since it specifically mentions that the 3g iPhone is not included, that probably means that the older version and iPods are. Is it fair to rate Apple against HP when most Apple customers have used only their portable media players? Do HP's printers count in this?
Is this a new word meaning "unable to make an exception for"?
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.