Why is Apple such a great computer company?

[macapple]

Why is Apple such a great computer company?

P.S they should open a Apple Store in Geneva.

[Sun Baked]

They aren't, didn't you hear ...

Apple has stolen all their ideas from Dell and MicroSoft. ;)

It's not hardware or the software, it's getting both to work well together while making it easy -- that's what has been turning Apple around.

[wdlove]

Its also that Apple is a smaller company that allows to to innovate and make changes quickly. A very important feature to the current success if Steve Jobs. It was floundering until his return. The vision has been to make the best computer possible.

[mcadam]

It's not hardware or the software, it's getting both to work well together while making it easy -- that's what has been turning Apple around.

exactly - hardware and software is not only innovative, easy to use and good looking, they also fit seamlesly together...

A

[kgarner]

I think it is becaue Apple understands the difference between Utility and Uasbility. Microsoft just can't quite grasp the difference. Their programs usually offer a high level of utility, but hte usability is second or third rate at best. Apple's products are both highly useful and highly usable. This results in a better user experience and more satisfied customers that become loyal to the brand/company.

[Eevee]

Pre-Intel time: No potential virus! Ease of use :D

Post-Intel time: Potential virus, just another PC :(

[kgarner]

Pre-Intel time: No potential virus! Ease of use :D

Post-Intel time: Potential virus, just another PC :(
More like Pre-Intel: Potential Virus, but none successful.
Post_Intel: Potential Virus, but none successful

Hardware is just hardware. The OS is where the bulk (99.9%) of the insecurities come in. Yes, Intels are a bit more susceptible to buffer overflows and such (or so I've read), but you still have to run some code on the machine to cause it to happen. Nothing is going to change just because Apple moves to Intel. OS X will be secure as it ever was. Besides, most people agree that Apple will not be using current CPUs, but future CPUs that will (hopefully) cleared up any of the old vulnerabilities.

[James Philp]

(Software+Hardware)xDesign = Great User Experience.
(S+H)D=GUE

Apple are the only ones left who do this for "true" consumers

Sorry the maths, am doing finals and am starting to think that way! - I did leave out the radical function like Steve Jobs (SJ), though if i had to guess it would be something like Prsin(wSJ)exp[-SJp) Where w is a frequency, Pr is a profit constant and p is a product type. My guess if that right now sin(wSJ) ~= .99, and has been for a coupla years now (indicating wSJ as a very slow function maybe more like a sinc function, who knows!

[Mr. Durden]

Hmm. Good reasons so far, but I'm going to say... Apple is run by a "rock star" type cool guy, while MS is run by a bunch a geeks and nerds. The lifestyle carries over to the products they make. :D

[JackSYi]

Steve Jobs is the single most important reason why Apple is great. Jonathan Ive is close too.

[weg]

Yes, Intels are a bit more susceptible to buffer overflows and such (or so I've read),

I'm absolutely sure that this is nonsense. Current generation Intels as well as PPCs have xD (execute disable) memory protection, so I don't see any reasons why Intel bytecode would be more vulnerable to buffer overflows.

[mklos]

What makes Apple a great computer company is many things.

You wouldn't believe the amount of thought that goes into anything that Apple makes. Apple takes it time in creating things to an extent. Everything Mac goes down to the last little detail with the design. Every application that Apple makes is designed with newbies in mind (no offense meant to the new Mac or new computer users).

I like Macs because everyday I can turn my iMac G5 on and just use the damn thing. I never have to restart, the finder never crashes, I can use multiple programs at once, I can leave the computer on all day long and have no problems what so ever. I haven't had a kernel panic in well over a year.

I can buy a printer, take it out of the box, plug it in and turn it on and its ready to go. I can buy a CDRW Drive, take it out of the box, plug it in via FW, or USB 2.0 and its all ready to use. No friggin' around with drivers and such.

Overall, its just an all around better user experience. Its sad for the PC heads to think otherwise. Most have never even used a Mac, or used one back in the OS 8 or 9 days, or used a new Mac for 10 minutes and then try to compare that 10 minutes to their whole life in Windows. You can't judge a Mac by 10 minutes of usage. You have to use it for everyday tasks and then you'll get a true Mac experience, and usually, a far better experience than Windows will ever give you.

Macs are expensive for a reason. Its not because Apple just wants to charge $2,999 for the Dual 2.7 GHz PowerMac G5, its because they have to. The design of all Macs are beautiful, nothing like what the PC side has to offer. No where even close. Apple's not about the Dell's of the computer world, meaning Apple isn't about making a very cheap computer. Apple is about good looks, quality, great experience, and most of all, a computer that will last you a good 5 years no questions asked. The Macs of today will be very useful for the next 5+ years, even with the Mac/Intel announcement.

[James Philp]

I can buy a CDRW Drive, take it out of the box, plug it in via FW, or USB 2.0 and its all ready to use. No friggin' around with drivers and such.
I bought a LaCie CDRW D2 Drive recently and DID have to download the drivers to make it work in iTunes etc. It worked with toast at the start, but nothing else.

But the rest of your post was true.
Of course Apple was a great company before any of this, in the days of endlessly fiddling with the extensions in OS 9- not an easy or "newb" thing to do. You may not even know what I'm talking about!

For me it's very simple - they are the only company that manufacture BOTH the hardware and software. They have superlative design in each field that makes the general experience very user-centric and easy. BECAUSE they control the hardware inside, they can make it work seamlessly and stably with the software, giving the user a (generally) crash-free experience.

But your point:
"You wouldn't believe the amount of thought that goes into anything that Apple makes. Apple takes it time in creating things to an extent. Everything Mac goes down to the last little detail with the design."

Is somewhat zealotic. All you have to do is look a www.apple.com to see that problems do exist with designs/models. (Look at the bottom, under the 1-800-MY-APPLE). Sure they mess up and occasionally have to cover their ass, but that doesn't stop them still delivering the most seamless, easy computer experience around.

[DJC17]

What makes Apple a great computer company?

1. Design design design. The latest range of Apple computers are design masterpieces. From the Mac mini to the iMac / PowerMac. The notebooks are very classy, elegant and simple - very minimalist and I love that. The elegant design flows through to the accessories, the iPod, the Airport base station, keyboards, screens.. all so nice.

2. Mac OS X.

3. Apples, to me, have always had a great amount of "coolness". Mainly because they are a little bit different, are generally used by 'cool' people <- graphic designers, publishers, media people, advertising, video editing (all cool jobs). They look cool, they run cool software and they are owned by cool people.


You see a guy in a University library with a wintel notebook, and he'll likely (not always) look like a bit of a nerd. Now look at the guys with iBooks and PowerBooks. Notice how they just look much cooler, even if you took the Apple away!

[aussie_geek]

Apple's just work. There are at least 2 of my mates re-installing Windows or some other critical system maintenance every month on their PC.

In 15 years, I have not had any major problems with my Apple hardware or software except from a hard drive go belly up. That pretty much says it all.


aussie_geek

[macapple]

Thanks but how about the geneva apple store

[Dont Hurt Me]

Apple looks at things and ask's how can we make this better? Thats the heart of it. Microsoft doesnt do this. Heck i would bet one of Apple's biggest "testers" is Jobs. Macs are quality starting from the outside all the way to the inner workings of software. My old Quicksilver was built with more attention to detail then most Pc's today. Attention to detail says it all.

[supergod]

Because you touch yourself at night.

[wiseguy27]

Yes, Intels are a bit more susceptible to buffer overflows and such (or so I've read),

I'm absolutely sure that this is nonsense. Current generation Intels as well as PPCs have xD (execute disable) memory protection, so I don't see any reasons why Intel bytecode would be more vulnerable to buffer overflows.
Execute disable is different from inserting (accidentally or intentionally) a different return address for subroutines through a buffer overflow on the stack. Buffer overflow doesn't have to necessarily mean a malicious attack - it could also occur during normal execution because of programming errors.

I believe kgarner was quoting the following from Apple's developer documentation about the transition to Intel (and about universal binaries) at http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/universal_binary/universal_binary_diffs/chapter_3_section_5.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40002217-CH240-281333

It states:
Calling Conventions

The x86 C-language calling convention (application binary interface, or ABI) specifies that arguments to functions are passed on the stack. The PowerPC ABI specifies that arguments to functions are passed in registers. Also, x86 has far fewer registers, so many local variables use the stack for their storage. Thus, programming errors, or other operations that access past the end of a local variable array or otherwise incorrectly manipulate values on the stack may be more likely to crash applications on x86 systems than on PowerPC.

[mklos]

I bought a LaCie CDRW D2 Drive recently and DID have to download the drivers to make it work in iTunes etc. It worked with toast at the start, but nothing else.

But the rest of your post was true.
Of course Apple was a great company before any of this, in the days of endlessly fiddling with the extensions in OS 9- not an easy or "newb" thing to do. You may not even know what I'm talking about!

For me it's very simple - they are the only company that manufacture BOTH the hardware and software. They have superlative design in each field that makes the general experience very user-centric and easy. BECAUSE they control the hardware inside, they can make it work seamlessly and stably with the software, giving the user a (generally) crash-free experience.

But your point:
"You wouldn't believe the amount of thought that goes into anything that Apple makes. Apple takes it time in creating things to an extent. Everything Mac goes down to the last little detail with the design."

Is somewhat zealotic. All you have to do is look a www.apple.com to see that problems do exist with designs/models. (Look at the bottom, under the 1-800-MY-APPLE). Sure they mess up and occasionally have to cover their ass, but that doesn't stop them still delivering the most seamless, easy computer experience around.

Well I never said that Macs were perfect. Apple can't control a battery manufacturer making ****** batteries all of a sudden. Thats out of Apple's control no matter how long it takes for them to design a product.

[Eniregnat]

I have to say, I like Apple because they work with me. Not only does apple produce good Hardware and Software (I am a professional audio engineer that uses PC's but I really prefer to work on a Mac.). They are rock solid and crash rarely for me.

I am not kidding when I write that, "Apple Works With Me." If I have a gripe, they call back! They call back. When I gave feed back on the human interface elements for those with disabilities I was invited to join the pre-release testing team. When I got pissed that Apple changed the delivery time for my Shuffle with out my knowledge, they called apologized and asked me a bunch of questions. I have never had any problems with Apple Care and I often have had things repaired or upgraded (O.S.) by Apple Care that I didn't ask to be repaired.

I have done in my own computer this time, so I am a little wiggy, but I think that I wil stick with Apple when I get a new laptop.

[Mr. Durden]

Because you touch yourself at night.


I thought that was why puppies die...
:o

[iMeowbot]

Thanks but how about the geneva apple store
You got your own font, isn't that enough? :D

[Sundance Kid]

You got your own font, isn't that enough? :D


OMG, you've made my day. Very witty. I'm actually very impressed.

*snicker*



ps. so funny!