PolarbearTed said:
And here I thought the "mac faithful" was all about support and lauding innovation - it seems some of you are more concerned with being snipy and critical.
No, the Mac faithful (read: zealot) automatically thinks what Apple does is great regardless of what the truth may be. The faithful also makes excuses for any shortcomings in order to rationalize the disadvantages of their dear company (as many have done in this thread). The basher on the other hand does the complete opposite. As always, the unbiased viewpoint lies somewhere in between those extremes.
Steve Jobs, as CEO of Apple, fell through on his words. It's as simple as that. When the CEO cannot be trusted in any other corporation bad things happen. Prior to the recent letdowns, most people believed what he said as the truth, now everything he says needs to be taken with a grain of salt for it might just be hot air. Shareholders, investors, analysts, and many Mac fans lost trust in Steve Jobs today. Many people in the business world stake their wellbeing on words coming from the very head of Apple (or any other corporation) to be truthful and correct. That's the truth.
It is true that the entire burden doesn't fall onto Apple, IBM is also to blame. However, it was incredibly unwise for Jobs to come out and make such a promise when he knew his competitors were having problems with switching to a 0.90 process. He was being cocky.
This update is less than stellar too, if they knew the processors were going to fall through, the least they could have done is put in the effort (for example, through a new logic board with PCIe or a new case with more room for hard and removable drives) to make a competitive product. Instead, Jobs hopes that the glamour surrounding Apple and the lust of the fans will keep the PowerMac afloat. Apple hopes the hype from the initial G5 release will be able to not only justify the ridiculous price for the paltry base options, but also push this revision until the next.
It will be interesting to see how well this revision does, simply because so many here have said they will postpone or even cancel buying a PowerMac at this time. It would certainly show a lack of foresight if anyone decides to buy a computer that so obviously was squeezed out kicking and screaming (by the very fact it was delayed so long and must use new cooling mechanisms). Maybe this is Apple's limit on the hardware front.
But, you're right, we shouldn't be critical we should just take anything they give us with a smile on our faces, because it isn't our money after all. It isn't Apple's responsibility to make products people want to buy. We shouldn't be critical; we should gloss over the flaws and hope no one notices. We shouldn't make Apple know that we, the customers, are not happy and expect better. No, it's all up to us, the fans, to make Apple great and to throw up smoke and awe around Apple. Give me a break.
This time Apple dropped the ball, and now I am very disillusioned. I want to believe, but I would simply be turning away from the truth and just blindly following the big shiny apple. I am beginning to think Apple has decided to focus on the mindnumbing entertainment arena instead of focusing on making cutting edge computers.
