Anyone else see the irony in the past couple of years that Apple has spent relentlessly bashing Microsoft for releasing Vista with so many bugs and holes? In fact, you could really argue that those commercials are to thank for a large part of Apple's current image and success in the market.
Now fast forward to today, Apple has become a company with a much larger user base (like Windows) with a wider variety of customers instead of just photo/video guys (like Windows) who have demands for more diverse and open software (like Windows), which leads them to try and make everyone happy releasing something that pleases all parties (like Windows).
The result? A product release like Vista (actually worse if you ask me). Let's think about where we are: The iPhone 3G has absolutely HORRIFIC battery life out of the box; so much so that even the average working Joe has to turn his brand new iPhone 3G into an iPhone1 to get through the day without charging. We basically have to manually disable all the features we bought the 3G for in the first place (3G, GPS)...and, what's worse, even some features that we came to rely on in the 1G (WiFi and Bluetooth) now must be disabled to prevent a lunchtime recharge. Could they have used a bigger battery? Of course, but that would have made it milimeters thicker and we all know that in Cupertino, Style >>>> Function. Add that to the fact that many Apps, while awesome, are unstable. Much like a Vista machine often crashing when you run an unhappy program, the iPhone now crashes when you piss it off...and I must piss mine off alot. I average about 3-4 hard resets per day when going between applications...and that's not to mention the two times I've actually had to restore my 3G completely because it crashed while installing a program and wouldn't boot up again past the Apple logo...I had to fix it by going into DFU mode and backing up. Or how about the 30 minutes backups we go through everytime we connect to iTunes. And...sweet Lord...don't get me even started on MobileMe. Let's not even mention the HORRIFIC launch that it experienced, but instead we can talk about the blatent lies that Apple sold its customers. It's not "push" and it's certainly not "instantaneous" as they so boldly claimed time after time. And the shameful thing is that they released it to the public knowing its holes leaving it up to their customers to learn on their own that they had been lied to. Was MMe ready for release--hell no. Did they release it? Of course they did.
All this to say that Apple is becoming what they have built their empire on abhoring. As you appeal to a larger audience, you have larger demands, which strain your development and software more than ever, which all sums up to give you an end product that doesn't quite deliver like it should have on paper. I think Apple starting to learn this the hard way and it just seems a bit ironic to me.
Pot. Kettle. Black. Quite honestly, I don't even really blame Apple and I'm honestly not upset with them (in spite of how the above may sound). I'm just soooo sick and tired of Apple taking the narcissistic "holier than thou" approach and trying to build a name by bashing another. I get it. It's hard to develop the iPhone just like it's hard to develop OSX and Vista...but don't insult us by pretending that you're above the crowd. You're not.
Now fast forward to today, Apple has become a company with a much larger user base (like Windows) with a wider variety of customers instead of just photo/video guys (like Windows) who have demands for more diverse and open software (like Windows), which leads them to try and make everyone happy releasing something that pleases all parties (like Windows).
The result? A product release like Vista (actually worse if you ask me). Let's think about where we are: The iPhone 3G has absolutely HORRIFIC battery life out of the box; so much so that even the average working Joe has to turn his brand new iPhone 3G into an iPhone1 to get through the day without charging. We basically have to manually disable all the features we bought the 3G for in the first place (3G, GPS)...and, what's worse, even some features that we came to rely on in the 1G (WiFi and Bluetooth) now must be disabled to prevent a lunchtime recharge. Could they have used a bigger battery? Of course, but that would have made it milimeters thicker and we all know that in Cupertino, Style >>>> Function. Add that to the fact that many Apps, while awesome, are unstable. Much like a Vista machine often crashing when you run an unhappy program, the iPhone now crashes when you piss it off...and I must piss mine off alot. I average about 3-4 hard resets per day when going between applications...and that's not to mention the two times I've actually had to restore my 3G completely because it crashed while installing a program and wouldn't boot up again past the Apple logo...I had to fix it by going into DFU mode and backing up. Or how about the 30 minutes backups we go through everytime we connect to iTunes. And...sweet Lord...don't get me even started on MobileMe. Let's not even mention the HORRIFIC launch that it experienced, but instead we can talk about the blatent lies that Apple sold its customers. It's not "push" and it's certainly not "instantaneous" as they so boldly claimed time after time. And the shameful thing is that they released it to the public knowing its holes leaving it up to their customers to learn on their own that they had been lied to. Was MMe ready for release--hell no. Did they release it? Of course they did.
All this to say that Apple is becoming what they have built their empire on abhoring. As you appeal to a larger audience, you have larger demands, which strain your development and software more than ever, which all sums up to give you an end product that doesn't quite deliver like it should have on paper. I think Apple starting to learn this the hard way and it just seems a bit ironic to me.
Pot. Kettle. Black. Quite honestly, I don't even really blame Apple and I'm honestly not upset with them (in spite of how the above may sound). I'm just soooo sick and tired of Apple taking the narcissistic "holier than thou" approach and trying to build a name by bashing another. I get it. It's hard to develop the iPhone just like it's hard to develop OSX and Vista...but don't insult us by pretending that you're above the crowd. You're not.
