Apple in the UK... what the hell is going on?

[iGav]

PS: I'm not being over dramatic when I say that people haven't heard of Apple. A lot didn't know who they were and even more thought they only made iPods. So really, that shows how 'bad' things are.

Of course you were being melodramatic with a comment like...

Also, as I've said there is so little advertising in the UK for Apple, that no-one has even heard of them.

 

[MillieWales]

Wasn't Apple recently voted one of the most recognised brands in the World? People in the UK may not be able to name all the products in the range, and may think the iPod is now the only product, but most people know Apple make/made computers.

And yes, apparantly Apple has been dieing for years, so no change there either. I do agree that it has been very quiet, but once they have released the new ranges - it looks like most of their 'kit' will be replaced within the next year - we will all stop worrying for another 6 months.

I don't see how Apple can be worse off now and more at risk considering they have more money in the bank than ever before and are debt free. And the market share may be smaller than ever, but that number is a precentage, so it's a lower percentage of a larger number of computers. You work it out.

Marc

 

[iGav]

All this bull**** that Apple spends millions of dollars on R&D is false. They may do for their OS (and damn its good), but for the hardware it is so like regular PC stuff with a different case it's unbelivable.

Can you imagine the amount of design work (from both an aesthetic and engineering view) that goes into a product like say... the iMac, or the Blue and White G3 (and G4 case), Cube G4, Titanium G4, iMac G4 and the G5?... these are not conventional examples of design and engineering.

Especially the Cube (fanless, convection cooling) or the Titanium PowerBook(1 inch thin, fully featured, magnetic latch that hid from view when open, but on closing emerged from it's recess mm's before it connected with the base), or how about the thermal zones in the new PowerMac G5 with multiple, independently controlled fans for each thermal zone, and the near surgically clean execution of the design on the inside of the case.

Or even (as much as everyone laughed at the time) the new type of printing technique developed for the 'Flower Power' and 'Blue Dalmation' iMacs to attain the desired print quality on a 3D surface.

Or taking a simple, minimal, considered approach for the 'Sleep' light, which indicates that the Mac is not off or on... but sleeping. And how the tempo of the fading brightness of the light ressembles that of the movement of a persons breathing when asleep.

Or how about how Jonathan Ive researched and was influenced by boiled fruit sweets for the colours and textures of the original iMac colours??

Imagine the amount of design work required to make the iMac aesthetically pleasing when a substantial part of it's case was transparent?? Remember the attentional to detail in that iMac and then compare it to every other product that was quickly relaunched with a nasty cheap transparent 'Bondi Effect' plastic, that merely demonstrated the lack of aesthetic consideration for the underlying structure.

Or the iPods way of navigating it's information and the problems involved in solving this... (See 'Creative Review' Jonathan Ive Interview, September, 2003)

For a little bit of insight into how Apple spends some of it's R&D budget, may I suggest you read...

http://www.designmuseum.org/designerex/jonathan-ive/

And if you get chance... or indeed can track down a copy...

'Apple Design - The Work of The Apple Industrial Design Group', Book.

 

[Pandakin]

Apple in the UK does suck. It took them 3 weeks to ship Panther to me and to many other people. Yep and i pre-ordered on time etc ... There needs to be more advertising for their computer systems - more like the bus shelter style adverts about the iPod. That really got Apple noticed. Also we need equal pricing to the USA. Next we need universal syncronised product releases - not hi USA here is the iPod Mini and sorry Europe u will have to wait. Opps at the Apple Reseller where I work partime: 400 people cancelled their order of just pink minis alone.

Oh one more thing: I love Jonathan Ive but I told him to get rid of the chrome on the back of the iPod cos it gets scratched.