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But yes, having the #1 selling phone means they are right and shouldn't mess with it...
so by that logic, they should never release any more software or hardware updates. OK.
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Why is apple opposed to simple customizability?
- Thread starter Italianblend
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so by that logic, they should never release any more software or hardware updates. OK.
There's a lot of garbage answers in this thread. Uniformed design, ease of use, blah blah blah blah blah.
Apple makes the OS, and they make the hardware, but when I drop $400 down, the phone belongs to ME. If i wanna bedazzle it and glue glitter and beads to the back of the glass, its MY phone. If someone wants to make their phone the Hello Kitty image you were toting around, who are you to tell them what looks good and what doesn't? Design is subjective, art is subjective. You cant argue that one uniform design appeals to every single person, because it never can and it never will. We should be able to make our phones look however we want, because at the end of the day, its our phone. The Facebook / Myspace arguments are irrelevant also, because you don't pay to use those.
Apple makes the OS, and they make the hardware, but when I drop $400 down, the phone belongs to ME. If i wanna bedazzle it and glue glitter and beads to the back of the glass, its MY phone. If someone wants to make their phone the Hello Kitty image you were toting around, who are you to tell them what looks good and what doesn't? Design is subjective, art is subjective. You cant argue that one uniform design appeals to every single person, because it never can and it never will. We should be able to make our phones look however we want, because at the end of the day, its our phone. The Facebook / Myspace arguments are irrelevant also, because you don't pay to use those.
The real reason is because Steve Jobs was a psychotic control freak.
Someone in this thread said that apple doesnt want people customizing things because they suck at design, hence why myspace died and facebook thrived. True and false. True because most people do suck at design, and true because myspace members made their pages so ridiculously cluttered with emo crap that they ditched... i know i did, i couldnt stand the horrible layout or the infestation by emos (did they stay there? facebook doesnt seem to be overrun by them).
But thats not entirely the true because, seeing how obsessed steve jobs with locking down to users and not letting them operate a device beyond what he dictated, he could have easily allowed SOME customization.
Which is why Android is the superior mobile OS and it doesnt require a tech geek to operate it, its still as easy as iOS.
Someone in this thread said that apple doesnt want people customizing things because they suck at design, hence why myspace died and facebook thrived. True and false. True because most people do suck at design, and true because myspace members made their pages so ridiculously cluttered with emo crap that they ditched... i know i did, i couldnt stand the horrible layout or the infestation by emos (did they stay there? facebook doesnt seem to be overrun by them).
But thats not entirely the true because, seeing how obsessed steve jobs with locking down to users and not letting them operate a device beyond what he dictated, he could have easily allowed SOME customization.
Which is why Android is the superior mobile OS and it doesnt require a tech geek to operate it, its still as easy as iOS.
I am a HUGE Hello Kitty fan! May I ask where you got this theme from because I would like to use it myself?
Thanks!
ummm I just searched "Hello Kitty iOS theme" in google.
P.s please don't do this to your phone
Actually, I do think there's a likely chance that the iPhone has been so successful because of the lack of customizability. It's allowed Apple to offer a consistent, intuitive, reliable end-user experience. A user experience that can be shown by an iPhone owner to a non-owner and make that non-owner say "Wow! I want one!" As opposed to the non-owner seeing the Hello Kitty theme and saying "Eww, I'd never want to use a phone like that," or watching the owner deal with an unreliable jailbreak module causing crashes.
Plus, its a disincentive for the carriers to load up the phone with crappy bloated adware. I like the fact that the extent of AT&T's visual impact on my phone is limited to the little carrier indicator in the corner. (I just wish they also had no impact on how I used the data I pay for - ie, tethering and cellular FaceTime.
)
Having the ability to put the things I use/need most all in one place is not meaningless, it's very useful indeed.
Part of the Apple design philosophy is to keep things simple. Adding customization like fonts and colors is contrary to that design philosophy. The billions of dollars cash they have in the bank would tend to agree that this works for them.
If you want pretty colors and fonts, then there's plenty of options for you. You can get an Android phone, or jailbreak your IOS phone.
If you want pretty colors and fonts, then there's plenty of options for you. You can get an Android phone, or jailbreak your IOS phone.
I think being able to customize things are top reasons for jailbreaking (SBsettings) and just plain switching to android (widgets etc).
Early in iOS 5 apple actually had a public way to create a shortcut to a deep settings menu item like bluetooth or wifi and tons of others. I LOVED just having this little ability to get to things and they TOOK THAT AWAY. I hated them for taking that away and it made me realize they just aren't ever going to let you customize the thing at all ever.
Now a much happier user of an android phone but also eagerly awaiting my ipad update.
Early in iOS 5 apple actually had a public way to create a shortcut to a deep settings menu item like bluetooth or wifi and tons of others. I LOVED just having this little ability to get to things and they TOOK THAT AWAY. I hated them for taking that away and it made me realize they just aren't ever going to let you customize the thing at all ever.
Now a much happier user of an android phone but also eagerly awaiting my ipad update.
I suppose it was predictable that this thread would devolve to the point that it has... but I'll try to state my case again in a shorter post, so perhaps people will actually read it.
Customizability adds to the costs of doing business... both in terms of development and testing costs and (more significantly) in terms of support costs. The development and testing costs don't get any larger with the size of the installed base, but the support costs do. When your user base is 400 million devices and growing, EVERY LITTLE BIT of extra cost per unit becomes a LARGE cost to the bottom line.
So, for each request to add customizability, the math has to be done: how much is this going to gain us in incremental sales and profits vs. the incremental additional cost burden.
Just because Apple has $100 billion+ in the bank account doesn't mean they can ignore those basic facts of prudent product management. A focus on those issues is part of how they have amassed that fortune to begin with.
Customizability adds to the costs of doing business... both in terms of development and testing costs and (more significantly) in terms of support costs. The development and testing costs don't get any larger with the size of the installed base, but the support costs do. When your user base is 400 million devices and growing, EVERY LITTLE BIT of extra cost per unit becomes a LARGE cost to the bottom line.
So, for each request to add customizability, the math has to be done: how much is this going to gain us in incremental sales and profits vs. the incremental additional cost burden.
Just because Apple has $100 billion+ in the bank account doesn't mean they can ignore those basic facts of prudent product management. A focus on those issues is part of how they have amassed that fortune to begin with.
It's called brainwashing. Bible comes in black, Apple is already going beyond that and offering in white.
Apple takes the script from religion and have basically created a new religion in the digital world.