I use an iPhone, but my desktop is an oldie running Win98, and my laptop is 5 years old, running on Vista. I'm apparently the only person in the universe who finds Vista to be an entirely satisfactory operating system. No complaint whatsoever.
So I'm a PC guy. But over the past few years, I've bought four or five iPhones and a half-dozen iPads as family gifts. I have been really impressed by the quality and stability of these Apple devices. Before, I always thought of them as hippy dippy expensive gadgets. So when the last of this laptop's four USB ports gets wiggly, it will probably be replaced by a Mac.
In this thread, a handful of DUmmies shower hate on Apple due to one of their main motivators, envy. It's a sign of the 0conomy - during rthe Great Bush Prosperity it would have been blasphemy for a DUmpmonkey to criticize Apple.
Fri Mar 15, 2013, 07:05 PM
cthulu2016 (7,445 posts)
Apple: The Ironic Conservative
Whenever I hear about how Apple doesn't have problems with viruses and mal-ware I am reminded of the Taliban bragging about how there was no street crime in Kabul.
Yes, it is possible to eliminate street crime by having a sufficiently closed society. Who ever doubted it?
And it is possible to eliminate certain computer related problems by having absolute control over all software and all hardware.
It is also possible to establish monopolistic pricing. It is possible to make people buy a magic head-phone jack that doesn't fit anything else in the world because... y'know... you can't be too careful. Wouldn't want some nasty plebeian headphone from the dollar store to fit.
I see it as a basic preference issue. If you have all the money in the world and are not likely to ever want anything unusual then Apple offers a safe, directed experience.
That represents value, depending on what one wants.
Or you might want cheaper and more flexible and more open-ended going forward.
That also represents value, depending on what someone wants.
What is funny, though, is that Apple is marketed as the cool thing for happening hipsters.
It's just about the least cool thing in the world. It's like people who still got their long distance from AT&T in 1995 (at double the price of anyone else) because... well, it's AT&T... can't go wrong with AT&T.
Apple should be for OLDER PEOPLE. Works out of the box as a directed experience. If you need a part it tells you the specific part # you need and where to get it. You go to the Apple Store and friendly people help you find the on button.
I get why Apple is popular. Apple offers a range of good products.
But why is Apple "cool"? That's what I don't get. The world's largest corporation tends not to be the standard of "cool." (Look at those squares lining up at Sunoco. I'd hang myself before I got gas at Sunoco. It's Exxon-Mobil for me, baby, cause that's just how I roll.)
My guess is that because it is expensive, it is socially exclusive.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022514724Fri Mar 15, 2013, 07:08 PM
onehandle (34,259 posts)
1. The grandmother I saw at an Apple store getting an iPad was quite the 'happening hipster.'
She had never been able to get the hang of computers, but took to the iPad immediately.
I bet she thought she was so 'cool.'
Apple markets to everyone.
Fri Mar 15, 2013, 07:17 PM
onehandle (34,259 posts)
10. I'm tech oriented. It's my job. I use Apple because I like getting things done.
I have PCs and a Linux machine as well, but they are for testing.
Apple's bulletproof OS and security makes for higher productiveness.
Fri Mar 15, 2013, 07:16 PM
Lionessa (3,758 posts)
8. Your example actually proves the OPs point. Wealthy and computer ignorant???
Buy an Apple.
Fri Mar 15, 2013, 07:10 PM
gateley (61,022 posts)
3. I don't have all the money in the world and I'll be 60 this month, hardly a hipster.
I'm fairly tech savvy and had PCs for years. When I got my first Apple my tech people at work were telling me that they'd come over and help me "transition" to Apple. The Apple Store offered a class for those taking the leap. I was almost dreading my decision, but when I got it home, plugged it in, it was the most user-friendly system I'd ever encountered.
Fri Mar 15, 2013, 07:19 PM
Lionessa (3,758 posts)
11. So how much do you tweak your system?
I found I couldn't tweak a Mac, but I can Windows. Maybe by the time you got your apple product you had lost interest in tweaking, or never were interested???
DUmmy Lionessa is a tweaker, you can tell from her teeth.
She's also a twerker.
