Apple Philosophy of no choice

[MBX]

What is it with Apple and the "one setting for all" philosophy?

Let me give you an example. Just today the final release of Safari 4.0 got out and now the damn tabs are on bottom again. Nowhere to be found in preferences is some kind of switch-box to revert it back to the top. Why? And why introduce a feature you don't believe in at the end anyway? If more people hated it than loved then why do you revert it back while giving the other people who love it no option to go back.

I've been using Safari 4 beta now for so many weeks, loved the new tabs on top style and got really accustomed to it. Now it's back down again and i can't change it the way i prefer it to be.

This isn't the only time apple gives no options. It's either or even though I see absolutely no big deal offering people a little checkbox to adjust it to their needs.

 

[The Reverend]

Apple is not about offering a choices.

Apple is about profit.

It's not about family, or caring about others. Apple is about profit.

When I worked for them. This was an internal policy as well. Choice is not something Apple believes there employees or customers really needs.

Apple shows this in the product lines with very little options for upgrades.

Apple shows this in the employees non-disclosure agreements that all Apple employees have to sign. Apple employees are NOT allowed to have any public voice at all without fearing for their jobs.

Apple is NOT about ART, or People , Or Choices.. it's about Profit.. and profit alone drives every choice; that Apple makes FOR it's employees and it's customers.

Yes, you would think that they might listen to the Beta testers and all the employee feedback and customer complaints. But NO.

Apple is NOT warm and fuzzy.. they are as cold as a sack of pennies and as caring about your or anyones choice as a Panther hunting it's prey.

We are all prey to Apple who is hunting us for our cash.

Your only choice with Apple is to NOT choose to use them.. or give in.

Apple is at War.. for our cash.. they will do whatever they wish. General Jobs is a take no prisoners type of leader.

 

[r.j.s]

Apple is about profit.

As is every publicly-traded company. They have a legal obligation to the shareholders to make as much money as possible. They are motivated by nothing else, and cannot be.

 

[MisterMe]

.... Just today the final release of Safari 4.0 got out and now the damn tabs are on bottom again. Nowhere to be found in preferences is some kind of switch-box to revert it back to the top. Why? And why introduce a feature you don't believe in at the end anyway? If more people hated it than loved then why do you revert it back while giving the other people who love it no option to go back.

...

There are many browsers available to MacOS X. If you don't like Safari 4.0's lack of choice placement of tabs, then you can switch to one of the others that give you the option. None of them do? My bad.

Well, if its really that important to you, then you can always go back to Windows where choice rules the realm. Use any of the Windows browsers that all you to change the placement of your tabs. What? None do? Gee.

 

[iNikon]

Apple is about profit.

It's not about family, or caring about others. Apple is about profit.

Brilliant. A company that wants to turn a profit... I would never have thought.

 

[NATO]

Apple seem to prize simplicity and consistency over user choice in my opinion/experience. If the had a toggle to change the location of tabs in Safari 4 for example, that would be another option in preferences for users to worry about, plus the browser wouldn't look consistent from one Mac to the next.

It's frustrating as a 'power user', but for average users it makes sense.

 

[uberamd]

Apple seem to prize simplicity and consistency over user choice in my opinion/experience. If the had a toggle to change the location of tabs in Safari 4 for example, that would be another option in preferences for users to worry about, plus the browser wouldn't look consistent from one Mac to the next.

It's frustrating as a 'power user', but for average users it makes sense.

Thats what it boils down to, consistency across the board. Apple loves consistency, at least for most of their apps.

As is every publicly-traded company. They have a legal obligation to the shareholders to make as much money as possible. They are motivated by nothing else, and cannot be.

Exactly, its economics.

 

[clevin]

I have no idea why seeking profit is in direct conflict with giving users options.

Unless you are saying that apple's profit depends on the virtual RDF apple created for its users and made them believe they do not need their own opinions.

Well, I actually agree with that. the conflict only exist in apple's RDF, and RDF is the first and foremost reason behind apple's success.

 

[leekohler]

As is every publicly-traded company. They have a legal obligation to the shareholders to make as much money as possible. They are motivated by nothing else, and cannot be.

That no one ever sees anything fundamentally wrong with this philosophy is amazing to me.

 

[liptonlover]

1. Unified look. When you line up a bunch of current macs, they all look the same from case to software. Apple likes that.
2. Unlike you apparently, Apple understands that if one consumer doesn't want something of theirs, like their browser, it's not a big deal. There are other choices, and it's not a life threatening change.
3. Apple doesn't want to be Microsoft. Because Apple does their own similar hardware across the lineup, they can write leaner better faster code. The more choices, the more code, the slower the system. Apple doesn't want that so they avoid it altogether.

Nate

 

[akutad]

Apple is about profit.

It's not about family, or caring about others. Apple is about profit.

When I worked for them. This was an internal policy as well. Choice is not something Apple believes there employees or customers really needs.

Apple shows this in the product lines with very little options for upgrades.

Apple shows this in the employees non-disclosure agreements that all Apple employees have to sign. Apple employees are NOT allowed to have any public voice at all without fearing for their jobs.

Apple is NOT about ART, or People , Or Choices.. it's about Profit.. and profit alone drives every choice; that Apple makes FOR it's employees and it's customers.

Yes, you would think that they might listen to the Beta testers and all the employee feedback and customer complaints. But NO.

Apple is NOT warm and fuzzy.. they are as cold as a sack of pennies and as caring about your or anyones choice as a Panther hunting it's prey.

We are all prey to Apple who is hunting us for our cash.

Your only choice with Apple is to NOT choose to use them.. or give in.

Apple is at War.. for our cash.. they will do whatever they wish. General Jobs is a take no prisoners type of leader.

Relax.... Your confused because you would like apple to be a charity or something. You have the choice by not supporting them. That means not purchasing their products.

 

[themoonisdown09]

I'm also one of the people that got used to the tabs being on top. The fact of the matter is, it was a beta. They put the tabs on top and at the end of it all, realized it was a mistake for some reason or another.

I would like the option to have them on top, but I agree with NATO about Apple prioritizing simplicity and consistency over user choice. That's probably the main reason why there are no themes in OS X.

 

[liptonlover]

Themoonisdown09 you reminded me of something else I was going to add.
Apple doesn't support any of these changes, but if you're
A. technical minded enough you can tweak most things fairly easily, like the opaque menubar before Apple added the choice (so they do give choices sometimes)
B. not technical minded you can still usually find someone online who's posted how to change things. Or you could just at least for now torrent the beta or something. It works fine for me, stable and everything.

 

[windywoo]

That no one ever sees anything fundamentally wrong with this philosophy is amazing to me.

Seconded. Profit is a myth.

 

[MisterMe]

I have no idea why seeking profit is in direct conflict with giving users options.

So you haven't taken an economics course, then? OK. This one is easy: Added options mean increased cost of development. Safari generates no revenue from the customer. Therefore, every cent of increased cost is passed to Apple's bottomline as decreased profit.

Unless you are saying that apple's profit depends on the virtual RDF apple created for its users and made them believe they do not need their own opinions.

No. Apple's profits depends on its ability to generate revenue in excess of its costs.

Well, I actually agree with that. the conflict only exist in apple's RDF, and RDF is the first and foremost reason behind apple's success.

No. The first and foremost reason behind Apple's success is that it produces products that its customers want to buy. You'll learn all about that when you take that economics course.

 

[zap2]

So you haven't taken an economics course, then? OK. This one is easy: Added options mean increased cost of development. Safari generates no revenue from the customer. Therefore, every cent of increased cost is passed to Apple's bottomline as decreased profit.

That would make sense(in regards to Safar)....but Safari Beta 4.0 had the tabs on top, so if Apple was only looking to save money, they would have left it that way.

 

[MisterMe]

That would make sense(in regards to Safar)....but Safari Beta 4.0 had the tabs on top, so if Apple was only looking to save money, they would have left it that way.

That is a very short-sighted view of things. Companies make money by keeping their products desirable. They do market research to see if new features add to their products' desirability. Tabs-on-top in Safari 4.0b was such an experimental feature. If it had worked, then Apple would have been a big winner. The experiment failed. Deal with it.

 

[zap2]

That is a very short-sighted view of things. Companies make money by keeping their products desirable. They do market research to see if new features add to their products' desirability. Tabs-on-top in Safari 4.0b was such an experimental feature. If it had worked, then Apple would have been a big winner. The experiment failed. Deal with it.

My point was Apple doesn't do things just to make a quick buck, they create products that they think look good, and would in fact pay more to get that done(Unibody MacBook Pro), because they know a large group of people like good looking products and will pay for them.

(You don't need to act as if you have all the answers....none of us do.)

 

[geoffreak]

My gut says that it is as simple as a single command line to switch the tabs back. (hopefully)

 

[iNikon]

That no one ever sees anything fundamentally wrong with this philosophy is amazing to me.

Only a socialist liberal would see something wrong with that. I agree with the capitalist philosophy. Capitalism is what drives innovation, and this is why Apple is able to introduce the products it does.

Tell me, what's wrong with that?

 

[leekohler]

Only a socialist liberal would see something wrong with that. I agree with the capitalist philosophy. Capitalism is what drives innovation, and this is why Apple is able to introduce the products it does.

Tell me, what's wrong with that?

Oh please! Drop the "socialist liberal" BS. I'm for people making money, I like it too. But there are obviously other concerns in life and business than profit. If that weren't the case, we wouldn't have child labor laws or companies giving various benefits to employees. Take that chip off your shoulder.

 

[jzuena]

That would make sense(in regards to Safar)....but Safari Beta 4.0 had the tabs on top, so if Apple was only looking to save money, they would have left it that way.

Unless the code to put the tabs on top was the cause for some kind of security issue that the beta had. Then just removing the code would be cheaper (and safer) with a fixed release date approaching. Maybe with more time to work on it, they can add a toggle for it back in for 4.1.

 

[iNikon]

Oh please! Drop the "socialist liberal" BS. I'm for people making money, I like it too. But there are obviously other concerns in life and business than profit. If that weren't the case, we wouldn't have child labor laws or companies giving various benefits to employees. Take that chip off your shoulder.

Sorry man, I've seen enough of your posts to know that you're carrying a lot of baggage. Nobody said anything about ignoring child labor laws or the care of employees. The point was that the primary focus of the business is to turn a profit. This is true of all businesses. It's also true of my business. You're pretensions about 'other concerns in life' is something you brought into the post entirely.

 

[Love]

Yep, that's essentially what they do. IIRC, their name is "Apple, Inc.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

This is software, not hardware, which leads me to believe that sometime in the near future, there will be an option to move the tabs to the top, bottom, left, right, or diagonal.
I realize that Apple is driven by profit, but how is distributing Safari 4 freely making money?