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Haters Abound

lilnyc

lilnyc

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 5, 2007
518
0
Why is the media harping on the activation issue as if it means that the iPhone is a failure? They seem so happy to spread the word that "we" are so disappointed. I personally did not have an activation problem, and servers were overwhelmed.

Then you have basic haters. Just last night while out with friends at dinner, an arrogant BB owner dismissed the iPhone for not having push e-mail. He complained, "I want my email immediately. I'm a businessman." Great, the iPhone is not a business phone, so enjoy your freaking BB already. The other girl was disappointed when I could go to her MySpace page, but couldn't play her music because it's in Flash. "That's wack," she said as she typed on her outdated brick HTC which ALSO cannot play Flash and can barely pull up any website.

The other hater is a co-worker tech nerd. While almost everybody flooded my desk yesterday to gawk with envy, he comes up and tells me "I don't want one. Sprint turned them down...blah blah blah." Okay nerd, go find a science project to invent the phone YOU think is perfect. Pshaw.

I am just amazed at the hate because I love my iPhone. There are pitfalls I expected like a slow page load while demonstrating the web for co-workers, and more to come, but whatever. I have absolutely ZERO regrets. No phone is perfect, but this for ME is close enough for MY needs.

And I think some BB owners, while the iPhone is not a BB competitor to my knowledge (2 diff uses), puts some of them off because it's the new popular kid in town.

Sorry to rant.
 
i don't know. sometimes i think people believe apple is some weird company that everyone should be suspicious of because it's just odd to use windows.
 
For those who aren't old enough to have been Mac users in the mid-80s, welcome to it. People will go out of their way to tell you how much they hate the entire concept and declare you a fool right to you face for having bought into it. Then, in a couple of years, when everybody is knocking off the iPhone, those same people will extoll the virtues of their half-baked imitations, and then proclaim you to be arrogant for reminding them that Apple did it first.
 
IJ Reilly said:
For those who aren't old enough to have been Mac users in the mid-80s, welcome to it. People will go out of their way to tell you how much they hate the entire concept and declare you a fool right to you face for having bought into it. Then, in a couple of years, when everybody is knocking off the iPhone, those same people will extoll the virtues of their half-baked imitations, and then proclaim you to be arrogant for reminding them that Apple did it first.
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Well put, that's how I feel. My iPhone might have a few limitations, but i do not use it as a business phone. I use it for checking my basic email, the functionality, looking at the occasional webpage and as a regular phone. I have not had a problem yet (crosses fingers), but as of now, it is perfect for all my needs. Yeah, maybe if I wanted to become a stock broker in the next few years, I'd give it up, but that isn't happening. For now, I'm content and don't regret my purchase at all.
 
IJ Reilly said:
For those who aren't old enough to have been Mac users in the mid-80s, welcome to it. People will go out of their way to tell you how much they hate the entire concept and declare you a fool right to you face for having bought into it. Then, in a couple of years, when everybody is knocking off the iPhone, those same people will extoll the virtues of their half-baked imitations, and then proclaim you to be arrogant for reminding them that Apple did it first.
Click to expand...
Jeez, I could go on and on, but my favorite was mid-to-late 80's where the PC users referred to the Mac as a toy, a lesser machine because it used a GUI. You weren't a real computer-user unless you used a command-line interface. Naturally, they all had to find a different complaint when Windows finally became usable.

Really though...it's all pretty understandable. Apple makes premium niche products at premium prices. Their stuff is not part of the common herd, therefore something to be suspicious of and hate. And the exclusivity of it all because of the higher prices makes it all the more threatening.
 
The immediate response of one of my coworkers upon seeing my phone - "You fell for it?!?" in an incredulous voice as if I had been duped somehow. Later got the inevitable comment that he'll pick one up when they're $50. Also got the story of his "free" RAZR - after he spent $200 on it initially and had to fight for a full year to get the $200 rebate from. (Something about some state's AG threatening charges against the company [don't recall which one - Verizon?] if they didn't give people their rebates?)

Compared to everything else out there I could have gotten - the iPhone rocks and is well worth it. YMMV.
 
Hmac said:
Jeez, I could go on and on, but my favorite was mid-to-late 80's where the PC users referred to the Mac as a toy, a lesser machine because it used a GUI. You weren't a real computer-user unless you used a command-line interface. Naturally, they all had to find a different complaint when Windows finally became usable.
Click to expand...

Exactly. For those of us who were around during this time period, the criticism sounds awfully familiar. I may be letting my enthusiasm get ahead of me, but based on the early signs, the iPhone seems to be shaping to be as revolutionary as the Mac was 20+ years ago.
 
i have a friend who works in the IT department of my old place of work. he is very suspicious of apple. he calls my computer a crapple. he's never used an apple but he assumes it must be odd. he just can't conceive of anything outside his world of windows based products. it's alien to him.
 
Its partly the price (expensive for a phone, yes I know it does more but most people would have only heard about the phone) and its partly the media attention, (its just a phone, some people that may have bought it just won't because of the ridiculous hype that has been created around it.).
 
I remember heated discussions in the mid 90s - particularly a guy laughing at me - for having a Mac (performa 6200, and powerbook 170 at the time) - apple is crap, too expensive, dead, APPLE IS FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW ABOUT COMPUTERS - apple is closing at the end of the year.

I saw the same guy 5 years later, he was wearing an OSX TShirt and talking about how great OSX was going to be.

In a month everybody will be raving at the iphone and want one. Only nerdy windows tech guys will be looking at you from afar, envy in their eyes, hate on their face....
 
cwedl said:
Its partly the price (expensive for a phone, yes I know it does more but most people would have only heard about the phone) and its partly the media attention, (its just a phone, some people that may have bought it just won't because of the ridiculous hype that has been created around it.).
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Bingo. And they probably assume iPhone owners think they're they're envied, so non-iPhone owners want to make it known that they are NOT envious. It's odd though because I simply like cool gadgets. I always had the coolest toys since childhood because they make me happy. I am not trying to show off. This gadget just happens to be super popular right now.

In fact the entire debate last night started when a friend bragged to the BB owner that my iPhone was better. I didn't even initiate the mess.
 
I experienced the haters a little as well- let the haters hate- no biggie.. One of my buddies couldn't believe I actually bought one.. He said he heard nothing but bad things about it.. When I asked what he'd heard he said "you can't get at the battery".. When I reminded him that I've had 2 dozen cell phones in my life, and never once did I actually need to get at the battery he just shook his head and looked at me like I was crazy..LOL.. It reminded me so much of when I finally had enough of MS and decided I was going to switch.. Everyone I told would try to talk me out of it with things like "Dude, don't get an Apple, they suck"- then I would ask why and they would offer up gems like "they don't have a floppy disc drive" (this was at that time when Apple was the first computer to abandon them)..LOL.. When I said I never used that thing even once anyway, they would give me that same look I got when I explained I never needed to get to my cell phones battery either..LOL..

It just comes with the territory of being an Apple user.. Don't let it get you down..
 
ooo, yes, you all live such tortured existences because someone doesn't stroke your ego every five seconds about your choice of computer products. Seriously. Get lives. If you were really appreciative of the product, it wouldn't MATTER to you what other people think.

All part of the apple hype that apple is some kind of "lifestyle choice."

iPhone owners DO think they're envied.

"Comes with the territory?" Please. If you let what someone thinks of your phone or computer get you down enough to whine about it on the internet, never mind that there are hundreds of people who "feel your pain," you need serious therapy.

Yes, I have a mac, but no, I don't feel superior about that.
 
nicoboss said:
Only nerdy windows tech guys will be looking at you from afar, envy in their eyes, hate on their face....
Click to expand...
That was my brother-in-law a few years ago (when Tiger came out). Since then he's seen how I've converted my wife, parents and friends to OS X. I called him on the 29th to ask a question and he says to me, "so ... the iPhone's pretty great.*" I couldn't believe he had bought one since the only other Apple product he owned was an iPod, and let's face it, who doesn't own one? He now wants a MacBook for personal use. If he does that, I think he'll find himself using his Vista machine less and less and the MacBook more and more.

*call quality on the other end is as good as any other phone btw. Although the speaker phone echoed pretty badly.
 
feelthefire said:
"Comes with the territory?" Please. If you let what someone thinks of your phone or computer get you down enough to whine about it on the internet, never mind that there are hundreds of people who "feel your pain," you need serious therapy.

Yes, I have a mac, but no, I don't feel superior about that.
Click to expand...

LOL.. Might want to do something about that anger there tough guy..LOL..

Like I said- people ragging on you for using apple products "comes with the territory".. No biggie, if you're comfortable with that choice just ignore it.. Computers are just tools- for me, Apple products are my tool of choice- others choose something different and they get the job done just as well.. to each his own..
 
Change of heart for Dr. Monkey

After purchasing my Iphone, I went to dinner at a friends house. His first response was "I can think of better ways to waste five hundred dollars and started asking lots of "can it do" questions. He continued to experiment with the iphone for quite some time. The next Morning he drove over an hour to Emeryvilles Apple store to buy an Iphone and has also convinced several of his friends this iphone, which he once bad mouthed, is a must have!! So next time some hater comments on the Iphone just put one in their hands...chances are they will "drink the Cool-aid" once they figure out... it taste good and its good for you! lol:apple: :apple: :apple: :apple: :apple: :apple: :apple:
 
Rocky1r said:
After purchasing my Iphone, I went to dinner at a friends house. His first response was "I can think of better ways to waste five hundred dollars and started asking lots of "can it do" questions. He continued to experiment with the iphone for quite some time. The next Morning he drove over an hour to Emeryvilles Apple store to buy an Iphone and has also convinced several of his friends this iphone, which he once bad mouthed, is a must have!! So next time some hater comments on the Iphone just put one in there hands...chances are they will "drink the Cool-aid" once they figure out... it taste good and its good for you! lol:apple: :apple: :apple: :apple: :apple: :apple: :apple:
Click to expand...

Nice, it's better than serving them with those Alice B. Toklas brownies isn't it? :)
 
Here is how to fix the problem. Use the iPhone for your own enjoyment, don't praide it around, don't talk about it constantly to non mac users, and don't show every person you meet every little feature about the phone.

You are just asking to get ragged on if you do those things.

If someone asks you if that is the new iPhone, just say "Yes it is." Then if they ask you to see how it browses the internet, then by all means let them see, but you don't need to show them all the "cool" things it can do unless they ask you to show them. Just tell them that you like it. There is no need to proclaim your thoughts on how it is the greatest phone ever created, because they will take that as you saying to their face that their phone sucks and that you think you are better than them because you have an iPhone. You may not think that way, but that is how it will be procieved. We tend to live in a society that frowns upon people's happiness.

Hopefully you bought the iPhone for your own enjoyment and not so that you could talk about it to everyone you meet at resturants and at work.

I think the iPhone is a great product, and has amazing potential. Apple makes wonderful products and I love them, but I don't go around trying to convert people into Mac users. I don't care if other people are using a mac. More people using apple products doesn't make my powerbook at home any faster or more enjoyable. Enough people already use macs to sustain Apple as a company who has the means to create more great products like the iPhone.

Just enjoy Apples creativity and be glad that you can share that enjoyment with other mac users on forums like this. Having a humble attitude when they ask you about your iPhone can make a big difference.
 
It's pretty darned pathetic to define yourself by what you hate, but that seems to be a pretty common thread in American culture today. Further, it's completely egocentric to define a product as being "good" or "bad" based exclusively on one's own needs as if you define the entire depth and breadth of the market. :rolleyes:
 
That's been my experience, too. People's opinion of the phone changes a lot when they actually use one. (well, except for the most stubborn Apple haters)

Why do people hate Apple? I think people in IT are always going to prefer systems that ordinary users can't figure out completely. Or systems that routinely require registry key black magic that only the IT types know how to do. For the majority of help desk and network admins out there who live and breath windows, it's a big part of their identity.

I think with the iPhone, it's even broader. So you have all the normal Apple haters (many of which have never even used a Mac). Plus the people who have invested serious time into learning all the tips and tricks of using their treos and WM phones, and so at some level are disappointed to see the rest of us syncing up all our smart playlists and figuring out our phone without a manual in about 2 minutes.

Then you have the people who are stuck in Verizon and Sprint contracts who have to point out every fault in the phone to convince themselves that it's OK they just signed that 2 year agreement to get that subsidized HTC brick. Those are the ones saying "well my company didn't even want your stupid phone."

Plus you have the people who haven't owned the stock over the past few years and would just LOVE to see the stock come back down again so they don't feel so bad for missing out on the iPod phenomenon.

But, like someone else said, don't let it ruin your fun. For every one "why do you use THAT?" that I get when I pull out my MBP, I get 3 or 4 "Cool, I want to get one of those. I hate my Dell." And it's been the same way with the iPhone. As long as it bring a smile to your face when you unlock it, or hear that great song you haven't listened to in a while, or flip through those pictures from last year's vacation, it's money well spent.
 
eddietr said:
Then you have the people who are stuck in Verizon and Sprint contracts who have to point out every fault in the phone to convince themselves that it's OK they just signed that 2 year agreement to get that subsidized HTC brick. Those are the ones saying "well my company didn't even want your stupid phone."
Click to expand...

My HTC "brick" is both lighter and smaller than the iPhone, yet does all the same things and a lot more (3rd party applications, Java, "real internet", IM, GPS) so I really don't think it's fair to say that people are jealous of your iPhone because they have something else that works just as well and has a lot of other things going for it.

This is part of the reason you get hated on...you hate on everything that doesn't have an apple logo. Two way street, my friend.
 
I dunno but my good buddy from medieval Italian history tells me it's better to be feared and hated than be loved by the people.

So bring on the hate, antiphone users! :D :rolleyes: :cool:
 
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