So, anyone else getting scared of Apple?

[Aegelward]

So, maybe it's just the fanboys giving me creeps, although old man Steve is finally becoming the evil genius he so desired as a kid.

How fanboys manically laugh with glee when they fantasise about apple dismembering their rivals, the feeling of abandoment that i, a primary user of macs feel, the evolution of OS X away from being a computer OS into being a fancier version of iOS for desktops.

Sure we grumbled about flash, but since steve blurted out his dislike the legions of fans now march against adobe to wipe it out, which is a pity, for it's flaws as a web(site) technology, it's a great technology for animation, and it's still the best container for video.

I don't know about you guys, but i'm starting to consider not going for a mac when i shop for my next machine.

Which is a pity, Apple make beautiful machines, a great balance of hardware design, and the intergration of software that other manufacterurs envy.

Heck if i was to build a computer company, i'd design them the apple way.

Apple were a great small company, but a terrifying big one.

 

[garybUK]

They (Apple) have become everything they used to stand against.

 

[maflynn]

They (Apple) have become everything they used to stand against.

Back when apple was the scrappy under dog, they railed against the establishment, were vocal against the anticompetitve behavior of MS and was marketing their products to think different.

today they'll sue you in a moments notice if you use the word pod, even if its its usage is for a non-electronic product/marketing. They strong arm suppliers, content providers and sue people left and right.

Yeah, apple is the establishment.

With that said, I'm not "scared" of apple, if they have a product I don't like, then I'll not buy it. I'm not married to the corporation and to be honest, I'll not use them if there's a better product.

For the time being, they have great phones, great computers, a great OS and some decent apps.

 

[ucfgrad93]

I'm not "scared" of apple, if they have a product I don't like, then I'll not buy it. I'm not married to the corporation and to be honest, I'll not use them if there's a better product.

For the time being, they have great phones, great computers, a great OS and some decent apps.

Agreed.

 

[aristobrat]

With that said, I'm not "scared" of apple, if they have a product I don't like, then I'll not buy it. I'm not married to the corporation and to be honest, I'll not use them if there's a better product.

For the time being, they have great phones, great computers, a great OS and some decent apps.

x2

If there's any company I'm getting scared of, it's Google, and how they keep launching services that people flock to, giving Google access to more and more of their private data.

 

[eawmp1]

Nice hyperbole. Are you buying a computer or trying to make a social statement?

Apple make beautiful machines, a great balance of hardware design, and the intergration of software that other manufacterurs envy.

- THIS is the reason to buy or not buy Apple products.

There is more than enough competition in this free market society.

And "fanboys" (read: zealots) of ANYTHING are scary, but they are the extreme tail of the parabolic distribution of Apple promoters/detractors.

Worry about something truly intrusive...like Google.

 

[Melrose]

Agreed.

Agreed * 2. I don't buy Apple products because of Steve or the logo. I buy it because it works very, very reliably and consistently. The Apple logo has simply become for me a symbol of quality. I put more faith in their products based on my own experience. It doesn't means I go buy something for which I have absolutely no use. Ergo, no I am not afraid of the company; and for the most part I fully support closed systems and their corporate policy because I understand it leads to a higher quality experience for me as a user.

 

[fcortese]

x2

If there's any company I'm getting scared of, it's Google, and how they keep launching services that people flock to, giving Google access to more and more of their private data.

Yep, Google is getting a little to far-reaching.

 

[kernkraft]

I understand that large corporations have power and opportunities and they naturally abuse them from time to time. But Apple is certainly taking their position as far as they can. I also think that Jobs often makes unnecessarily foolish or aggressive remarks about the competition and these will haunt him and Apple Inc later. Nobody likes a bully and nobody can stay on top for very long.

But what I find one of the most annoying element of them is to have the illusion of quality, while the reality is something completely different. I miss powerful computing from Apple at a reasonable price. Currently, their power users are just pushed to their limit. Even with basic MBPs and iMacs, you really have to pay a premium for average speed and specs. That's just not sustainable. The novelty shine will wear off sometimes and people will either want exceptional quality or better prices. In terms of quality, my unibodies are not that great, apart from the case. I wouldn't expect faulty graphics and constant whines from a premium computer.

 

[Melrose]

If there's any company I'm getting scared of, it's Google, and how they keep launching services that people flock to, giving Google access to more and more of their private data.

It is scary what Google knows. Far too much information for one entity. I'm uneasy about them as it is, and I have nothing to hide.

 

[SlovakApple]

Yeah, me too. That's why I do not have a gmail account. Too much information in the hands of one company. I can imagine they could stand at the beginnig of a dystopian totalitarian regime. Regarding Apple, I do not have this feeling. Those are only "hardware" which can be used "offline".

 

[roadbloc]

Whatever have I to be afraid of? Steve hiding poison gas in my iPhone and mac to be released when he decides the time is right to take over the world?

As the posters above, I'm concerned about google.

 

[netdog]

Well it is almost Halloween.

 

[darkplanets]

Some people are ridiculous.

Apple's a company; has and always will be. 1984 was nothing more than a marketing ploy, a good one at that. In the end, money matters. As per the integration of iOS--I love how people see this shift as something negative, as if progressing technology wise is bad, yet its really just a paradigm shift away from traditional thought towards personal desktop computing and operating systems. This change will be no different from OS9->X, only perhaps less jarring since it's feature set is creeping into the frame, not abruptly being forced there.

 

[S.B.G]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

I'm not scared of Apple. What would I have to be afraid of? Google on the other hand does concern me a bit. I do have a gmail account and I purge it every month; I don't archive all my email forever, I dont have the need to. This way Google can't use tons of my email data to send marketing ads or other things my way. I'm sure they can do that with very little data, but they won't be able to establish long term patterns with me.

 

[Apple OC]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

I'm not scared of Apple. What would I have to be afraid of? Google on the other hand does concern me a bit. I do have a gmail account and I purge it every month; I don't archive all my email forever, I dint have the need to. This way Google can't use tons of my email data to send marketing ads or other things my way. I'm sure they can do that with very little data, but they won't be able to establish long term patterns with me.

I totally agree with this response ... Google is a bad Apple.

I run Little Snitch on my Mac ... everyday Google is trying to get my Mac to hook onto their servers. I always deny them as I have No use for Google.

Google can not be trusted nor can Facebook ... 2 very scary Spam machines looking to own your personal info.

 

[bruinsrme]

Google worries people. My bank and credit card companies worry far more than apple or google combined.
Apply for a mortgage lately. How much more personal data does one need to divulge? What happens to your mortgage and information when it is sold to a different lender that more than likely doesn't have the strict privacy policy as the original bank.
Google can buy your information, poll public (key word public) records anytime.

 

[KnightWRX]

This change will be no different from OS9->X, only perhaps less jarring since it's feature set is creeping into the frame, not abruptly being forced there.

Uh, OS9->X did not remove any features. iOS is dumbed down to run on ressource limited devices, bringing it to OS X brings the dumbing down.

It's akin to X->OS9 actually.

If it gets too limiting, I'll be going back to Linux, plain and simple. Others might not be so lucky as to have a fallback.

 

[chrono1081]

So, maybe it's just the fanboys giving me creeps, although old man Steve is finally becoming the evil genius he so desired as a kid.

How fanboys manically laugh with glee when they fantasise about apple dismembering their rivals, the feeling of abandoment that i, a primary user of macs feel, the evolution of OS X away from being a computer OS into being a fancier version of iOS for desktops.

No offense but that is completely in your head. I have never once ever seen someone I consider an Apple fanboy, but I do see a ton of people speculating what "apple fanboys" say. I'm not necessarily pointing you out but look at the comments in Gizmodo and Engadget posts regarding Apple you will see what I mean.

Sure we grumbled about flash, but since steve blurted out his dislike the legions of fans now march against adobe to wipe it out, which is a pity, for it's flaws as a web(site) technology, it's a great technology for animation, and it's still the best container for video.

Flash is old and not very good. There are many better options. Steve Jobs isn't the only one who hates flash. MS and Google do too and its been talked about before. (Hence MS bringing out Silverlight). Steve Jobs is definitely more vocal about it but when MS and Apple both get crash reports of their browsers stating that Flash is the culprit they tend to start to not like flash. People don't see flash as the culprit, they only see Safari or Internet Explorer crashed. Flash had its shot, its time to go. Adobe stopped improving it when they bought out Macromedia which was their only competition.

I don't know about you guys, but i'm starting to consider not going for a mac when i shop for my next machine..

All because Apple doesn't like flash??? You should be more worried about companies like Sony that slips unremovable DRM rootkits into things (such as their CDs several years back).

 

[chrono1081]

Google worries people. My bank and credit card companies worry far more than apple or google combined.
Apply for a mortgage lately. How much more personal data does one need to divulge? .

Agreed! I filled out a form for a credit check for an apartment recently and they wanted my bank account numbers! Its a legit rental company but geeze.

 

[Gaelic2]

Agreed * 2. I don't buy Apple products because of Steve or the logo. I buy it because it works very, very reliably and consistently. The Apple logo has simply become for me a symbol of quality. I put more faith in their products based on my own experience. It doesn't means I go buy something for which I have absolutely no use. Ergo, no I am not afraid of the company; and for the most part I fully support closed systems and their corporate policy because I understand it leads to a higher quality experience for me as a user.

I agree wholeheartedly. Apple products are tools. not a way of life! I buy quality and find it is less expensive in the long run, and, I have a better experience. That could be a computer, a car or a freezer. Some people need to get a life that is their own!

 

[UTclassof89]

I agree with every one of the OP's points, except the 'terrifying' part.

I just feel saddened that Apple seems to have abandoned the creative power users in favor of low-powered (high profits) iToys.

If I was a shareholder I'd love it, but as a long time customer, I hate it. And to my own amazement, no longer think "I'm a PC" is unimaginable.

 

[maflynn]

I just feel saddened that Apple seems to have abandoned the creative power users in favor of low-powered (high profits) iToys.

I agree, but apple to remain profitable needed to look for other revenue sources, and they have successfully designed, marketed a number of iToys for just that purpose.

 

[*LTD*]

LOL at the OP.

Apple is successful. That's all. The point of any business is to grow it and push out your rivals. The ideal situation is to become the sole supplier (if not the biggest) of an important or popular commodity, not remain the "underdog." Regulations exist to keep this in check, but growth upon more growth is what's desirable, especially when it's done on the sheer strength and desirability of what you offer, which characterizes Apple in spades.

Please GTFO with these "I'm scared of Apple" threads. I'm seeing more and more of them from the perpetually out of touch geek contingent on Macrumors and other little Apple fansites. Your collective voice is about as meaningful as your now defunct claim that hackintosh users constituted a "movement" of some kind, that Apple won't sell Macs in a recession, that Apple needs to make a headless tower Mac, and that Psystar were champions of freedom or whatever.

Get real. Apple is making better products now than they ever had, in more areas of tech than ever before. That is a GOOD thing. And all these Apple products have redefined or created new markets that have pushed others to innovate: Google, Microsoft, everyone.

Your lovely "open" Android phone exists in its current form today thanks to Apple's "iToys." Eric T. Mole made pretty good notes. And Monkey-Boy is finally giving users a phone that *might* be worth having (even if it *is* a poor iPhone copy.) So the next time you use "iToys" as a term of derision, just keep in mind how furiously the rest of the industry is trying to copy "crazy", "evil genius" Steve Jobs.

 

[KnightWRX]

No offense but that is completely in your head. I have never once ever seen someone I consider an Apple fanboy,

You must have had *LTD* on ignore since he joined or something.

I've actually worked with one *LTD* type guy. They exist. Heck, just reading MR you can see a few in action.