I am an Apple Fanboy and you should be too
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I spend far more time using tablets, netbooks, laptops and mobile devices than the average person. After years of being a PC user, I have become an unapologetic Apple Fanboy. Below is an overview of why this is the case.
A few things you should keep in mind while reading this:
- I own Apple (AAPL) stock and plan to hold it
- As part of my job I oversee multiple online properties – I spend a lot of time thinking about User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI). My work tends to focus on websites, but the same good principles apply to consumer electronics as well
- In a previous job, I worked on several promotions that heavily involved one of Apple’s divisions
- My wife and are a DINC couple (Dual Income, No Children). Meaning that I can afford the “Apple Tax” (more on what that is below)
Why are Apple Products Better?
Apple wins because it just works (I’ve talked about this before here). We live in a world that gets more wired, with more gadgets every single day. Some people (folks like me) revel in that. For most though, it can be overwhelming. Many people (take my parents for example) have to learn how to use a computer at work and a computer at home (that probably has a different email interface and a different Internet browser). They also have to learn how to use their DVD player, cable/satellite box and cellphone. The last three items being the worst of all because the UI and UX change each time they get a new model, which might be every two years for a lot of people.
It is all about the User Interface and User Experience
Apple helps with this in two ways. First (and perhaps most importantly), the UI and UX are amazing. You can hand an Apple product (iPads are my favourite example) to toddler and they will figure out how to watch videos on it in just a few minutes (if you don’t believe me – try it). How you interact with iOS devices (iPhones, iPads and AppleTV’s) is incredibly intuitive. Want to flip pages in a photo album – you swipe your fingers like turning a page. Want to make something bigger – you expand your fingers. Smaller – pinch them closed instead. Even Apple’s headphones have an intuitive interface. With one button you can choose to: play, stop, skip or fast forward a song, answer a call, ignore a call and even put a call on hold – WITH ONE BUTTON.
Apple’s computers aren’t quite as intuitive; in fact if you are a Windows user, they are a little frustrating for the first week or two. I experienced this myself a few months ago and several of my co-workers are going through the same thing now. If you are a recent convert, make the transition easier. Go into System preferences and under Trackpad, Enable Tap to Click, Dragging and Secondary Click (Bottom Right Hand Corner). Make sure all the options are checked (except perhaps for Drag Lock). Now watch the little video tutorial for each of the Trackpad motions. If you are an iPhone or iPad user, you’ll get these right away. Essentially though, what you’ve just done is allow for right clicking via a single tap in the bottom right hand corner of your track pad or via a two finger tap. This is probably the thing that Windows Users struggle with most when they switch over. More-over, you also have a lot of the iOS gestures available to you (pinch to zoom, rotate, scroll) as well as some new ones, the four finger switch between applications is my favourite. Again, watch the video tutorials (each is only about 2 or 3 seconds long). That is a bit off topic, but the very fact that Apple included these videos demonstrates a dedication to getting their customers to understand how their products work.
The Benefits of the Apple Ecosystem
As mentioned above, Apple is incorporating their best features from some platforms (iOS) to other devices (MacBook Trackpads). This is part of an overall bigger picture and that picture is a unified multi-platform experience. Apple’s products work together the way that you wish everything would. If you bring a new Apple product home (something that happens at my house several times a year), it will be up, running and talking to all your other Apple devices in just a few minutes. Even upgrading is easy; I just upgraded MacBooks at work. You can transfer all your settings, applications and files via FireWire, network cable or Wifi in just a few button clicks. More than that though, since the interface is carried over across devices, it is easy to pick up and learn them if you already own one Apple product. This advantage isn’t seen elsewhere because different manufacturers make different devices. If you have an AppleTV, MacBook, iPad and iPhone – there was a team of people making sure they worked well together and that how you use them (shortcuts, gestures, menu items) is a standardized experience. This is the benefit of the Apple Ecosystem and it doesn’t happen when you have a Motorola DVR, a Samsung laptop and a BlackBerry for a mobile device.
The Apple Tax
All this has a price. That price is often referred to as the “Apple Tax” (a bit more about that here). Apple’s products are higher-end goods. You are paying extra for a superior experience, superior service (the Apple Genius bar is beyond reproach), fewer risks (since Apple isn’t as popular as Windows and more of a closed system, viruses are rarer), superior components and even superior aesthetics. For the most part, Apple’s products work better, look better and last longer. So how much is the Apple Tax? In the short-term, for the desktops, laptops and iPhone, it’s probably about a 30% mark up over what a similar non-Apple device would cost. On the other hand, the AppleTV and iPad are actually cheaper or on par with competing technologies (so consider those to be a good investment). In the long-term, I’d argue that the superior quality of the goods will actually outweigh the up-front cost, but it really depends how much money you have to spend.
If you are reading this post, you probably use a computer for hours everyday at work, then another computer when you get home, plus the time you spend on your mobile device. If you assumed that added up 50 hours a week (for me, much more), that is 2,600 hours per year. Wouldn’t it be worthwhile to spend the extra money for something that you use far more than your car, your television or your kitchen appliances?
In case you are wondering (i.e. do I actually know what I am talking about), I’ve included a list of Apple products I use daily below. Also keep in mind that I have spent years using BlackBerry’s, Windows computers and a variety of other manufacturer’s devices (Motorola, Samsung etc).
- Airport Express – great ability to stream iTunes to your stereo, easy to configure
- Airport Extreme – very stable, you can network a hard drive (this actually is a pain and one of the few piss offs I’ve ever had with an Apple product), easy to configure and wirelessly “daisy chain” with an Express
- iPad 2 – amazing device, but unless you are a power user or using FaceTime, save yourself some dough and consider buying a used Gen 1 iPad (especially if you can get one that still has Apple Care)
- iPhone 4 – love, love, love
- AppleTV – I wrote a previous post on this. Check it out here
- MacBook Pro – initially a struggle if you are a Windows Power user (i.e. have loads of shortcuts memorized), but in the long-term its worth it
There are a lot of Apple lovers and haters out there, so leave your comments below.
I haven’t finished digesting your blog yet, but in the meantime, here’s a fun infographic profiling Mac vs PC users. Despite the fairly obvious hipster connections, the most notable point is how many PC users consider themselves “Mac people.” http://flowingdata.com/2011/04/26/mac-vs-pc-people/
Great infographic – I think there is a lot of people who wish they were Mac people, but perhaps cannot justify the cost or are too cemented into Windows (for example work has issued them a Blackberry and Dell laptop) to change over
Here comes the “hate” (from a current and longtime user of Apple computers): in successive paragraphs you commend Apple products for its ease of use, and then criticize how unintuitive it is.
To be fair, the things you applaud in iOS for consumer goods (finger gestures and standardization across platforms) are equally available in Android and more recently in Windoze products. What’s more, Apple’s process for approving Apps is about as socialist as it is capitalist; with complaints from developers of all sorts of useful (and not-so-useful) Apps — particularly ones which directly compete with or supplement Apple’s own software.
While I wholeheartedly support Apple computer products (and my iPods), I would not recommend that _everyone_ change, even if they use computers as much as we seem to. Many users don’t consider the OS to be part of their experience, or have no desire to re-learn, despite the obvious benefits (iPhoto alone is superior to any free photo management program I’ve seen on a PC). While recent software updates have bridged a huge compatibility divide, there still isn’t solid, 100% guaranteed compatibility even between current editions of Microsoft Office (Excel on OSX is missing statistical functions that can be purchased via 3rd party only, for example; MS Project or Visio still don’t exist for OSX). Sure there are workarounds, but if you don’t value the difference in UX or don’t care to learn a new UI, making the change probably isn’t for you. I pulled the plug on the idea of updating my departments (Design & Layout, mainly) to Mac for 2 main reasons: my staff are predominantly not Mac-savvy, and compatibility with the rest of our network.software.
Good points – to be fair, part of the reason some people have trouble converting to the (I would argue) more intuitive Apple UI is because they have been using Windows for so long. That was my experience.
Regarding Android – no question, its starting to match iOS (really who is winning depends on who got the last release out). Unfortunately, at least for the time being, Android is an island. There aren’t any strong tablets available, Google TV has thus far been a flop, they have no successful iTunes challenger and the Chrome OS is nowhere to be found. Stay tuned though, this week is Google’s I/O conference, so there are likely some big announcements coming.
Here’s my theory on why there aren’t any strong tablet competitors for the iPad: tablets have very limited usefulness for the general population. Apple’s “halo” and the success/ubiquity of iOS created demand from nothing, usability from a successful platform, and the support of the existing AppDev market who were already familiar w/ iOS. The PlayBook from RIM sold ~50,000 units in its first week of sales, a number the company said was well below target. Why? Blackberry Storm, Storm2 and even the Torch don’t have the familiar interface the iPad has. Android Tablets aren’t as successful because even though there’s a special version of the OS specifically for tablets, no one knows what to do with them — they’re like big, phoneless phones it seems.
There are several amazingly powerful uses for the iPad I’ve seen: archeological/geologically, medically, and intercept marketing come to mind. Our photographer friend uses his to show his work when he goes to a shoot. That’s great. my MacBook can do that, but for simplicity, ease of use and security, it makes sense and is a justifiable and directly relevant purchase decision. In most other regards, it is a laptop on depressants. It’ll play your movies and songs, take pictures with sepia effect, even let you edit movies now; but anyone that uses “serious” programs recurring, In my experience: Photoshop/Illustrator/Indesign or any MS Office program(Holy frig I wouldn’t want to work on multiple Word or Excel docs on a touchscreen!), will eventually come to a time where they wish they had their laptop with them… or they do have their laptop and switch, which, if you have a $600-900 gadget redundancy, must be nice, I guess. I just don’t see what the actionable USP is for the iPad yet other than pure “want.” Until then, I’ll rock my MacBook and try to forget about my brief stint with a Netbook *shudder*.
If I remember correctly, that brief stint with a Netbook was an attempt at a Hackintosh….? I guess the real question is if the everyday user needs more processing power than the iPad 2 can offer? As I understand it, one of the reasons that there is no comparable (in terms of features vs price) competitor to the iPad is due to supply chain issues. Apparently, early on, Apple gobbled up the supply of several key components, especially larger screens. That’s one of the reasons that there are few (or no) similar sized offerings – no one can buy enough screens that big because Apple gets them all.
YOUR WRONG, ANDROID IS SO MUCH BETTER BECAUSE … haha, just kidding, I’m not gonna be that guy. I am one of the open source fan-boys though; most of which stems from me be a programmer, but macs run on unix so they’re in the right direction. But I don’t really have anything against Apple. They build gorgeous hardware and software. And it’s great that users have the option to pay extra to get that experience. I’ve had a hard time shelling out the extra cash for the “apple experience” especially being straight out of university. But, I’ve yet to find my new laptop to put Ubuntu on that looks anything close to as gorgeous as the black on chrome unibody of the MBP.
They’ve had their bumps; app store approvals, flash on ipad/iphone, antenagate, etc – but what company doesn’t. I’ve got a bunch of friends that work at Apple, on the iLife, iPad, and iOS teams, and they’ve got nothing but good things to say about the company too.
Thats interesting Mitchell – if there is one thing Apple does get criticism (fairly I believe), its how they treat their employees. Jobs is by many accounts abusive, its highly totalitarian and that;s just in Cupertino (Foxconn is an even bigger fiasco).
@jeffmacarthur made a good point on Twitter about this post. Part of the Apple Tax could be considered to be offset by the high resale value of Apple products. Check out Kijiji to see how much three and four year old Macs sell for. Its very impressive.
I can’t reply to your reply, so:
My netbook was a Hackintosh, worked fine, ‘cept screen resolution prevented installation of Adobe Illustrator. Photoshop CS3 (or 4) worked, but was clunky. I sold it to a friend who swears by it now (but his compy use isn’t as demanding). In my opinion, a tablet is great, until you need a computer. And a lot of people (and software devs) are trying to replace their compy with an iPad. What Apple has done is create demand (and thus, a market) for a “crossover” product market. What competitors fail to realize is that this market isn’t a tablet market, it’s an iPad market. Then the appdevs give more purpose for the product (once Apple approves) by their innovative ideas which just gives Apple a tighter grip on the market.